Category: Summer.

Lots and lots with rain.

July 28, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So after this weekend I’ll only have one week of vacation left, well until Christmas time when I’ll use my last week. We have no holidays at all until then so I really hope I’ll like working evenings again. AI’ll at least get fewer hours to work with slightly more in pay but I still don’t look forward to work evenings. Still I’ll have a job so I won’t complain too much.

This week had been rather chilly and we’ve had so much rain that I haven’t had to water anything out in the garden. I really didn’t mind that much but some of those showers were so bad that I thought much of what’s growing in the garden would break. That didn’t happen but I still hope that the coming rain next week will be less heavy 🙂

Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning. She went out to the peninsula in the bog and I hoped that there would be lots of fog because we had fairly thick fog everywhere else. I was sort of disappointed because there was almost no fog at all. We hadn’t been out there for especially long when the dogs suddenly wanted to walk home again and they seemed to be in a hurry. We hadn’t walked far when we heard the deer “barking” around the place we had been at so my guess is that a wolf must have arrived.

It was while standing here the dogs suddenly wanted to hurry back home.

I read an article that most dogs when smelling a wolf nearby reacts just like that, they want to leave unless they are terriers because they want to attack 🙂 🙂 but as the article said since they were so aggressive towards wolves the wolf would most likely run away even though they were so small. Well one terrier didn’t react like that and that was the Amstaff, Albin really doesn’t like other dogs and would love to be able to attack but as soon as he smells wolf he reacts just the opposite 🙂 and I’m glad he does 🙂

I haven’t been able to do much because of the rain but I have weeded (well to be honest that sounds a bit lame because I used spades and secateurs to get rid of what was growing there. I used to have blueberry bushes there but all the sand that I dug up while doing the root zone had to go somewhere and that was the best and closest place to put it. I did find three blueberry bushes still in there amongst the high grass, wildflowers and grapevines though 🙂 I let the blueberries stay and added some peat around them. After that I placed all the pots with the apricot seedlings and some citrus trees there but couldn’t stop myself from planting the seedlings I had this year. I have even sowed some seeds from perennial Hollyhocks and they’ll look good already next year . I also found lots of things I forgot I had placed there before the weeds and grass started to grow in the sand 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is the after photo. The angle of the photo make the place look smaller than it is but it is around 4 square meter (much the same in yards).

a (4) — I also placed the rubber sheet from my old pond over all those shoots from the thorny sloes, roses and the false spirea.

I’ve “pruned” (with big and heavy tools 🙂 🙂 ) the Rowan tree that grows beside the plum tree. It sowed itself and I like it but it was starting to push away the plum tree plus it was so dark and dry on the ground that almost all ferns that grew there had died.

No all the plums will get sunshine and ripe nicely 🙂

It is time to have something to eat and after that I have no idea. Nothing worth watching on tv so perhaps I’ll start reading a book?

Have a great day!

I could have mowed it all.

July 22, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

DSC_0003 (1) — I didn’t think we would have any sunshine when we went out on our morning walk but these clouds vanished pretty fast.

Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning and it was so cool that even mosquitoes kept to themselves until we were almost at home and the sun had warmed up the air. Very few ticks again when we came home and I hope it will continue like that from now on. Alma behaves better for each day now, she still has a tendency to pull the leash but it isn’t as hard as it used to be and now days she doesn’t scream that much when she wee wildlife either. I don’t think it ever will go as far as she walking without a leash but no pulling is good enough for me.

DSC_0014 (1)

I’m waiting for the rain they said would start to fall a couple of hours ago 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now they say it’ll start raining in about two hours from now. They also say that all the rain we would get tomorrow won’t come at all, it’ll be sunny all day. I will not mind if we actually get sunshine because then I can finish the mowing I started today.

DSC_0021 (1)

I mowed the garden and when that was done I saw heavy dark grey clouds slowly approaching so I thought it was best to stop, I have an electric mower with a cord and a couple of extension cables so mowing in rain isn’t something I would like to do 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well those clouds came and passed without letting go of any rain and after that the sun started to shine most of the time. So I did some laundry instead and it dried nice and quickly in the sunshine.

DSC_0030 (2) — Perhaps I should bring a bucket on our next walk and pick wild raspberries, lots of them this year and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to pick some blackberries as well later on.

DSC_0031 (1)

I’ve picked all the gooseberries that were left, all the lower hanging ones has been eaten by the dogs 🙂 so it wasn’t that many left. I also picked all the redcurrants (same story there plus birds love them) a few garden raspberries and two! strawberries 🙂 🙂 There will be lots more strawberries though, I’ve never seen my strawberry plants bloom this much before. Normally the season should be over by now but these just started and as long as they get sunshine they’ll be just as yummy as if they had started earlier. I think I got enough of berries to make a jar of jam but I’ll put these in the freezer and add the coming berries to make more jam later on.

DSC_0038 (1)

Lots of apples on the big apple tree, I’ll try and preserve some just like one does with peaches and pears. I’ve only seen preserved apples once in my life and they tasted really nice. I wonder why they don’t do that more often? I’ll get some cherries and this year I’ll get plenty of plums. I like eating plums straight from the tree but I think I’ll make jam or plum ade from most of these. I will get some blueberries as well but they are still far from being ripe. I can add them to the berries I picked today and make a nice mixed jam 🙂

This is an edible flower that I think is called Shunguku. I’ve tried the leafs but can’t say I think they tasted especially much. I’ll try a couple of flowers next time.

DSC_0055 (1) — I’ve finally made a way in to the English walnut. This spring it was just a stick with a weak root system. Then it started to grow but a late frost destroyed it so I didn’t think it would survive at all. Now it has at least four new branches, so lets hope we’ll get a mild winter so it survives 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and I’ll give the dogs their dinner at the same time.

Have a great day!

Much the same weather all week long.

July 21, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

We haven’t had much rain this week, a shower now and again. The weather has been very much the same each day though, lots of clouds, sunshine in between. Rather chilly when cloudy but really nice when the sun shone. One day it did reach above 20C (68F) but mostly it has been lower than that. Sunshine in the early and cool morning so not many flies or mosquitoes annoying us while having our morning walk.

The Norwegian site says it will be warmer than the Swedish one but then again they say we’ll get more rain. I looked at the weather sites early this morning and none of the sites said rain tomorrow, they do now. So I sort of regrets that I didn’t mow the lawn today while it was quite windy and the grass was dry. Well we know how great they are in predicting the weather over here so it might be sunny and warm all day 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have gotten the carpet/ furniture cleaner but I haven’t tried it yet. So I guess I’ll try it tomorrow if the rain actually arrives. I think I’ll start with something not as thick as the big cushions I have on my sofas, they will after all have to dry up before I can put them back on the sofas. I have a couple of those thin mattresses on my bed, I can easily sleep one night without one of them.

It was quite nice when we were out walking early this morning. No wind but cool enough so that most flies stayed calm, at least until we came closer to home and the sun had warmed up the air. Nova decided that we should walk along the creek again. We have lots of morning dew here right now and there’s a lot of relatively high grass along that way so we were soaked by the time we came home. What surprises me each time we’ve walked there is how few ticks I need to remove from the dogs. It should be tick paradise there and lots of animals full of ticks walks there as well but each time I go through the dogs there are just a few. Well I can’t say I feel sorry about that 🙂

Nothing much is happening in the garden right now. My Persimmon seems to do very well, my Pawpaws grow and look healthy and so so my Ginkgos. The English walnut still grows but it is hard to see it since the plant in front of it is so big that I barely can see it 🙂 🙂 🙂 The last two Nectarine kernels that I’ve had in and out of the fridge finally started to germinate this week. Mostly it’s enough with one round to the fridge to make them start but these two needed several times in and out. I think that means that they come from a tougher area (climatewise) and that their spring can be as treacherous as ours, like really warm and sunny in early March but then full blown winter in April 🙂 🙂 🙂 The Apricots are growing fine and the biggest ones are now over 30cm (one foot) high.

Finally, the Nectarines germinated. They are now planted in two small pots so cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck 🙂

I think I’ll make myself a cup of tea even if it is well after 4pm. I have vacation, it doesn’t matter if I can fall asleep normal time or not 🙂

I’ve planted one of the Cherry plums on the north side of my cottage, close to the gate. I’ve put a bottomless tub around it so that the roots can’t spread and give new Cherryplums. I’ll plant one on the other side of the gate when I can find another tub I can remove the bottom from.

The Hazelnut bush has also found a place not far from the Cherry plum.

The House sparrow fledglings learns how to fly under the roof of my old patio, which I haven’t used in over twent years. Now some are daring enough to fly outside it, a whole meter (a yard) out to my Apricot tree 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The weather is anything but boring today :-)

July 16, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

The Chinese Catalpa isn’t happy about the wind.

I’m not sure if we’re having a storm but the winds are strong and the gusts roar through the forest. The winds even reach my garden and that’s unusual. We had rain almost all morning, except for when we were out on our morning walk, it started shortly after we had come home so I took a long nap while it continued to rain for a couple of hours 🙂

a (3) — Some of its flowers have opened up now.

I don’t know why but the strawberries are finally in bloom, very late and the Magpies takes all the berries 🙂 🙂

I’ve bought two Hardy Hibiscuses. They should be planted in early spring so it has time to establish itself. They aren’t that hardy to be honest so they also need the best spot in the entire bgarden to survive the winters here.

After that we’ve had sunshine, some showers and grey skies so one can’t say that the weather has been boring 🙂 More rain is on the way and it’ll pour down tomorrow plus the wind will stay they say. I really don’t mind to be honest, I can’t do anything outside so I’ll nap instead 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma is bored though, especially since the little girl next door also stays indoors during this weather.

Nova wasn’t allowed to walk along the creek this morning because we would have been soaking wet after just a couple of steps, so instead I told her that we would continue on the gravel road. She didn’t like that at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 and when I noticed that her knee support had broken and I wanted ti fix it she just refused to come to me, even started to run away from me when I tried to fix it. So the little lady is pretty cranky, has been that all day 🙂 🙂 🙂 Albin on the other hand is sad because I scolded him. If was after we had come home and I had to clean his ear.

I know he hates that but I really needed to do it since he shook his head all the time. I poured in the cleaning fluid and started to massage the ear when he just had to shake his head violently. I really tried to hold him still but he’s strong 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now my entire kitchen is full of oily drops and his entire head is too. He always get sad if I scold him and has continued to stay that way all day. So one angry old lady, one sad old man and one really bored girl have been rather annoying all day 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think I will take one more walk around the garden before the next rain arrives. The coming week will have some rain but it’ll mostly be sunny and around 19C-20C (66F-68F) and that sounds rather nice 🙂 It looks like we’ll have a normal Swedish summer for once 🙂

I was trying to photograph my Persimmon tree when Alma thought she would be in the photo as well 🙂

The Persimmon tree to the right seems to like where it’s growing. It stands too close to the peach on the left and it does so because I was pretty sure the peach tree would die already this summer. I sprayed the peach tree with sulfur before the leafs started to grow because peach trees are always hit with curled leaf disease and sulfur is said to be the only thing that can kill that fungi. So I was disappointed when all leafs it had started to curl. To my big surprise the tree started to grow and get new leafs instead of slowly dies as they always do. I have no idea if it is because of the sulfur or anything else but now I’ve started to believe it will survive anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂

Something that didn’t survive the drought was the App,e rowan. It was sad already after last years drought and this time it couldn’t manage it any more. So now I have a new spot for another tree 🙂

Have a great day!

cleaning my sofas will be easier, I hope :-)

July 15, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The day has mostly been gray and dreary. Rather chilly in the beginning but not chilly enough to keep the flies calm though. Later in the day rain passed by and now there are some cracks in the clouds where the sun can peak through and it’s also much warmer. Still it won’t last for long because it’ll start raining tonight and we can either get almost nothing to very little or just as much as we had the last time. It all depends on where the heavy showers will pass.

a (17)

So we’ve done very little today. Alma has been really bored because none of us wanted to go outside to play and the neighbors daughter has been indoors as well. So no one to play with and all that energy has made Alma a very talkative dog 🙂 🙂 🙂 She’s normally not a quiet dog but today she’s been worse 🙂 🙂

a (21)

I’ve just ordered a small carpet and furniture washing machine 🙂 I was thinking about how I was supposed to be able to clean the big cushions on my sofas and was thinking of a pressure washer. I’ve seen how good they work on carpets but then again those cushions are quite thick and would become so heavy with all that water that it would take ages for them to dry if at all in this cool and rainy weather 🙂 🙂 🙂 So instead I found this little machine where the only complaints about it is that it is very loud. Does its job really well though. It’s called Bissell SpotClean Pro 1558N. I even looked at international reviews and all said just the same, does its job really well but is very loud. Well I have earplugs at home so I’ll use those.

a (25)

The odd thing was that I couldn’t buy the detergent at the same time as the machine, as soon as I had pressed the button there was no turning back to buy anything more. So annoyed as I was I bought the detergent from another business 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll let You know what I think about it when I’ve tried it and I do hope I’ll say the same thing as the reviews 🙂

My big apple tree will get loads of apples this year, the rain came just in the right time because it had already dropped lots but now it looks like no more small apples have fallen off.

I have a patio that I haven’t used for well over twenty years, well I put a lot of things there but never sit there any more. It is mostly covered by a big rose, a grape vine and a climbing clematis so now House sparrow fledglings practice their flying in there. Magpies tried to hide there when it was raining but I think I finally managed to scare them away, they are big birds and will have to manage anyway. Every now and again though those little fledglings comes outside very close to my kitchen window and I managed to take a few photos through the rather dirty window 🙂

a (11)

Have a great day!

First week soon to be over.

July 14, 2023July 14, 2023 · 3 Comments ·

Magpies, funny birds but also bl…y annoying 🙂 🙂 🙂 They can terrorize an entire neighborhood and attack cats and dogs and are really intelligent.

The weather has been rather mixed this first week of my vacation. Everything from sunny and hot to a bit chilly and heavy raining. Today is really nice though, mostly sunshine, a nice breeze and around 20C (68F). It was supposed to be like this yesterday but like always our weather service managed to miss that we would have rain almost half the day 🙂 🙂 🙂

The rain started quite nice on Wednesday

Another one on the back by my kitchen door. It needs to be a lot of rain to create a lake there because it’s only sand and runs down through the sand as soon as it hits, normally that it 🙂 🙂

We’ve gotten well over two inches of rain this week and nature loves it. Well I don’t complain about it either to be honest 🙂 Unfortunately the ticks loves it most of all. After every walk I’ve picked over twenty ticks from Alma while the two others have had perhaps five together. I have no idea why Alma is such a tick magnet but they do seem to love her. Nova decided that we should walk along the creek this morning so I was a bit worried that they all would have lots more walking around on them but to my surprise they had just a few, not even Alma had more than six walking around on her.

Yesterday morning felt quite chilly so not a fly was flying around annoying us.

The weather has made it more or less impossible to do anything outside and it has been perfect 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t remember when I slept this much before. The heavy rain day I must have slept well over six hours during the day (mostly with the window open so I could hear the rain hit the ground and cottage, until it changed direction and it started to rain in through the window 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) and I still fell asleep at my usual hour and sleeping all night without any problems. I guess I needed it but have no idea why 🙂 🙂

We could pass this doe without Alma screaming like insane 🙂 🙂

The flies have calmed down because they’ve now cut down all the grass and made silage balls of it. That always happens when they do that so I guess that flies prefer to stay in high grass instead of trees during nights and perhaps even during days and when it’s gone the flies go to? Well there’s plenty still but not near enough to what we had before. I don’t even bring my mosquito hat on our walks, it’s enough with a hoodie. Alma has calmed down even more now, she still pulls the leash but the screaming when seeing anything move is almost gone! So now days we even see the odd deer again, still hares do make her a bit too excited but we’re working on that. The sitting down until she’s calmed down seems to work pretty well 🙂

I’m waiting for the package delivery car to come. I’ve ordered dog food and I have almost no dog food left so these packages will arrive just in time 🙂 🙂 I’ve just recieved a text message that they are on the way. So anytime from now until 5pm I’ll need to stay at home. Just a few weeks back they changed it to that packages below 20Kg ( 44,1 pound) can be delivered without me being at home but above that I need to be at home to recieve it. I’ve just bought a new kind of food for Alma and Nova because they didn’t really like the one I had and they have been a bit wobbly in their stomachs since we started with it. So today I’ll get one package that weighs well over20Kg and one well below. Does that mean they then would deliver the lighter package while bringing back the heavier if I weren’t at home? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Nova can be the most stubborn dog in the world 🙂 🙂 I called for her because she went away on her own and to a road we weren’t going to take. She could hear me very weel and she knows the sign for coming back and she just didn’t give a crap 🙂 🙂 🙂

After around five minutes she slowly came towards us.

Then she stopped again and just stood there for another five minutes 🙂 🙂 🙂 She finally started to walk towards us again but refused to go all the way and instead went to where we were going to walk but through bushes and high grass instead 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Not much in bloom in my garden at the moment but the Creeping Bellflower has opened up. It’s voted to be the worst weed one can get in a garden 🙂 🙂 Here it has to fight with other plants almost as bad as itself so it’s no problem here.

A Perennial Sunflower is almost as bad as the bellflower.

The Nepeta sibirica or as its Swedish name is Great Dragon flower can also compete with it.

the Large yellow loosestrife isn’t much weaker.

Hotas are however not a match and would lose the battle fairly quick 🙂

Now I hope I can start what I planned to do during my vacation, lots of napping :-)

July 9, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

So yesterday was mowing day and today it was filling the holes, or perhaps ravines is a better word, with gravel. We were four people with shovels and rakes and one with a tractor with a huge scoop. So we worked quite fast and effective to be honest. We might have worked for forty minutes but after we stood and spoke for at least an hour and a half 🙂 🙂 🙂

I was a bit worried about my back because it felt really bad this morning when I woke up but it didn’t bother me especially much at all to be honest. I am however a bit worried about my back right now because it really bothers me and I know this is nothing compared to how it will be tomorrow morning 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway now the job is done and now I hope I can start with how I planned this vacation to be, lots of napping and doing nothing 🙂 🙂

It was cool in the early morning when we went out on our morning walk and not a fly could be seen or heard but as soon as the sun started to heat up the air things changed rapidly. I’m glad I brought my mosquito hat because I think there were a gazillion flies just waiting to annoy us, no biting ones though, they all seems to have moved to my garden and the cows in the pasture beside. Lots of butterflies where we walk but none in my garden. Lots of bees though but to be honest they aren’t as beautiful as butterflies.

Tomorrow will be hot as well but the rain will arrive in the evening and with northern winds it will cool down quite a bit. The guessing about how much rain we’ll get varies quite a bit but at the moment the Norwegian site says almost an inch and the Swedish one four fifths of an inch. This morning they guessed we would barely get anything. One could say that we’ll know for sure about how much rain we’ve gotten afterwards but to be honest they usually says we’ve had a very different weather than we’ve actually have had 🙂 🙂 🙂 That’s what happens when they trust computer programs instead och checking the real world 🙂 🙂 🙂

A perennial sunflower. It took ages for it to start spread and when it finally did it spread to a place where I don’t want it 🙂 🙂

This is a rose that has been here in this part of bthe village for well over 70 years. Have no idea what it is called though.

I’ll get ten Sand cherry cherries this year. This one is really drought tolerant but this early summer managed to make them let go of their berries.

I will need to go to the supermarket soon but I think I can wait until Tuesday when the weather won’t be anything else than rain anyway. I have enough to eat, I have enough with milk and I have enough with ice cream so I’m pretty sure my planned napping will happen tomorrow 🙂

Catmint and it loves dry and sandy places and spreads happily but I’m not swarmed with cats 🙂 🙂

The worst parts of the road was upp the slope here but I didn’t want to walk up there to photograph it because of all the biting flies.

Have a great day!

Well that didn’t go as I had planned :-)

July 8, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

a (4)

So my plan was to do nothing today besides taking walks with the dogs. So of course I’ve now mowed the lawn 🙂 🙂 The reason I did that was because we now are going to fill the holes in the gravel road tomorrow. We will thankfully be several people doing it (me and my neighbors, we’re only doing our little gravel road) and we don’t have that many holes but the ones we have are big and deep. It’s a job that needs to be done even though it’s heavy and boring.

a (9)

Nova decided that we should walk in the forest this morning. We were out later than usual because I actually slept an hour and a half longer than normal, so it was warm enough for the flies to become active. No biting ones thankfully, just the annoying forest flies and it looks like the drought has done its job to stop the mosquitoes to become more, there’s not a single puddle anywhere and the water level in the creeks ar low or not at all. There was lots of biting flies in my garden when I mowed though.

a (14)

I put all the mowed grass in my vegetable garden in between plants or along them. I might have buried some because the flies, even though I also wore a mosquito hat, were driving me crazy. Plus it has been really hot today and that didn’t help at all. It’s only the weekend that will be hot and sunny, the coming week will be cooler and they’re guessing we’ll get lots of rain as well. I don’t mind the rain, I have vacation and can sleep all day to avoid it 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (16)

Have a great day!

When the rain comes the grass will both stop the water from evaporatiung and at the same time fertilize the ground while it slowly decays.

My new neighbors. They were the ones bringing the biting flies I’m afraid.

Vacation time :-)

July 7, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

Vacation time and I won’t have to go to work for four weeks 🙂 I must admit that it feels rather good 🙂 The day did move slower than frozen molasses though 🙂 I had things to paint all day and time should have flown but I guess that I longed for vacation too much 🙂

Three days ago Albin started to throw up all that he ate at breakfast, he still was quite happy but he has never done that before so I was a bit worried but he wasn’t too keen on eating a treat and that was the thing that worried me. Alma is known for stealing the diapers from my neighbors new born daughter so I was worried that he might have a bit of diaper stuck in his stomach, so I even went home a couple of hours early just to check on him. He was just as always so I started to boil fish and rice for him to eat. Then yesterday he could barely walk on his left front foot.

He gladely shows that he has a problem but always refuse to show where the problem is 🙂 but I think I saw a grumpy face when I for the tenth time pressed one of his toes. So I thought he might have broken it when playing with Alma because those two play tough with each other. Today he had no problem at all so we could take a walk after work like always. I really don’t understand that dog sometimes 🙂 🙂

It isn’t such a bad fly year as I thought it would be, I guess the drought managed to kill off lots of fly larvae. There are the biting ones but still fairly few as well. We had a couple of really big ones and they pestered the dogs for a while but then just flew away. The smaller ones flew around me instead but after I managed to kill one of them before it managed to bite me the rest sort of just gave up. I do hope this is how it will be fore the rest of the summer 🙂 🙂

My neighbor had ordered three hoodies to her boyfriend and ordered the same size as always but they aren’t sure what size they actually got 🙂 So they asked me if I wanted them instead. I’m both taller and much fatter than my neighbor so I didn’t think they would fit me but they are actually perfect 🙂 They didn’t want anything for them, they were on some kind of mega sale so I said I would by them a big melon instead (well I’ll buy three different but they don’t know that 🙂 )Their daughter loves fruit and vegetables so melons should be perfect 🙂 It is the same daughter that I can hear on weekend mornings shouting: Yohoo Amma which means she wants Alma to come over 🙂 The girl is very happy today because she now knows I’ll be at home for four weeks and that Alma then can come over all day if she wants to 🙂

Have a great day!

The coolest looking beetle.

July 2, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

a (3) — The Venus Flytrap has also been growing rather slow. I still have two left from last summer and the second one grows even slower.

Really mixed weather here today, very windy, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy and a lot of the time rainy. Most of the times a nice gentle summer rain but every now and again heavy showers. It’s exciting to stay outdoors because one never knows what will happen 🙂 🙂 The weather was stable when we had our morning walk though. I did bring the mosquito hat but only used it once while we walked along the creek because the wind couldn’t reach us there. Still not so many flies anyway but they still have time to show up before their season is over.

a (19) — but Nova wanted to go this way instead.

Nova is the one who chose where we’ll walk every day and I had preferred if she had chosen only the gravel roads but she wanted to walk along the creek so that’s where we walked. The grass was wet and high so I feared that I would have ti pick ticks until late night but to my surprise I only found two in total!? It should have been perfect for them along the creek but who am I to complain about the lack of ticks 🙂 🙂 While we walked there I checked after dragonflies and damselflies. I did see one dragonfly but long before the creek and only one damselfly along the entire creek. Perhaps I’m too early to lok after either? I have seen both earlier but there are always a couple that show up early.

a (23)

My dinner for work next week is boiling in the slow cooker. I made it easy for me by making meat sauce and I’ll boil the pasta before going to work. I’ve also done the laundry and we’ve had our pancake Sunday as usual. I will however, unlike a neighbor somewhere, not mow the lawn. That persons lawn mower must be a mushy mess when it is over 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t think it is fun to clean the mower on a normal day but it is awful on days when the grass is long and wet.

a (29)

I’ve also planted two of the Chicory seedlings I have, a third is on the way but they can be slow to germinate. It’s a perennial and its leafs look surprisingly much like dandelion leafs so I better remember where I planted them next spring 🙂 🙂 I also had several bell pepper seedlings. It was so hot when I sowed them that nothing happened until it started to cool down and then it went hot again so they barely grew at all. I don’t expect to get any bell peppers from them but since I had the space in the vegetable patch I planted them there anyway. I’m pretty sure they’ll start to grow good now when it will rain until Thursday and stay cool as well. After that they’re guessing the heat will come back again on Friday, my last day before vacation starts 🙂

A golden fly, have no idea what it can be called.

This is one of the coolest beetle I’ve ever seen I think.

Have a great day!

Ticks and mosquitoes.

July 1, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The Beekeeper is trying to make an old fashioned flower meadow. Looking good so far!

The day started with some sunshine before very thin clouds covered the sky but that didn’t really change much since I could see the sun 🙂 I think the first “shower” I use ” because it wasn’t especially much or shower like but it did rain for a while. It has continued like that until now when we have misty rain and it will continue like this for the coming five days. I don’t mind at all and the temperature has dropped down to 16C (60,8F) and that I really like 🙂

Well I wouldn’t want rain and such low temperature for the rest of summer but for now it’s perfect. The ticks think much the same. I stopped counting when I had picked over twenty from Alma after our morning walk and thankfully just a couple on the rest of us. Nasty animals those ticks! Still not many annoying flies but a gazillion mosquitoes instead 🙂 🙂 Nova decides where every walk should go and today she has chosen the forest. She’s not the one that wants to walk the same path every day, the other two prefers that I’ve noticed.

We’ve taken a long nap today and after that I started to weed the vegetable patch. I’ve had big parts of it covered because I sowed an Asian cabbage. Nothing much happened though so I sowed a winter radish I bought seeds to for a couple of years ago. I have no idea what to do with it except using it in salads but I wanted to try it anyway. So now when I pulled away the cover I noticed that I now have both cabbage and winter radish there 🙂 🙂 I’ll bring back the cover when the cabbage butterfly and cabbage moth starts to fly again. Also the lid to one of my mini greenhouses fell down over the Broccolo seedlings I have, so when the sun showed they all boiled away. I think there’s still time to sow the remaining seeds to get at least some to harvest. The entire plant is edible so I will get something from them if they germinate.

Besides this I’ve done very little 🙂 I did catch mosquito larvae to the aquarium fish but that only took a few seconds 🙂 🙂 I think this is just how a weekend should be spent 🙂 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll have to do all those things I didn’t do today, like dinner for work next week, the laundry and baking a bread but since it will rain I will at least not have to mow the lawn 🙂

The potato sprouts that I planted now have flower buds 🙂 Technically I then should be able to harvest my first potatoes when the flowering is over but I think I’ll wait a couple of weeks before I try it.

Have a great day!

Finally cool air and rain :-)

June 30, 2023June 30, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

DSC_0002 (7)

It rained quite a lot here this morning and it has also cooled down considerable so it feels like life is back on track again. It has also blown quite a lot so the walk after work was really nice since both flies and mosquitoes blew away from us 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0003 (6) — Lots of apples on the crab apple tree in the forest, They are red and rather yummy 🙂

DSC_0010 (5) — I actually chased away the bumblebee before it came too close to the white spider. I do feel the spider is worth its meal but I prefer if it eats flies 🙂 :-)

I have two big water barrels in my garden and those are mosquito larvae heaven but what the mosquitoes don’t know is that those larvae are fed to the fish in my aquarium 🙂 🙂 🙂 My Platy loves to eat them and all larvae are gone within minutes but just in case someone of them would survive I cover the holes in the glass lid so that none can escape in to my living room 🙂 Also it looks like there’s spiders living in the thin space between the lid and the water because every time I feed them flakes some of those flakes get caught in the spider web 🙂 🙂

DSC_0021 (5)

We’ll have this cool and rainy weather for five days they’re guessing but after that it looks like the warmer weather will come back again, just in time for my vacation. I’m not sure I like that at all to be honest. Then again if I don’t work in the heat I might like it a bit better 🙂 🙂

DSC_0037 (3)

It is time to go to bed and I’ll have no problems at all to fall asleep, well I usually fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, because today I’m so tired after this unforgiving hot work week. I’ll just check for ticks on the dogs again. I missed one walking on Alma because she just laid her hed towards my arm and when she walked away I could feel one walking on my arm, felt horrible!

DSC_0048 (2) — The old wheel barrow looks fairly good despite it drying out once.

DSC_0050 (2) — I have four Hawthorn bushes to plant somewhere. The berries they give tastes delicious, something like passion fruit and oranges.

DSC_0051 (2) — I have also a Hazelnut bush I need to plant somewhere.

DSC_0049 (2) — The same water as they have indoors and still they prefer to drink it from this bucket 🙂

Have a great day!