Category: The bog.

T-shirt weather.

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.

Have a great day!

It has been a meh day weather-wise. The sun didn’t show itself until now when it is about to set for the day. Ok it has been around 10C (50F) all from morning to now so at least there was no need for any radiator to be working.

Malkolm is now refusing to eat anything in the morning but after a walk there’s no problem what so ever to give him the exact same food from my hand 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess this has to do with the chemical neutering slowly is giving up, he’s also normally a sensitive dog but at the moment he’s even more so, so if I sound the least annoyed he looks like the world is ending 🙂 poor guy. No problem what so ever to eat his food in the afternoons though.

I’ve removed the fence around the vegetable garden now and it looks quite funny with a circle with no vegetation (well there are my tiny leeks, they never grew to anything really since I mistreated them from the start but I can say they taste really good) and a sort of border with higher grass growing around it 🙂 🙂 I’ll take a photo of it tomorrow. I also moved the chrysanthemums I had planted outside the fence to new and hopefully better places for them climate-wise. They aren’t as hardy as autumn asters are.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. The sun is down and I can see ground fog slowly flowing out in the pasture I can see from my window here by the computer. They say we’ll have fog again tomorrow and I hope it stay for longer than it did this morning.

Have a great day!

It would be a lie to say it was warm today.

Well to say that we had a warm day here would be to lie 🙂 the temperature barely reach above 10C (50F) but the sun was shining almost all day and it did feel really nice when being in it. The long side of my cottage is heading south so I could have the kitchen door open for a big part of the day anyway.

No hunters in the forest but lots of moose flies but since it was as chilly as it was they were easy to remove and kill. Wild hogs had left just before we arrived at the bog so that could be the reason we had so many moose flies. Lots of birds tweeting and we did see a roe deer out in the fields.

I’ve decided to not use the fenced vegetable garden next year, I did fence it because back then old Albin still was around and he loved to dig up and eat vegetables 🙂 🙂 especially garlic and he also tried to eat onions 🙂 🙂 🙂 and since he not is around any longer I might just as well remove that fence and start growing the vegetables around the greenhouse instead. Also since I have two different potato diseases in that soil (nothing deadly for either the potato or me, common scab and powdery scab) I’ll only grow potatoes in buckets or big pots.

I also dug up a lot of Ball thistles, the few Hostas I have and a peony. I wasn’t sure if I would touch the peony but it was much bigger under the surface than I thought it would be so by mistake I managed to cut it in two pieces. All but the ball thistles are now replanted, the thistles I just tossed in a corner of the garden because they tend to survive no matter what one does to them 🙂 🙂 🙂

Every time I’ve been going down the stairs to the cool cellar both Alma and Malkolm has been standing outside the open door whining and refusing to follow me down. Old Love followed me despite that her first year in life was being starved and tortured in a cellar. Alma and Malkolm just continued to refuse 🙂 Malkolm could follow me three steps but then turning back while Alma refused to do even that. That was until Malkolm one day realised that he would get a treat if he came further down 🙂 Still he could walk almost all steps down but never step on the floor. When Alma understood that treats were involved things started to change 🙂 🙂 🙂

Today she ran all the way down to the floor and when she got a treat I could see how proud she was. Malkolm was still a bit anxious but a piece of cheese made him change his mind 🙂 🙂 Now they almost run down the stairs before me and expects me to give them a treat 🙂 Their eyes grow big and tail wagging 🙂 🙂 Perhaps it was better before after all 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea and today I’ll have crackers with blue cheese on 🙂

The flowerbed just beside the vegetable patch, I removed half of it because there were too many wild raspberries growing in it plus that, if I ever come around to that project I’m thinking of I will need that space.
I’ll have the vegetables growing close to the greenhouse instead. I do have two roses though that will be staying where they are. This one on this side
and this one on the other side. This rose have been growing in this garden for very long, perhaps already from the beginning 115 years ago. Has been moved around though so that’s why it is as small as it is.

Have a great day!

Now I’m waiting for the storm to arrive.

Sunny and nice morning again today but after that a chilly wind has arrived and I guess it’s the same we’ll have tomorrow but then with storm strength in the gusts. I’ve now done what I can to secure it with 12 new tent pegs for green houses and a few other things. I’ve blocked the door with an old broken golf club 🙂 No I’ve never played golf but I once bought a golf bag on an auction just in case I ever would be insane enough to start playing golf 🙂 🙂 🙂

There was some morning mist when we went out on our morning walk but we walked out to the bog and this time no fog had hidden in there 🙂 We might have had a wolf nearby because both dogs seemed to be uncomfortable being out there. Could also have been moose since the dogs don’t like them either.  Animals were moving around in the forest but by the sound of it I think that mostly were deer or wild hogs.

I also drove to the grocery store today, normally I would have waited until tomorrow but driving around in a storm on top of a mountain is never a good idea 🙂 🙂 It was unusually calm in the town, Falköping on Fridays are usually chaotic when it comes to traffic. It’s just a tiny town but the traffic is just as bad as it is in a big city 🙂 🙂  Also very few seems to know any of the traffic rules we have in this country so no matter how well one drives there’s always a lot of honking from other car drivers 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today there wasn’t any traffic at all so I could just as well have backed the car all the way in the village and no one would have noticed 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time to make a pot of tea and I’ll have some ice cream at the same time. The strong winds will arrive some time in the early morning and will be as worst at around 9 am till 2 pm so I’ll be glued to the windows until it starts to calm down. We might also have up to 50 mm (two inches) of rain falling so cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck and that the green house doesn’t fly away 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

This is one of the storm anchors on the outside.
Twelve new pegs on the inside all pointing att different directions. I should have bought 24 because there are a lots of holes on the side that won’t be hit by the wind.
I also put some support on the outside but doubt that will help much.
And the golf club outside the door 🙂 🙂

Today is slightly less painful so we went out on our morning walk out to the bog this time. A bit chilly but the sun shone and no winds blowing so it was quite pleasant and even Alma stayed really calm for once. We could hear animals walking away from us and as always some Jays screaming in the trees 🙂 It’s not for nothing that their Swedish name is nut screamer 🙂 🙂

We even saw some morning mist in the distance but today there was none in the forest. As soon as we came back home I went to the supermarket to get what I written down on my note plus a few things I realised I would need sooner or later, like a ring spanner set. Since I can’t find what I actually have when it comes to tools I thought I better start all over again 🙂 🙂

So the first thing I did after coming home was to tighten all the nuts with the right ring spanner and it was really needed. I had used a wrench trying to tighten them but it really was too big so some of those nuts were way too loose and would most likely have vibrated enough to fall off if the wind would become strong 🙂 🙂 After that I’ve done very little, had lots of coffee, eaten a SmÃ¥ländsk cheesecake (a bit different than the American cheesecake) with strawberry jam 🙂 and we’ve also had a long nap because the weather isn’t that nice any longer.

The wind is cold and the sunshine is gone, it’s actually cold enough for me to have to start a couple of radiators now. Thankfully they’re guessing that we’ll have sunshine all day tomorrow and even if the temperature won’t rise especially much the sun will warm up the cottage and it will be nice to stay outdoors as well. Sunshine can really make a big difference, especially here since I sort of live in a pit where the air warms up much. It also makes it colder at night since all the cold air sort of flows down to my garden and stays there during winter 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for a pot of tea and after that it’s time to feed the animals.

Have a great day!

The next project.

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 🙂

My little project.

It has been a rather wonderful day, frost again this morning but without morning mist. I was a bit disappointed about that but we did have sunshine all day long and once again it went from cold to almost Scandinavian summer temperatures 🙂

So sweater in the morning but after I had been to the grocery store in Falköping I switched to t-shirt. I have around one gazillion of flies in the grass now, I think it might be that they need water, because the grass stays wet for quite some time plus the fact the ground is fairly warm all day. These flies aren’t annoying in any way, they really don’t want to be close to neither me or my dogs but as soon as we get too close they fly up in the air and the sound from them is amazing 🙂 🙂 This is so to speak their final show so I don’t care about them.

So I started this project yesterday. I was walking around in the garden and saw an old plastic pot I’ve dug down in to the ground. I had done that because I wanted black berries in the garden but in just one place. So the pot was there to keep the roots in one place. The thing is that the blackberry bushes slowly and steadily became smaller for each year until they were no more and for some reason I just didn’t remove the pot. So I looked at the pot, rather big to be honest and wondered what to do with it. I must have brought it with me when I closed my garden center. It’s around 120 litres (31,7 gallon US) and then I looked at some rubber sheet I still had after the voles destroyed my pond. So why not make a little pond from that instead of the readymade little pond I was wondering if I could repair?

There are sharp edges at the bottom so those must be covered with something. I found some old towels I never use and placed them around the sharp edges.

So I dug out all the soil that filled the pot witch made my morning a bit hellish because I apparently have muscles I don’t know of 🙂 🙂 I actually tried to lift the pot up from the ground but it was just impossible. So I brought the rubber sheet and started to preparing the surface around the pot. It isn’t easy to try and force down a rubber sheet in a rather small space and one has to forget a big rule when making a pot, the rubber shouldn’t be folded but absolutely smooth around the edges. That works well if one actually is making a big pond but not when forcing it down in to a fairly small space 🙂 🙂 🙂 Before that though I had dug a sort of moat around the pot, that will be the future swamp zone. That’s where plants that loves to grow in swampy areas but not below the water surface can live.

Malkolm kept an eye once so I wouldn’t mess it up too much 🙂

Here You can see the moat properly. I’ll have to adjust it next spring because winter tends to make the ground settle in new ways 🙂
So this is what it looks like now. There is some water in it so I’ll have to check it for frogs and toads every morning plus the eventual other animal that might be in it.

When I had done my best to adjust the rubber sheet to it all (the easiest way to get the sheet down to the bottom of the little pond is to just start filling it with water) with lots of folds everywhere 🙂 🙂 🙂 I started to cut off the unnecessary parts of the sheet. That is of course best to do with a carpenter knife, preferable the ones with a razor blade in it. Or if You like me can’t find it one can use that bl…y expensive bread knife that is completely useless except for it is so sharp it’s possible to cut down a tree with it. After that just start to cover the rubber sheet that is outside of what it is supposed to be with soil. This one will be empty until next spring so I just poured out those wood chips I had after the compost grinder. It is a good thing to use a water measure so that it’s even, otherwise there will be problems if it rains too much.

So that’s what I’ve been doing today and the problem is that it really made me start to think about making a big pond again, too pricy to do that at the moment so this little one will have to do. This one will be big enough for three or four gold fish, they will eat any mosquito larvae or other fly larvae who will try and grow up there 🙂 This one is not deep enough to keep them alive during winter so I’ll see what I need to do before then. Well it is time for that last cup of tea and since there’s absolutely nothing I want to watch on tv it might be an early night, I’ll just have to check for badgers in the garden before I let the dogs out 🙂

Have a great day!

Frosty night.

It smell a bit of burning dust at the moment, I had to start two radiators today because we had frost and -2C (28,4F) when we woke up this morning and it never became warmer than 13C (5534F) during the day. We’ve had lots of sunshine though so during the day it almost was too warm indoors. The kitchen door has been open until the sun moved over to the other side of the cottage.

So a bit chilly when we went out on our morning walk, not as much frost as I thought we would have but fly free so I forgave nature 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma walked really well today but instead she want back to that high pitched whining she’s so good at and after four years that sound cuts in to the brain like a dull knife creating a pain I just can’t stand. I doubt that she’s a fan of nature at all. She is getting better though but I really can’t stand that sound any more.

We went out to the bog and since it was as chilly as it was not a fly moved so I could pick the mushrooms without constantly make sure any of those nasty moose flies were crawling around on my head or elsewhere as well of course. I only picked the mushrooms I could find on the forest road so I’m pretty sure that if we had taken one step in between the trees I would have found plenty more. I think we might walk there again tomorrow if it is chilly enough and take that extra step and no moose flies can fly around and find us 🙂 🙂

I mowed the lawn when we had come home, the grass was still a bit wet but it didn’t clog inside the mower. Can one hope that this was the last time I had to do it for this season? After that I brought out the compost grinder or wood chipper as I like to call it. I had all these thorny branches from the wild plum to take care of plus a lot from the other plum tree and the apple tree. I actually also have lots of grape vines. The grape vine almost never gave any grapes and to be honest, grapes are really just weeds to be honest and grows like crazy 🙂 🙂 So I tried to entangle all the vines but that’s an impossible job so I’ll do them another time.

I wasn’t done until rather late, around 3 pm, so after that I haven’t been doing anything to be honest 🙂 I have had coffee and also tea but can say I’m just as tired as if the caffeine had run out of what ever it is that livens one up 🙂 🙂 🙂 The cows in the pasture on the other side of the gravel road outside my cottage has been rather loud from yesterday afternoon and still is,  I think they removed their calfs and it’s heartbreaking to hear them call for their babies.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have a bowl with ice cream at the same time. Elsbeth is on tonight so I’ll need to go outside to check for badgers in the garden before letting the dogs outside so I can watch tv without having to do that during the program 🙂 🙂

The pawpaws grow in the most protected place I have in the garden and the frost had not reached them at all, not even the smaller ones were touched by it.
The tomato plants were protected and only the tops were slightly hit but the unripe fruits are still fine 🙂

Have a great day!

Frost tonight?

I have been a little bit stressed today, suddenly the entire internet connection died. I called my phone and internet company and the AI voice said I needed to identify myself with my bank Id, well can’t do that when the internet is gone 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway I was told someone would call me when it was my turn and there were a lot of people before me. Well everything suddenly started to work again so I guess that all those before me in line had the same problem. The Russians? have targeted our telephone/internet companies quite often lately so I guess it was the same again.

It was rather chilly last night, 4C (39,2F) when we woke up. But it might have been even colder in the garden because some plants looked rather sad today. Good thing though is that not even the moose flies fly around in those temperatures 🙂 As soon as we had come home again I drove to the grocery store in the village I used to work. After all I’ve been shopping there since the day I moved to this region and only because I moved elsewhere and don’t work there any more doesn’t mean I never would go there again 🙂 They are like old friends at that place and that’s more important than going somewhere closer or cheaper 🙂

I came back so early that we managed to squeeze in a second morning walk 🙂 This time out to the bog and I kept my eyes open for mushrooms and found plenty so we’ll head out there tomorrow morning again 🙂 It was still chilly enough to keep the moose flies calm 🙂 I’m not sure if there are especially many of them out there to be honest but one moose fly is way too many anyway. The wild hogs had dug up big parts of the path to the bog, it seems it doesn’t matter how many they hunt because it just takes a few days and then they’re back again. Well as long as they stay calm I’m happy.

I had planned to wait to bring in the last potted plants to the cool cellar, they can usually manage the first frost night really well and even more after being outside all summer (totally different in spring when they are brought out again, then they can’t take any frost, that’s why mu citrus trees are rather small this year 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) but I noticed that some have new shoots and they looked a bit sad after tonight so I brought in almost everything I still have out there. I can’t however not bring in my tomato plants. So I’ve just been outside covering them. I want at least one ripe tomato before frost can take the rest 🙂 🙂 🙂

I made rice porridge yesterday and today I think it is time for rose-hip soup, perfect a chilly day or evening when it is a bit too chilly outside. So I think I’ll skip that last cup of tea and have rose-hip soup and some ice cream instead 🙂

I found this and the next one for sale at the grocery store, less than US 3$ each, so I bought them 🙂

Have a great day!

It will get colder they’re guessing.

Two nice days in a row, yesterday started out sunny and it wasn’t until pretty late in the afternoon the rain arrived, today started with deep dark clouds and rain but later in the afternoon the sun showed itself. From no on they’re guessing that we’ll have sunshine all day long for a couple of days but the temperature will drop rather a lot.

So today I started to bring down the smaller citrus trees and the hardy hibiscus I have outside plus one little tree called Date-plum (Diospyrus lotus, a Persimmon relative). I bought it late in the season since it was for sale and affordable so I felt it was too late to try and plant it since this is on the border to what it can take climate-wise. I do hope that if any mouse would go down there that it doesn’t like to eat the little tree 🙂 🙂 🙂 I know they don’t like any kind of citrus so those will be safe. Then again the monsterkitten is a great mouse hunter and so far I haven’t heard any mice running inside the walls 🙂

The dogs and I went out to the bog yesterday morning so I could pick the mushrooms I found. It looks like I now days am the only one picking mushrooms so I don’t have to worry about anyone else taking them before me 🙂 I fried them with butter until all water had evaporated from the frying pan and then I tossed them in the freezer. I think we’ll be taking that road again tomorrow 🙂 After we had come home I got the idea that I should preserve apples in sugar syrup. It is easy to be honest if one has the right kind of apple, I didn’t 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can however tell You that I might have made the best applesauce I’ve ever tasted 🙂 🙂

After I had drained off most of the sugar syrup I poured it down in to jars, so do anyone know what one could do with lots of rather good tasting sugar syrup 🙂 🙂 🙂 I also baked a big loaf of bread with lots of cheese in it (at the same time I did the laundry) and I must say it is really tasty 🙂 Since I did so so much yesterday I’ve done almost nothing today (except for bringing down those trees to the cellar) , not even napped. I did however since the morning was so dull make some rice porridge,. It’s really a winter porridge but it sort of fitted to the mood both I and the dogs had.

Still getting strawberries but they don’t taste especially much now.
I need to clean the table for some cacti I have but otherwise it looks pretty good. I also have a new led-light ramp beside the old plant light ramp.
Soon I’ll also place five bigger citrus trees here (not so big nowadays since that frost we had early in spring) and a tea tree.

The only thing I still need to do today is to go out to the garden before letting the dogs out for the last time today to make sure there’s no badger out there 🙂 🙂 I have to do that until it gets so cold at night so the badgers decides to just sleep until it’s nice outside again 🙂 I’m just about to have my last cup of tea for the day and perhaps I’ll have a sandwich or two as well. I don’t have much in the fridge but I’ll always have cheese and milk, so tomorrow I’ll have a trip to the grocery store again, So many colds going around at the moment so I’ll drive away as early as possible.

Have a great day!

I sort of miss those days.

I really like my birthday present I got from my eldest brother 🙂

A sort of meh weather today, mostly cloudy with the sun peeking through the clouds every now and again. It has been warm though so I really shouldn’t complain. Our morning walk was rather late today just because I hoped the sun would show itself more later in the day.

Instead I drove to the big grocery store in Falköping to get what I need for the weekend, nothing much really but cat food was a must 🙂  It’s not that I don’t have any at home but more because she demands the cheapest brand there is, for some reason she loves that wet food and who am I to complain that it is cheap 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had to stop at the grocery store in Gudhem on my way home because I had two parcels waiting to be picked up. The small one was a camera I’ve bought myself as a birthday present (Nikon D5200), nothing special with that camera more that I can turn the little screen at the back in almost any direction I want. So much easier to photograph something on the ground when I don’t have to lie down to get a nice photograph. I just turn have the camera close to the ground, turn the screen so that I can see what I’m photographing and take the photo 🙂

The blueberries are getting autumn colours.

The other parcel was more interesting, it was actually another camera that my eldest brother gave me as a birthday gift 🙂 It is the camera shown in the first photo 🙂 It is a TLR camera (for film) As You can see there are two lenses on the camera. The upper one is the one you look through and the lower one is the one taking the photo. A bit expensive as a gift but I would be an idiot if I didn’t accept it :-):-) 🙂 As You can see there’s also a second lens pair beside it and that’s a telephoto lens. not too common for these old cameras to have that. It weighs a ton so It is perhaps nothing one just hang over the shoulder when going out for a walk, the shoulder would be needed to be adjusted after that 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is a really nice mushroom to fry and perhaps make a stew. Or just fry them and put them on a sandwich with cheese and other things 🙂
This and the next ones are even better 🙂 I’ll think I’ll bring a bag so I can pick them all tomorrow on our morning walk 🙂
By the way, almost all photos today are taken with the “new” camera (I always buy second hand and when it is cheap 🙂 ). It takes a few days until we know each other well enough so I can get photos to look like I want them to look 🙂

It hasn’t rained today and the grass was surprisingly dry so after the walk I cut down those trunks from the plum trees, they really don’t look that big but they were so heavy that I almost wasn’t able to move them away 🙂 🙂 If I’ve been handy and known how to carve I would have had plenty to work with when they have dried up 🙂

I had to take this and the next photo through the kitchen door window so they look a bit off I’m afraid.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll also have an ice cream at the same time.There’s absolutely nothing to watch on tv tonight. I remember when I was a kid, You know back in the Stone Age, that Friday and Saturday night were family tv nights. When everyone in the family gathered in front of the tv, perhaps having sodas/coffee and something nice to eat. Not so any more and I sort of miss it even if it only be me and my dogs sitting there. The monster would perhaps join us but she would only sleep in the sofa anyway 🙂 🙂

I really hope we don’t get frost next week because this is the only squash (I think it is squash, have actually no idea because I used seeds I had saved from something I harvested years ago and can’t remember what it was, could be a pumpkin as well 🙂 🙂 ). The plants only gave male flowers until now.

Have a great day!

Thunder and rain.

The morning started out much the same as they have been lately, a bit chilly and sunny. We walked out to the bog even though the grass was pretty wet with dew. No ticks on us today but I had to kill quite a lot of moose flies instead. I had hoped it would be a bit too cool for those flies but unfortunately not.

I hadn’t planned to do much in the garden today, just watering the dry sensitive plants I’ve kept on watering all summer and those I’ve just planted but found a few dead branches in the big apple tree that I used the new saw to remove. I also trimmed the Golden rain, Laburnum, and then I got the idea to start cutting down the wild plum tree. Its branches are full with big thorns and I have been a bit worried that those would injure us badly if one of those branches hit us so I had to plan every branch I would cut down so it wouldn’t fall the wrong way.

It almost went as I had planned except for one big branch that fell down over the strawberries and rhubarbs. No big damage but it made me even more careful with the rest of the branches. I guess it was just before 1 pm and I only had the top left to cut off when the thunder and rain arrived. So at the moment I have a rather long and thin and very thorny tree standing there looking really sad 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll use the chain saw to remove the rest as soon as the grass dries up.

I also planted the last Perennials I had in pots, well I hope they were but one never knows what is hidden in the flowerbed close to the entrance because there are so many self sown flowers there now that they can be hiding some pots I’ve forgotten about 🙂 🙂 🙂  So now all I have to dig down are two pawpaw seedlings and two quince trees, I think I know where the pawpaws will go but still can’t figure out where I should plant the quinces, I’m not even sure if they will survive the winter here.

It is still raining here, it’s so much that it looks like they have fog on the other side of the village, we need it so I’ll not complain. We might get a foggy morning and then towards the evening we might get more rain. In between we even might get some sunshine. I have that last cup of tea by my side and at the moment I’m waiting for the loaf of bread in the oven to get ready and so do the dogs 🙂 They always get a piece with cheese on it when the bread still is warm 🙂

Have a great day!