A slow day, windy and cloudy and some drizzle in between. I did almost see the sun for a second though 🙂 Not especially cold but not close to be warmish either. Mostly a meh weather day with other words 🙂
So close to actually see the sun shine 🙂
Thankfully for me the only sport I like to follow, Biathlon, season has started so I could at least watch that for an hour or two. It’s too early to start the winter sowing for those plants that either need a cold period to germinate or a longer warm one for the same reason. This year I have seeds from two different bananas 🙂 Both will have a slim chance to flower and give edible fruits so why not try them 🙂 I also have seeds for two different passion fruits and since they tend to start growing quickly it’s way too early to sow them.
I have however slowly started to fill the new aquarium with water and today I moved three smaller plants from the bigger tank to the new one. They have plenty of time to grow big before any fish will live in the aquarium but it does look a little poor at the moment 🙂 🙂 At the moment I can only find an extension cord with only one socket so at the moment the filter is doing its job and later on I’ll have the light on instead. Without any fish in it there really is no use for a filter running. I can of course find the extension cord I know I have somewhere so I can have both on at the same time but I think You all now know that I will not find it when I look for it, it sort of must happen by chance if it ever will turn up again 🙂 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea and after that I’ll most likely fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂
Have a great day!
I used my headlamp to be able to take this photo 🙂 The water looks a bit hazy so that’s why the filter is running instead of the light but I sort of like how it looks 🙂
It was a bit colder this morning than I thought it would be, it had dropped down to -9,4C (15,08F) as coldest. No wind and sunshine all day made our walks really nice though. I wore my studded boats because it is no fun sliding on ice and breaking something while being out at the bog where it would be very hard to find me 🙂 🙂 🙂 That however made it impossible to walk silent, those studs against the gravel road sounds like I’m crushing the stones 🙂 So instead of seeing them we could hear them run away in panic in all directions 🙂 🙂
It is much the same when I have them while shopping, people don’t run away but everyone looks around to see what it is breaking down 🙂 but it’s only in the beginning of winter that happens because after that most people use studs in either ones that can be removed from the shoes (no one will because they are horrible to try and get back when going outside again) or shoes with studs already in them. Even teenagers use them now days, might be nice to not have to go to school but no fun not being able to go anywhere anyway 🙂
Lots of hunting dogs moving around us while we were at the bog, not from this area but dogs doesn’t know any borders, especially not if they follow what ever it is they’re hunting. So we didn’t walk as far as I wanted to. Not that those dogs actually would care about us but because Alma would go nuts and start to screaming like crazy and I really didn’t want the hunters believe that their dogs was mauled by wolves 🙂 🙂 🙂 I hope there are less out hunting tomorrow 🙂
Despite it being so cold now I haven’t heard a single mouse in the cottage walls, it looks like the monster is doing a good job 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day.
Have a great day!
I took lots more photos today so perhaps I’ll save them for another day 🙂
I woke up in the middle of the night because too much tea I guess 🙂 🙂 and naturally I couldn’t fall asleep especially quickly leading to me sleeping unusually long and when I looked out the window I could see the ground was covered in unusually thick fog. The dogs and I rushed to go outside, took perhaps as most ten minutes and by that time almost all of it had vanished. I was a bit annoyed to be honest but then the sun shone and the leafs in the trees looked like they were burning, so I stopped being annoyed 🙂 🙂
I wouldn’t say it was cold but I can say it wasn’t warm so even if we went out to the bog only one moose fly showed any interest in us, meaning me 🙂 Deer were barking so something out there were scaring them but I doubt that it was a wolf, deer have a tendency to think anything is scary as long as it moves. Could have been a fox or perhaps wild hogs passing by. Lots of small birds flying between the trees, Jays arguing further up close to the tree tops and ravens flying towards the bigger roads to see if breakfast was served (meaning something gotten hit by a car or lorry during the night).
the temperature never rose above 12C (53,6F) in the shadow but the sunshine was so warm today that I had to change from a sweater to a t-shirt. It was impossible not to enjoy it so we spent a big part of the day outside in the garden. I really didn’t have anything to do so I decided that those roses I had cut down and would put in the compost grinder next year (mostly because of the thorns) would be better if I did that today 🙂 This rose has millions of small but awfully sharp thorns but they soften a lot if being wet for a longer period of time so the branches can be handled without too much problems. The problem is that not all become soft so now I have lots of tiny thorns in my hands because why would I use gloves 🙂 🙂 🙂
The old vegetable garden looks a bit odd now when the fence is gone. I didn’t remove any weeds after I had harvest all but some leeks and the potatoes so half is green and half brown where the potatoes grew 🙂 There are still some tiny leeks in there though 🙂
Since I now have found my jigsaw I thought why not cut those barrels open so I finally have those extra rainwater barrels I’ve been talking bout to do as soon as I found the jigsaw 🙂 I do like to play with machines but I must admit I’m not good at it 🙂 🙂 So I cut one open at the top and placed it by the entrance door. Then I thought that it is actually impossible to have too many rainwater barrels and I knew I had two more barrels I could use (blue plastic ones, I’m not much for the aesthetics to be honest. Yes a rainwater barrel in oak do look good but costs a fortune especially since we don’t have any distillery where one can get them for free anywhere near 🙂 So blue plastic ones will do great 🙂
So I made one more to the greenhouse and realised I have at least one extra barrel in the old garage (so two more instead of one more) but by then I’d started to look at those thorny branches so I might do another rainwater barrel tomorrow and place it  on the other side of the greenhouse 🙂 🙂  in between I went indoors to have some tea and ice cream 🙂  Now it’s dark outside and I could hear rain hitting my window so tomorrow I’ll check how much water has fallen in to the new barrels 🙂 At the moment however my biggest concern is to try and remove as many tiny thorns I can from my hands, they itch like crazy right now 🙂
I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day, it is much nicer to be able to sleep all night instead 🙂 Also if I go up the dogs go up as well and if they go up they want to go outside and if they go outside I’ll have to go first to check there’s no badger walking around looking for food and since it’s chilly at night I’ll have problems falling asleep again 🙂 🙂
My big apple tree is actually only half a tree, the other half fell one summer because that side grew too big.
Just a short one today. The greenhouse still stands, I went out several times to check how the anchors and pegs were holding up and they show no signs of even moving the slightest. The only thing that did was the broken golf club in front of the door, so I pressed it down in the ground in another place and much further down and it is still standing 🙂
The dogs barely went out to do their business because the wind was fierce and I must say I didn’t think a tree could bend that much as my Chinese catalpa, any normal tree bending so much would have broken in two 🙂 🙂
The badger visited us in the late morning, I was surprised it even had went out on a day like this. I was outside just minutes earlier to check the greenhouse and went back to let the dogs out. Took a bit longer than I expected so by the time we came out the badger had left us again 🙂 They dig mall holes searching for snails and larvae to eat and they weren’t there when I was out earlier 🙂 So everything has went well and we’re all sitting in the cottage enjoying not being outside 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that it feels like an early night is the right thing to do 🙂 Well I’ll watch the news first just in case something has happened in the world 🙂
-2C (28,4F) this morning and a wonderful morning mist bordering to almost thick fog. The sun rose and we did have a rather nice walk, the only thing that disturbed was that my hands became just as cold as the air around us 🙂 We didn’t see any moose or signs of any wolves but we did see a roe deer in a field.
The rest of the day has been either nasty cold and cloudy or rather nice and sunny. Too bad the rather nice and sunny was a bit rare compared to the cold and cloudy. Tomorrow will be, if they’re guessing it right, the last day of sunny and nice before a storm hits us on Saturday. I am a bit worried about the green house even though I now have secured it with wires and storm anchors because the winds will come from south east and it will hit it right on I’m afraid.
I will pick up those tent pegs for greenhouses tomorrow though so I can secure it even better. So hold Your thumbs and cross Your fingers for good luck because it would be so boring if it flew away even before I’ve had a chance to use it even once 🙂 🙂 🙂  otherwise we’ve done very little today since it has been so chilly, we did have a nap for an hour or so and after that I made pancakes for dinner 🙂
It is time to make a pot of tea and find a good book I think because as so often I can’t find anything worth watching on tv. I’ve heard a rumour that the foreman at the coffin factory finally was kicked out, no sad feelings for that 🙂 So perhaps I should go back and see if they have a job for me 🙂 I really liked all the people but I didn’t give much for him to be honest 🙂
It is time too start making that tea so have a great day!
My entire body hurts 🙂 and I know it will be even worse tomorrow 🙂 🙂 So I started another project yesterday, to finally start building that greenhouse I bought three? years ago. I must admit that the instructions were pretty good but the markings on the parts was so so to be honest. I also noticed that the closer to the end the descriptions became less good, like the one who did them sort of felt bored and that gave me some problems at the end.
So the only thing I had to do today was the roof with the ventilation window. The only parts that actually were missing was the parts to the handle of the ventilation window 🙂 🙂 Well I can solve that later and it will work well anyway. I really can’t call the company to complain and to get those parts since it has gone three years and I can’t even remember who I bought it from, it’s a long time since they gave up sending me ads on things they sell 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyhow everything went well until I was going to put the door together and then hang it up. This is when the bored designer of this green house really messed it up because it is amazing in how many ways one can attach hinges and not make it work 🙂 🙂 🙂 That door took several hours to put together, mostly because the one had forgotten to show how many screws one had to pre assemble before it was time to put the door together 🙂 🙂 🙂
Also there’s magnet to keep the door closed and no matter how I put it one it couldn’t reach any metal but that’s why one always have a just enough big beak pliers close nearby 🙂 Also, and here’s the second thing that drove me nuts, the pre assembled screws. Turns out they had shown the wrong numbers of how many and on what side of the door they should be, so at the moment the door has no handle. I refuse to take the door apart again so I need to figure out another way that makes it possible to move those screws around to the right side again. All in all it worked pretty good despite missing parts and screws on the wrong side of the door and now it stands there. All I have left, besides the screws, is to put up plastic protections on the corners because those are sharp and then figure out how to secure the greenhouse to the ground. I do have storm wires as well just in case the wind blows from the wrong direction.
WE had morning mist here today and I rushed outside as soon as I could to get some nice photos and of course let the dogs have a walk 🙂 It’s amazing how fast it can vanish when the sun rise in the morning. I had brought my old Hasselblad camera because it’s really good on capturing morning mist and we even walked up to the mailbox just to get some nice photos. Just as I had I turned around and all mist was gone! So when we passed the cottage again I left the camera and we continued in to the forest. Turns out the mist was hiding in there instead 🙂 🙂 Well I can always hope for more mist but it looks like we’ll have cloudy days ahead of us with minimal chance to get it any time soon.
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and today I’m having Lady Grey. A really nice tea and a change from the Earl Grey I usually have. I have no ice cream or cookies and I’m not hungry enough for a sandwich so I guess I’ll just have the tea. It is time to move down the stairs and it hurts just to think about it 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
I forgot to eat while building the greenhouse yesterday but realised I had to stop when my entire body started to shake 🙂 🙂 🙂Today the dogs made sure to go indoors to have something to eat 🙂
We had a beautiful sunrise today and I think that have might been the only beautiful thing happening today 🙂 🙂 The rest of the day we’ve been in and out of the cottage. The sun shone and we went out and suddenly rain arrived and we went indoors again 🙂 We’ve also had a strong wind blowing so even if we were outside while we could see the sun up there in the sky it still wasn’t especially nice.
I had hoped I cut take down the trunks of those plum trees but I really didn’t want to be caught outside with an electric chainsaw with a cord if it rained. So since most machines and tools I own is just the same I really couldn’t do much else either 🙂  So I have mostly, in between going in and out again, sort of half napped in front of the tv 🙂
Edible and really tasty mushroom.Don’t eat, You’ll get really sick.
It won’t do much to You but they don’t taste a thing 🙂
I’m starting planning to bring down some plants down to the cool cellar already, mostly my Peruvian ground cherries, they have lots of small fruits but are far from being ripe and their relatives Tomatillos for the same reason. By the way I’ve never grown or eaten tomatillos but understand that they should be cooked, what do they taste like? 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m getting lots of them so it would be sad if the frost takes them before they are ripe.
Never ever eat this one!
Or this one, the Swedish name for it is forest salad or lettuce might be a better word. I doubt You’ll die but …
It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll eat an ice cream cone with chocolate ice cream. They sell gluten free ones from the ice cream lorry so I bought a package yesterday 🙂
The morning was really perfect today. It started with rather thick fog but moved in to morning mist when the sun rose just to turn back to fog when the rising fog made clouds so it blocked the sun again 🙂 Also chilly enough to even keep the moose flies calm. What made it even better was that Alma actually behaved almost the entire walk 🙂
The sun stayed until just after noon I think it was so I decided I would cut down the other plum tree as well, it never gives more than six or seven plums and always get hit by some kind of disease. I did de-bark in in early spring but it has stayed green all summer so I thought it best to do something about it. I know I now will have lots of root shoots but I’ll deal with them when they arrive. No thorns on this one thankfully 🙂 There was some damages on those other things living in that area but I think they’ll survive. It was where that plum tree is growing I had my old pond but since the ground now is filled with loads of roots I won’t be able to use it for that any more, I really don’t want to hire a digger to get those out 🙂 🙂
I also cut of the top of the thorny wild plum, the strong wind we’ve had today helped me to bring it down 🙂 I really don’t like cutting dow my trees but there are other trees I can plant there next year instead.  As long as I keep fertilise the ground all summer, for quite a lot of years, because there will be nothing left when it comes to nutritions for another tree and it can’t be another tree in the same family since diseases easily can stay in the ground and attack the new tree.  It didn’t take long after that when the rain arrived. Mostly a nice autumn rain but also a couple of heavy showers.
The sun came back after five so I planted the two remaining pawpaw seedlings just behind the Laburnum. It has been very dry there for quite some time but I’ve thinned out the branches a lot so now when it rains it actually reach the ground as well. So cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs so they survive the coming winter, all five of them 🙂
It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll watch a science program on tv. I think I’ll actually have some ice cream with that tea, orange ice cream with chocolate strings in it 🙂
I was expecting a sunny morning and I hoped for morning mist again. We had sunshine but the mist wasn’t here but closer to the mountain.  It was a bit chilly when we walked down to the creek and my shoes got drenched in the morning dew and Malkolm who always wants to walk in the grass and follow tracks was even worse 🙂 He had no ticks walking around on him though so that was a good thing 🙂
Lots of small birds tweeting and Jays arguing but there were now bigger animals around. Once I saw a pure white wild hog and I have to admit that it was really beautiful. I didn’t manage to get a photo of it and have always hoped to see another one. Turns out that they are quite common, perhaps not pure white but with spot or markings of other colours on them. Since we don’t have white moose in this area I really think I deserve to see a white wild hog again 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve put up the new LED light ramp in the cellar so this morning I started to clean up down there. Lots of soil and sea leafs and twigs on that floor so it took its time. I knew that the monster pooped down there when she had sucked in when I didn’t notice it and therefore locked her in for hours sometimes 🙂 I did however not know how much until I had that light put up, on the plus side though is that I didn’t find any moose droppings which I see as positive 🙂 🙂 🙂
I took some photos to show what my garden looks like at the moment. This shows the south side east corner.South side western corner.North side towards east where the cottage stands.North side towards west.And the north side towards west corner where my Pawpaws grows.
Lots of smaller lorries have been driving up and down to where the latest neighbours live, looks like they’re moving out today. Too bad I liked them but I fully understand them, the owner of the place is just too greedy. So now we’re waiting for new tenants or perhaps someone from a big city buys it, they usually have no idea. what places like that costs here, anything is cheaper here than I the big cities. I’m not even sure if they could buy a two bedroom apartment in a big city for what they want for this place but it is still too much. Lets hope that who ever comes here are just as nice as the ones moving out.
This is one the other side of the cottage, the northern side looking towards west.And this is the opposite side towards east. Big and thorny roses on both sides of the entrance 🙂
I’vedecided to plant those five Pawpaw seedlings I have, I can’t trust the cat wanting to go down in to the cellar so I think it is best that they’ll stay outside and I’ll cover them as good as I can instead. The biggest threat to their lives are the dogs running around playing with each other 🙂 🙂 So I’ve put up sticks so the dogs can avoid running in to them. Oddly enough the dogs actually tends to avoid those sticks but can happily run in to smaller trees so hard that they break them 🙂 🙂  According to our folklore the winter will be harsh if the Rowan trees have lots of berries, this year they have almost no berries so it should be warm, almost hot here 🙂 🙂 🙂 Unfortunately it doesn’t show anything more that if they have lots of berries the spring was absolutely perfect for them.
I’ve started to fill up the area around the English walnut with the wood chipping I made from what I’ve been cutting down. The layer is around 20 cm (eight inches) thick. Just remember when using fresh chips they will when slowly decaying steal a lot of nitrogen from the ground. No bigger problem with a walnut though since they have taproots.The Pawpaws are small and while living in a pot they were eaten by slugs. So far I’ve never seen a slug in this part of the garden, there’s just too little to eat for them I guess.
It is time for that last cup of tea and perhaps a bowl with corn flakes.  Nothing on tv at all so I have no idea what to do for the rest of the evening 🙂 🙂
Sunshine again this morning but it didn’t last for long, a meh fog arrived and after that it stayed cloudy for quite some time. It wasn’t really until late afternoon we had sunshine again but it was at least warm and nice.
So the kitchen door has stayed open most of the day and if I’ve said that we haven’t had especially many wasps (Yellowjackets) here I changed my view about that today. This is the time of year the new queens have left the nest and the workers therefore has nothing to do. That makes them confused and pretty angry and it doesn’t get better when they’ve eaten fermented apples on the ground. They can be pretty nasty and attack without any reason at all. This is the only time in the year I kill them if they start to be nasty towards me. They do so much good all summer but now they have no purpose since the queens are gone.
Since I hadn’t planned to do anything special today I finally used the chain saw. As I’ve mentioned earlier grape elder wood aren’t good for much after they’ve been cut down, not even in life the wood is especially tough, so even though they were quite thick it just too 15 seconds to cut those stumps off. I did go out on the net to see if it can be used to anything and it did say one could use it as fire wood but it wasn’t recommended since the wood (the entire plant actually) is poisonous.
The bog is yellow now, autumn is here.
Besides that I really haven’t done much today. I’ve planted one of the quince seedlings, there was sort of a space vacant when I had cut down the grape elder. Well I cut down two grape elders to be honest and should therefore be able to plant one more but the other one grew beside the huge rose I still am cutting down and also there grows an English walnut not far fro it so in the long run, if the walnut keeps on surviving it will be too much shade there. My black walnut on the other side of the garden is now higher than the cottage and grows way too close to it. I never thought it would survive here but oh how wrong I was 🙂 🙂 I will have to cut off the branches that soon will be long enough to slam hard on the roof when it is windy.
It will be nice weather tomorrow again but after that they say it will go downhill, lots of rain and lower temperatures. I really don’t need to go to the supermarket yet but if I go on Saturday as I’ve planned it will be a bit nasty weather to drive in. On the other side I’m waiting for a parcel with a LED light bar that I need to have down in the cool cellar and it might arrive tomorrow but on the opposite way to the supermarket 🙂 🙂 Well the lighter can wait until the weather gets a bit nicer again 🙂 I’m sitting here with my last cup of tea for the day and today I’ll watch Elsbeth on tv 🙂
My little meadow is still full of flowers.
My Black walnut. I wish that I had planted it just a meter (much the same as a yard) to the right but I guess in the long run that wouldn’t have helped anyway 🙂
We never had those heavy showers here and I haven’t heard any news about them either so I guess they never happened. We did however have a nice summer rain all night so that’s at least something. The rain water barrels are perhaps filled to a third but I had hoped they would be more than half full. Well we can’t get everything I guess.
Still we had a cool and nice morning just as the last fog vanished. Both Alma and Malkolm behaved really well, even when we passed the soon to be former neighbours cottage. We scared a Jay that was walking on the gravel road and I could hear ravens nearby and cranes from a distance. I also noticed that there were plenty of tiny toads walking across the  gravel road, from one ditch to the other. I’ve had unusually many in my garden this year and unusually many frogs as well. They’ve been hiding in the higher vegetation close to where I’ve watered all summer. I do hope none of the dogs see the toads because they are poisonous and if a dog chew or eat one they can die.
I’ve ordered a paper shredder today. back in the days when one had paper bills here in Sweden they always wrote our social security numbers on the bills or any kind of paper to be honest. It seems that back then identity theft wasn’t a thing. When we had paid the bill we just tossed it in the trash. Things are different now days I’m afraid. So I have loads of old bills that I should have thrown away (recycled) years ago but then I would have to tear away that part where my number is printed and to be honest there are funnier things to do during the day 🙂
The recommendation here is to save those papers for ten years so I have loads to destroy now. I belong to those who are happy we don’t have it that way any more, instead I just save my bills in the computer  until they are old enough to delete. Thankfully they don’t write our numbers down in bills any more. Envelopes are another thing, we can’t recycle them because of the glue and I don’t think the shredder likes that either but then again they’re easy to just throw in the garbage bin 🙂
I’ve also managed to put the new chain saw chain on the chainsaw and even managed to stretch it enough so it won’t loosen its grip while working with it. We’ll have a rather nice weather tomorrow so after our morning walk and the grocery store trip I’ll have to do I’ll start cutting down the grape elder trees I’ve started to cut down. Grape elder tree is so bad that I don’t think it even works as fire wood when it is dry and I think it’s the same with our common Elder. Â I would like to get that wild plum tree cut down as well but I think it’s best to cut off the branches one by one because those thorns are terrible.
It is time for that last cup of tea and I think there actually is something I want to watch on tv before it is time for bed.
I always have the bedroom window open during summer, day and night unless it’s hot as h..l outside. I woke up during the night feeling rather cold but didn’t think more about it than pulling the blanket over me and having a dog sleeping closer to me 🙂 I checked the thermometer when we went down to the kitchen and it had been a tad chilly outside. It was 4,9 C (40,82 F) outside and as coldest it had been 3 C (37,4 F).
The sun has been shining all day though and the northern winds we’ve had went from chilly to rather nice during the day. Besides watering plants I really can’t remember what I’ve been doing 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yesterday I did start reading a book again and actually enjoyed it so much that I had to force myself to put it away. That hasn’t happened in a very long time, not since I was hit by covid and the brain refused to work as it should. I have been reading on and off anyway but sort of not enjoyed it.
Sometimes it’s hard to chose between keeping the orange sky but see the fog a bit less good or see the fog but losing the orange sky 🙂
Well I did dig up some potatoes and raw fried them in the oven and it was just as tasty as I remembered it 🙂 With them I had a few meatballs and sausages 🙂 Nothing fancy but really tasty 🙂 I’ve also been locking for a place for my last pear tree seedling but so far no luck. I have started to cut down the grape elder and the huge rose (it has a couple of English names so I chose Beach rose) living side by side. The wild form is seen as invasive and should be removed and that’s a tough job since those thorns are nasty. This one has been left alone for well over twenty years so it’s really tough to cut down. I’m pretty sure that job will take a year or so but otherwise that would have been a good spot.
I found some rust coloured mums the other day and realised that it’s now days the only colour I like on them 🙂 I’ve planted them in a new flowerbed because they might survive the winter here. They’ll look very different next year though because they’ll grow rather high and if they get the chance to flower it’ll be late in autumn I’ve heard.
I’ve already had my last cup of tea for the day so now I don’t know what to do 🙂 🙂 Well I can always have a bowl with cornflakes, I like to slice a banana in it and dust it with cinnamon plus the dogs will get a piece off banana each 🙂
I have the same problem with my Giant Sequoia seedling as the Pawpaws, mice seems to like eating them so I can’t have them in the cool cellar. This one should have been twice as big if it hadn’t been for the mice. So I’ll try and cover it during winter and hope for the best and I’ll have to do the same with the Pawpaws.
The Cottage by the crane lake. 