Category: Summer.

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Outside my kitchen window.

We have thunder in the area, not especially close at the moment but one can clearly hear it. The day started sunny and cool though so we were out on our morning walk around 7 am. It was unfortunately not  cool enough to keep the flies calm so we had a black cloud flying around us. I wore a hoodie though so they never got the chance to visit inside my ears and for some reason wearing a hoodie also prevents them from trying to go inside my nostrils as well 🙂 🙂

It didn’t take long before the rain arrived again so we have mostly stayed indoors and went outside when the rain had a temporary stop. So I did the laundry and baked a bread in between 🙂  I also took a long nap in the sofa and this time both dogs decided they should sleep beside me in the sofa 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma by my feet and Malkolm by my side with half his body over my stomach. I’m surprised that I managed to fall asleep but it could have been the lack of oxygen since it was a bit hard to breathe that was the cause 🙂 🙂 🙂

We did have sunshine for a while but now we’re back to rain and thunder is not far away. It is much warmer than they guessed it would be so I hope the thunder passes by and cool things down a bit. It’s rather quiet in the village, some birds sing and one dog is yapping a lot. Normally that starts most other dogs as well but I guess they don’t have the energy now when it is so warm 🙂 I think someone on my gravel road is trying to repair an old moped because I could hear how they were trying to start it up the road but then just slid down the slope quietly. It has happened several times this week so I guess they aren’t especially successful 🙂

I have the day off tomorrow because I need to go to the bank to see if they can help me renew my digital bank id without me having to get something called an international id card or get a new passport. A new drivers license doesn’t help at all for some reason. So I’ll also buy a couple of big bags with soil and on the way home make a visit to my old workplace and the grocery store in the same village. it will most likely rain anyway so it’ll be a nice little trip to do.

It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps something to eat as well.

Have a great day!

Lots of rain and I like it :-)

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I always take a test photo when we’re going out for our walks and it is usually this one 🙂

It has been raining all night and almost all day since I went to bed yesterday night.but there was a moment when it didn’t early this morning so the dogs and I went out for our morning walk. Didn’t last for long though before the misty rain arrived and later on just before we arrived at home we had heavy showers 🙂 🙂 🙂

We did at least have a walk and despite Alma trying to rip off my arm while passing the new neighbours she behaved really well 🙂 🙂 No screaming at all and only a quiet whining 🙂 I had hoped to see the fox cubs again so I brought a bigger lens but had no such luck plus the misty rain stuck to the glass on the lens like it was velvet  🙂 🙂 🙂 it was a nice walk though because it looks like misty rain is a mortal enemy to flies as well, almost no flies fly around when we have misty rain, I guess their wings just sticks together when those small droplets fill the air.

I had to save a lot of the potted plants from the rain water today, normally it’s saving them from not getting water but today I had to remove all the plates they stood on because the rain just kept filling them up. I always feel a bit torn placing pots directly on the ground because small red ants tends to move in, small red ants with a good ability to sting and the pain is quite gruesome. Also lots of other animals move in as well and as long as they are outside and those animals can come and of they do no harm but when I bring them in during winter they tend to start eating on the plant because they have no other place to go.

I have also had a long nap, Alma and I took a long nap in one of the sofas and Malkolm decided it was a bit crowded so he had the second sofa to himself. Alma is rather big so I must say it was a bit uncomfortable but we shared that two people sofa rather well to be honest and since the air is a bit damp and cool today it helped me to stay warm 🙂

I really should bake some bread today but I just don’t have the energy to do it. I am rather glad I mowed the lawn yesterday because it would have been impossible for my mower to cut it the next time we have sunny or at least dry weather, it wasn’t exactly pleased to do it yesterday as it was, I hadn’t mowed the lawn in one and a half week and ad water to that and I think it would have died 🙂 I like this mower so I really don’t want to have to buy another one 🙂

Potato flowers are actually quite beautiful.

It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps I will read one of all the books I’ve started to read but never finished 🙂 They are all really good, I just haven’t had the energy to read for quite some time but it feels like that’s slowly changing now 🙂

Have a great day!

Then showers passed by.

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Lots of the photos will be bait fuzzy today because the lens I used doesn’t have that anti-shaking thing.

It started to drizzle some while I mowed the lawn, I started as soon as I had come home and thought we could have our walk after I was done. But as soon as I stopped mowing heavy showers arrived So we stayed at home instead. The dogs did try to go outside during the rain but turned around and came back in instead 🙂

They say we’ll get plenty of rain the coming four days as well and we need it but it would be nice if it rained while I was working and the sun then shone for the rest of the day 🙂 So far we haven’t had lots of mosquitoes or other biting flies but I think this rain will change that. These last days I’ve had two mosquito bites and one from a horse fly I think. The horse fly bite is worst because the itching after stays for so long.

During the months when I was unemployed I never had any leg cramps but lots before when I had a job. Now they are  back. I drink lots of water at work and at home so I don’t think I can drink any more than I do so I wonder why I get them? I guess one thing could be that I stand up all day at work but then again shouldn’t every one who do get those leg cramps as well? It is ok if it happens during the day but I really hate when it happens when I’m deep asleep and quite often while I try to stretch the cramps away I get it in the other leg as well and that’s horrible because when I try to remove it from one leg it makes the other leg hurt even more 🙂 🙂 🙂

The survivor and the two seedlings from this years Pawpaw seed sowings.

I have a soft spot for Fuchsias but now days I only have this one and the Hardy Fuchsia.

I’m sort of glad it will rain a lot tomorrow because then I can’t do anything outside, so I’m already planning on having a long nap 🙂 🙂 🙂 well I might bake a bread but there still would be lots of time to take naps while it rises and when it is in the oven 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll see if there’s anything to watch on tv but I doubt that 🙂

Troll grapes.

Have a great day!

Only took me seven? months to figure out :-)

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It’s a Scandinavian hot day today, 27C (80,6F) and I’m not too happy about it. Too warm for a walk, the dogs just ran in to the garden and laid down on the grass when I came home. They tried to play some but gave up 🙂 I covered all windows before I left this morning with the result that it was only 24C (75,2F) indoors. Still pretty warm upstairs so I might spend the night in a sofa in the livxingroom instead.

Tomorrow will be even warmer, possibly 30C (86F) but Thursday it will fall down to just below 20C (68F) and it will also rain quite a lot if they’re guessing it right. This is still nothing compared to how hot it is down in Spain and Portugal, temperatures there reach well over 45C (113F) so I really don’t have a lot to complain about to be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂 

I should have mowed the lawn yesterday but it was already warm so I skipped it, so I really should have mowed the lawn today but it was even warmer so no. Tomorrow will be nasty so I won’t even think about it 🙂 🙂 🙂 The good thing is that the dog house is placed on the north side of the wood shed so it was actually quite nice in there, so the dogs were naturally not there but in the garage instead. To be honest even though the old garage is made with tin walls and roof it still is quite cool there during hot days, can’t explain it really because it, by logic, should be hot as h..l in there, plus the dog yard is shadowed most of the afternoon by big trees just outside the fence so it wasn’t too bad there either, it will be tomorrow though.

This Pawpaw is most likely four years od and sown from a seed (bought it so it isn’t any of my seedlings) and it grows much better than

the name variety, just as old and bought at the same time. The name variety is said to have earlier ripening fruits so it should be ahead of the other one.

The White mulberry tree I bought sort of died but now a new shoot comes from the roots. I haven’t seen any place It’s grafted so if I’m lucky it will still give good tasting berries.

It is time for something cool or cold to drink and then maybe some ice cream 🙂 By the way, I couldn’t get any sound coming out of this computer I bought last autumn. I’ve really tried to because it has a camera so why should it not have sound. Turns out on had to go deep in to the settings to start the speakers and now I have it 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The laundry dried fast today.

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Lots of sunshine, very few clouds and totally rain free today. Thankfully we have a strong wind blowing so all flies were blown away. I really should have mowed the lawn but the energy just wasn’t there in my body. For once I had problems falling asleep yesterday night, I guess because I had that long nap earlier in the day and perhaps that last cup of tea a bit late as well.

I did wake up early though, just before 5 am so not many hours of sleep to be honest. We went out on our morning walk quite early as well and walked down to the creek again. Alma was thankfully rather quiet when we passed our newest neighbours so their dogs stayed quiet as well 🙂 🙂 I think they too are morning people since they horses, dogs, cats and chickens but it is still nice that Alma could stay reasonable quiet 🙂

Nothing special happened during our walk until we were almost at home again, one of the fox cubs stood beside the gravel road and this time I could get a few photos of it. It didn’t notice us because it was looking at the other direction and we stopped rather early so we wouldn’t scare it away. Alma started to whine loudly but for once she listened to me and just looked at the fox. It still has its baby fur but has grown rather large so I guess it won’t be long before it is time for it to find its own new home.

Besides the cub the day has been rather uneventful, The food for next week at work is cooking at the moment, the laundry is done and it dried up really fast in the wind and sunshine. Also I’ve repotted my tomato plants in to bigger pots, one has flower so with a bit of luck I’ll have a tomato or two by the end of next month 🙂

I think it is time for a bowl of cornflakes and I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day. The dogs and I had pancakes for dinner and even if I gave them half a pancake extra I still feel a bit too full 🙂

Have a great day!

Quite a nice day despite the rain.

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To me this has been a rather nice day, no sunshine but still rather warm, mostly misty rain but every now and again it changed to a nice summer rain, You know the kind that isn’t too heavy and not drenches anyone outside.

So the fox cubs were playing just by the gate but the lens was covered in misty rainwater.

We took a walk rather late today down to the creek. Both Alma and Malkolm behaved so well until we had passed our new neighbours, then we met them just after their home and both Alma and Malkolm were so excited that Malkolm for some reason started yapping, yes it did sound just like that and Alma started bawling like insane 🙂 🙂 The good thing was that their dogs did the same 🙂 🙂 They all really wanted to meet but sort of scared each other at the same time so we had to just keep walking 🙂 🙂 🙂

I just like how difficult it is to see that there’s an opening to a path in to the forest that is really hard to see just in front of us.

That’s when the misty rain arrived and unfortunately misty rain sticks like glue to everything no matter what direction it comes from so I couldn’t get any photos of the two fox cubs that played on the gravel road in front of us, they didn’t have the patience to wait for me to clean the lens from rainwater. So I was sort of relieved when the nice summer rain started to fall instead.

Almost no wind today so we were surrounded by forest flies almost all the way. I’ve realised that it is enough to wear a hoodie to keep them away from both the ears and nostrils. I mean they do no harm at all but they have this idea that they need to go inside there to see what they can find and I hate it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Still no biting flies here and that sort of builds up hope that they might be very few this summer but I’m sure that’s a false hope 🙂 🙂

The Fireweed in bloom just outside my livxingroom window.

This weather also removed all ideas that a nap would be wrong, not even the dogs wanted to be outside, so I had a nap in the sofa together with Alma, Malkolm decided it was too crowded so he chose the other sofa and the floor. I’m pretty sure the sofas would be great to sleep on during hot days when the bedroom would be like an oven but it tends to be too crowded with me and the dogs but I think I’ll try it next time the temperatures rise too high, after all I might be able to convince the dogs that they can share the other sofa instead sleeping close to me 🙂 🙂

Can You see the spiderweb?

I’ve just baked a bread and for once I let it rest and not take a slice or two just after bringing it out in to the world 🙂 So as soon as I’ve done this blog I’ll have a slice or two together with that last cup of tea for the day 🙂

Have a great day!

My first strawberries :-)

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We’re having a really nice afternoon/ evening. Just below 20C (68F), a weak wind blowing (therefore a lots of flies flying around), birds singing and I’ve had my two first strawberries 🙂 To be honest it would have been better to wait a day or so because they were pretty sour 🙂 🙂 🙂

The cattle are now walking in the fields again so we can’t walk everywhere we want to at the moment, like following the creek down-stream. Also there are so manytickso now that high grass is a no no to walk in. Last time we did I picked eight from Malkolm as soon as we came home and six from Alma. I once had two dogs that had a bad reaction on those drops one drop in the neck so I try to avoid using that on my dogs, especially a stressed dog like Alma. Thankfully I do pick off most of them after our walks.

They say our weather will be on and off when it comes to rain, we do need it but I do hope that the temperature doesn’t drop down to arctic temperatures again, after all it is summer now 🙂 🙂 Last week, the night before midsummers eve the night was clear and it wasn’t dark at all. The sky was deep red closer to the ground, then a thin layer with orange slowly turning to a pale light blue colour. Not a star could be seen and we had so much light that I didn’t need to use the high beam on the lights. Unfortunately that changes quickly now but it was nice to drive home at night without it bring pitch black.

I’ve just pad my bills and I always feel a bit sad doing it but then it changes to happy since I know I won’t have any more bills until next month 🙂 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I wish I had some cookies but I ate the last one on Sunday. I don’t have the energy to bake any new ones and most of the gluten free ones one can by is an abomination to any living thing 🙂 I wonder if they actually do taste what they bake or that they really don’t care because it’s not their fault we can’t eat normal cookies 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Summer at its best.

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The first day with evening shift works great, the second day really well, the third day is quite tiresome and the fourth is just nasty 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I’m so glad I mowed the lawn yesterday morning and the shopping today otherwise I’m pretty sure the mowing wouldn’t have been done 🙂 🙂 🙂

Today is Midsummer eve and most likely the biggest holiday here, I was planning on writing about it today but I’m so tried that it will have to wait until tomorrow. We have a quite wonderful weather here today, mostly sunny all day, 22C (71,6F) with a wind that actually reach my garden after the heavy pruning of the Hungarian lilac a few weeks ago. It was much needed and I really need to do more but that will be a job for later.

I drove to the grocery store in the village where I used to work at nine am and they played summer music (which must mean music that has been played a lot previous summers, not necessarily about summer though 🙂 I had the windows open and all smells in the world came in to my car. I only drove on small roads so the speed was slow and I enjoyed every second of it 🙂 I took slightly different roads back home just to be able to enjoy everything from the forest to big fields with wheat and corn flowers, no poopies though but I’m pretty sure they’ll be there in a day or two.

Every year since I moved to this region I’ve seen a couple driving around in what I think is a Morgan Plus 8 car. they have always been dressed in a British upper class style and she has worn a hat with a thin scarf holding the hat down (since it is a convertible) So I’ve only seen this couple those time we both have been driving around at the same time but also see them, like me, getting older. I met them early in May the last time and they looked just as happy as always. Today I was happy to see the car again but this time only the man was sitting in it and he looked well not sad but not happy either. I do hope the woman is healthy and living (they must be in their 80’s by now) because the car looked empty without her.

The village is quiet today, only the wind and the birds can be heard, not even the cats up at the farm fights. I noticed that the monsterkitten followed us in the to the wood shed when I was about to drive to the store, she refused to go out with me so she had to stay there until I came home. I left the door to the wood shed stay open when I returned home and let the dogs out from the dog house and naturally though the stupid cat (one of all her names 🙂 🙂 🙂  would run out but now this afternoon I started to wonder why she wasn’t with us pestering me for food. Turns out that she had stayed in the wood shed when I closed the door 🙂 🙂 Well at least she was safe all the time 🙂 🙂

It is time for some ice cream and a soda called Trocadero, a Swedish brand with a taste somewhat close to tutti-frutti. The sugar free is so much better tasting since it isn’t that sweet so it works really well with very sweet ice cream 🙂

Pawpaw seedling. One more is on the way but I think the two seeds I still am eating for to germinate won’t make it. Still two out of five seeds is still better that how it works in nature.

Pawpaw I bought as a three year old tree, seed sown. I also bought a name variety and that one is so much slower to grow.

The Chinese wisteria that I moved because it couldn’t grow close to the cottage seems to have down well during winter. It isn’t even supposed to manage this climate zone but it just doesn’t understand that 🙂

My red elderberry tree is in bloom.

Have a great day!

Strawberries, carrots, beetroot and also peas grow well together in the big box 🙂

Much better and two surprises.

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I can’t pretend I feel especially well at all but I do still feel much better than I did just a couple of days ago. The fever is gone and most pain as well, the pain I do have is mostly because I haven’t been moving around especially much. As soon as I do move around it stops. I guess that’s because the fonts always are in pain anyway so all this lying and sitting doesn’t help.

We had a warm summer day here yesterday, a bit too warm for my liking but still rather nice. Today will be even warmer they say but also more cloudy. So the kitchen door was open for quite some time until a surprise shower passed by, after that it also became very humid so the door had to be closed. Then suddenly another one passed by and it became even worse 🙂 🙂

I’ve had one of those leaf cacti in my kitchen for years and I’ve never seen it in bloom, so guess how surprised I was to find this flower and buy the other dayI I’ve never seen white flowers on these, only red so I was sort of both really happy and still a bit sad because I thought they would be red 🙂 🙂 🙂

You know I told You about that deep red peony I had bought but the dogs managed to kick off the bud? So it is pink instead 🙂 🙂 Two wrong deliveries A creamy yellow that should have been ours white and one pink that should have been dark red. All peonies are beautiful is I won’t complain anyway, they were both on sale anyway 🙂

Yesterday the dogs decided they should pay my closest neighbours a visit  and they are allowed to do so but only when they are at home and outside. Suddenly I heard a ruckus of cackling chickens and called back the dogs as fast as I could. I wasn’t aware that they had chickens at all so I was a bit confused 🙂 🙂 🙂 Turns out that it was the newest neighbours down the road, well not the neighbours but their chickens 🙂 🙂 They had decided to make a visit to my neighbours as well 🙂 🙂 Nothing bad happened though and I was later told that the owner had come and scolded the chickens and they haven’t been here since 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have been hydrating a bit too well lately, what goes in must come out, so I’ve been up around every third hour during nights 🙂 🙂 🙂 I let the dogs out at the same time and I must say that being outside at night is really nice. Much cooler and fresher air and since I live this far north on this little globe of ours not especially dark either. The best thing though is that we so far have very few mosquitoes, the ground has been too dry this year, so not being attacked by them has been really nice. I haven’t even had problems falling asleep when we’ve come in again and that made it even better 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and then open the kitchen for again so the dogs can go outside, Malkolm was so sad when he could’t go in and out as he pleased that he fetched his favourite toy, a big octopus and brought it to the sofa to sleep some more 🙂

Have a great day!

I think it is finally letting go.

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We have fewer hornets here this year and I think it is because we don’t have any honeybees, hornets eat all kinds of insects and especially honey bees.

So it felt better on Wednesday, still with fever and tiredness but still better. Yesterday it hit bad again and I started to wonder what I really was having. The thing is that usually when having high fever one boils and freeze with heavy sweating but I never had that sweating, until this morning and everything felt so much better when it started. Haven’t been freezing all day though .

Well magpies, even the young ones, loves to lure cats out on the thinnest branches and then just leave laughing out loud. This is what it looks like when the monsterkitten tried to get back down.

Also I haven’t had any problems falling asleep at any time during this cold, I just sat down and fell asleep. Today I haven’t been able to take a nap at all so I think this might be the beginning of the end of this cold 🙂 Another strange thing is that in the beginning I had pain in al joints but now the pain has settles around my elbows and wrists, nowhere else 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t pretend to have been active at all today but I have managed to take a couple of tors in the garden and that’s more than I’ve managed before. I even found a nest in one of the trees with doves in it :-)We have two forest doves here and it looks like it is the bigger one of them nesting in one of my Ginnala maples 🙂

These gooseberries aren’t ripe until red.

The sprouts are growing rather well now.

So are the potatoes in the vegetable garden.

Scleroderris canker hit our prunus trees (and other trees as well) hard sometimes so this is what many of them look like now. Hard to fight as well so we either have to live with it or take anything hit by it down.

I’m even a bit hungry today so now I need to find something in the freezer, I feel that another bowl with corn flakes won’t do it today 🙂 It is almost quiet in the village, just one of the farmers driving around with a tractor. The first warm day in quite some time as well, so I’ve been sitting on the kitchen stairs with Alma a lot today, IU can’t understand how she can like it because she’s becoming really hot, heaving a lot but still won’t walk in to the shadows. Malkolm is more reasonable with that 🙂 I need to go to the supermarket tomorrow to fill up the fridge, freezer and larder. The coming week is an evening week at work and it sort of feels wrong to go on an early morning when I’ll be working until midnight.

It is time to take a look in that freezer for something to eat and I’ll also make more rose-hip soup 🙂

Have a great day!

A little update.

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Just a short one today. The fever goes up and down all the time but it looks like it goes down slightly more that it goes up 🙂 🙂 :-)Feel like sh.t but sleep away most of the day.

Yesterday morning was quite foggy but we had sunshine later in the day.

The dogs behaves amazingly well, before when I was in the sofa normally only one would stay with me and the other would jump to the other sofa. Now they both agree how to squeeze down just beside me, it Geta a bit warm I. can tell You 🙂 🙂 🙂

A rainy afternoon and a cloudy day before that but sometimes the sun managed to shine through the clouds when they were a bit thinner, So I sat on the kitchen stairs for a while so the dogs could play in the garden. They do need to get rid of their energy some way and playing is the best I think.

Pawpaw.

Red oak.

Buds on the Laburnum.

Buttercups everywhere now.

I’ll make a pot of tea now and after that I’ll shower my head and neck with cold water and it feels so good afterwards.  After that I’ll most likely fall asleep with the dogs in the sofa again 🙂

Have a great day!

Not the best of days today.

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He has one brown and one blue eye.

I’m feeling like sh.t today, no fever though so I hope this will be better tomorrow when I go to work. I’ve eaten lots of honey and been drinking a lot of tea but most of all I’ve been sleeping in the sofa a lot. It gets really warm when two dogs decide to share the sofa with me 🙂 🙂 🙂 No walk today but we did walk around yesterday so the photos comes from then.

Chamomile.

The road associating meeting went smooth and quickly and after that we just sat and talked. I gave up after one and a half-hour and I think the rest stayed for half an hour more. It bis a good way to learn to know other people in the village by going to these meeting even though they’re only once a year. Especially when they go as well as it did yesterday, then again one learns a lot when there are fights as well even though that was long ago that happened 🙂

Some sunshine today, some rain as well and when the sun showed it became so warm that it felt like walking in to a steam bath 🙂 🙂 The dogs have been going in and out of the cottage all day but I had to shut the kitchen door when the clouds became too thick. I’ve done my laundry and dinner is cooking in the slow cooker and today those were the shores I had to do.

I started to cut away big chunks of the Hungarian lilac yesterday. Still thick branches left but I’ll have to use a sw to get rid of those. When I had done that I realised that I could plant the potted gingko tree there. Didn’t go especially well because there weren’t a lot of roots in the pot, the tree managed to fall down leaning heavily towards one direction but a top branch is now instead pointing upwards so I just let it be as it is. Now I think I only have one red mulberry tree left to plant, five pear trees and possibly an apricot as well. I was thinking about possibly plants the trees as trellised but seed sown trees usually grow really high and there will be a lot of pruning to keep them low enough so I’m not sure but I will have that in mind when it is time.

It is time to check the dinner in the slow cooker and after that I’ll make a pot of tea 🙂

Have a great day!