Category: Sunshine.

They say it’ll warm up again.

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So another really nice and sunny day but rather cold. I could see the wind power plants up on the mountain moving with the wind but that wind didn’t reach us down on the ground. We walked down to the mostly frozen creek and when we walked out on the field there I saw two White tailed eagles fly up from the ground just 50 meters (much the same in yards) away from us 🙂 I guess they were eating something but I didn’t check what it was 🙂

Instead of following the creek all the way down to the forest we took a turn and crossed the field and walked in to the forest further away. There’s an old road there no one ever use (unless when they cut down the trees) and followed it till the end where we then walked in to the older forest and later to the creek up-streams instead. This is wild hog area but we didn’t see or hear any today. Well I think the dogs might have since they both stared towards a thicket of spruces but that was it.

White tailed eagles.

I thought the water level in the creek would be lower now when we didn’t have any rain or snow but it is actually much higher.

They say that it will turn to warmer weather again already tomorrow and I’ll believe it when it happens. I will miss the dry ground if it’s right but then again I will also feel happy about the warmer air even though it might mean less sunshine. As the saying goes, we can’t have it all unless we are rich enough to travel to where the weather is to our liking of course 🙂 🙂

I haven’t been walking g in this part of the forest in many years, mostly because this is a very swampy area but frozen water is really great to walk on 🙂

I’ve ordered a new wallet, my old one is falling to pieces and I haven’t found any in any store so when I found one on the net I bought it. Younger people now days don’t use wallets, they sort of combine the wallet with their phone case but I really don’t like that. Yes I know I’m old 🙂 🙂 🙂  but I don’t want to lose it all by losing just one thing, like the phone. If I lose the phone I still have my wallet with everything important in it and if I lose my wallet I still have the phone so I can make those calls to stop anyone from using my cards and get a new driving license 🙂

I’ve also ordered Christmas lights for my oddly shaped Korean spruce. If one looks at that spruce it looks like some kind of armchair made in the sixties 🙂 🙂 You know those laid back space inspired ones 🙂 🙂 Well it is the only one I have bog enough so this year I’ll have some outdoor lights. The lights is eleven meters long (much the same in yards) and battery driven. It can either shine all the time or shine for six hour and then start at the same time next day. No one here is outside at night anyway so that will be great. I will of course take a photo of it when the light chain has arrived and dressed around the spruce 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and later today I’ll watch the game show On the Tracks. My oldest brother and I send texts to each other when we think we know the answers, we are usually very wrong 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

The snow is closing in.

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We might get up to two decimeters (eight inches) of snow from tonight and until Friday afternoon so I decided to go to the store already today so I don’t have to drive in that garbage weather on Friday. I know, snow is pretty but I truly dislikes it. The only time I actually liked it was rather many years ago when I spent Christmas in a cottage even more remote than where I live now.

I rented a cottage back then in a region called Dalsland, close to the Norwegian border, and I had the best Christmas ever (I think that I have written about it here in my blog a year or two or perhaps even more years ago 🙂 ). Over half a meter of snow (much the same in yards), -28C (-18,4F), no electricity but a fire stove and my then two dogs and one cat. There’s no light pollution at all there so even if I can see lots of stars here it’s nothing compared to there. I spent an entire week there and as I said it’s the only time I actually have liked snow 🙂

This and the rest of the photos are taken with analog cameras and if I remember it right it’s an Agfa Ambiflex I took these six first ones, then two with a Nikon F90 and the four last ones with an Agfa Colorflex (can be wrong with that last one though).

Back then mobile phones just started to become popular so to hope for any kind of signal there was to hope for a miracle 🙂 🙂 🙂 I would have loved to live there but I think there’s a bigger chance to find a job on the planet Mars than in that region 🙂 🙂 🙂  Well I’ll have to endure the snow here no matter what but I do think that if I ever won the lottery I would buy something small in southern France so I could stay there during winter and move back here when spring arrives 🙂

I didn’t bring any digital camera with me on our walks today but it looks much the same as it did a few days back and I also have some wintery photos taken with film cameras last winter so perhaps I’ll put in a few of those. I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I will not bake a mug cake today no matter how yummy it was so I’ll just have that tea and perhaps watch some tv even if I doubt that there’s anything I want to watch, there rarely is.

Have a great day!

Cold.

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Pretty chilly here and even though I ‘m not that fond of cold weather I still have to admit that it is nice to walk on ground that isn’t muddy and as long as we have almost no wind it’s quite nice. Ok no wind means higher price on electricity but I guess that’s something we need to take wether we like it or not.

Nothing has happened here so I have very little to write about. We did have the first real snow this morning but it was so little that I only could see it lying on my entrance stairs. If I knew we won’t have any more I would even say that I liked it 🙂 🙂

I was planning on having a little nap every day now when I am at home but so far I’ve had none. The morning just flies by and when I think of having one it’s too late, at least if I want to have any more daylight hitting my eyes. The sun sets already at 3:43 pm now and it is a long time left until it turns again. I really should have been born so much further south where the sun stay up longer during winter and the temperatures never drops 🙂 Then again I would miss our summers here when it never gets especially dark, just a couple of hours in the middle of the night.

I made a mug cake today. I can’t remember if I ever have done that before. I wasn’t hungry but wanted something so I went out on the net to see what I could find. The recipe said to use cocoa but I put in a piece of mashed banana and some cinnamon instead and it turned out really yummy. I would have made one more if I hadn’t eaten my last banana 🙂 Well now I know what I can do if I feel that way again 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I really wish I had made that mug cake now instead 🙂

Have a great day!

So cold!

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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 🙂

Tiny, tiny snowflakes.

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Yes they fell yesterday evening but they were tiny and I think all of them melted away as soon as they hit anything because of all the rain we had just before they started to fall. When I say tiny, imagine misty rain, drops just slightly bigger than fog drops becoming snow instead.

It want cold during night though so I was happy I had bought new studded boots so I could walk anywhere even if it was mostly ice. -4,8C (23,36F) as coldest and just before we went out on our morning walk. Lots of frost everywhere so I must admit that the world did look rather pretty and it even gave me some Christmas feelings 🙂 We walked down to the creek and I was a bit hesitant to walk on the road over the creek. Last time we had this much water in it I fell down in to a sink hole created by water flowing beside the concrete pipe that usually leads the water. I was lucky that time because I happened to fall so my feet hit the concrete pipe and I also still had my shoulders high enough up so I could get out from there 🙂 🙂

The little metal bridge isn’t especially visible any more 🙂 I really didn’t want to try and walk on it so we followed the field until I found a place where we could pass and in to the forest.

All worked well this time but it was impossible to cross over to the forest on the other side of the fields so we had to walk quite some distance before the ditch that follows the edge was dry enough to walk over to the forest. The reason by the way that the water level is as high is because of beavers, they’ve more or less plugged the entire concrete pipe with sticks and mud 🙂 🙂 🙂  The rest of the walk wasn’t that exciting 🙂 🙂  and I never saw any beaver. Just as well because it happens that they attack people if they get too close and there’s also that beaver that for some reason walked up to a bust stop in a bigger city here in Sweden and bit a woman (I think it was) that was waiting for the bus. Just imagine those huge, yellow sharp teeth cutting in to Your leg!

Normally however beavers are very shy so no reason to be afraid to see one close by 🙂 I also went to a grocery store in Falköping today. I had bought what I wanted when I realised that it was a really long time since I had eaten reindeer, back in the days those packages were rather small. just enough for one or perhaps two dinners. Have You ever eaten it? If not You’ll either hate or love it. Reindeer with boiled potatoes and a mushroom stew is delicious according to my tastebuds. Anyway, I noticed that the price is nasty high now, even more expensive than filet of beef and the package was almost a pound so I had to skip it. To be honest, anything tastes great with a good mushroom stew 🙂

The reason I want to Falköping to buy groceries instead of Skara like I usually do was because I was going to pick up a small package on my way home. I had ordered some Narcissus bulbs and seeds to a small banana plant with edible bananas (if they ever would like to show up) and another seed I can’t remember at the moment. What looked like a good idea last week when it still would be fairly warm (when it comes to the bulbs) is now a slightly less good idea 🙂 🙂 Bulbs can be planted as long it is possible to make a hole in the ground and it will stay pretty chilly here for a long while it looks so I’ll most likely plant them in a pot and keep the in the cool cellar during winter and plant them when they have flowered next spring.

Now I remember what the other seed bag is, an edible passion flower species, Barbadine I think it’s called in English. I already have the common passion fruit flower seeds and thought that now when I have a greenhouse I’ll try them in there during summer. They usually germinate quite easy but to get fruit one need two different vines. By that I mean You can’t take a cutting from one and think that it is another plant because it is the exact same one that You took the cutting from. So two seed sown plants are needed and they will not give any fruit the first year. Passion flowers grow like weeds to be honest so as long as one treat them as they like they’ll never die 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is already (5:13 pm) almost as cold outside as it was this morning so I don’t want to guess how cold it’ll be tomorrow when I wake up 🙂 Sunny all day though so it might be nice anyway. It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that, later tonight, watch my favourite quiz program On the Tracks.

Have a great day!

The sunshine is still warm.

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Dryer and colder winds will fly down over the country and I could feel it early this morning. 0C (32F) when the dogs and I went out for our morning walk. All the cars were covered in frost and the ground was slightly frozen so we weren’t especially muddy when we came back home.

Two male Bullfinches.

Sunshine all day long though and the heat from the sun was so strong that I could have the kitchen door open as long as the light hit the south heading wall. I can’t say it felt like early spring but it was really nice. This was however most likely the last sunshine we will see for at least ten days if the weather sites have guessed it right 🙂

The temperatures will fall so from tomorrow it will be a bit chilly here. Not below 0C (32F) during the days but perhaps during nights.  I took a look at the Kaki fruit kernels (an Asian relative to the Persimmon fruit) in the fridge, It does look as at least one might germinate so hold Your thumbs and cross Your fingers for good luck 🙂  This time of year is a bit boring when it comes to gardening and sowing. Well some plants need a winter or two to be able to germinate so I’ll start with those but not until January.

I bought myself a big Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) bulb when I went to the grocery store in Falköping after our walkThe ones I’ve seen has been ridiculously expensive but these were manageable in price. It says this one will have red petals with a white string in the middle of every petal. I don’t care if it is or not (usually lots of those bulbs are wrongly marked but who cares just as long as they flower 🙂 ) Have You ever sown the seeds from the Amaryllis? It is quite easy but it’ll take around three to four years until they flower and the flowers will most likely not look the same as the parent plant, sometimes one get the most amazing flowers from seeds.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and later I’ll watch On the Tracks on tv, it’s really the only thing I watch now days 🙂

Have a great day!

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Normally or perhaps back in the days we would have winter now, mostly the temperatures would stay way below 0C (32F) at nights and barely reach above it if it even managed to do that. To be honest, I don’t miss it at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 I know the greenhouse effect and climate change is anything but good for us but I must admit that I like these warmer days and nights.

I can’t tell You how warm it has been today because the battery died in the thermometer 🙂 A new battery in today so I’ll know what it is like tomorrow 🙂 They are however guessing that it might reach above 12C (53,6F) and it will stay like that until at least Friday. No sunshine though but cloudy and a bit rainy. With the sun shining it would have been t-shirt weather in my garden 🙂 🙂

I went to the supermarket today and I saw a heard with Red deer not too far from the road and on my way home here in the village a young Fallow deer buck crossed the gravel road just in front of me. I saw it early so there was no risk of me hitting it with the car thankfully. Normally it is suicidal cats that cross the road way too close to the car so it was nice to see something else for once 🙂 🙂 🙂

This time of year is when I normally feel the Christmas feelings just to see them go away some time in the middle of December 🙂 🙂 Not so far though, I guess I was annoyed enough to see a big Yule gnome (or Santa) standing by the entrance to the supermarket already in the middle of October. Personally I can’t understand those people who start with any holiday two months before it happens, I usually get tired of it after a week or two.

I’m not a Christmas present guy at all but I usually buy myself a present this time of year, something I really want but perhaps normally wouldn’t buy, not because it is expensive but because I really don’t need it 🙂 🙂 One year I bought myself a Hasselblad camera for my birthday, I really didn’t need any camera since I do have way too many as it is anyway but I wanted to spoil myself with something 🙂 Today I think I have around 60 cameras, both for film and digital ones 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be fair, most of them pretty cheap, like an over a hundred years old Kodak camera that I bought for less then $ 3 US 🙂 It still works perfectly.

I have an idea about what I would like to buy this year even though I should be careful with money since I still am unemployed. So I will have to think a lot more about it before deciding. I’ll be just as happy at Christmas without it just as long as it doesn’t snow and is cold 🙂 The last cup of tea for the day is standing beside me and after that there’s a science program on tv I want to watch 🙂

Have a great day!

Mösakärringar.

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The mist rolled out from the forest when we went out for our morning walk and people growing up here says that it’s because Mösakärringen ( I can’t find the phonetic letter but o and e goes together and so do the a and e so it should be something like this: Moesa Kaerringen) a translation would be something like the bog hags puts out there fires after a cold night. They are a local variation to wood spirits but I call them Bog Ladies because who knows they might exists and that sound much nicer 🙂 🙂 🙂

I saw it at several places and sometimes in the forest. We were lucky to have sunshine when we were outside but mostly it has been cloudy today. Rather nice and warm though to be honest. We went out to the bog and when we reached the end of the peninsula we stood still there for a while and both the dogs and I could hear something walking behind some trees. I have no idea what but it really tried to be as quiet as it possibly could. It might have been the two moose we happened to scare away on our morning walk yesterday.

Do You remember when I pushed all those thorny rose branches through the compost grinder? Those tiny thorns are now aching their way out from my hands. The spot gets swollen and there’s usually a small blister filled with puss and that has been happening all over my hands for a couple of days 🙂 🙂 🙂 Not nice but it’ll soon be over thankfully.

Today I put an entire chicken in the oven, I’ve done that so many times before but those times I mostly did it without any spices because it was meant for my severely food allergic dog Albin. He couldn’t eat any kind of fish or meat but he could eat chicken. Also he couldn’t eat all kinds of rice either so it was always rather tricky to get his food right. Mostly however he ate vegan dog food, the first time I bought it I must say it felt so wrong because dogs usually eat meat but it worked so great that I finally could stop cooking chicken and it too na couple of years before I tried chicken again 🙂 🙂 🙂

Since the oven was on I also baked a big loaf of bread and even though it didn’t rise especially much it still turned out to be rather good. No matter how tasty these gluten free breads can be when one doesn’t use readymade mixes nothing will beat a French roll with butter, cheese and a slice of bell pepper 🙂 Oh how I miss them 🙂

I’m drinking the last cup of tea for the day and since there’s nothing I want to look at on tv I’ll continue to watch Eureka before it is time to go to bed 🙂

Have a great day!

When it’s dark here it really is dark.

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So I was at the job interview yesterday and I felt rather good afterwards. I went to another place in another town but he said the other place looked much the same and I really liked this place. Not especially big but it fitted a couple of cars that they were working on. So I think if not all but most cars had dents and plastic details sanded and painted but no bigger vehicles. 

He’ll cal me wether I get the job or not so now I’ll just have to wait. I can’t remember when the job ad will be removed but I guess it will be a week or two before I’ll hear anything. So until then I’ll just keep on enjoying every day as I have so far. Just hoping for sunnier weather because it is hard to be outside doing anything, especially since the dogs hate rain 🙂 🙂 🙂 We do need lots more to be honest since the groundwater levels still are really low and I hope that all the rain that fell yesterday has helped with that 🙂

The water levels are really high now, not because of the rain but by beavers blocking the water 🙂

0C (32F) this morning but I couldn’t see any frost when we went out on our morning walk. We had some sunshine but lots of clouds did their best to stop it. Still warm enough to keep the radiators off for a couple of hours. The neighbours have now moved out and it’s so boring to see how dark it is down there. When it is dark here it’s pitch black and it is impossible to see anything. I made a video or two showing that and I’ll see if I can find it. Many years old and other neighbours but still shows what it is like here during winter. It doesn’t help much with snow on the ground because it needs light to reflect and if we can’t see the moon it will still be just as dark 🙂 🙂 🙂

I passed the big freezer in the supermarket the other day and they had giant (or are they called Jumbo) shrimp. I know one shouldn’t buy those since the “shrimp farms” destroy the mangroves, at least that was what happened years ago but perhaps they’ve managed to change that now days? Anyway I really wanted some Chinese food when I saw them, I really like deep fried shrimps but can’t really have them any more since they tend to have wheat in the dough. So I thought why not do it myself but with corn flour instead? Or should I just fry them even though it wouldn’t be the same.. Most of the time I really don’t think about not being able to eat anything with gluten but sometimes it’s really annoying 🙂 🙂

It is time to make that last cup of tea for the day. For once they actually show something on tv that I want to see. It is called På Spåret (On the tracks) where two two person teams tries to guess where a train (can also be some other kind of transport) will guess what the final destination (always a town) is. this trip can be from all over the world and they get clues all along the way, The earlier they can guess the destination the more points the team will get. Sometimes it’s really tricky but sometimes when it is a town nearby it’s easy of course 🙂 People can also compete via the Swedish Television app if they like to.  We’ve seen parts of the world one never could believe existed 🙂 🙂 🙂 No price money for the winners, only the honour 🙂

There should be two videos below here where You can hear my voice explaining what You are watching 🙂

Have a great day!

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Very little has happened these last days and that’s how it should be 🙂 The weather has changed loads of time, lots of just cloudy, a fair amount of sunshine and some rain as well, especially today will be rainy, they’re guessing it will rain all day long.

The dogs just look at me when I open the door for them to go outside 🙂 🙂 The little monster however will not be stopped by some rain, my guess is that she’ll go straight to the woodshed because she’s rarely especially wet when she comes back home again.

We have been lucky with the weather when we’ve had our walks though and yesterday morning was so chilly that I could see frost on the ground here and there. So no moose flies to deal with 🙂 It should be the end of their season anyway so from now on I shouldn’t have to wear the hoodie to avoid getting those nasty flies walking in my hair. It is a horrible feeling to wake up to at night 🙂 🙂

Today I’ll go to a job interview. The job is in a town called Skövde but the interview will happen in another town called Lidköping. Apparently they have two factories (I’m not sure it should be called a factory but I don’t have a better word for it), the job is about sanding objects before it is going to be painted and eventually later on also paint the things. To be honest I have no idea what kind of things we’re talking about but a job is a job and since I don’t tend to win the lottery I hope I’ll get this job 🙂 🙂

I have come to like staying at home all day though 🙂 🙂 but getting payed is better than hoping for that lottery winning after all 🙂 🙂 This time at home have however made me realise that I will love to retire when that day comes 🙂 🙂 🙂

I haven’t had any tea yet so I better make some before it is time to drive to that job interview. Since the weather is like it is I guess I’l spend the time until then in front of the tv or perhaps watch an episode or two of a Town called Eureka 🙂

Have a great day!

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There will be photos that were taken today and yesterday.

It has been a couple of calm days here, mostly grey and dull, some rain and even some sunshine, around two minutes of it 🙂 🙂

We were lucky that those minutes happened while we were out walking but we need more of it now when days get shorter and it’s still around two more months of that until it finally turns around again. It does however help that I am unemployed because I never had enough daylight when I had a job so I guess that’s positive 🙂 🙂 It was the same last year and to be honest I really didn’t get sick last year so I’m hoping for the same result this year, as soon as that cold that seems to love me finally leaves 🙂 🙂

The hunters were here today and had brought hunting dogs, I didn’t hear a sound from them so I guess that’s why they left early. There has been unusually few deer , hares and other animals around lately and I guess that can have to do with the wolf/ wolves being here. Well I didn’t think we would have a chance to tale a walk in the forest today so I was pretty happy when I noticed that they all had left.

Because of the rain we haven’t been out in the garden much either so I’ve mostly watched the dvd collection of A Town called Eureka and I’ve also been drinking a lot of coffee so it is time to make that cup of tea instead before I continue with watching dvd’s 🙂

The old rose covered all space behind the chips I made from the branches in my compost grinder, around 4 square meter (I think it’s more or less the same in square yards)

Have a great day!

It was at least not raining today.

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Waiting for his turn at the bird feeder. The photos will be from both yesterday and today.

I haven’t done much today or yesterday to be honest, well I drove to the store in Kvänum and was surprised over how much it costed but I really shouldn’t have because everything is nasty expensive now days. Didn’t think I bought that much but then again I did but a quite big chunk of cheese and Wiener sausages, they do cost more than the others but it is worth it 🙂 🙂 Also I bought a few batteries and even though they’re not especially big the price on them is so after a while I realised it wasn’t that bad after all 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have two old dvd players, one that doesn’t open up so I can put a dvd in it and one that do open up but for some reason doesn’t put out the sound when it should so people can talk like crazy but no sound, however it does come after a while at the wrong place 🙂 🙂 So I had bought a new cheap one to replace them. Well something didn’t work as it should on that one either, it might be as simple as something is wrong with the HDMI cable. I’ve tried everything, even the old screen to my last computer. I was in the kitchen when I tried it but nothing happened. So a bit annoyed I ripped out the cable to the screen and would bring it back from where I fetched it. Well I didn’t rip out the right cable so the dvd player fell down on the floor in a quite high speed.

So that one doesn’t work either now 🙂 🙂 🙂 That’s when I remembered my old laptops have dvd players so I brought one of them down to the living room and put in a dvd. All worked just fine until it didn’t. So since I now was a bit more annoyed I hit my fist over the laptop and everything stopped and the screen froze 🙂 🙂 🙂 Nothing worked so since I do need this laptop when I want to write out documents for the road association meetings I shut it off and then on again. Now the dvd player works just as it should and everything else seems to be working fine as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

When I was in Kvänum I also visited my old work friends and I talked with my old apprentice about that I need to get a banked on my new phone and that’s always tricky as best. so he showed me what to do and that worked so easily that it surprised me, so now I don’t have to worry about the old phone shutting down again because now I have it on my new phone 🙂 Yesterday we had muggy weather with rain on and off but today the sun shone all day long 🙂 Also the sun warmed up the cottage so much that I could turn off the radiators 🙂 The muggy and rainy weather will return again tomorrow though. We do need it but days get so boring when we have to stay indoors all the time, then again I can now watch my dvd’s so that’s better 🙂 🙂 I bought all seasons of an old favourite of mine called “A town called Eureka” it has not aged bad at all 🙂

It is time to give the animals their food and after that I guess I’ll watch a couple of programs on my old laptop 🙂 Of course I’ll make a pot of tea before I start 🙂

Have a great day!