Sunrise, well the sun wasn’t supposed to rise in a couple of ours but the tiny gap in the clouds really made it look nice.
The morning was quite cold today since the sky was clear and I could see the stars before the sun rose. No wind which I like but making our electrical bills go sky high (for those that pay per hour, I don’t so it doesn’t affect me that much. I pay for the average price of the month so I really should love the wind so our wind power plants turn as much as possible 🙂 🙂
Here comes photos I took on the way to the store/factory and back home again.
I drove to the grocery store in the village where I used to work, I didn’t know I needed as much as I bought 🙂 I forgot the list I had written and only remembered fruit, cat food and a cheese so I brought home a little of everything 🙂 🙂 After that I drove to the factory and wished everyone a good christmas.
I had driven almost all the way back home when I realized that I also was supposed to pick up a package in Gudhem so I had to turn and go back out on the roads again. It’s the opposite way than to my old work place 🙂 So up the hill bring the package bought something I thought I had forgotten and drove back home again. It wasn’t until we were out in the forest that I suddenly remembered something I really needed 🙂
So as soon as we were back from the walk I put the dogs in the dog yard again, jumped in to my car, drove to Gudhem and bought it and felt pretty annoyed about it all so I also bought a soda and a big chocolate bar 🙂 🙂 🙂 I now refuse to look at the list if I actually needed something more because I refuse to drive to any store again until next Monday 🙂 🙂 🙂
Clouds arrived while we were out on our walk and now we have fog again. It’ll be cold during the night but from tomorrow and some days ahead we’ll have warm temperatures again. Yes I know they aren’t that good in guessing the coming weather over here but I wouldn’t complain it it actually reach 10 C (50 F) for a couple of days or why not the rest of the winter 🙂 🙂
Lots of playing in the garden after I had come back home from the second drive to the store 🙂
Cold and with some mist this morning, so I used my camera on the way to work, I almost came late to work on my last day of work, had been fun if that had happened for the first time in the 17 years I’ve worked there 🙂 🙂 🙂
I had to scrape ice from the car this morning but we didn’t actually have any frost, it only dropped to 2C (35,6 F) The sky will be clear again tonight so I’ve moved in some of the more sensitive plants to the cool cellar now and all orchids to the windows facing east or north. I would have liked to bring in more but it’s dark outside so I can’t ind them now, all I can do is to hope that the frost stays away for another night.
Neither me nor my work friend got that bag yesterday 🙂 🙂 🙂 The boy (who I call the one forcing me to quit) eventually made the work friend go up to the office to collect it himself. I think the boy understood that it would not work on me to go up there like a beggar so just before I was going to go home he had to go and find me 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was quite visible that he didn’t like that 🙂 🙂 The bag had of course the company’s logo on everything but those can be covered with other things 🙂 I must admit that the fleece sweater is really good so I’ll find one of those stickers or what they are called that I simply can iron over the old logo.
This is the beautiful pot I got from my work friend I pick up sometimes on my way to work.This is the gift I got from the rest, Now I can buy ice cream for quite some time 🙂
The colors are starting to show in the garden.
Now I’ll take a few days of doing nothing but on Monday I’ll call two high end kitchen makers we have in this area, Kvänum kök and Vedum kök. People who work there really likes it and the pay is much better than in most companies around here I would take any job but they do paint lots of their products and I’m lucky to have learned to paint at Volvo cars and was amongst the last ones to learn everything from painting the cars and check and fix all surfaces before painting, ok that was a long time ago but it’s easy to get it all back thankfully.
My care tree, I don’t think it ever has carried so many berries before.Lots of apples and these are really tasty.I could make a lot of rose hip soup if I had the energy to remove all the hairy seeds in the hips 🙂Time to harvest all then hazelnuts 🙂 First time this bush gives any at all 🙂
My work friends in the painting department Gave me a present today 🙂 They thought the boys thank you for long and faithful service was both odd and fun so they made me a card saying just that and inside it they had bought gift certificates for ice cream from the Ice cream van 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was also a birthday gift because I’m turning 60 on Sunday 🙂
So this little lady moved here around 16,5 years ago. An animal rescue organisation called me one day, not especially long after I had had to say goodbye to my “little” girl Erna (she was in the same size as Alma is but the smallest in the pack 🙂 🙂 ) They asked me if she could come to me because the previous older owner had been hit by cancer. The organisation knew me because they got all the cut flowers that still was pretty but too old to be sold and they used those flowers to decorate old pet graves where the owners perhaps no longer were with us, this was back in the days when I had a Garden center.
I took some photos on my way to work this morning.
I really didn’t feel like it, it was too early after old Erna but they sent me a photo and Nova looked just like old Erna but half the size so how could I say no 🙂 🙂 Nova’s first year consisted mostly of abuse and starvation and living in a dark cellar all the time. After they had rescued her she then went to the older couple who really built her up to an amazing dog but to be honest a completely brat 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just as it should be after a start like that. So it took a while but the big and older dogs soon taught her to behave 🙂 🙂 🙂
She had this idea that hares are animals that should be eradicated from the surface of this planet so, since my dogs back then always walked without a leash, if I missed a hare out in the fields but she didn’t she always ran after them in high speed. Hares are smart though so she never caught any and I never had to worry about her getting lost because she either came back to me or back to the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂 One day, when I had to have her on leash she saw a hare and ran after it, she didn’t come far and almost broke my wrist. That was the only time I’ve ever scolded her in her life and I must admit that when I scold I’m not quiet 🙂 🙂 After that she stopped caring about hares and I have always trusted her after that.
She’s had a 5 cm (2 inches) long tumor removed that grew between her right ear and eye so the eye was saved but her ear had to be closed, chronic ear infections, one vet said her ears were built to be infected, she has no cruciate ligament in her left knee but a cheap orthosis and duct tape keeps it together, so good actually that the vet was amazed and said I don’t know how You do it but continue with what ever it is 🙂 🙂 and she also has cancer but a “kind” one that mostly behaves like a fatty lump. It does spread bout so slowly that she won’t have any problems with it for as long as she has left. Then again she doesn’t seem to slow down especially much so who knows how log she’ll stay after all 🙂 🙂
With age she has become really fuzzy with what she will eat, can’t blame her 🙂 So at the moment she only eats boiled chicken and rice but allows me to also put in some of the dog food the other ton eat as well, not too much though because then she’ll refuse to eat anything 🙂 🙂 🙂 She also always wait to start to eat her food until she sees the two other is almost finished with theirs, she knows they aren’t allowed to touch her food (I stay close though because both Malkolm and Alma wouldn’t hesitate to push her away and eat her food themselves). She also takes her time to eat it and the other two stays close drooling until she’s had enough 🙂 🙂 🙂
She has never been a cuddly dog so the few times she has lately I’ve had a hard time sleeping because I always fear that that’s her good bye 🙂 🙂 🙂 So today they’ve all had some grilled chicken and they will all also have some extra treats (she will of course get more than the others but it can’t be shown, my life is really tricky 🙂 🙂
We had a really nice morning today, rather cool and lots of fog and it lasted until I arrived at work. I brought a camera with me so I have a few photos to show today. One of the red spots was about to become a scab so I showed it as soon as I could and it didn’t take long before it started to form a scab, so i went home as they had told me to. I hope this is the last one so I can go to work again as soon as it falls off. I feel quite good but am rather tired and I guess that’s because of thew chickenpox.
I went by the grocery store to fill up the fridge and pantry since I won’t be able to go there while I’m still contagious, thankfully there was almost no one there when I arrived so I didn’t give this to someone else. I’m feeling ok though so I hope this will pass quickly. They managed to fix the problem at work though so they’ll start working tomorrow so someone else will have to do my work until I’m back again.
I was lucky that these cranes were walking around in a place where I could see if cars came behind me so early that there wasn’t any risk of a car crash just because I had stopped my car.
We had a walk as soon as I came home and it has been pretty warm when the fog finally evaporated. A bit too warm for Nova so we walked in the forest where the trees gave a nice and cool shadow. It is quiet out there now, no bird song but the tweeting we can hear until next spring and oddly enough no flies there either, perhaps their season is over now? one can always hope.
Malkolms rebellious period continues 🙂 Yesterday I realized that he has bitten a hole in the sofa cushion (I have one big on the entire sofa) from beneath, I realized that when I wondered what that white stuff on the floor was 🙂 Not a big hole so it can easily be repaired but still. Also today my neighbors texted me with a photo of him walking around in their garden (I’m so lucky I have the best neighbors one can have!). He did come back when I called the first time, the second time however he really didn’t want to because they were changing diaper on their youngest 🙂 🙂 So they too tried to make him jump back but he just didn’t want to. He didn’t come back home until I sounded really angry 🙂 🙂 🙂
Also Alma is in heat but thankfully he shows no interest what so ever, I don’t want to neuter him until he’s a year old. So hold You thumbs and cross You fingers that it stays that way 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think it’s time to have something to eat but no more tea, I’m tired of waking up in the middle of the night now 🙂 🙂 🙂
This day has been so slow! I’ve been able to do what I wanted to do and have had lots to do as well, still this day has been slow as cold molasses 🙂 We’ve been waiting for the rain and thunder to arrive but today it never did. Well I did hear some thunder at work, at least I think it was thunder but there were also some people up on the factory roof working and at one time it sounded more like they dropped something really heavy 🙂 I also hear the thunder once when I came home but it was from far away.
We had morning mist here in the village when I drove to work. I was already a bit late already from the start and it didn’t help that I stopped here and there to take some misty photos on the road to work 🙂 I made it just in time thankfully but I missed my morning coffee. I stopped drinking coffee for a while because my stomach got upset, well more upset than it usually was. Then we found out that I couldn’t eat gluten, my stomach became much better and now I dare to drink a cup of Cappuccino each morning, so far so good 🙂
We are supposed to kill all Lupines we can find in nature because they are invasive, they have even created a special day when everyone is supposed to go outside and remove them. The problem is that we love our Lupines so no one touches them 🙂 🙂 🙂
NO attempt from Alma to dig her way out of the dog yard today but I found evidence that she had tried after I went to work after getting the summer tires on. So I blocked it and put new obstacles in the way. This does not mean she’s given up, she’s just biding her time, checking out eventual weaknesses and will most likely try again soon. I was supposed to measure the length of the fence today so I can get what I need to repair the fence but now I can’t fine my tape-measure. I used it a few days ago and I was pretty sure I knew where I had placed it but no I didn’t 🙂 I had even borrowed tools from work to fix some things today so I guess I’ll need to do the same tomorrow, including a tape-measure 🙂
More from Falköping. The streets around the town square.
The original church that stood here almost a thousand years ago is actually still there, it’s built in to the “new” and bigger one.
Even Alma has figured out how to get the treats out of the little bottles I place in the dog yard every morning now so I better come up with something else soon, a few treats only keep her occupied for so long after all. I did have an amazing toy like that but old Sune, a dog who liked his treats for himself dug it down somewhere in the garden 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll need to buy something similar. I do have one in the kitchen but it’s been put away fro a while. looks like a turtle with a see through cover. It is supposed to be pushed by the dogs and the treats will sort of pop up through a hole in the back. Alma never got that one but happily stole the treats from Albin who to my very big surprise understood it after a few minutes and he wasn’t the brightest star in the sky 🙂 🙂 I’ll put it back on the floor as soon as Malkolm is big enough to at least get a few treats as well 🙂
The red house to the left is actually for sale.
Alma and Malkolm is playing wildly at the moment, they’r running in and out of the cottage, up the stairs to me, run back out and chase each other like crazy. Even Alma seems to be on the edge of what she can managed and not collapse 🙂 🙂 🙂 I hope that means I’ll get just as good nights sleep tonight as I had yesterday, they were playing just as much yesterday as the’re doing now 🙂 🙂 🙂 Unfortunately Alma just decided that she would go on a hike by herself to the other side of the little lake behind my garage to eat wild hog poop, it’s a gift she has, to sort of ruin the fun they had and have a breath that smells horrible 🙂
Cratageus of some kind.
Sibylla sell hotdogs, hamburgers and other things like schnitzel. They were here before the big hamburger chains moved in and to be honest they are so much better.
If You want me to calculate how much more expensive our petrol is compared to Yours I’ll do it. This was the last photo of Falköping for this time. And if You wonder why there were almost no people in the photos it’s because Falköping is more or less dead until the shops open around 10 am 🙂
It’s time to prepare something to eat at work tomorrow, I think I’ll save that chicken I bought for next week instead 🙂 I’ll see what I can find in the freezer and put together something from that 🙂
The first buds on the lilacs. I really don’t like lilacs but have a hedge almost 30 meters long (much the same in yards) and two big Hungarian lilac bushes outside my bedroom. The photos today are a mix from today and yesterday.
I am the secretary in the Road association board (sounds fancy doesn’t it 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) for our village so it is my responsibility to send out the invitations to our annual meeting. I remembered that yesterday so I started up the old laptop I have for that and when I wrote down the password it didn’t work!!
I was totally sure about that password to the laptop because I wrote it down on a piece of paper and left it in the laptop 🙂 🙂 It didn’t matter how many times I wrote it down and even though I knew it was the right word I even tried to write some variations with small and big letters. I think I had tried thirty times and then suddenly it allowed it?! I was thinking that I would have to write don the invitations by hand so it might have felt my desperation when it finally opened up 🙂 🙂
I once bought a printer for this once in a year job and it has always worked oddly enough, the one I had before always did the most off things, like only allow me to print out text if I used the red color 🙂 🙂 🙂 This one only have black and is some kind of powder and always works. This time however it smelled like there was an electrical fire inside of it 🙂 🙂 One year with dust burning away when the printer gets warm does that 🙂 🙂 🙂
They have for once been very careful when they’ve placed all the twigs and branches in piles after they thinned out the forest, they were very careful to not damage the crabapple tree beside the road.
So I had to deliver all invitations on my way to work this morning and therefore I had to stop at each and every mailbox, the thing is only house owners get an invitation, not renters and some villagers have passed away, some moved and I have no idea in which homes they live in or if the new ones bought the homes or are renting. So I was pretty soon a bit late to work even though I started earlier 🙂 🙂 I also had to drive to the castle because the owners do own land in the village, the only thing is that few mail boxes are marked properly so I have no idea if I put the invitations in the right boxes 🙂 🙂 🙂
It didn’t help that I also took a few photos on my way but I made it in time to work, I even managed to have a cup with machine made cappuccino, well it almost taste like it but the machine really do the milk in a perfect way. Besides that it has been really nice. The sun will continue to shine and even though a cold front will pass by during the weekend it still will be around 20C (68F) and sunshine during the days. They are also guessing that some rain might pass by but it will only be showers. I don’t mind some rain but then again it might be a good idea if we didn’t get more in a while, this year will otherwise be a mosquito paradise, it has already started.
It is time to cook some food for work tomorrow and then mail the last invites for the meeting. Now days we all enjoy these meetings but just a few years back they were horrible 🙂 🙂 This meeting is only about the road and nothing but the road but back then we had some people who always would bring up every feud there ever was in the village and everyone would shout at each other 🙂 🙂 🙂 They had all lived together in this village their entire lives so they knew every weakness the others had, they never even dared to talk to me about anything because I was an outsider and they knew nothing about me but also knew I’ve been told everything about them 🙂 🙂 🙂
Perhaps two meters of my Lilac hedge, the smell will be horribly strong.
If You want Tulips that comes back year after year buy wild tulips (the species). The bulbs You buy from modern varieties are rarely surviving more than one year. They also grow well outside flower beds.
The first strawberry flower to open up.
This is a Violet that has been growing here since long before I moved here. Have no idea what kind it is and it was gone for a couple of year but yesterday I found it in a lot of places again 🙂
Today I’ll show photos I’ve taken on my way to work so some can be a few days old but also some from today.
So it wasn’t Alma who had stolen the meat, it was all my fault even though it actually happened because of keeping it away from her 🙂 🙂 I was going to do something and it wouldn’t take long so I thought I just place it high. Like always things that won’t take a long time usually does 🙂 I have two window sills in every window and in this window I have one rather high up but at the moment no plants there. So I reached up and placed the meat there 🙂 🙂 🙂 One can’t see that window sill because the drapes hang low so even when I looked “everywhere” I couldn’t see it and had forgotten that all those pots now stood outside on the north side of the cottage 🙂 🙂 🙂
One the other hand today I once again got a call from my neighbor, Alma was outside the dog yard again and this time Malkolm had followed. My neighbor told the two of them to follow him to my garden and blocked the gate. He then called me and when he had he noticed that Malkolm sat beside his feet 🙂 So he let him in again and made sure the gate was properly blocked. Alma wouldn’t leave Malkolm all alone so he thought he could relax a bit before he had to go away for a while.
I came home not long after that and heard Malkolm in the garage and thought he must have told me wrong where Malkolm was because Alma was outside the dog yard again 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I placed them both (and Nova even though she would have been happy to be anywhere as long as Malkolm was busy with Alma. So I went to check where she had escaped through and turned around and there he was, Malkolm, by my feet 🙂 🙂 I had the same thought as my neighbor so I took him back to the garden again. For some reason I looked back towards the gate when I was going to fix the fence, she had managed to remove a huge log that I tied to the fence with thick electric cables, she had worked hard on those from the morning when I checked everything in the dog yard until my neighbor called.
So when I turn around I saw that Malkolm knows how to climb over a fence 🙂 🙂 🙂 When I saw that I remembered that I said that it was so nice to once again have a dog that loved to use his brain 🙂 🙂 🙂 So how long will it take when he’s grown up to be able top climb over the well over two meter (much the same in yards) high fence around the dog yard 🙂 🙂 🙂 The log by the way is now #tied” together with the fence with a really thick steel wire so now we’re guessing how long it will take until she manages to remove that, should be impossible but if any dog can it will be Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂
Well what ever I sowed there last year will most likely never see the light of the day unless it in some way has managed to be covered with enough wet sand and then grow up elsewhere.
I think it might be a joined work between these two 🙂
Otherwise it’s been a rather wonderful day, not hot but not chilly either. Lots of sunshine but also lots of clouds. I’ve re-potted some of the Guava seedlings, they are now placed outside as well. I had planned on mowing the lawn tomorrow but they’re guessing it will be a bit rainy. I have however a long weekend now so no more work until Monday. Malkolm will also get his second vaccine shot on Friday and I’m already worrying about Alma 🙂 It will not be especially warm so I might have to bring her with us and then Nova can relax here at home without being disturbed by wild playing between Alma and Malkolm, she deserves that the old Lady 🙂
I managed to break off one of the small branches on the Apricot tree I bought this year. I have no idea if this works but I put it in moist soil and put a plastic bag over it. I have done this with an apple twig once and it grew roots on its own. Those apple trees becomes very weak and usually dies with a few years. The Prunus family is know for spreading easily with their roots so who knows it might work. I’ll keep You updated weather it goes well or not.
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 🙂
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!
One from the Voigtländer Bessamatic, taken around a year ago.
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.
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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.
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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 🙂 🙂 🙂
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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.
It snowed a lot on my way home after work yesterday, even after I had come home but I still didn’t get a photos with falling snow and most of it had melted away by the time we came out on our walk. I must admit that it did annoy me a bit, photos with falling snow can look really nice.
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What I didn’t know was that it was going to snow even more after I’ve gone to bed, so I woke up to a white world and I must admit that it annoyed me even more 🙂 🙂 I was lucky though because the snow was easy to remove from the car but a rather unlucky because the roads were shining with a smooth surface of very slippery ice. Took forever to get to work.
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The day has been rather nice though and time away at work so I really can’t complain too much. It was enough warm again today so almost all of it had melted away before I came home. We’ll get more snow tomorrow night and the night after that but the days will be warm enough to melt it away. They say that the spring warmth will return just before Easter, I do hope they’re right!
This morning on my way to work.
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The “mail box” I thought I saw stood at the end of this road and I had much the same light.
Yesterday morning when I drove on the forest road I noticed something, far ahead, that sort of looked like a big mail box. Sort of brownish-black and it didn’t make sence to have a mail box there because the closest house are at least 500 meters (much the same in yards). I drove fairly slowly so it took some time to get close to it. It wasn’t a big mailbox, it was probably the same wild hog that I thought was a little bear some weeks ago 🙂 🙂 🙂
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It is time to sit down in my recliner, it is so comfortable that I fear I won’t get up from it when it is time to go to bed 🙂 🙂 Alma and Albin aren’t happy though, they both want to get up and sit in my lap but I refuse, this recliner is mine and mine alone 🙂 🙂
The Cottage by the crane lake. 