Category: The bog.

A really nice day despite only a little sunshine and a GF bread recipe.

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I filled the bird feeder for the first time two days ago. Not a single bird came until early this morning 🙂

 

We’ve had a really nice day today, not as sunny perhaps but warmer, also no frost even though it was close. I was freezing when I woke up so I must have had a fever so I waited a bit longer before we went out on our morning walk so that it was a bi warmer even where the sun didn’t reach but cold enough for the moose flies to stay calm.

     

To be honest so far I haven’t seen that many moose flies here so perhaps last winter and rainy summer killed off a lot of then? We walked out to the bog, out on the peninsula, a favorite place for me and the dogs. I enjoy the views and the dogs all the smalls from the Fallow deer and Red deer and the badgers of course. Malkolm probably wondering what they look like and Alma wanting to pick up a fight with them, I really don’t understand why she wants that 🙂 🙂 Nova once met a badger. The badger jumped up on the road and ran towards her and old Sune , who was half Bernese moutaindog and half English working cockerspaniel, very much like Malkolm in his behavior.

     

Both dogs just stood there (always unleashed) and the badger came running to them. They stood there and sniffed at each other, looking really happy to meet each other, then they all turned away and went on their own directions. Five minutes later we met the Mrs, she wasn’t happy at all and both showed and sounded so we wouldn’t do it again 🙂 🙂 🙂

       

I haven’t done anything I was planning today, mostly I’ve just rested a lot but it felt like a nap only would mean lots of coughing. I have however baked gluten free french rolls. I never fully follow recipes but today I was close 🙂 and they turned out really good! I’ll write the recipe at the end and the changes I made at the end and it’ll be in centigrades and grams so You’ll need to change to Your measurements yourself, my brain is just too foggy right now 🙂

     

I will stay calm until this cold is over, calling companies asking for jobs but having a cold isn’t especially smart if they want You to come over to have a talk, it’s never a good idea to make an eventual employer sick when looking for a job 🙂 🙂 🙂 But I might have to go to the store and buy food.

A bumblebee had spent the night in the Canadian goldenrod, it was just waking up when we came home from our walk 🙂
I’ve never seen flower buds growing together like this! It’s like they are conjoined twins.
Lots of male starlings up in my neighbors birches.
I looked at these for a very long time wondering what it was 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then I remembered that I sowed cob millet for the birds but they started to grow so late that I had forgotten about them. I hope the birds will have some use of them despite them being so late.

Anyway, the recipe.

Ingredients:

100 grams of potato flour                 

300 grams of brown rice flour         Well I used 200 grams of white rice flour because I didn’t have any brown rice anything and one bag with 200 grams of white rice flour already open and didn’t want to open a new one 🙂 Instead I added 100 grams of Oat flour.

 

20 grams of powdered psyllium husk.

 

1.5 teaspoon of salt

 

1 tablespoon of honey.          Why destroy honey that way, I used brown sugar instead and probably 2 table spoons because the sugar is food for the yeast.

 

1 tablespoon of olive oil.

 

2 teaspoons of dry yeast or 20 grams of fresh yeast.

 

500 grams of lukewarm water.

 

Instructions:

Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl, including yest, salt and sugar. Well I’ve done that once and I really failed with that bread. I added all the dry things together with some strong tasting cheese (the recipe says olive oil but I can’t stand olive anything really), don’t take too much, it will feel like eating a well tasting rubber ball if You do that 🙂 🙂 🙂 

I warm the water and then add the yeast, sugar and salt and let it stand for a while, perhaps a minute before I put it all together.

Then the recipe says whisk it all together quickly. Well I say use a baking machine if You have one or like I do an old time electric whisk and work the dough for five minutes. If You have all the strength in the world and muscles thick as a telephone pole just do it by hand 🙂

The recipe then says let it rest beneath a handkerchief for 75 minutes before You take it all out and form the rolls but be careful so You don’t press out the air. That’s quite stupid to be honest. This dough is rather firm, so form the rolls already after it has been worked on, put them on a baking sheet and then let it rest for 75 minutes.

 

The instructions then says heat up the oven to 275C and as soon as You’ve put the rolls in the oven turn it down to 200C. No don’t do that, put it o 200 from the beginning (well all ovens can be different so You’ll have to test that Your self I’m afraid), otherwise You might end up with burned surfaces and soggy middles. 

 

Let them stay in the oven for 40 minutes, no that will be a bit long according to my tries. Today I had them in for 25 minutes with the oven working and then I turned off the oven and had the rolls in there for another ten minutes. Crispy surface and just enough baked through the entire rolls 🙂

Good luck if You try them 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s hard to believe that so much rain can fall at the same time 🙂 Well that just means that I won’t have to water anything in the garden for quite some time 🙂 It had rained all night so when I saw that the rain had stopped this morning the dogs and I went out for our walk, It can’t have taken more than a few minutes after we had left the garden when it started to pour down again 🙂 🙂 

     

I’m not complaining about the rain though because with  that kind of weather napping comes naturally 🙂 So we didn’t do much before I left for the hospital and the x-raying. I left a bit early to avoid the rush hour in Lidköping and as soon as I had  given notice of me being there they called me to get those x-rays. I said already, it’s a half hour until I’m supposed to be here and the nurse then said sometimes one is rewarded for being early 🙂 🙂 So I was finished long before I was supposed to be there 🙂

     

It is still pouring down outside so I think I might make it an early night and I hope my nose will stop running and that the coughing will stay calm (and the sneezing) It was a bit bad with both before I drove to the hospital but rather calm now in the evening.

     

Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is her 18th birthday :-)

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18 and still going strong 🙂

So this little lady moved here around 16,5 years ago. An animal rescue organisation called me one day, not especially long after I had had to say goodbye to my “little” girl Erna (she was in the same size as Alma is but the smallest in the pack 🙂 🙂 ) They asked me if she could come to me because the previous older owner had been hit by cancer. The organisation knew me because they got all the cut flowers that still was pretty but too old to be sold and they used those flowers to decorate old pet graves where the owners perhaps no longer were with us, this was back in the days when I had a Garden center. 

I took some photos on my way to work this morning.

   

I really didn’t feel like it, it was too early after old Erna but they sent me a photo and Nova looked just like old Erna but half the size so how could I say no 🙂 🙂 Nova’s first year consisted mostly of abuse and starvation and living in a dark cellar all the time. After they had rescued her she then went to the older couple who really built her up to an amazing dog but to be honest a completely brat 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just as it should be after a start like that. So it took a while but the big and older dogs soon taught her to behave 🙂 🙂 🙂 

     

She had this idea that hares are animals that should be eradicated from the surface of this planet so, since my dogs back then always walked without a leash, if I missed a hare out in the fields but she didn’t she always ran after them in high speed. Hares are smart though so she never caught any and I never had to worry about her getting lost because she either came back to me or back to the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂 One day, when I had to have her on leash she saw a hare and ran after it, she didn’t come far and almost broke my wrist. That was the only time I’ve ever scolded her in her life and I must admit that when I scold I’m not quiet 🙂 🙂 After that she stopped caring about hares and I have always trusted her after that.

     

She’s had a 5 cm (2 inches) long tumor removed that grew between her right ear and eye so the eye was saved but her ear had to be closed, chronic ear infections, one vet said her ears were built to be infected, she has no cruciate ligament in her left knee but a cheap orthosis and duct tape keeps it together, so good actually that the vet was amazed and said I don’t know how You do it but continue with what ever it is 🙂 🙂 and she also has cancer but a “kind” one that mostly behaves like a fatty lump. It does spread bout so slowly that she won’t have any problems with it for as long as she has left. Then again she doesn’t seem to slow down especially much so who knows how log she’ll stay after all 🙂 🙂

     

With age she has become really fuzzy with what she will eat, can’t blame her 🙂 So at the moment she only eats boiled chicken and rice but allows me to also put in some of the dog food the other ton eat as well, not too much though because then she’ll refuse to eat anything 🙂 🙂 🙂 She also always wait to start to eat her food until she sees the two other is almost finished with theirs, she knows they aren’t allowed to touch her food (I stay close though because both Malkolm and Alma wouldn’t hesitate to push her away and eat her food themselves). She also takes her time to eat it and the other two stays close drooling until she’s had enough 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

She has never been a cuddly dog so the few times she has lately I’ve had a hard time sleeping because I always fear that that’s her good bye 🙂 🙂 🙂  So today they’ve all had some grilled chicken and they will all also have some extra treats (she will of course get more than the others but it can’t be shown, my life is really tricky 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

 

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Seed pods from a day lily.

Nothing much has happened here these last days. We’ve had some rain and we’ve had some sunshine and that’s it. I am working with the same things as always and will continue to do so until the day I’m leaving, on Friday the 13th 🙂 🙂 🙂 Friday the 13th has always been a lucky day in my family so if that means anything that’ll be the day something is going to happen 🙂 🙂

Creeping bellflower.

 

Jerusalem artichoke.

Alma has been unusually challenging when we’re out walking, I guess it is because she’s at the end of her being in heat. Today I finally had a witness to how she can be on our walks, the beekeeper walked with us for a short while, as he said: It seems she’s full of, well something 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m still confused to how a dog can be so different on walks towards how she is here at home. She’s an angel here at home (ok she do steal food from us all and can reach everywhere to do so -) 🙂 ) but more like an insane demon while we’re out on our walks 🙂 🙂 🙂 The longest I’ve ever seen her concentrate on anything is twenty seconds, yes I count the seconds every time she actually finds anything interesting 🙂 after that she’s all over the place again. Here at home she’s calm, does what I ask of her andlooks after old Nova so that she’s ok, a totally different dog. I’m sure she has dog adhd 🙂 🙂

   

This apple isn’t what You would call a crab apple, instead it’s a species of apple, Malus sylvestris, that we call Wild apple. Barely edible because it’s so sour but it pollinates all other apple varieties and works amazingly well to make a delicious jelly from.

Well I guess it’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and then fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂

   

I tried the first apple from my seed sown apple tree, not quite ripe yet but oh so delicious! So anyone who tells You that seed sown apple trees only give sour and bitter apples really don’t know what they are talking about!

Have a great day!

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We were supposed to have lots of rain today and we certainly have had lots of it. A more constant rain in the early morning but more heavy showers for the rest of the day. We have also had lots of sunshine but being outside was a bit troublesome since one never could see when the showers arrived 🙂

If this tree had fallen in the wrong direction my neighbors cars would have been hit. It fell towards the dog yard but didn’t reach it from what I could see.

 

The crab apples in the forest are slowly turning red. These taste really nice but have a slightly bitter after taste.

We did manage to have a morning walk in the forest though, no hunters would willingly go out just to get caught in rain over and over again 🙂 Strong winds during the night and I woke up by a loud crack while the rian hit my cottage. I didn’t think much of it to be honest but when I noticed that a huge tree beside the dog yard had broken and half the tree now was lying on the ground I thought it was that I had heard. Turns out that I was wrong, the tree had broken the day before when the storm passed by, what I had heard was the lightning hit nearby. Turns out I had several lightning warnings on my phone that I hadn’t noticed 🙂

     

I couldn’t see any damages in the forest though. I did see lots of mosquitoes, they were all over us but it looks like the fly season has ended. More flies will come and those are Moose flies, nasty little monsters to be honest, almost impossible to kill and they do have a nasty bite even though they rarely do bite.  If we’re lucky last winter killed lots of the larvae plus it has been so wet that lots of the larvae who lives in the ground and pupae have drowned this year. We have had fewer ticks this year because of the weather so I do hope it’s the same with the moose flies.

     

I’ve done my chores today and we’ve also had our pancakes, this time I had my home made strawberry jam 🙂 There was almost nothing left of the cherry jam. After that we had a long nap, at least two hours. I did wake up every now and again because the back wasn’t happy when I tried to move 🙂 I haven’t made dinner for the entire week at work though, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to eat so I just took what I had in the fridge and that will last for two days, better than nothing 🙂

     

It is time for a cup of coffee I think, normally I only drink tea but sometimes one feel that need of an extra kick from caffeine 🙂 I can’t say that the long nap helped to make me feel more energetic so I doubt some coffee will keep me up all night 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally Friday!

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Finally Friday 🙂 I was so tired yesterday so I just didn’t have any energy to do anything else than to half sleep in my recliner. Today has been much cooler again and the day started with some rain and it felt so nice. The sun did break through just before I came home after work but it has still felt cool and nice.

     

The Deer buck hunting season has started and the hunters will be out there on and off for a while, after that it’ll calm again until the moose hunt starts. They had already went home when I came home so we could have a nice walk in the cool forest. A wind blew slightly and most flies kept their distance to us. I thought Nova had a less good day today but she was just grumpy for having to walk in the sunshine at the beginning of our walk.

     

So she dragged her feet but as soon as we entered the forest she walked pretty quickly 🙂 She can’t hear much and she hasn’t the best of eyesight now days but I didn’t think much of it when she started to walk behind us, so many things to smell at. Suddenly I couldn’t find her behind us, so we walked back quite a distance. She had walked straight in to a semi big fallen spruce and couldn’t find her way out again 🙂

     

It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and I’ll most likely have some ice cream too, I could of course have some Greek yogurt with some of my home made cherry jam, all these choices we have to make 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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Two cranes passed over us on their way to the bigger lake.

Today has been really nice, sunshine all day, 20C (68F) and a rather strong wind that dried up most of the grass, tomorrow I’ll mow the lawn because it will be exactly the same weather, at least that is what they are guessing 🙂 So no blog will be written.

     

WE walked out to the bog early this morning. I could hear both cranes and geese flying by. This time of year they fly between the two lakes, the one in the bog and the one I pass every time I go to work, every morning and every evening. I have no idea why they do that though. I know there are more fish and vegetation in the the I drive by but perhaps it’s safer for them to overnight in the bog lake?

     

We met  Roe deer doe and her kit on our way out and they are now so used to us and Alma slightly insane behavior that they don’t care about us 🙂 They stood in front of us just looking at us, the youngling scratched its leg and then they slowly walked in to the forest. I had hoped that we would see more animals today when we reached the end of the peninsula but I couldn’t see anything. The dogs didn’t mind us walking away from there so I guess there might have been a moose, wild hogs or perhaps even a wolf even though I doubt that last one would be there, the roe deer were just to relaxed. It was most likely a moose, the dogs really don’t like them.

     

I’ve done all my chores, it’s fun I’ve had all week to do them but still wait until the last minute 🙂 I have even harvested some potatoes, You know the ones I planted in two different pots. I found everything from thumb nail small to one really big and these will last for the rest of the week. Next week I’ll check some of those that survived the winter. I forgot to bring in some peas, chard and squash though, I don’t think I’ve ever had this many peas before, still no beans though.

     

I also checked the English walnut. I suspected that it had died and was sort of right 🙂 The variety that once was grafted on the roots of what I guess is a seed sown walnut had died but instead I now have two stems growing up from the root! Just as it is with the Persimmon I bought last year but from those roots I have lots of new stems, they grow slow though. I think I’ll cover those with either grass or leafs when winter is approaching. Now when the warm weather finally came after our vacations things really started to grow, with a bit of luck I might actually have the chance to see the seed sown dahlias flower 🙂 🙂 and I’m sure I’ll see that self sown sunflower open up soon 🙂

This is to be honest an impossible photo because it’s impossible to actually see what it is 🙂 It shows the two new stems on my English walnut. Well You can at least see the leafs, it is the dead trunk that still is standing there. I think I’ll use that as a support during winter and then remove it.

The Wisteria started to grow really well but then it stopped. The canopy above was so dense that almost no rain water reached the ground, it was the same where the Pawpaws grow. So I’ve started to remove branches so that both water and sunshine can reach the ground.

The Hardy Fuchsia likes to get more light. I’ll cover it over winter with lots of leafs and grass.

The Troll grapes has been opened by the birds so now the seeds can be seen.

My seed sown Pawpaws. They are a bit slow because they did start to grow very late in the autumn, then started their winter rest just when spring started here. I hope they have adjust to how it really is already next year.

Today they actually show some tv programs I want to see, on the knowledge channel of course so after this I’ll make myself a cup of tea and most likely doze off in front of the tv 🙂

     

Have a great day!

The rebellious stage has begun.

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Mostly cloudy today but really nice. Just warm enough and no wind. The no wind did make the flies too happy but only while we were walking in the forest, here at home they mostly kept away. So I could walk around watering the plants that need extra attention without going crazy 🙂

     

Today I scolded Malkolm for the first time, three times actually 🙂 🙂 He has now gotten the idea to pull out my potted plants and then start to chew on them. He’s getting his real teeth now so I guess it itches something awful in his mouth right now. I caught him in action so I thought that it would stop after the first time but oh no, he tried again 🙂 He really look miserable after scolding him and refused to go inside after the first time, no such behavior the other times though, he almost looked proud instead 🙂 🙂 I think the time of rebellion has started 🙂 🙂

     

Otherwise I’ve mostly listened to the radio and the Olympics and I’ve also napped so I’ve only missed to nap twice during my vacation, always feel nice when I can keep a promise to myself to almost 100% 🙂 🙂 They warned about showers passing by but so far nothing has fallen here. They’re guessing that we will get rain tomorrow as well but the amount and when keeps changing all the time. I won’t mind if it will rain the entire day, sort of fitting since I’ll go back to work on Monday 🙂 🙂

Nova has had a bad day today. The walk was tough for her so I let her off the leash so that she could walk in her own pace. I haven’t noticed any signs of wolves in the area so I’ll do the same tomorrow.

   

My cold has come back, yay. I don’t have any fever but my throat is sour and my nose is runny. Summer colds are the best 🙂 🙂 They stay long and close as an old friend 🙂 🙂 So now I’ll have a cup of tea with lots of ginger in it and hope that will stop the cold from going worse.

These are the Guava seedlings, they haven’t grown much in the cold weather we’ve had but look really healthy.

Here are the Apricots, I have one more but I test planted it amongst the Siberian nepeta. It doesn’t look happy because the nepeta is too invasive.

My two peach seedlings. The one to the right was the first tree Malkolm decided to chew on 🙂

My strawberry plants are thriving now, I’ll get plenty of strawberries if the warm weather continues for a while.

Have a great day!

I’ve found two small squashes beneath the leafs, perfect size to have in the dinner.

He doesn’t look too guilty after chewing on my plants 🙂 🙂

If I’ve learned something today it’s that it is always best to be patient :-)

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I managed to take two photos of the morning mist from the window upstairs.

Much the same nice weather today as yesterday but with stronger wind so the flies kept calm even in the forest. There was morning mist left when I woke up but it was all gone by the time we went out on our morning walk. We might have a chance of morning mist at least tomorrow and possibly on Saturday but they’re guessing it will rain on Sunday.

     

I went to the hospital to get my new shoes and insoles today but first I had to drive in the opposite direction to get a package in Gudhem. I had had a pot of tea before I drove away and I also bought a soda in the grocery store. By the time I came to the hospital I started to feel the need to find a toilet but every time I went there it was occupied so I thought to myself that it wouldn’t take that long to get to the village where I work to find a toilet I could use.

     

I didn’t think of all the harvesters on the road now so it took much longer than I thought it would, so suddenly I felt rather desperate. No one at work today but I have the keys and the security code for the alarm. Then I had this genius idea to loosen the belt because it pressed towards the stomach. I want to teach You one thing while I’m on this little planet of ours, never do that!!! It was like opening a dam. Well I almost made it to work when I finally couldn’t hold it any more 🙂 🙂 🙂 I rushed in to a little wooded area beside the factory 🙂 It wasn’t that horrible because when the pressure became less I could hold it in but I still had to go inside the factory to clean up both me and my clothes 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

So have I learned something today? Yes never drink too much before going somewhere, be patient and wait so I can use the toilet where I am and I’m not young any more because if this had happened when I was in my twenties I would never have shared that with anyone 🙂 🙂 🙂  Besides this very little has happened today, I did however get a bag of plums from my neighbors. At first I thought I would make jam from them but then I tasted one and now I have no left, tomorrow will be a day spent not far from the bathroom I think 🙂

Finally! One of the Texas lupines that looks like it is supposed to, all the other ones has had just a few flosers at most except one that only had one flower. So I’ll make sure to save the seeds from this one and hope that the seedlings will turn out as its parent.

I’ve always believed that all strawberries were spring flowers, my starts now 🙂

 

Nova has finally gotten her appetite back and today she even spent some time with the rest of us in the garden 🙂

I think I’ll skip the tea tonight 🙂 but I think I’ll have some yogurt or quark with vanilla taste, it’ almost as good as ice cream to be honest and since I’ve eaten the last ice cream and the ice cream lorry doesn’t come here until next Wednesday I’ll have the quark 🙂

Have a great day!

Nice day and bread baking.

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I always take test photo before we walk away and today this was the one.

 

I’m baking bread, well not yet it’s still rising and will do so for an hour more.  Most of the gluten free recipes seems to be for tiny breads that’ll last for a day or so. A bit annoying because they won’t go bad so quickly, so I tend to double it all. I never have the right ingredients either so I just take what I have. In this recipe I should have had potato flour and brown rice flour, I had neither. So instead I had normal rice flour, oatmeal flour and since I didn’t have enough with rice flour I also put in Sorghum and buckwheat flour 🙂 🙂  They all react very different so one never really knows what the dough will be like 🙂

     

I was mixing it all and it behaved like concrete, that’s when I remembered that I hadn’t doubled the amount of water, slightly stressed I poured in cold water and less of what i should have, really glad that I didn’t take all the water I was supposed to because if I had done I would have been able to pour it in baking tin and this one isn’t supposed to be poured 🙂 For some reason they always want the dough to rise in a separate bucket and when it is ready one should just place it in the baking tin. Why? One isn’t supposed to do anything with it after it has risen. So I just put it in the baking tin from the beginning so there isn’t any risk that I press out the air in the bread while doing something unnecessary.

     

We walked out to the bog this morning and the flies were quite nasty. They behaved like we might have thunder but there were no signs of that. Turns out that there has been thunder but it has been everywhere around us but not here. I got warnings on the lightning app all day long but here the sun has been shining the entire time.  I can’t say I’ve done a lot today, mostly listening to the radio and the Olympics. Had a short nap but was woken up by a text message and couldn’t fall back to sleep. I have also planted some perennials, Six Coneflowers (Echinacea). I put them in the old vegetable patch where I was hoping our meadow flowers would like to live but only a few showed up 🙂 They’ll look amazing next year. Since they grew in a pot I’ll need to water them every day because since their roots isn’t attached to the soil yet the old soil in the pot will dry up much faster than the ground surrounding them. I’ll have to keep an eye on them until late autumn even if it will rain a lot. It’s the same with trees and bushes, they need lots pf extra water the first year.

     

I just took a look at the bread and it is rising a bit too good 🙂 🙂 Looks like it will over flow the baking tin 🙂 🙂 smells really good though!

     

It is time to go down and put that bread in the oven and I’ll also have a last cup of tea for the day. I might go to the grocery store tomorrow but the one thing I need to do is to mow the lawn, I might wait another day to mow the parts outside my garden, after all I’m still on vacation 🙂

This one is from yesterday, the dogs have mostly been close to me all day so it was a bit difficult to get a good photo 🙂

 

Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nothing much has happened here in the village since Sunday, just as I like it to be. We’ve had our walks, no morning walk today because I had to go to the town Lidköping. I have needed new insoles for my shoes and since they are custom made for my feet I had to go to the hospital to have them make new ones.

   

The Troll grapes are slowly but steadily getting that deep blood red color I like so much. Seems to be pretty unusual, most becomes just bright red.

Back in the days one had to stand in some kind of clay? so they could make molds so they could make those insoles. Now days they just scan the feet and viola the machine makes new ones. Especially my right foot had changed quite a lot and is now rather flat. While I was there I also had a look on their shoes and they picked out two that would fit my feet much better than the ones I can buy in the stores. Even though both looked like some kind of running shoes one of them, looked like old people shoes 🙂 🙂 🙂 I know I’m getting old but I don’t have to advertise it 🙂 🙂 It was quite wide and the soles were not flat to the ground but instead sort of bent upwards at the front.

None of the dogs saw him and he didn’t see them because of a few dense and low pines. We looked at each other for a while and then he trotted away.

 

The other shoe was perhaps the same with the bending of the sole but not as wide and looked more like a “normal” shoe. Plus they are black and less visible to the world 🙂 and more expensive. The insoles are for free because I really need them but I’ll have to pay for the shoes (ok not as expensive as they really are but still) aren’t necessary for me to be pain-free. It’ll take a week to make those insoles so I’ll go to the hospital again on August first. Next time I’ll bring a camera because Lidköping is a really nice and beautiful town and is places at the shore of our biggest lake, Vänern. It is the third biggest natural lake in Europe. I live just as close to our next biggest lake here in Sweden to to the opposite side, Vättern. It’s Europe’s sixth biggest natural lake.

   

Many years ago the politicians in that township did some smart financial decisions so it’s a well of town where everything is nasty expensive and even the rough areas looks like people living there are quite wealthy 🙂 🙂

     

WE went out for our first walk as soon as I had come home again, I had stopped in Skara to buy soil at a sort of Garden center. I write sort of because they have no space outdoors to grow anything but lots of what You would find in a garden center indoors. They had lots of trees and bushes on sale but I actually resisted to but a Magnolia stellata and lots of carnivore plants to have in the big pot outside 🙂 I must have to admit that if they had had a magnolia seiboldii I might have fallen and bought it 🙂 🙂 I’ll spend money on Thursday instead, I’m going to a pet store that still sell aquarium fish. It is getting pretty rare over here now days, from what I’ve heard they have new rules that acquires them to take training courses to get a license to sell aquarium fish and from what I’ve heard it’s bl…y expensive. Also it isn’t allowed to sell cats or dogs in pet stores, don’t think it never have been allowed to since they opened up pet stores.

Kirengeshoma koreana.

Hardy fuchsia.

Chinese catalpa.

This is a common weed around here, easy to keep in control though so I have a lot in my garden. The flowers are quite small but just look how beautiful they are. I sometimes wonder why they don’t try to get them to grow bigger flowers so it fits the flower beds instead of always use the same flowers for our gardens ?

Any way I’ll try to remember to bring a camera then. Well it is time to stop writing, have a cup of tea or two and later watch Midsommer Murders, I really like that series and it took me quite some time to understand that Midsommer is a huge fictional county, not a small town as I thought 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

Have a great day!

There are places that need water, so why does all of it fall here?

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Now I know how effective that anti tick spray is, it is very much so. It had been raining all morning and I thought that since Malkolm would be so wet while walking around most of it would drop off pretty fast so I skipped it since he actually hate that smell. It’s a long time since I’ve picked so many ticks of any of the dogs who has lived here. Nova was the only one that didn’t have any and I guess it is because she walked after us all  after we just had walked there, so no more walks without it, no matter how awful it smells 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

My shoes hadn’t dried at all since yesterday so today I had to wear my winter boots 🙂 🙂 They are light brown but by the time we came home all the water had made them dark brown 🙂 My feet were dry though so 🙂 I placed my shoes towards the south heading wall and even after a day with at least some sunshine they still aren’t dry. I guess it doesn’t help when the humidity stays at 100% or just below 🙂 There will be even more rain tomorrow and much of the week. There are places on this planet that desperately need rain so why does it all have to fall here 🙂

Lots of Rowan berries this year, perhaps I should make some yelly or ade when it is time. They need a couple of frost nights to become less tart and then putting some honey in it will make them rather yummy 🙂

This is a rather unusual flower, it is a parasite and has no chlorophyll of its own. The Swedish name for it would be Pine wort in English.

I haven’t done much today, I was going to bake some bread but then I found two packages with hard bread I had forgotten so I skipped the baking 🙂 We did have our nap, I realized we napped for almost two hours but I can already say that it will not keep me awake after the usual bet time 🙂 Oh I forgot I also now potted some of the Quince seedlings. I must admit that I mostly had forgotten about them, so some have grown in a 90 degree angle, I’ll need to find some sticks so I can direct them in the right position again 🙂 Two more Giant Sequoia seeds have germinated as well but unfortunately none of the Dawn redwood seeds. Well they might need one more winter before they wake up, they do look ok when I check if they still exists.

Lots of lingonberries this year.

This one is rather delicious and it looks like it has a thick layer of clear coat put on it. It’s actually a thick layer of slime that protects it from pests, easily removed though and I usually pick lots of it.

It is time to go and look at at least the beginning of which team will be the European champions in football (soccer) England or Spain. I always hope for England but they have a tendency to never win when it really matters 🙂

I’ll get at least two pink poppies this year and if You look at the top of the photo You can see the leafs from the Californian poppy, no summer here without it 🙂

I wonder if he will continue to have that quilted fur in his neck when he gets older?

   

Have a great day!