Category: The Cat.

It’s a bad aphid year here.

June 1, 2025 · 6 Comments ·

I’ve had a really nice day, the morning was rather chilly, only 4C (39,2F) and there was a layer of clouds early showing the sun, so the first thing we did was to jump in to the car so I could deliver invitations to the road association meeting we’ll have next Saturday. We drove away at 6 am so there wasn’t a car on the roads outside the village. The castle has properties in the village so they need an invitation as well, and not a single human could be seen in the village 🙂

Alma didn’t like the drive at all even though I drove so slow that she had the time to see everything happening in the village and outside as well. It wasn’t until we came back towards home that she suddenly thought it was a good idea to take a nap in the back seat 🙂 🙂 🙂 The sun did eventually show itself and we had a really nice weather until around 5 pm when clouds arrived and rain with them. Mostly it was a nice summer rain but every now and again torrential showers passed by, I had small lakes even in my garden despite the ground mostly contains of sand.

It’s a short work week once again because we’re having our national day on June sixth. They do try to make us a bit more patriotic so that we like in so many other countries go out and celebrate it on the streets but most of us just take it easy, perhaps having a barbecue or a picnic. If we do feel like having a small celebration we’ll watch what they show on tv, there’s always some show on our PBS (the biggest network we have) where the royal family sits in the audience 🙂

I better stop here because there’s a massive thunder front coming this way, I just heard the rumble and it’s not many km or miles away now. First thunder for the year here and I do like a good thunderstorm 🙂

Have a great day!

Been gardening a lot today.

May 31, 2025May 31, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

I woke up at 4:50 today despite staying up much later yesterday, still can’t say I feel especially tired today. We had a wonderful morning mist so I took a few photos before we had our breakfast. Oddly enough I can’t find them in my camera or in the computer?? I really don’t think that I used any other camera than the one I’ve used all day so I have absolutely no idea what happened to them 🙂 🙂 🙂

We had around thirty minutes of cloudy sky today and the rest totally cloud free. Even though it’s slightly cooler it still feels much warmer today than yesterday. No wind at all to talk about so I guess that’s why it feels so warm here. So I thought it safe to sow beans now, beans will rot if the ground temperature is too low but even though we’ll get loads of rain tomorrow afternoon we will still have warm weather. The rain is good and I will not complain as long as it is warm. I also planted three squash plants but two of them looked really sad so I think I’ll only have one left at the end of next week.

I have lots of lilacs in and around my garden and I really dislike them 🙂 🙂 When all flowers open up it’s like living in a perfume bottle and when they slowly decay the smell is so nasty that it’s hard to breathe. Too much work to remove them all though so I prefer to suffer those weeks it happens instead 🙂 🙂 I do have an Hungarian lilac though, it smell less both times but it is growing too wide now so I’ve been cutting down big chunks of it on the side towards my Pawpaw trees. I’ll do the other side when the flowering is over. It is amazing how different a garden can look just by pruning bushes and trees really hard, light reaches everywhere and new weeds finds new homes 🙂 🙂

I can finally walk this way again but so far I’ve forgotten that so I’ve taken the longer walk around it all day 🙂

This is the next area I’ll start pruning but it’s so beautiful now and when the rose flowers so that will have to wait until late summer.

The potato sprouts are growing, the higher it grows the more soil I’ll put in the bucket and then it will produce more potatoes 🙂 I’ll have three buckets with sprouts soon 🙂

It was so quiet over at my neighbours today so I thought they weren’t at home, then suddenly now in the afternoon they started to mow their lawn 🙂 🙂 The rooster over at the next neighbour has been quiet all day, very unusual so I do hope it’s ok. Normally it isn’t quiet at all and I realised that I missed it a lot 🙂 Roosters and countryside sort of goes hand in hand and when one suddenly is missing it doesn’t feel right at all. I had to leave the dogs alone for an hour today and since it worked so great to have them in the cottage while I was working I didn’t think it would be any problem by being away for such a short time. The first thing that met my eyes when I came back home again was one of my working shoes and the heel on the shoe was chewed away and Malkolm looking really ashamed 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have another pair so no big problem but these were so nice that I will miss them.

I’ll go out to the vegetable garden again after this because it is also time to sow peas and leek. I already have leek in a pot that I just brought outside so it can stay away from the sunshine for a week before I plant them somewhere but one can never have too much leek plus they can be harvested as long as the ground isn’t frozen. I’ll also sow pack-choi (Japanese kale) and broccolo, a sort of mix between broccoli and cauliflower if I understand it right. The broccolo seeds are old so I’m not sure anything will happen but I won’t know if I don’t sow them. There really is no place for either in the vegetable patch but I can get big pots to plant them in instead 🙂 Peas, I need to remember to bring the peas as well 🙂

I’ve also cut away parts of my biggest wild rose so that my little red oak gets some sunshine.

It is time to go outside to sown and I think I’ll bring a cup of tea so I can take regular breaks and not overdo my working 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have lots of creeping bellflower in my garden and they can be devastating towards other flowers. They grow so dense that no other flower can survive there. I usually dig up a big chunk of them when they become too many and pick it all up in one piece. Any tiny piece of roots that’s left will be a new flower.

The old broken wheelbarrow will be full of annuals like always. Poppies and I think clarkia seems to take over this year 🙂

Last year I bought one bood red peony and one pure white. The dogs managed to rip away the only bud on the deep red and the pure white is yellow 🙂 🙂 To be honest I could have gotten something much more valuable because it does look like a Golden peony, nicknamed Molly the witch because of a part of its scientific namemlokosewitschii 🙂

Have a great day!

May 29, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

The sun is shining, a few clouds flies in the sky and both windows and doors are open 🙂 It has been like this all day but a low pressure is on its way with more rain but not especially much of it. Today the temperature reached above 20C (68F) and that’s summer temperature for me.

Alma behaved really well on our morning walk today and was almost quiet when we passed the new neighbours, both of the way out and when we were going back home again. Ok no human or dog was outside but for being Alma she was really good 🙂 We didn’t see any birds but sure heard them all the walk. Cranes and geese from a distance and all the small birds close in the trees and shrubs. I think we passed lots of interesting animals on the way because both Alma and Malkolm were really interested in what was hiding behind the trees.

We always have lots of morning dew here so my shoes and socks were soaking wet when we came back home 🙂 The shoes are now standing towards the cottage wall drying up in the sunshine. I’ve also mowed the lawn and all grass cuttings were placed around the potatoes so I don’t have to hill up the soil around them. The grass clipping’s will decompose with time so I need to place more around them a few more times while mowing. I think it will be time to sow beans, peas and cabbage this weekend plus what ever I might have seeds for in the space that might be empty.

It is time for a pot of tea and then I’ll bake a bread again. I’ll add rosemary of course and some cheese as well if I have any small piece in the fridge.

Have a great day!

I don’t complain about the weather sites got it wrong :-)

May 24, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

We were supposed to have rain and strong winds today so I’m not surprised that we had a lot off sunshine and sort of half strong winds 🙂 Couldn’t notice much in the garden though since the winds came from south.

I wonder what they use this for? I thought it looked like a piece of art but I’m sure they have a more practical use for it 🙂

So the dogs, cat and I spent a lot of time in the garden today, the dogs playing like crazy and the cat running up to them so they would chase her 🙂 I spent a lot of time cutting of dead branches from bushes and trees and also got attacked by small black ants, it never hurts when those black ants attacks (the small red ones though is a totally different thing, that hurts like h..l 🙂 🙂 🙂 Still it took hours to get rid of all of them since they were crawling all over my body 🙂 They lives in a pot whee I tossed away the dead plant and since I had no idea they lived there they managed to run over to me in rather big numbers before I noticed them 🙂 🙂

It was a bit warmer today because of the sunshine, sort of perfect this time of year, not too warm so one could do some gardening but not so cold that one wanted to go inside to have a pot of tea. I’ve also pulled up a lot of weeds from places where I didn’t want them to grow, normally they’re quite welcome here if they flower a lot so that the bees get lots of nectar from them but if they grow where I don’t want them they’ll have to go, if not for any other reason than that snails and slugs love to live there.

I’m baking a bread right now and everything would be good if I just had remembered to start the timer 🙂 🙂 It looks nice in colour but I put a tooth pick in it and it felt a bit too damp, then again it might have been a prefect bread since I did put a lot of cheese in it and therefore it should feel like that sort of 🙂 🙂 I put a lot of rosemary in it and the small is filling the entire cottage. Talking about rosemary, the extra hardy one I planted in the garden has actually survived winter and is now producing new shoots 🙂 Still tiny but I can see them now. This is an American variety and I’ve forgotten the name 🙂 🙂 I have also forgotten from whom I bought it so I can’t get the name from the seller either 🙂 🙂

I just went down to the oven and checked, I’ve shut it off and will let the bread stand there for five more minutes, the cooler of it says it should be ready by then. Even though I did enjoy working the evening shift I still don’t think it is worth it. I was really tired all Friday long even though I did lots of things during the day and I’m still tired today. I’ll probably be back to normal tomorrow so I’ll be fit for fight for work on Monday. I’m an extreme morning person, goes to bed at nine pm and up around 4:30 am the day after, changing sleeping hours even though just four hours later does cost me a lot but thankfully this will only happen every fourth week.

It is time to go downstairs again to pick out the bread so wish me luck that it is ready 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

May 18, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

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!

May 15, 2025 · 10 Comments ·

We have winds blowing from the arctic and yesterday it was so cold in the wind that it felt like winter again, out of reach for the wind it was quite ok since the sun shone:-) Today the winds are a bit less cold but strong so it only felt pleasant on the south side of the cottage.

I really hope I’ll get plenty with Sand Cherries this year, they’re so delicious but the birds have noticed that too I’m afraid 🙂

The allergy pills I’m taking are rather good, still sneezing isn’t something it seems to care about 🙂 🙂 also the closer to the evening the more I can feel the magic slowly vanishing. Still much better than without the pills and I’ve only used them for a very short period of time. I’m pretty sure it will feel even better after a week or so.

Nothing has happened here so I have very little to write about. Tonight’s the second semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Our song made it to the final on Saturday so that’s fun. I won’t watch tonight either because this thing takes quite some time but as I’ve said I’ll watch the big final on Saturday.

The least hardy fruit tree I planted last summer seems to be the one managing this winter the best, the Pawpaws 🙂

I have a Red oak I sowed ten? years ago. It’s still so small but it hasn’t had any problems with our winters.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I guess it would be nice to have some Digestives with that cup. For those of You who don’t know what Digestives is it is a really tasty biscuit nd goes well together with any kind of cheese or jam or both but is really nice just by itself as well. I won’t have anything on mine because they are already covered on one side with chocolate 🙂

Have a great day!

There she stood just looking at us.

May 13, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

20C (68F) today but very little sunshine. Really doesn’t matter to me since I’ve been working all day 🙂 The dogs must have had a really nice day though 🙂 Summer arrived a month early (I’m not complaining about that 🙂 ) and so did the forest flies, that I am complaining about though. Forest flies are really harmless to be honest, no biting or drinking blood or spreading diseases, instead they swarm around the head and always tries to check out our nostrils and ears 🙂 🙂 I truly dislike them! Still I can avoid them by wearing a mosquito ha so that’s what I’ll be doing when they become too many.

If You want tulips that comes back from year to year buy bulbs from the wild species. They tend also to spread quite happily 🙂

I did wonder how it would be with the wild bees now when the we don’t have any honey bees in the village and today the sound from the flowering apple trees told me they are ok 🙂 The trees were buzzing loudly so they have not suffered by having honey bees here. I had read that it could go bad for them if there were too many honey bees in an area but how many are too many. Well there were up to ten hives for a while and by the sound from my apple trees that weren’t too many 🙂

I’ll get my first pay check soon 🙂 well checks haven’t been used here for ages even though I’ve heard they still can be used. It’s always something special with that first one, even though it only is half a month since I didn’t start working until the 14th let month. How getting paid varies here, in this place You’ll get paid the moth after so if one quits one will get paid the month after on has quit. At my previous work place they paid for the same month on had been working and any adjustments, like sick days or over time would be on the next pay check. I’ll also get paid from the unemployment agency so it will be almost like it would if I had worked a full month anyway 🙂

I’m baking a bread right now so it’ll soon be time to bring it out of the oven. The dogs are eager for me to bring it out because they always get some and some cheese too 🙂 It’s also the first semi finale in the Eurovision Song Contest. If You don’t know what that is I’m happy to explain it as good as I can. Anyway, Sweden is once again a big favourite amongst the betting sites and if we win on Saturday when the big finale is we’ll be the country that has won most times leaving Ireland behind us 🙂 🙂 I will not see any of the semi finals because it takes forever but I will watch it on Saturday.

Now many people wonder why it is called Eurovision since also countries from Asia and Australia competes but I’ve learned that since they belong to the European Broadcasting system they too can compete. I don’t mind because my favourites are quite often from those countries 🙂

We passed this roe goat on our way home from our walk. Alma didn’t notice her thankfully, Malkolm did but just stood there watching her. I took one photo and then we left because I didn’t want to stress her more than necessary.

Have a great day!

May 10, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

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 🙂 🙂

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!

Warmer nights again.

May 8, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

Yesterday I saw the mosnterkitten up the road having a chat with another cat but then I remembered that she never followed us outside. So this cat to the left must be a sibling to her 🙂

We were so close to having frost again last night that we almost could touch it, it must have been those very thin clouds that saved us from it.Mostly grey and dull today but suddenly the sun shone through the clouds at the same time I came home. So the dogs and I had a really nice walk down to the creek.

The birds were singing and it would have been odd if they hadn’t since this is the time of year when they really are supposed to do that. We even saw a roe deer goat, which I’ve learned the females are called, only the bigger deer have doe and the moose is called a cow for some reason. I wonder why the aren’t called the same since they all belong to the deer?

Yesterday I finally forced me to bring out all the cardboard boxes to the car, most of them were already opened up and mad flat but it still took me almost 30 minutes to get them all into the car 🙂 Mostly because I dropped so many on the ground before reaching the car, why not try to bring them all at the same time 🙂 🙂 🙂

The night temperatures will finally be well above frost again, it didn’t feel right to have to remove ice from the car when days have been so warm, it was like we had taken several steps backwards in to winter again and since I didn’t have to remove any ice from my car during winter it really didn’t feel nice at all 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and perhaps we’ll hear who the new pope is, I’m not catholic but I’m still curious 🙂

Have a great day!

Surprisingly pleasant day.

May 3, 2025 · 5 Comments ·

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 🙂

Have a great day!

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

Heavy frost last night.

April 26, 2025 · 6 Comments ·

-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 🙂 🙂

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!

The potatoes are down.

April 17, 2025 · 6 Comments ·

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.

This White Wood Anemone will become pale blue.

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

Have a great day!