The storm Eowyn that killed one person in Ireland yesterday is now going north but thankfully just outside the coast of Norway, it seems however that we still will get the rain. The wind is blowing hard but nothing to what it would have been if it had passed over us. They say it will have passed by tomorrow.

Sorry but I have come to really and truly hate this editing program, now it reduces the size of the photos but the photos still contains up to 20MB. So no more photos today I’m afraid.

Otherwise it has been a sort of nice day despite the wind, we even almost had sunshine this morning, it shone through very thin clouds most of the time but it did make it nicer and brighter. Yesterday wasn’t especially nice either but I was mostly driving around all the time until noon. Since it is so expensive to spay the dogs now days I need an alternative so I went to the vet and had a talk with him.

The only alternative is to chemically neuter Malkolm. I thought there would be something for Alma as well but there isn’t. Like for cats there are pills. The reason that I don’t feel especially happy about the chemical one is that it can give tumors in the long run and I’ve had enough of that when it comes to my dogs. Some kind of treatment for Alma would have been better since it then also would protect against uterine inflammation, a nasty disease! The vet however thinks she’s too young yet to get it thankfully. The thing is I have the money but if something else happens, like the car breaking down I most likely wouldn’t afford to fix it and I really need everything working now. So I’ll make an appointment with the vet next week or the week after. I think the shot will last for six months.

Well I guess it is time for that last cup of tea for the day. The old terms that I used yesterday exploded when I opened it this morning, or perhaps imploded is the right word? Well the gas inside it so no shards outside the container. Still a bit annoying but I did find my less old thermos, the kind that keeps the heat for 24 hours without any problem. What do one do with the shards in the old one? The recycling bins aren’t especially well adapted tp receive small shards and I can’t put it in the normal trash. I’ll figure it out somehow I think 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

It is getting warmer by the minute now and strong warm winds helps to melt away the snow. The only thing I’ll miss from this is how clean the floors have been 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I’m never in a hurry when coming to put up or install new things in my home, in fact people who knows me are more stressed than I ever can become 🙂 🙂 🙂 My brother has been nagging me to put up and install my “new” computer lately but I haven’t really found and place where it can stand safely from being tossed down by a monster kitten. Today I did however decided that it most likely will stand pretty safe beside the old computer. So there wasn’t much to do to be honest, plug in the power cord, the mouse and new keyboard. Then I started to look for the power button and I looked for quite some time and did press my finger toward something that could be it but nothing happened 🙂 so I had to go out on the net on my old computer to find how to start an iMac 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was that one I had pressed on but not hard enough 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It started to install itself but why do they need answers to all these questions? I mean it is even worse when it comes to PC but still!  Fortunately one can skip until later but sooner or later those questions will pop up again, on my old one they tend to pop up every second week, shouldn’t they have understood by now that I won’t answer them? Now after a lot of skipping questions I can use it. First however I’ll drive my brother nuts by not using it until I’ve figured out how to install an antivirus program I have from my internet delivery/ phone company and since I won’t stress anything I’ll most likely take few days to do that 🙂 To be honest I’ll just log in to the phone company and down load it and that’s it but it’s a bit fun to stress my brother. I don’t know much about computers but my brother knows even less and he’s thinking of a Mac as well and hope I’ll help him later on 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We had a rather nice morning walk but the weather was a bit sad, the sky was so grey that it managed to depress us all 🙂 🙂 Today however Alma managed to stay quiet almost the entire walk but then again the pulling was really bad but I’m happy with struggling with one thing at a time 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea and then some tv watching. First I’ll watch a science program and after that I’ll most likely start watching our Oscars’ Guldbaggegalan or in English The Golden Beetle Gala.

   

Have a great day!

I saw the sunrise from my kitchen window before going out on our morning walk but by the time we came out the sky was covered in an evenly grey cloud cover. Still the day felt brighter than the other grey days we’ve had so far. We had a cold night and some misty rain now and again so the ground looks like it is glaced with glass 🙂

     

Beside being out with the dogs I’ve done very little today. I’ve done almost the last on the clay thing, just a few more things and then it’s finished. I had huge problems downloading my photos though, it took over an hour and even when it had downloaded them they still couldn’t be seen, just like icons 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had to turn off the computer and start it again to be able to see them. This isn’t the first time this happened and it takes longer and longer. I’m not sure if it is a small problem or if this will spread to other things as well.

   

Today we really can’t be without computers in our life, at least if we once started to do our banking through it. Our banks have come so far that they refuse to handle money almost entirely. So I went out online to a business that sells refurbished computers and mobile phones. I have bought all my phones and computers via that business for lots of years and those computers have lasted for as long as one can expect. I think I’ve had this one for five years now. So they go through every computer they buy in, mostly from businesses that has closed down or bankrupted so they all work really well.

     

So I took a look, normally Mac’s have been nasty expensive compared to the rest but since lots of businesses wants to look like they already have loads of money they’ve bought Macs’ so now those can be bought rather cheap as well. So I ordered a stationary Mac with a 21 inch screen and since I know the keyboard is different on Macs’ I ordered one of those too. To be honest I really can’t afford that now but I must know I’ll be able to pay my bills 🙂 When I was paying for it I finished and then I got a message that something went wrong so I did it again and now I’ve ordered two computers 🙂 🙂 I’ve messaged the business to delete one of the orders.

     

I’ve just had my last cup of tea for the day, had one too late yesterday evening and had problems falling asleep. The joy of getting old 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

Have a great day!

The same weather yesterday and most parts of today so I really haven’t much to write about neither yesterday or today. We did however get sunshine in the afternoon, just before the sun was about to set for the day 🙂 🙂 We’ve been in the garden every now and again but the dogs only ate some left over apples and then went indoors again 🙂 🙂

     

We went out to the bog (yesterday down to the creek) but I didn’t take many photos, the grey and dull weather sort of dampens ones will to take photos but I have plenty of older ones so I can fill up as many blogs as I wish for 🙂 🙂

   

So these two days have been a bit boring to be honest, we did have some pancakes the animals and I and that’s always nice and we’ve had our walks but nothing more. I have actually bought myself another christmas present, a 900 grams (around two pound) Quality street chocolate tin box 🙂 Last year I bought the 2,5 kilo (around five pound) box but I couldn’t recognize the company that sold those so I took a smaller one this time. The odd thing is that it’s actually a computer business that sell them 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It’s my favorite candy and I actually have character enough to not open it until christmas eve, the big day at christmas here in Sweden and I can also proudly say that it took a couple of months to finish the big box 🙂 I don’t have many memories with my father in them but he was a sailor and every time he had been to Great Britain he came back with one of those boxes 🙂 They are hard to find here so every christmas I buy one for myself 🙂 I always plan to use those tin boxes when the candy is gone but so far I’ve never done that, instead I have loads of tin boxes in the cupboards 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I’m not hungry after the pancakes ans I don’t have anything else than clementines so I’ll just have that tea today 🙂

Have a great day!

I’ve just realized that I had forgotten to post this yesterday 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’m now sure it is a wolf around, no I haven’t seen any but Alma always walk with her tail up no matter how stressed she is on our walks, today it hang straight down and she was not happy at all to be out walking in the forest, plus yesterday evening both she and Malkolm refused to run around in the garden when it want dark, instead they stayed close to the entrance. Malkolm barked out in to the darkness as well and that’s nothing he does when I’m with them.

     

I texted my neighbors so they wouldn’t let their little dog outside unleashed just in case. I need to find all the batteries I’ve bought so that I can place my wildlife camera outside or I’ll need to buy new ones soon before the wolf walks elsewhere. I will most likely get any photo of it but perhaps a badger before they start their sleep during winter. But with my luck it’ll just take photos of all the cats living nearby 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I’ve started to remove the peel around the walnuts that has fallen down, I should have bought some rubber gloves because that color one gets on the hands stays for a long time 🙂 🙂 There are still two more hanging in the tree but in total I’ve gotten twenty walnuts this year, last year it was seven I think 🙂 I looked at the other one I have and the two small stems that has grown up from the roots of the dead tree looks just fine. I still hope for a mild winter since I have no idea how hardy the original tree was.

     

I think I better try and find those batteries so I can put up the camera before it gets dark outside, today the sun will set at 4:14 pm.

     

Have a great day!

So today I had to say farewell to Nova. She was never the one to give up but today she finally had to. Not bad hanging around for over 18 years though and even though this was expected 

I’ll take a few days off now but will soon be back again..

I really hope that the cold peaked last night, between that and Alma’s bad stomach I didn’t get much sleep plus the fever made me either boil or freeze 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today I have mostly sneezed and I think that I prefer that but every time I sneeze, being sick or not, a tap in the nose opens up in full 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

We never came out on a walk, it felt like I would challange both the cold and my health a bit too much 🙂 That was too bad though because we had a really nice morning mist here and the air felt clean and crisp because once again we were close to frost.

 

The rest of the day we’ve had sunshine and 20C (68F) so the kitchen door has mostly been open. Every now and again I have been forced to close it because Malkolm tends to jump over the fence over to my neighbors and that’s ok if they are at home but they work and then he has continued out on the road and in to the swamp behind the dog yard. Who knows for how long he’ll continue if either I or my neighbors call him in? I once had two wanderers here, Orvar and Hector but Hector didn’t like to be alone and Orvar preferred to meet humans so that was easier 🙂

     

We’ll have the same weather tomorrow so I hope I feel much better so I can go to the grocery store, I really need that now. I could have asked my neighbor to do it since she works in a super market but I also need to pick up a package. I really need to get some edible gluten free cookies 🙂 🙂 🙂 There’s a German brand, I never remember the name, that only sell tasty ones and they have that in a grocery store in Falköping 🙂

Have a great day!

It has been pouring down here all day with only a few short moments when it only drizzled. None of us have liked to be outside for more than just a few minutes, not even Malkolm who now seems to like going out in the rain. It has been fairly warm though so when we had a short nap I had the window open (and still have) in my bedroom and could hear birds singing in the rain singing from the open window and the sound of rain hitting the closed window on the other side of the cottage 🙂

I did bake bread today but I doubt that the dew mixed with so much rain water still had any powers, so I had to use tap water instead 🙂 🙂 I actually don’t mind it raining today because yesterday I planted all seedlings I still had in the mini greenhouse. Slugs had started to eat them so I thought it best to just plant them and hope for the best 🙂 Oddly enough neither the slugs nor the snails eat any of the peas, chard, Japanese kale or iceberg lettuce in the vegetable patch?! Something however is eating my beans and those were the one thing I really wanted to be successful this year 🙂 🙂 🙂

One of the more pleasant beings we have is the Källrå, hard to translate but she’s a water nymph that lives in spring lakes/tarns (Tjärn) , creeks.  The Källrå is the ruler of her own spring and if one gives her a sacrifice/ gift she can make the water heal any disease. She usually stays hidden though. The lake that once was just beside where my cottage now stands and now is a bog, is a spring lake,( they tried several times back in the days to empty it but it was always filled up again even though there was no rain, so there is still a small part of the lake way out in the bog), so who knows if there’s a Källrå at the little tjärn my dogs and I visit so often 🙂

Mostly they don’t mind if one takes a sip of water from the spring but in some places, called free springs, they demanded a sacrifice otherwise they would become sick or be struck by bad luck for quite some time. If one would collect water to bring home one should only do so in daylight because one could never know what could follow since most beings were outside when it was dark. If one would happen to see an unusually big frog or toad by the spring it would most likely be the Källrå, she rarely showed herself in her natural form. One could also sometimes be able to see ones future if looking at the reflections in the water but it was important to not look for too long because if one did she could steal the reflection and by doing so also ones soul. I really need to start collecting pieces of silver because that can really help while being outside in the nature 🙂 🙂

     

It is time to have a last cup of tea and perhaps a sandwich as well and perhaps look after things made of silver here at home, I think I have an old silver tea spoon somewhere 🙂

Have a great day!

 

Today is the day and by now they’ve already danced around the midsummer pole. Now days it’s only for the small kids but back in the day it was important for most people since there weren’t that many chances to have a good time, almost all day were work days. So in the early morning, if the Midsummers pole is big, later if it is small they go out to put it together and dress it. It is usually made looking like a huge cross but can have different looks depending on where one live, Midsummers pole,click on the link and You’ll see plenty of photos of what they look like. So the poles are dressed with twigs with leafs and usually lots of flowers. If You have a bit of a dirty imagination You’ll immediately see what it looks like 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

Around noon the dancing starts, we dance to the merry songs The little frog, We are musicians from Skaraborg (the region I live in 🙂 and The priests little crow, all with special movements included. Here’s a link to YouTube showing the little frogs,  Little frogs , this video also includes the following verse the little pigs 🙂 To be honest these people doesn’t move too much to be honest 🙂 When the dancing is done and everyone has been resting for a while the eating starts. WE Swedes are usually very traditional when it comes to what we eat at holidays, so we eat the same things every time 🙂 Usually there’s at least five or six different kinds of pickled herring, I can’t for my life understand how anyone can eat it but Swedes are obcessed with it. Also we do of course have pickled salmon and smoked salmon. Never forget the meatballs and prince sausages for us who hates herring, I think we might be ten people in the entire country 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now days we even have ham but it’s usually more light things we have  like oven omelets with chanterelle stew. I must admit though that barbecuing has become more and more popular thankfully 🙂

   

Then later at night if one wants to know ones future, perhaps see with whom one will marry, one should go out and pick seven to nine (depending on where one lives) different flowers and at the same time climb over just as many fences, all while staying quiet of course. The flowers will then be put under the pillow and one will dream about the future spouse. If You want to stay healthy all winter long it is important to collect as much dew that one can and keep it in glass jars. The best thing is to put it in the yearly bath (well we do have baths more often now days but do it while being sick or at the last bath  before Christmas. One can also pour some in a glass and drink it but make sure the jars are really clean because the dew will stay in there for quite while and god knows what will start to live in there during that time. Another way, especially for children, to keep healthy for the rest of the year was to roll around in the dew totally naked to sort of soak up the power the dew has that night. One could also pour the dew in the dough while baking and it sounds as if one needed to start baking bread very early in the morning because one had to collect it through dragging a cloth over the grass and then wring it out over the dough.

   

All animals could talk with humans during the night towards Midsummers day, so if one treat ones animals well it could be fun to have a chat with them I think 🙂 This was also possible on the night towards Christmas day. In some places they even gave the House gnome porridge, like everyone did during Christmas but that was unusual. There was also a way to see who would die soon and what ones own life would be like but since that could go very wrong I won’t teach You how 🙂 It did however include walking backwards around a cemetery three times during midnight but if one had the bad luck to meet the Grim …..

    

Personally I’ve enjoyed this day by having a somewhat late morning walk. We were supposed  to have sunshine already from when the sun rose, I gave up at around eight am and that was when the clouds slowly broke up and by the time we came home the clouds were all almost gone. After that it has been a rather warm day with no wind so the garden has been filled with mosquitoes and once again that attacked my ancles but now I don’t feel it itching any more. Lots of forest flies as well but my mosquito hat saved me from them 🙂 We also had a long nap and after that I had a small lunch, four halves of, well not french rolls but similar gluten free ones, put in the oven with a layer of butter on. After that I sliced meatballs, tomatoes, some iceberg lettuce from my own garden and a slice of Cheddar cheese. One feel more full after eating the gluten free rolls (but oh what I miss the “real” ones) so that was actually enough as a lunch 🙂 

It’ll rain a lot tomorrow they’re guessing, up to an inch if they have gotten it somewhat right. They have changed that guess several times so far so it might not come anything at all or perhaps snow, who knows 🙂 🙂 🙂 So if the weather is rainy I’ll start to bake some bread, we have so much dew here that I think I can skip normal water (or milk as I usually use) totally 🙂 If You so wish I can continue to write about our beings.

I wish You all an enjoyable Midsummer!

 

 

I’m running a bit late so just a short post to say hi and hope things work better tomorrow 😀 I was just watering the vegetables when the hose broke so I had to do it with a water pitcher instead and I will have to continue to do so until at least Monday when I can buy a new one.

Alma has escaped the dog yard twice this week, today she didn’t even start close to the fence, she started half a meter (much the same in yards) away from the fence, dug her way down beneath the net I had dug down and out on the other side. I do love that girl but she is a bit much at the moment 😀😀

Malkolm was smart, together with Nova to stay in the dog yard/ house/ old garage. I have no idea what I’ll have to do to make that big stupid and rather wonderful dog to make her stay where she’s supposed to be 😀

See You all tomorrow again 😀

We’ve had a really nice day here. Sunshine all day and just enough warm to have the kitchen door open all day. It has also been a bit windy but the wind has been lukewarm and just enough strong to keep the flies and mosquitoes away but not so strong that it was unpleasant to be outside.

We went down to the creek and in to the forest this morning. Birds were tweeting and Alma behaved really well. Some Jays started to scream like crazy but I guess that is what Jays do best, their Swedish name would be Nut Screamer in English and well the name says what they do, scream like nuts 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve started to dig up my own potatoes now, we still haven’t had any frost so I’ll just take up enough for a week at a time now. The sowing potatoes I bought were quite small so now I mostly pick up a few but rather big ones. New varieties for me but they taste good enough so I’ll but the same ones next year. They are both resistent to almost all things that can hit a potato so the risk of getting bad ones are minimal.

Unlike so many vegetables today potatoes doesn’t suffer by not looking good enough. Nowdays they grow vegetables that look good but quite often taste really sad, that’s nothing that seems to have hit the potatoes yet, instead even though the new ones are resistant to most pests they still taste rather good.

I’ve also napped and done the rest of the laundry. WE had pancake Saturday yesterday so I didn’t feel like making any today and I still haven’t made any dinner so I think I might skip it 🙂 I’ll have hard bread with blue cheese and ham instead 🙂

Have a great day!