Category: The bog.

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I’ve used another lens today that came with an old camera I bought, to be honest I only wanted the lens but it would most likely have been much more expensive if I’d tried ton just buy the lens 🙂 So You’ll notice that some photos will have a sort of blurry sharpness to them.

It was so nice this morning, a bit towards the cool side but with the sun shining and a rather weak wind. That has changed now, the wind is strong once again and even though it actually is warm enough it still feels chilly even on the south side of the cottage when the sun shines through the clouds.

So since I must change my hours to stay awake in the evening now I watched the entire Eurovision final. It really takes too long but I had very little else to do. We didn’t win but came fourth and that’s not bad at all. My sister and I usually text each other during this show and suddenly no texts came from her, she had fallen asleep 🙂 and texted me this at 4:56 this morning (we are both morning people) since I had forgotten to tell her that I’ll work in the evenings this week 🙂 Luckily I did manage to fall asleep as son as my head hit the pillow 🙂

I’ve been emptying my aquarium since the dogs mainly will be in the cottage while I work the coming weeks and since there now longer is any fish in it I decided to empty it instead of buying new fish. One never knows how wild the dogs play will be and if they bring down the aquarium I want the damage to be as small as possible 🙂 I’ll also unplug the radiators because they have actually once managed to trip over one of my sofas and it broke the radiator when it hit it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I always prepare for the worst 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and then outing the garden for a while. I’ll tray to stay out of the wind and it isn’t often I have to say that because the wind can only hit my garden if it comes from north to north east.

Have a great day!

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Still very windy with northern winds but today they were almost lukewarm. We only work to 2:30 pm on Fridays so I had the chance to experience it for a while 🙂 We walked down to the creek and thankfully the winds were so strong that the forest flies never came to us.

I had forgotten to buy toothpaste and a toothbrush yesterday when I was at the store so I had to make a stop at the smaller grocery store in Gudhem. They only had toothbrushes for kids 🙂 but any toothbrush is better than none 🙂 I’ll get a bigger one next time I’ll go to the supermarket. I was supposed to work overtime tomorrow but they had missed that lots of people at work are going out to have fun tonight so they had to cancel it. I must admit that I’m quite happy that they did, it’s one thing to say ok on Monday because one never knows how tired one will be on Friday evening 🙂 🙂

I’ll work the evening shift next week and it’s a long time since I did that. It usually messes up the sleep for a while but since this only will happen every three weeks I’ll take it without complaining, at first they said it would be every second week. It would have worked for a while but I’m pretty sure it would have been too much in the long run. When one need a job one has to take what one gets 🙂 I have had another call from a staffing agency but I really like this place so I didn’t answer the call.

I often get the question if it isn’t scary to work with coffins all over the factory but it’s just like working with boxes to be honest. I guess there’s just too much of them. The only time it gets a bit sad is when one need to pass the coffins for children. Especially the tiny ones but thankfully they work with them in a part of the factory we seldom pass.

It is time to have that last cup of tea, today I need to start wit being up late so it won’t be a shock for the body on Monday 🙂 Also later breakfast tomorrow and dinner tomorrow as well.

Have a great day!

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I think this must be one of our most beautiful beetle but it wasn’t until I reduced the size of this photo that I noticed there actually were two beetles.

Yesterday after I had come home from work and the walk with the dogs I started baking a bread, I sat down in the recliner and woke up by the timer alarming that it was time to put the bread in the oven. I was so confused when the alarm started that I had no idea where I were, if it meant I was going to work and why in that case did the sun shine so bright 🙂 🙂 🙂 After that the entire evening was sort of strange 🙂 🙂 🙂 The bread was really good though 🙂 🙂 🙂

Today has been rather nice, mostly cloudy but with some sunshine every now and again and even a few drops of rain have been falling now in the afternoon. Pollen is hitting me hard now but I’ve still mostly been outside. I had to mow the lawn, well have to isn’t right because no one would care since no one can see it through my hedge anyway but the longer the grass is the more ticks will living here. I do like that wildlife likes my garden but I don’t like the ticks.

After that I dug up the last chunk of Kankakee mallows and replanted them in pots until I know where to place them. I already have three of them in the ground but now I have nine bigger or small plants in pots waiting to get a space somewhere. I know that it is endangered since it only grows on an island in the wild and it has struggled to survive for years, so if they ever need some help to save it I have plenty of plants (and perhaps seeds) to share 🙂 🙂

A few of the Kankakee mallows.

I also replanted some of the seedlings I had in the kitchen and also then last of the trees I had in the cool cellar during winter. Two of the four giant Sequoias have survived winter and is now growing again despite the fact that mice tried to eat them during winter. Now I have to find out what kind of soil they like so I can fix that and repot them as well. They will not spend next winter in the cool clear, that’s for sure so I better think about how I can have them outdoors instead. The Pawpaw trees and slowly getting new leafs but it looks like the Persimmon has lost all of the twigs and branches this winter but the stem is good so lets hope it will grow new ones.

It is time to get something to eat, first the dogs and the monster kitten and after that me. Have no idea though what I’ll make to myself but if I can’t figure out something I can always have corn flakes again 🙂

Have a great day!

Surprisingly pleasant day.

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We’ve actually had a really nice day here as long as one wasn’t too long in shadow 🙂 Ok , it wasn’t that bad there either but I preferred to sit in the sunshine and drink tea 🙂 I have moved a perennial that comes from Illinois, the Kankakee mallow (Iliamna remota). It has actually thrived in my garden beneath the Juneberry tree but it was time to move it because the ground is just too dry there during summer.

It actually started last weekend and removed a part of it just to see how well it would adapt to the move and it adapted really well. It sort of divided itself to smaller parts so there’s still one growing where it has been that easily can be four new plants and I’ve already have it in6 other places now 🙂 It has been a favourite of mine since I sowed it well over twenty years ago so I do hope it will thrive at the new places they can call their homes 🙂 Mine spreads via its roots but I’ve read that a fire will start the seeds but I didn’t have a fire when I bought the seeds back then so I think it will work again without it if I try again 🙂

The clouds covered the sun when we went out on our morning walk but as soon as we were almost at home the clouds opened up. We’ve had lots of smaller clouds in the sky all day but now it looks like bigger clouds are coming in again, they say we’ll get rain but they said we would last night as well and as far as I could see the only reason the grass was wet was because of dew. A day or two with cloudy weather and some rain will only be good for my Kankakee willows now when they have moved all over the garden.

We won’t get much rain though, mostly just enough to keep the soil surface slightly damp 🙂 I’ve also heard the Cuckoo bird for the first time this year. According to folklore it means different things from what direction one hear it for the first time. From north and summer will be dry, from east one will be comforted because if it comes from south it means death in the family but it is from the west we want to hear it because that’s the best 🙂 The coming year will be great. We here will have a dry summer this year 🙂

I think this could be a Red Kite or a brown. I’m not that good when it comes to birds 🙂

Besides that I’ve done very little. Mostly I’ve been sitting in the sunshine drinking tea or coffee.  Last year when the warm weather came the entire garden was buzzing because of the beekeepers bees, it is considerable more quiet this year. Yes we do have pollinators like bumblebees flying around but all those hives did make a big difference, so it’ll be interesting to see how it will be next year, to many honey bees can actually make life really tough for the wild bees by being too many for an area. Also everything started so early this year that there wasn’t much for the bumblebees to eat and that could have killed a lot of them. I think we’ll know better when summer starts and all workers starts to fly around.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and today I’m so tired that I most likely will fall asleep in the sofa 🙂

In my woodland right now.

Have a great day!

Not this one though, it grows in full sunlight and dry soil.

Holiday tomorrow.

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Wonderful weather today, which is quite unusual on Walpurgis eve. Lots of people are out having fun tonight and quite often we have huge bonfires as well but at least here it will be too windy and to dry in the grass to have any. No one knows why we celebrate this day but who cares as long as we have fun 🙂

If I’ve learned it all right Walpurgis (or Aalborg as we swedes say) was an English princes who became a nun in Germany and was quite successful in turning witches to the right way which most likely meant that she was rather unpleasant for those she turned since no matter how much those poor women (mostly anyway because there were a few men as well)turned towards christianity they still had n´been witches and therefore burned by the stake.

I just got the news about the tutor I have on one of my kidneys and it is good news 🙂 It has almost not grown at all since six months back (and therefore too small to take a test from) so now we’ll wait another year before a new x-ray. So perhaps I’m one of the very few that has a benign tumour and not caner? In any way it isn’t an aggressive one 🙂

Tomorrow is May first and in many places on this little globe of ours it’s the workers’ day and a holiday. I will have to work on Friday though since I’m so new that I don’t have any saved hours. I’ll survive one day of work though 🙂 I think it is time for a last cup of tea for the day and then I’ll most likely doze off in front of the tv. Pine pollen is in the air and it makes me so tired 🙂 🙂

The cherry trees are in bloom here so no more frost so we can pick some when walking around in the forest 🙂

The June berry in full bloom, too bad that it gets mildew every year so the berries get destroyed, I really like to eat them.

Have a great day!

Heavy frost last night.

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My blue White wood anemone.

-6C (21,2F) here this morning. One could feel it in the air already late afternoon that it would be cold but I didn’t think it would drop down that much. The morning walk was really nice though because the sun was blasting heat towards us at the same time as the ground still was so cold that it evened itself out in a way. Alma was really bad at yesterdays walks but today she behaved really well again. For some reason she behaves like crazy when we pass our new neighbours even though we’ve met them several times and she likes both the humans and the dog, Can’t say she likes they cats though even though they run away long before we come close 🙂 🙂 🙂

This morning we didn’t walk that way so she was calm all the time, she even managed to stay reasonable calm when a deer ran away from our path and even though she saw a big goose in one of the fields she still didn’t start to scream and pull the leash, I so wish that behaviour could continue from now on but I now that’s just wishful thinking 🙂 🙂 🙂 we went down to the creek and it might have been even colder there because there were ice in some places almost all the way down to the water. The plus side with that cold mornings are no ticks waiting to attack us because they have dug down into the ground so they don’t freeze to death.

Otherwise I’ve mostly done chores today, like mowing the lawn, doing most of the laundry (I still have my working clothes to do, for some reason this company doesn’t provide a laundry service for working clothes and that’s the first time that has happened to me, so I’ll do that tomorrow. I still have to bake some bread if I want a sandwich for breakfast though. I do have hard bread at home but I’ve had that for two days now and is a bit tired of it to be honest. We’re having a short work week next week again 🙂 May first is the workers day here but I’ll need to work on Friday again but that’s ok.

I guess it is time to start baking that bread, it’ll most likely be French rolls and since it is a weekend I’ll most likely will have a cup of tea even though it might keep me up all night 🙂 🙂

Some managed the frost really well.
Others not so.
I’m starting to fill up the blue barrel with stinging nettle roots, I can win the battle but not the war 🙂

Have a great day!

It has been pouring down.

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The Christmas cactus liked to be placed outside again 🙂

Well the rain that didn’t fall during easter did fall yesterday evening, all night and well in to this day 🙂 We need it so I will for once not complain about it. I did forget to check how much it filled up the water barrels though, I want them full before summer starts properly.

I write properly because the meteorological summer has actually arrived here already, that means that the temperature never falls below 0C (32F) five days in a row. They showed a map on tv and it is slowly getting closer to this village. Won’t happen this week though because there’s a risk for night frost during the weekend the weather apps say. Days will be warm though.

I still like to go to work so I think I like this place I’m working at 🙂 It’s hard to think but even though Falköping is a rather small town the traffic is horrible 🙂 🙂 🙂 It goes faster to take a detour when driving home than to go the most logical way. Also there don’t like it when one follows the traffic rules 🙂 🙂 They all want to go home so don’t You dare to follow those because that takes so much longer 🙂 🙂 🙂

We still have a few Elm trees in the forest but one is now dying so I guess the other will follow soon.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then watch some tv, I’ll take the sofa instead of the recliner because then the dogs can join me 🙂 This change from being at home all day to now go to work is worse for them than it is for me so they need that extra time staying close 🙂

I have a Korean spruce where the top once died and it has taken lots of years for the tree to chose another branch as a new top. Now it looks like a n odd chair 🙂 🙂
Ninebark.
Elder leafs.
Lungwort spreads happily here and they don’t seem to care about me mowing them down all summer long 🙂

Have a great day!

The potatoes are down.

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Today I could feel that I was a bit faster while working than yesterday even though I’m still pretty slow 🙂 I got a better flow while working. I had a short day at work though because today I had my kidney x-rayed again. I guess I’ll have the result in one or two weeks. The ones x-raying aren’t allowed to say anything about what they can see just in case they misinterpret anything. I had my appointment at 12:40 but was lucky so they let me in twenty minutes earlier. It was much the same last year when I had that first x-ray.

After that I had some grocery shopping to do since easter is a four day holiday here and I really dislike having too do any shopping during that time 🙂 So I drove to the village where I worked before and did my shopping there and wished them all a happy easter, I have after all been shopping there for 28 years now 🙂 I also bought more solid so I can fill up the big box where I have my straw berries. The weather has been amazing today so I also put down the potatoes in the ground, a bit early for me but if there’s any risk of night frost I’ll cover them so they don’t freeze.

One of my favourites because of its wonderful smell, Bog Myrtle.

The Goose berries in the forest are in bloom, mine at home isn’t even close to 🙂

It will cool down considerable already tonight, northern winds will press down cold air from the arctic, still it won’t fall down below 0C (32F) but compared to today it will feel cold. They still keep saying we’ll get rain as well but the closer awe come the less rain will fall 🙂 🙂 I don’t mind the rain because it is so dry in the grass and forest now that if it will start to burn it will escalate quickly. The ground though is still not especially dry.

Finally the Dandelions are in bloom 🙂

This White Wood Anemone will become pale blue.

It isa time for that last cup of tea and perhaps a sandwich or two 🙂

The wild plum in bloom.

Have a great day!

The last day of my seven month long vacation :-)

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The first plum flower. There are so many buds that the tree will be completely white in a couple of days.

They said it would be more cloudy today but I haven’t notice that much difference to be honest. the big difference is the strong wind and that we had frost and morning mist when I woke up. A good thing when it is this warm during the days is that the frost is pushed upwards by the warm ground so no frost damages on those plants I just planted in my garden.

It was a really nice walk early in the morning despite it being chilly. Birds sand and geese flew just a few meters (much the same in yards) above our heads. Alma behaved really well but Malkolm decided that he wouldn’t stop pulling the leash even if I got angry at him 🙂 🙂 Still he doesn’t pull that hard so I could live with it. I’ve been busy today, I’ve baked bread, dinner in the slow cooker, the ham in the oven and also boiled potatoes and done the last of the laundry.

So this is the last day of my seven month long “vacation” 🙂 I’m really glad to have a new job but I must admit that I have enjoyed every day of this involuntary vacation. I haven’t had to worry about the money and that makes the difference. For those having nothing saved this must be horrible, constantly thinking of how to pay bills and food.

It is time for a last cup of coffee since I don’t have any tea at home and refuses to drive to the store for just one thing 🙂 I could have coffee later but since I really need to fall asleep tonight so that I’m not too tried tomorrow morning when I’ll drive to my new work place I better stay on the safe side 🙂 🙂 I think I’ll also have a couple of sandwiches with some of that ham.

Have a great day!

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No wind this morning and sunshine. Really pleasant to walk around in the forest listening to all birds and some deer running away when we came close. Still it was below 0C (32F) and the water had frozen during the night. These mornings really are the best because it feels warm and nice but no flies are terrorising us 🙂 They’ll arrive some time in the middle of June. The forest flies are just annoying though and not biting. The biting ones tends to show up a couple of weeks later.

I’m slowly getting the dogs used to me being away a couple of hours every day now so today I went to my old work place for a visit, it might be the last time I do that since I now will work rather far away and after that I went to the grocery store I’ve been doing my shopping for the last 28 years now. I will go there again but not that often, I will have at least four big supermarkets and several other big stores just beside where I’ll be working.

Back in the days when one would sign a contract of employment one sat at the employers desk and signed it with a pen, that’s not how it’s working now days. I got a mail with a link and after reading the contract I signed it with my Bank ID and did it at home. It is amazing how fast things change now days. It is practical though since I now have it stored in my computer. Also I could really take my time reading it, one never did that in the office with the new employer to be honest. One just signed and smiled 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’m slowly picking up the plants I have in the cool cellar. Lots have died, either too much or too little water during the winter but most is still alive. The dead plants get tossed in places where the dogs have been digging so the ground evens out again 🙂 🙂 We’ll have fairly warm nights for the coming ten days they say so I planted one of my apricot seedlings where I used to have the Amure grapevine. It will take a couple of years but it will be a good place for the birds to sit while waiting for their chance of eating from the feeder I have outside the kitchen window. I also started to fill the big wooden box I have my , for some reason, autumn flowering strawberry plants . Turns out the packages with soil are small now days (and more expensive) so I need to buy two more.

The box is quite empty when the big gooseberry bush was removed. Just weeds and strawberry plants left.
I removed it all and filled up with soil and there’s still lots of space to fill up. I planted the young strawberries again. I’ll have to redo this when I have more soil (or compost when I can empty any of my composts).
Lots of old ones left but I didn’t want to toss them away.
So I planted them in a spot where I have removed as much of the stinging nettle roots I could. Now the strawberries can spread as they please 🙂

I have that last cup of tea for the day beside me and soon I’ll go outside with the dogs bringing more dead plants from the cellar 🙂

Have a great day!

I got it :-)

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Most photos are from yesterday when the sun arrived a bit earlier than today. There was still ice on the creeks.

The sun is shining outside my window. It should have showed earlier but I guess one should be happy for what one get. Still 10C (50F) during the day isn’t that bad but the dogs wanted to go indoors pretty quickly after we had gone outside.

A male Starling sitting on the ghost tree.
The doves are here again and lots of them, this is just a small part of the flock.

My new neighbours have two roosters and I think three hen. They said that once of the roosters keep on crowing all the time and they were are right 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do like that sound so I enjoy it a lot, plus that they have them on the other side of a building so even if I’m outside it isn’t especially loud and I can’t hear them at all if I’m indoors. I do however think that the second rooster might take over if the first one quiets down 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma was absolutely stunned when seeing them 🙂 🙂 🙂 She just stood there watching them, she didn’t even whine like she always do 🙂 🙂 🙂

I got a call from the coffin factory today and he told me I got the job 🙂 I’ll start working there next week 🙂 So now I’ll see these last days of unemployment as the end of a vacation and I’ll most likely have “the end of vacation anxiety” on Sunday evening 🙂 🙂 🙂 I must say that I’ve have enjoyed this time I’ve been unemployed but only because I’ve had money enough myself so that I never have had to worry about expenses, otherwise this would most likely have been a long stressful period. Now instead I’ve enjoyed every day and especially those mornings when my neighbours have been outside scraping ice and brushing snow from their cars 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for a cup of instant coffee because I don’t have enough tea at home 🙂 By the way, now when we all hate the orange one all over the world there’s actually one thing that upsets us Swedes even more and it has nothing to do with the blob at all, the coffee price is now so high that many struggle to be able to buy it and as the second most coffee drinking country in the world this is serious to us 🙂 🙂 🙂

I gathered all the pots and placed them by the big compost before deciding where to put them, they became very interesting for a certain monster kitten 🙂

When that became boring she started to play with Malkolm instead 🙂

Have a great day!

The ticks and mosquitoes are back, yay.

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Below 0C (32F) again this morning, nothing strange to be honest because that’s how it used to be back in the days. April here back in the days could be anything from what we have now to bitterly cold and snowstorms, usually the latter. This year the warm weather started so early that it isn’t until now we can see and especially hear bumblebees in the air. Also the ticks are active, yay, and yesterday I killed two mosquitoes that tried to drink my blood.

The first bumblebee of the year 🙂

We are thankfully out on our morning walks so early that it is too cold for ticks to be active, the ground is still frozen after the nights low temperatures. It will be less warm the coming days with especially Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights being pretty chilly but we’ll have sunshine and almost 10C (50F) temperatures during the days so it will not be as bad as they first guessed.Tuesday will be the start of rising temperatures again. So I took a bit of a chance today by sowing annuals in the little area where I’ll have flowers for pollinators. I most likely did this too early so that those more sensitive flowers might get killed even if they during those chilly nights still only will be seeds.

I’ve also brought up more trees from the cellar but those will be covered with fibre cloth so the freezing temperatures won’t reach them. It’ll be nice when I can bring out all those plants down there so that I can use it as an earthen cellar. The cool cellar works fine as a farther cellar but if summer is hot it will be a bit too warm down there as well. It is perfect during winter though when the temperature usually stays just above 0C (32F) as coldest, especially now days when it doesn’t get as cold as it used to be.

I think it is time for a cup of tea and perhaps some hard bread with cheese and jam 🙂

I have a couple of old piles with branches I’ve cut of from trees and bushes and yesterday the monster kitten went in to one of them and Malkolm was upset, he couldn’t follow her 🙂

Have a great day!