Category: The Lake.

Our nesting couples are here now :-)

March 28, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

The new neighbours cat. The photos can come from today but also several days back, sunny photos are always nicer 🙂

It was warmish and cloudy this morning when we went out in the garden. Four cranes were walking in the field outside my garden, two left when they heard us but two stayed. The problem was that I only could photograph them through the branches on my catalpa tree 🙂 I did get a few reasonable good ones though.

I had forgotten a few things last time I was at the supermarket so I went there again this morning before our morning walk, I like to go there as early as possible so that very few other customers are there. They tend to annoy me when they start complaining when there’s only one cashier even though they already are second in line 🙂 🙂 🙂 Anyway I stopped by the lake to take a few photos of the cranes there and once again I was too lazy to get out of the car 🙂 🙂

The clouds blew away in the petty strong wind we’ve had since yesterday, a steady wind with few gusts so it was quite nice to walk in the forest. I took a look at the small trees I’ve placed in the patio and so far they look really good, even if we would have temperatures below 0C (32F) at night the cottage itself will make sure those temperatures won’t reach the plants.

Besides this very little has happened here, the dogs and I had pancakes for dinner (well they had their own food first, I don’t think pancakes would be especially good to have as the only thing to eat 🙂 ). I think I can see flower buds on the apricot trees in the garden. Apricots are really hardy but they don’t change their habits just because they live in a harsher climate, they will flower at the same time as they do everywhere else they grow naturally 🙂 So if they start to flower soon I’ll need to cover the trees with some cloth so no frost takes away eventual fruit. Easy at the moment but one day they’ll be big trees 🙂 🙂

I’m not sure if I’ve missed all the Germans (and Dutch) because there’s only “normal” sized motorhomes by the lake. Could be that I’m a bit early because it looks like most cranes will come in April, yesterday there were 9300 cranes by the lake.

It is time for that last cup of tea and then watch some tv 🙂

Have a great day!

Cataract in my right eye.

March 16, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

It’s snowing outside, still just tiny flakes but I’ve seen photos taken not far from here where they are much bigger. It has rained on and off all day and now when the temperature is dropping it turns to snow instead. Tomorrow will be sunny they say but above freezing temperatures (barely) so hopefully it will all melt away quickly.

More and more Cranes are arriving to the lake and today the nesting couple nesting closest to my cottage arrived, they started trumpeting loudly when they landed in the cow pasture on the other side of the gravel road. I know it’s too early to say winter won’t make a come back but those trumpeting Cranes made it easier to actually believe it won’t 🙂

I had an appointment with my optician yesterday, I need new glasses and they always do a eye health check when I’m there. Turns out I have cataract in my right eye. I have actually suspected something was going on, sometimes I feel like I have something in the eye that sort of make my eye sight even less good. He said that this can go quickly, six months and I’ll need a new lens or it can stay like this until the day I die, feels good that he could narrow it down that much 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I guess I’ll call my health center to see what to do next.

I’m not surprised because lots of people in my family have had it so I guess I would be the next in line. Two pair of glasses, progressive, and now $ 520 US poorer 🙂 It’s almost that I look forward to new lenses in the eye, just imagine how nice it would be to not having to wear glasses all the time, if for no other reason that it will be much cheaper 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll pick them up on Maundy Thursday. She asked when in the day I would like to be there and I said that any time that I can leave work but not having to go back again that day, so I’ll be there just after noon 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Still nasty cold nights.

April 28, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

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We’ve had rather nice weather here this week, a bit cold perhaps and with both snowfall and hail but the sun has been shining quite a lot as well. Today was even better because finally it became a bit warmer again, that is after a nasty cold morning though.Thick and hard ice covered the car, so thick that the rising sun didn’t have a chance to soften it up before I had to go to work. We also hade a rather thick fog so I brought the camera with me and stopped by the lake for a few seconds.

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Alma has behaved unusually well on our walks this week! She’s extremely stressed about having to walk in the same pace as the rest of us but I can see that she’s really trying. Every now and again she flips out though but I will not complain or get angry at her those times. Compared to how she has behaved these last two years this last week has been wonderful 🙂 So I’ve started to think that she actually might not come from hell just to make my life miserable after all 🙂 🙂 🙂 She even stopped screaming like insane after just a few minutes after she saw a hare running in front of us, before she kept on screaming like insane for the rest of the walk which could be as long as two hours 🙂

DSC_0014 (7) — Very few cranes by the lake this morning.

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Now when my closest neighbors have gotten a second child they’ve been talking about moving to a bigger house or make this one bigger. It looked like they finally had decided to move and I wasn’t happy about it, they are amazing neighbors! but when they sat down and started to write down things about the cottage to a realtor they suddenly felt that they weren’t ready to move after all so guess if I’m happy 🙂 I can never get that good neighbors again, I just don’t have that kind of luck to be honest 🙂 So now can Alma continue to jump over to the neighbor to play with their eldest daughter 🙂

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I know that I don’t have space for any more trees in my garden so I guess that’s why I ordered a new one 🙂 🙂 This time it’s a Persimmon hybrid (crossed with its relative Kaki Persimmon). It isn’t as hardy as the American one though but I can’t find any “real” Persimmons for sale over here in Europe. I already have a few smaller trees in pots waiting to be planted but I’ll prioritize this one and the Pawpaw that also is waiting for a place to live 🙂 🙂 🙂 (plus I have seeds for more trees so I guess I really need to win the lottery so that I can buy lots of land so I can plant all the trees I already have plus all the ones I know I’ll be buying in the future 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Have a great day!

A15264_026A — One from the Voigtländer Bessamatic, taken around a year ago.

Happy Easter!

April 7, 2023April 7, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

DSC_0002 (2) — I stopped by the lake Wednesday morning. The sky looked amazing so I took a few photos. Later that evening a new sow storm passed by but all of that latest snow melted away already on Thursday 🙂

So easter has begun, well at least the holidays because I guess one really should say that easter started on Monday. Weather has been so nice the week that no big amounts of cranes has gathered by the lake. twelve thousand as most but there’s still a wall of sound from the lake while they all trumpet like crazy. Instead they have now started to fly to the fields and meadows around the village. For some reason I think it’s more fun to see them here than standing by a fence down at the lake looking at them walking a couple of meters away and loads of them as well.

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This week another neighbor than the usual gave me a call at work telling me that Alma had escaped the dogyard again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really don’t understand why she keeps on doing that since she’s miserable when she can’t get back in again. She is however very happy to see me coming back home again though 🙂 🙂 I stayed at home a bit longer this time, the weather was so nice so I made myself a pot of tea before I drove back to work. Alma has been pretty impossible on our walks this week, that is until this morning when she suddenly remembered how to behave. Well at least until we came close to some cranes and she started screaming like obcessed for a while.

a (3) — I looked up in the sky yesterday to see if I saw any witches up there but all I could see was more cranes on their way to the lake.

Today I saw what we call song swans and in America is called Trumpet swans.

Yesterday evening all witches flew to Blåkulla to have a party with the devil. There are a few places that is supposed to be Blåkulla and I think all of them are remote islands out in the ocean. More close to the ground however yesterday is the day when kids dress up as witches (and now days warlocks) and walks from home to home begging for candy. It is sort of our Halloween. This custom almost died out but has become popular again. But since yesterday was a work day for most of us they might do it on easter eve instead. I don’t think anyone will come here since I have Albin here but perhaps I should buy some candy just in case, it won’t last for long if no one should come anyway 🙂

We came pretty close, they didn’t care about us at all. That is until Alma started screaming as if she was possessed.

I’ve a bread in the owen and the smell has spread in the entire cottage. The kitchen door is open because the sun shines and it gets so warm towards the south heading wall that the radiator in the kitchen is turned off. We’ll have another walks as soon as the bread is out of the oven because they’re guessing we’ll have a cloudy afternoon. From tomorrow we’ll have 10C or over (50F) during the days and a day after or so we will also have above 0C (32F) temperatures during nights 🙂 It does feel like spring has sprung after all 🙂

A15266_007 — Two taken with the Flexaret VI.

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Have a great day!

Lots of thunder lately.

August 19, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

The photos are taken with either my phone or my little Sony so they can be taken any morning since last week.

We’ve had lots of thunder lately and today is no exception. It has stayed calm for a while but now it’s closing in again. I don’t mind since the heat will cool down for at least a while.

Yesterday and before noon today the weather guessings showed that we could possibly get up to two inches of rain today but has since then calmed down considerable, as most we’ll now get perhaps a tenth of that.

On Wednesday I found a notice about a registered letter that I could fetch in Falköping. I had absolutely no idea what it could be so I took a couple of hours off from work to go and get it. When I get there they check and says I’ve already have fetched it? I don’t know what they are doing at the Swedish postal service because it turns out that it was the parcel I already had fetched!! So it wasn’t a letter and I haven’t gotten a paper note in my mailbox about anything I can pick up at the post office in so many years that I actually can’t remember when it happened the last time 🙂 🙂 🙂 The girl I talked to felt so sorry for me going there unnecessarily that when I bought a soft ice cream she made it so big that I had huge problems eating it 🙂 🙂 🙂

Today I went to the grocery store in Gudhem and picked up another parcel, this time by another company thankfully, it was my new coffee maker 🙂 I haven’t tried it yet, it is too late for tea or coffee if I want to have any sleep tonight so I’ll do it first thing tomorrow morning 🙂

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I can hear the thunder closing in again, the lightning map says it’s still several km, miles, before it is here but thunder can move fast sometimes.

Have a great day!

Terrible morning.

July 26, 2022 · 4 Comments ·

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So we went out for our morning walk and while Alma was quite calm yesterday she today had decided not to be. It went fairly well to be honest but as we were passing the beekeepers home I was more concentrated on keeping her quiet since she has a tendency to start shouting when we pass that place.

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So suddenly Albin jumped to the side of me and went for Salmiak who happened to be in the grass beside the gravel road. This time it looked as if Albin actually managed to get to Salmiak. I managed to lift away Albin and Salmiak ran away. So I went home with the dogs while scolding Albin and then went back to the beekeepers cottage starting to look for Salmiak. I also phoned the beekeeper to tell what had happened. So we all walked around to look after Salmiak and it took some time before I could find him. He was of course not happy seeing me but he looked ok but went and hid elsewhere.

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They did find Salmiak after a while but he didn’t have any bite marks and they have kept an eye on him all day and if Albin had managed to injure him he would have shown signs of that by now. Also I checked Albins mouth to see if there was any cat fur in there but couldn’t find anything. So either Albin never bit but instead just pressed poor Salmiak to the ground or Albin just missed. Anyway I’m so happy that Salmiak wasn’t injured!

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Besides this rather awful start of the day the rest has been pretty calm thankfully. Windy and rather cool day with little or no sunshine. I must admit that I’m enjoying these cooler days because one never knows if we’ll get another heat wave before summer ends. It doesn’t look like it now but one never knows 🙂 Almas new harness has now reached the Netherlands so with a bit of luck it might reach us before Friday 🙂 🙂 🙂

DSC_0014 (8) — A Marigold with a Berry fart resting on it 🙂 Berry farts are relatives to Stink bugs.

a (4) — The Venus flytrap will soon flower 🙂

a (5) — Something has been eating my carnivorous plants! It might be the deer that Alma scared away from just outside the lilac hedge.

It is time for us all to have something to eat. Tomorrow morning Albin will have a short leash so he can’t jump anywhere, I’ll still try and keep Alma calm and Nova can walk without leash, she never does anything stupid so I don’t have to worry about what she wight do 🙂

DSC_0001 (8) — Finally the rose on Teodors grave is in bloom.

By the way, I think we had well over an inch of rain yesterday 🙂

Have a great day!

I had to apologize to Alma.

April 7, 2022 · 2 Comments ·

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The snow started to fall yesterday and I think it stopped some time before I went up this morning, that would be around 4:40 am. They had siad that we would have below 0C (32F) temperatures during the night but I think it stayed at that temperature all night. (Most photos today are from yesterday when we took a walk after work)

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All roads were ice free but the smaller ones were covered in a thick layer of snow. They have been warning us for more snow today and strong winds but it looks as if that nasty weather has passed further north of here. The winds are sort of reasonable strong and the rain is pouring down. Everything is wet and muddy now and every time the dogs have been outside, just to quickly do what is necessary, I need to scrub the floors again. They are still guessing that we’ll get more snow later tonight and that the temperature will drop for a short while so that we’ll have a snow white world again at least for a short while.

a (10)

I went to the physiotherapist today and she checked how well or not my arms worked. We talked about my rheumatism but she didn’t think it would make any difference on this and we talked about Alma as well 🙂 🙂 Well I had to apologize to Alma when I came home today because she’s not guilty for this, she may have hastened the symptoms but she isn’t responsible for this. I have what she called an inpintchement ( I hope I heard that right, she’s Danish but spoke Swedish really well) in both my shoulders but the right one is much worse than the left.

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It means that my nerves are getting squeesed and therefore gives me pain. I got some exercises I should do and was told to stay at home for at least five working days. I’ll meet her in two weeks and if these exercises doesn’t help she will hand me over to a doctor. If I get better I’ll get more exercises to do and we’ll continue like that until I’m back to much better. This is a rather common thing to get when working with the hands above the head for way too many times and for too long periods without any chance to rest the arm and shoulder. Painters are especially common amongst those who get it.

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They are very helpful at work and now they started to discuss other people who risk getting this too. Nothing bad that doesn’t bring some good with it! I stopped by the lake on my way home and there are some cranes but I could see at least as many in the fields just outside my village. The last counting said 17200 and that was two days ago, it snowed way too much for them to be able to count any yesterday 🙂

Have a great day!