Category: Sunrise.

I can always use it as a berså later on.

May 14, 2022 · 3 Comments ·

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It looks nicer outside than it is. Mostly sunshine, I can hear the wind blow pretty hard but I can’t say it feels warm even in the sunshine. They keep saying warmer weather will come soon but they’ve said that for some time now. Most likely it’ll arrive when we work and go away again when the weekend comes 🙂 🙂

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I’ve planted the peach tree today and when I watered it I suddenly saw that there are tine peaches on it 🙂 Seven for sure but it looks like two more withered flowers might give two more. I do hope the tree hasn’t been too stressed by being shipped in a box so that these peaches grow to become big and I’ll be able to eat them. My hopes aren’t high but I’ll hold my thumbs and cross my fingers for good luck 🙂

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I saw cats, hares and foxes on our morning walk today but thankfully none of the dogs did 🙂 So Alma was actually behaving rather well almost all the walk. Too much to see when walking by the fields so she was a bit hyper there but as soon as we entered the forest she calmed down again. She didn’t even scream when we met and left the Beekeepers. Normally it would sound as if she knew they were walking towards their bitter end 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I fell asleep in front of the tv and woke up to the American Song Contest. I had already heard who won it all but I didn’t know the end result. Turns out that my three favorites ended up amongst the four first. I did not like the one who came second though but three out of four isn’t bad. Our big final is tonight. Ukraine is going to win, not only because the group got special permission to go by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy (they are after all in war) but the song is not that bad. So the fight is really about second place and our song is one of three (the other two are United Kingdom and Italy) that will fight about it.

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Tomorrow will be lawn mowing day, I noticed that my neighbor mowed outside my garage, we have our trash bins there so he tends to mow that part for me 🙂 I’ll also do the laundry as usual but esides that I’ll do very little. The fence I’ve bought is self standing so to make it easy I might make my two vegetable patches round. The fence is rolled tightly so trying to make the corners in90 degrees will be a bit hard. I’m also thinking of planting my mini kiwi vines towards one of those fenced in vegetable patches so they will keep that fence at place when they start growing.

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If I in the future doesn’t want a vegetable patch there I can use that space as a what we call berså (from the french word berceau and is pronounced much the same way). A berså is a place where one can sit and have coffee with friends and normally there’s a horse shoe shaped hedge around it. Typically here they use lilacs as the hedge. No roof above it though. Mostly the hedge is high so no one can look in and to keep the wind away but I’ve seen those with lower hedges too. So my “hedge” would be a fence covered in mini kiwi vines, not bad at all to be honest 🙂

DSC_0031 (1) — Four small peaches in this photo and five more on the way if the tree isn’t too stressed by the move in a package.

Have a great day!

Slow tv.

April 30, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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We’ve had a rather wonderful day today. Sunny with the occasional cloud until the afternoon when more clouds arrived but it is still pretty nice and warm outside. Also the night was frost free, which is a bit odd since the sky was clear and usually clear nights this early in the year means nightly frost.

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DSC_0005 (15) — I wish the doe could have just stayed there but of course not. I did however manage to distract Alma so that she didn’t see it run away.

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We went out on our morning walk a bit later than normal, I did wake up by myself but that didn’t mean I wasn’t really tired all morning 🙂 They have started to show the great moose migration now so I watched that for a while (for those of You who don’t know what this is, it’s cameras stationed at the same place every year showing how moose migrate north when winter is over. We also see a lot of other animals of course and this is called slow tv), something they do every year and the fun thing is that I can hear the same kind of birds singing through the tv as I can if I open the door 🙂 🙂

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After that I’ve sown some more seeds, annuals outdoors because they’ll germinate when they feel it is the right time and some berry plant seeds that still need to stay indoors until we know the risk of night frost is over. I also dug up a Wisteria. I thought it died three winters ago but it resurrected last summer and grew terrible fast and slid up beneath the tiles on the roof. I really can’t have that so today I cut it down. I managed to get two big pieces of roots with a climbing stalk on each and thought why not plant them where they’ll do no harm?

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I planted one beside the crabapple tree with the big magpie nest. We call wisteria here for Blue Rain so I planted it beside the tree we call Gold Rain, The Laburnum. I could work all by myself without the dogs because my neighbors little daughter has her birthday today and lots of people would come. Since Albin and Alma really can’t behave, Albin would run up and down beside the fence huffing and puffing while Alma would start barking and then jump over the fence so she can bark a bit more before jumping back to star all over again 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I said that I’ll bring in the dogs while people will be arriving, my neighbors thought it was unnecessary because they all love dogs but I said that today none of us on this side of the fence would be the center of attention after all 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I think I’ll make myself a cup of tea and have some of my home made ice cream. First however I’ll give the dogs their food, they are standing beside me demanding it right now 🙂

Have a great day!!

Biting wind.

April 23, 2022 · Leave a comment ·

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The sun is shining, the sky is mostly blue and there’s an ice freezing wind there to destroy it all. At first it hit from south east so it was impossible to stay in the garden for more than a minute or two but now it has moved to blow from north so we can finally stay on the south side of the cottage without freezing.

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We stayed mostly in the forest on our morning walk today but we had to pass a couple of fields and of course we then met eight roe deer. I managed to stop Alma from seeing them but that didn’t stop her from shouting like crazy 🙂 It passed fairly quickly though and the rest of the walk she behaved reasonable well.Too bad I had to occupie her because I therefore couldn’t take any photos of the deer

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I sowed twenty kernels of corn in a small container about a month ago and they have all grown together, so today was the day I needed to do something about it. They are quite big now and that helped. I filled a bucket with water and after that I just put the entire lump with corn plants and soil in it. It took around an hour but finally the soil was so wet that I could separate them from each other so now I’ll just plant each and everyone of them in separate pots. Have no idea where I’ll place them because even though the pots are small they will need a lot of space 🙂

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Also it looks like Alme believes this is grass for her to eat, she tried to chew one of them but I managed to stop her 🙂 🙂 Perhaps I’ll place them in my cool cellar with the plant light. The cooler temperatures will slow down the growing but no dog will be able to chew them down 🙂 My brother’s cherry plum tree is in full bloom now, he lives by the coast. So I took a look at mine and it turns out that a few of its flowers also are open now. I wish it would calm down because frost and flowers aren’t a great thing if one want fruit and we can after all have frost at nights until at least June sixth.

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I better replant those corn plants and after that I think I’ll sow some cabbage and Broccolo. It looks like a green cauliflower but the taste is more like common broccoli. I’ve grown it before I moved from my old home town and I remember liking it a lot. Well I better get started or I’ll forget to do any of it 🙂

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Have a great day!

Perfect easter weather.

April 17, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

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I’ve survived the cold so far and the honey helps me to keep the cough away, well I wake up coughing but then I have some honey and the cough will be gone in half an hour. At least my brain think it is the honey helping and they’ve realized that the placebo effects are actually just as good as the real thing 🙂

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We’re having a perfect weather this easter, sunny and between 10C-15C (50F and 59F). Also no wind that I can feel and that makes it even better 🙂 We didn’t have any frost last night so it was quite pleasant to let the dogs outside early this morning. I stood on the entrance stairs and listened to all the birds singing and some cranes trumpeting. I know that I’m very privileged to be able to live like I do and this morning I fully enjoyed it 🙂 I’m not that happy about it those times the car breaks down though but that’s a totally different thing 🙂 🙂 🙂

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We walked down to the bog early this morning. We couldn’t walk out on the peninsula because yesterday when we did we suddenly stood around 50 meters (much the same in yards) away from a nesting crane couple. They didn’t seem to mind too much but they did keep an eye on us the whole time we happened to be that close to them. I had unfortunately only an old camera with me and the phone but the phone photos didn’t turn out especially well. Still we went down to the island instead but the ground is still way to wet so we had to turn back homewards again.

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The kitchen door is open and the radiators are turned off, at least during the day. I’ve made another batch with ice cream and this time I had bought a small tin with preserved peaches. It’ll be ready to eat tomorrow I think and it will fit perfect with another sunny and warm day (at least that’s what they’re guessing we’ll have tomorrow and on Tuesday as well). I’ve gotten tired of having my camellias in the cool cellar so today I’ve placed them on the north side of the cottage. I’ll soon make me some lunch and after that we’ll take another walk. Alme behaved really well this morning (yesterday she was awful though) so I hope she can do that again later today 🙂

I also took a couple of black and white photos.

Have a great day!

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Nights will get warmer, finally.

April 12, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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It has been a rather wonderful day here today, yesterday wasn’t that bad either to be honest but we did have some wind that made it feel a bit more chilly than it actually was. Today started chilly and frosty but it changed quite fast and the rest of the day has been warm, nice and sunny.

DSC_0008 (6) — I’ve noticed that the more blurry a photo is the better those sparkly dots show 🙂

Well the sun is hiding behind clouds now but it is still rather warm. A low pressure will pass tomorrow and on Friday but the temperature won’t drop especially much, could this mean spring has come to stay now? I do hope so. The birds seems to think so anyway but then again they were singing spring songs almost as much as now when we got that last snow 🙂 🙂

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I woke up with a really sour throat today and I’ve had some neck pain/ head ache. No fever though and I wonder if it is the corona virus I’ve gotten? So ever since the early morning I’ve eaten small ammounts of honey and as soon as I’ve done that my throat has felt much better. I’ve also had a lot of tea with ginger but I would have had that anyway 🙂

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One more day at home and then back to work for one day, after that we’re having a four day holiday since it is easter and then on the Friday after that back to the physiotherapist. If my shoulder is better we’ll continue with the exercises if not she’ll send me to the doctor. So far I can’t say I feel much change though, well slightly better to be honest but there’s still time for it to change.

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I planted the rose on Teodor’s resting place today. We might still have chilly nights though so I’ve placed a big clay pot over it. Both to protect it from the cold nights but also from the burning sunshine. No risk of sunshine tomorrow though so I’ll remove the pot in the morning so that the opening leaf buds can get used to daylight and later on the sun shining.I’m a bit late but I’ve also sown melon seeds and the tomato seeds will be sown tomorrow.

DSC_0017 (5) — These four were taken yesterday when we walked down to the bog, it was way to wet to walk out there though.

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I’ve also started to sow annuals, like poppies and cornflower in the old wheel barrow. Later on I’ll sow californian poppies and nasturtium so I think the wheel barrow will look just as nice this year. I also need to sow morning glories and Black-eyed Susan vines soon so they get a chance to flower at all, they are a bit slow with that I’m afraid.

Have a great day!

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Apricot and banana cobbler with home made ice cream :-)

April 10, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

DSC_0034 (1) — If You want to see the photos a bit bigger, just open them up in a new page.

It was supposed to be sunny all day here and the sun did show itself in the early morning but clouds arrived and I didn’t see it again until the afternoon. I didn’t mind much though because it reached 10C (50F) anyway so I had the kitchen door open for quite some time.

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Besides me going to the store to get the rose that will be planted on Teodors grave I did almost nothing yesterday. Well I did my exercises but that was it. There was still snow left on the ground and the other spaces were mostly muddy so I mostly just looked out the window to see my garden 🙂 I was also a bit worried about Nova because her stomach was really bad and she didn’t even want to have a treat.

I boiled rice and saith and she wouldn’t even touch it even after I had put in some tune in it, tuna is probably the thing she likes the most to eat. So I kept an eye on her, especially this morning but I didn’t have to worry, today she was so hungry that she ate it all 🙂 She is after all 15 years old and even if she’s in good shape anything small or big can change that quickly. She just growled towards Alma so now I know she’s ok again 🙂 🙂 🙂

I haven’t done that much today either to be honest but I did bring up my lemon tree from the cold cellar and I also made that apricot and banana cobbler. I didn’t want to open a big tin of either pears or peach and there wasn’t enough with apricots in that tin so I added a banana. I can’t say that the banana added anything to the cobbler but the ice cream i had made was perfect with the cobbler 🙂

Have a great day!

There’s lesson to learn here but I don’t know what.

April 3, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

DSC_0003 (2) — Not as cold last night as previous nights but still frost everywhere.

We’ve had another rather wonderful day here, a bit chilly in the wind but otherwise mostly sunny. I got a text message yesterday from my neighbors, they asked me if I wanted an armchair, You know the kind that one can lean back and then get a sort of foot step to rest the legs on and also a bit of a rocking chair?

DSC_0004 (2) — There was a halo around the sun this morning, it was so big that I only could photo a small part of it.

They didn’t have the space for it and I like those kinds of armchairs so I said yes. I had to remove the one I had first though, a rattan armchair that I can’t use since I doubt that I now days can get up from if I sit in it 🙂 🙂 🙂 That started a series of cleaning events. I found several more places where Teodor had had his toilet, especially beneath the rattan armchair. I also tossed away a lot of other things I really have no need for and continued out to the kitchen where I finally removed all cardboard boxes and moved them to the car so that I can put them in the recycling containers.

DSC_0012 (1) — This photo was taken two seconds before the hare crossed the field.

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I also filled two empty big dog food sacks with all kinds of rubbish and then thankfully they asked me to come over and have a cup of coffee and also see what kinds of seeds we’re having since we’ll grow our vegetables together this year. If they hadn’t only god knows how much I had cleaned before I would fall down to the floor totally exhausted 🙂 🙂 🙂

a (494) — The rest of the photos are from the folder “For a rainy day”.

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We walked down to the creek again this morning. Everything went well, ok Alma had to walk behind me so that she couldn’t rip my shoulder to pieces again. Then we saw a hare running across a field. I don’t know why but she starts to scream as if she is ripped apart by something and I really can’t calm her down. Albin is much the same but he’s relatively quiet compared to her. The walk was sort of destroyed after that even though she finally did calm down. We had just arrived to the gate here when she suddenly saw another hare cross the cow pasture outside my property. She just sat down and quietly looked at it???

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I guess I can learn something from this but I’m not sure what 🙂 🙂 🙂 She’s rather impossible when we’re out walking (some days are really good though) but the coolest dog in the world when we’re at home. She gets insane if she sees a wild animal when we’re out walking but really doesn’t care if we’re at home or at least close to it. Doesn’t she like taking walks? Can You figure out what the lesson here is since I really can’t?

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It is time to go down to my armchair and most likely fall asleep in it 🙂 I think I actually will sleep better there since no dog will be able to share it with me 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

This is the seventh one :-)

April 2, 2022April 2, 2022 · 6 Comments ·

The farmer feeds his cattle just outside my cottage and silage doesn’t smell especially nice to be honest, a heavy sweetish stale scent that eats its way in to the brain 🙂

So a new place once again and now I have 99.98% left of space to use before I need to get a new place again 🙂 🙂 I have however actually paid for having the domain name locked to me, until now anyone actually could use the name Cottage by the Cranelake if they so had wished to. I chose this theme but that can change if I find any I like better later on 🙂

We’re having another sunny and beautiful day here, cold though and quite windy. I can hear the wind blowing but when I go outside nothing moves. the positive side of living at the bottom a slope, the negative side is that it is always a couple of degrees colder down here when it is cold. Then again it usually is hotter here as well on hot days so I guess it evens out even if it really doesn’t feel that way 🙂 🙂 🙂

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I wanted to go out on the bog again this morning but since the dogs didn’t like it yesterday we instead walked down to the creek and back up to the little peninsula by the bog but some distance away from where we walked yesterday. Both Albin and Alma were staring towards the island all the time so I guess they still felt something was out there, Nova didn’t care at all and enjoyed the sunshine instead, just like I did 🙂

Besides that I’ve done very little. Napped for a while and I’ve had loads of tea. I’ve also thawed some soil so that I can plant a mango pit. I do that every now and again and the little tree thrives until winter comes and the air in the cottage gets too dry, then it lose all its leafs and dies. This year I think of trying having a see through plastic bag around it so that the humidity around it will stay high all the time.

I have made some ice cream but haven’t tested it yet. Vanilla and a french jam with four fruits in it and to make it taste more I also added some lemon juice and I do hope I poured in enough of it. I’ll know better in an hour or so 🙂 The dogs and I have also had pancakes for dinner 🙂 Something we all enjoy 🙂

In this and the last photo I’ve tried to capture those sparkling dots from frost and sunshine but it’s tricky 🙂

Have a great day!