Category: Walks.

A very polite hunting dog :-)

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Today would have been so great if it hadn’t been for the biting cold eastern wind. The sun has been shining all day and if the wind has been coming from almost any other direction my garden would have been wind free, instead it has hit us hard all day except for in the morning when we had our morning walk 🙂

A fox and a hare have been walking on the frozen creek.

Alma tried really hard to behave and I think she would have been really successful in doing so if it hadn’t been for that hunting dog 🙂 It isn’t that long ahead in the future that Alma will be in heat, in fact I think she just might have started and he was smooch more interested in her than any hunt 🙂 🙂 🙂  I have to say that he was very polite and kind though, he started by greeting Malkolm and then Alma. Alma was very happy to meet him as well but when he showed a bit too much interest she barked at him and he walked away.

Not for long though, he returned a few more times with the same result from Alma and the guy knew he wouldn’t stand a chance today 🙂 🙂 🙂 Alma was a bit all over the place after that for quite some time but eventually she did calm down. It wasn’t any from “our” hunting guys so I guess he must have come from the castles grounds. So since the hunting season continues until late February (wild hogs and foxes can be hunted longer though) this might happen again 🙂 and as long as the dogs are as polite as this one there’ll be no problems from me 🙂

There he goes the very polite hunting dog 🙂

I checked the web site that sold those heart nuts to me and they said the heart nuts must spend two months in cold surroundings, so I brought five pots outside to the green house, the sixth one is still sort of semi floating but I’ll give it a couple of days more to sink down before I bring that one outside as well. Normally I sow seeds that needs a cold period in damp paper and put them in a plastic bag and in to the fridge but these are so big that I for once put them in soil directly. This was good news for me because it gave me so much space to place other seeds I’ve sown (walnuts of any kind need high and deep pots because of their taproots and it’s really important not to disturb those roots or break them.

So now I’m thinking of sowing melons, I’ve already sown tomato seeds, Tamarillo, guava and two different Passionfruit seeds and I also have Chinese dogwood in a plastic bag waiting plus raisin tree seeds in the fridge. I’ve always failed with melon seeds because they do need a greenhouse to grow here but I’ve tried them in the sunniest and warmer spot I have outside but as I said always failed. Now I have that greenhouse so if I fail this time I will give up 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that the Swedish part of the Eurovision Song Contest will start today. I don’t have high hopes since they rather tend too have famous YouTubers, tiktokers and anything else than trying to have good artists competing.

I haven’t seen my neighbours chickens in weeks because they refuse to go outside if they don’t like the weather 🙂

Have a great day!

I’ve picked up my car.

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So they texted me long after they had closed that my car was fixed. I didn’t mind since I had the car I could borrow anyway so I went there this morning to pick it up. The exhaust pipe wasn’t broken thankfully but the seals where the different parts of the exhaust fume pipes were stuck together had given up so they just put in new ones. So it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, just an arm 🙂 🙂 So a new spring for the front wheel, two bulbs and the seals costed around $ 900 US ( tricky to know exactly at the moment since the US $ has lost so much value lately but somewhere around there I would guess).

So I paid without crying 🙂 🙂 and went out to my car. It was so slow, like driving in fudge. The guy who had repaired my car had mashed a rookie mistake, never use the handbrake on a French car during winter 🙂 🙂 🙂 It will freeze stuck and must be brought inside to be knocked off the brake disc 🙂 🙂 Only took a few minutes and now the handbrake will rest until this winter is over 🙂 🙂 🙂 I stopped twice on my way home, once at a big grocery store in Falköping to get some jam for pancakes I’ll make later and a second time to pick up a parcel.

I have an incinerator toilet, no water used in it with other words, and need paper bags where everything goes before I “flush” the toilet so everything drops down and gets burned in a very high temperature. The odd thing is that the chimney from it just gets lukewarm. I’ve never been able to figure out how they can cool down that hot air so good that I only need to have a plastic chimney. It works and that’s the only thing that matters 🙂

I’ve started to sow those heart nuts now and went online to check something about the sowing. I never look at the AI suggestions google put at the top of every search but something caught my eye. AI said the nuts was supposed to be placed warm?! That’s not what I’ve learned.So I went out into the wonderful world called internet and finally had to admit that I might be wrong about keeping them cold before they germinate. The places I found said keep warm, so now I’ll keep them warm for a couple of weeks to see if anything will happen. There are always easy to remember general rules when it comes to sowing. If the seeds comes in early summer they’ll need warm weather to germinate, if they come in autumn they’ll need a period of cold.

There’s always exceptions to this rule and some seeds can work both ways. So if a seeds falls to the ground but surroundings aren’t good they can lie all summer and wait for next spring and germinate when there’s enough water and warmth, but it’ll then only work if they’ve gone through a cold period and not been collected and stayed indoors all winter. Some should have it warm but just refuse to germinate anyway and then a cold period will help them to start and vice versa . So I’ll keep these nuts warm as I wrote for a few weeks and see what will happen, we still have much winter ahead of us unfortunately.

It is time for a cup of tea I think and after that I’ll make some pancakes 🙂

Have a great day!

By the way, this is how my Kaki (Diospyrus kaki) fruit seedlings look like now

We might get sunshine tomorrow :-)

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I was so tired when. I woke up this morning around 5 am that after the dogs had been outside I went back to the bed and slept for two more hours, that’s very unusual for me. Normally I just gets up and starts with the food for us all. I would have guessed that I had a cold but no it doesn’t feel like that at all. Perhaps I had nice dreams and wanted to continue with them but I almost never remember what I’ve been dreaming about so I don’t know 🙂

WordPress is acting weird lately, I can only write and post something if I do it in edit mode 🙂 🙂 Have no clue to why but this works as well. So it has continued to snow all night and day and with big flakes but looking at the ground I’ll say we might have gotten two fifths of an inch as most. Almost no wind so the snow hasn’t drifted away with the gusts. There were lots of tracks from different animals and I could see that we’ve had Roe deers passing by the cottage. Also the wild hogs have been almost everywhere but thankfully not close to our homes.

cars have been passing my cottage after it has become dark so I guess there might be hunters out in the forest tonight and when they are here at nights it’s because of wild hogs.  Alma and Malkolm don’t like them so if some are gone our walks will be easier I think. Malkolm have been without the cone of shame for a couple of hours and has behaved really well 🙂 They said that he isn’t allowed to clean himself  ten to twelve days after the surgery but surely the wound should be healed enough after a week? Can’t remember they ever was that strict with all the other dogs I’ve had here.

We might actually have some sunshine both tomorrow and on Tuesday! After that the stronger winds will come back and of course they won’t come from south but north to east. Always nasty winds when they are from east or northeast  except during the summer half year because then they come from the continent where summers can be nasty hot and then I’ll complain about them again 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea but I’ve had enough to eat today so it’ll just be the tea 🙂

Have a great day!

Nasty wind and sowing season has started :-)

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Same nasty wind as yesterday but from a slightly different angle, south east this time and that made the walk so much nicer since it couldn’t reach us most of the way. Still not especially fun weather and both Alma and Malkolm pulled their leashes almost all the way. Well it could have been worse I guess.

After removing the old microwave oven yesterday I have been continuing to clean and declutter my kitchen counter, it was really needed already long ago 🙂 I have to stop temporarily because I need a new bib plastic sack to throw most of what’s on the counter away. No it isn’t hysterically much but I’m waiting for a door food sack to be emptied and I do need to throw other things away as well 🙂

While cleaning up I realised why it was so cold by the little window. The insulation list must have either become worn out which I doubt or it have broken somehow at the bottom of the window. I do have several potted plants standing there so I couldn’t feel the flow of cold air coming in through there. I don’t have any at home so instead I duct taped the window all the way at the bottom of it. Didn’t take long before it felt much warmer and nicer again.

Somewhere beneath that ice and snow there’s a metallic bridge, I didn’t trust that is for a second so we took a detour 🙂

I found the name of two of the cacti/ succulent seeds I found behind the microwave. One is for leaf cacti and the other one is some sort of agave. There’s a number on each little paper bag so I had to go through 44 pages with 48 species/ varieties to find them 🙂 🙂 The three left I’ll assume are cacti and I’ll wait trying to sow them until it is much warmer outside. I have however started to sow Two species of edible passionfruits, a Chinese dogwood, Japanese raisin tree and also lots of Guava seeds. The guava trees I had I killed last winter by over watering them and also keeping them in the cool  cellar, they didn’t like that at all. I’ll also sow seeds from a pink dandelion I once had, well it wasn’t totally pink, it had a yellow center and the rest of the flower was pink.

I guess that normal dandelion seeds would germinate no matter how old they are but this species isn’t that tough, the last ones only lasted three years before they gave up but I’ll give them a chance anyway. I have more seeds I also bought five Heart seed walnuts (Juglans ailantifolia cordiformis) that needs some time in cold weather to start growing. I don’t know why I keep on sowing walnuts because I really have no space for them 🙂 🙂 🙂 I already have a black walnut tree and an English walnut tree, well tree is too much to call it but it is alive and if it makes through this winter I guess it’ll survive in the long run as well 🙂  ) The one moving here the day I’m gone will have some interesting days to figure out all what I have or it’ll be someone who just will cut it all down 🙂 :-).

It is time for a pot of tea and a French roll I think. The last of the meat sauce was eaten today and now I have pork chops slowly thawing in the fridge. It was cheap and a big pack so either I’ll have the same dinner the coming eight days or I’ll have to put some of them in the freezer 🙂

Ravens passed above us and all at the same direction, I guess an animal must have lost its life.

Have a great day!

Windy and cold and the cone of shame.

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Most of the snow is gone but there are a few places it still hangs around, even though it is mostly ice now.

Nasty and cold winds from east but oddly enough not that cold, just below 0C (32F) during the day. Temperatures will drop during the night though. I can say that our morning walk was anything but nice, there was just one place in the forest where the wind didn’t reach us.

I now know that it was the microwave that made the fuse pop because it happened again when I wanted to re-heat the meat sauce today. This time I had fuses though, 21 of them 🙂 🙂 So I decided to put the microwave in the wood shed until I can throw it away. It was old, most likely over 25 years old actually so I wasn’t surprised that it happened. I did not remember how heavy it was though 🙂  When I removed it I found lots of things that had fallen down behind it 🙂 I now have stamps for the rest of my life and also envelopes 🙂 🙂 I also found seed packages that I had forgotten that I once bought. A few more tomato varieties, nasturtium seeds, something I’d picked myself, wild geranium seeds and something I think must be for succulents. The name of the one selling them to me sort of rings a bell about succulents. It’ll be exiting to see if they’ll germinate one day 🙂 🙂 🙂

Malkolm managed to destroy the cone of shame and I duct taped it so it would hold together but then I remembered that I have some old ones that were made to hold together better, slightly different material I think plus it is reinforced all the way round. Thew biggest one is perhaps a bit small but he can breathe so it’ll have to do 🙂 He mostly behaves when he doesn’t wear it but every now and again he wants to clean himself and I fully understand that but it is still not allowed. He behaves as usual so the painkillers work well and he eats anything hidden in cheese 🙂

I think I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day and instead I’ll have hot cocoa, it fits better on a cold and windy day I think.

Have a great day!

The day after the vet visit.

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It hasn’t been as cold as they guessed it would be but anything beneath 10C (50F) is too cold for me 🙂 Well it works with colder degrees as long as the wind doesn’t blow and it hasn’t until now, we have a biting cold eastern wind blowing and it is anything but nice.

So Malkolm went to the vet yesterday to get neutered and all went well. He has inside stitches but is still not allowed to sit down outdoors. I do try to make sure he doesn’t but of course it happens anyway. Also today my neighbour was outside bringing in firewood and both Malkolm and Alma loves my neighbours and the first thing he did was to, with the cone of shame, jump over the fence to say high 🙂 🙂 I thought it would be best to bring him back home through the normal way we all do, go through the gate but as soon as he saw me walking to the gate he jumped back over the fence again 🙂 🙂

Anyway, Alma is a pain in the a..s to walk with but she’s even worse in the car!! Even though she’s attached to the seat belt she still does her best to become a danger by trying to be everywhere at the same time, preferable between me and the steering wheel 🙂 🙂 She was however very confused when we drove back home without Malkolm, she actually laid down and slept for several minutes and after that only whining quietly. When we went back to the vet to pick him up all the vet did was to tell me how they all had fallen in love with Malkolm 🙂 After a while it felt like they wanted him to stay 🙂 🙂 I’m pretty sure they won’t say the same about Alma when it is her time 🙂 🙂 🙂

I Asked them about how much it would cost to do the same job with Alma and guess if I was surprised, it’s a third of what it would cost at my regular vet!!! They said that the nurse at the regular place must have read it all wrong and that the price she said must have been an emergency operation if the dog would have pyomatera. I know the big chains cost a lot but this is a free standing vet station and so is the one we usually go to and that was the only explanation they could give. Well it seems we now have a new vet 🙂 Today I got a parcel that I had to pick up at the grocery store in Gudhem and it is the same road as to the vet. Malkolm wasn’t happy and Alma was back to her usual self. I had to bring them because it’s only a day after the surgery and I couldn’t leave them in the cottage or dog house this soon after.

Malkolm is ok and he’ll have painkillers for four more days. He doesn’t have to have the cone all the time, just when I can’t see him all the time. So no cone while being outside walking and when he’s sleeping in the sofas as long as I can see him. Normal appetite as well but now I’ll have to reduce the amount of food he eats, they say that they usually have a bigger appetite than before and gain weight easier as well. I’ve never noticed any of that with my previous dogs but I’ll keep an eye on him and his weight. Alma had to follow us in to the vet, screaming and whining a lot. The vet said: oh she anxious being here and I said no this is how she is when we’re out walking. She just looked at me 🙂 🙂 So I said that perhaps we could drug her for a while 🙂 🙂 and she said that we can have that discussion later on if I wanted to 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do love that big stupid dog but she is a handful sometimes 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll also have one of the newly baked French rolls I baked this morning. Lots of cheese in them so they are delicious 🙂

Have a great day!

Cold again but at least sunny.

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I had to go to the supermarket this morning because since Malkolm will be neutered tomorrow I don’t want to leave him until he has healed properly. I’m not the least worried he would do anything to the area (I guess there won’t be any stitches that he can try and remove though) but I’m worried Alma won’t leave him alone 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I made sure to have enough at home to last until at least Sunday and I also went in to the big pet store beside the supermarket to buy dog shampoo. (I also bought some fish while I was there, Siamese algea eater) . He was not happy when he had to get a shower I can tell You that 🙂 I had top carry him in to the shower but he didn’t try to escape when he finally was there. He looked like I was about to ritually slaughter him 🙂 🙂 🙂 He wasn’t dirty at allot be honest but it had to be done. I thought dog shampoos smelled better, this one smelled like a bad dish washing detergent 🙂 🙂 🙂

We had a nice walk in the sunshine and even though it actually was quite cold it still didn’t feel that bad, I could even open up my winter jacket. There was no wind what so ever so we have even spent a long time in the garden today. I couldn’t do anything more than to move a pot where I had sowed Alpine aster in to the green house. I did try and move another pot but it had already frozen to the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂

I also baked some French rolls and used the millet flour instead of the Sorghum flour I usually have. They rose so nicely in the beginning but the closer it came to put them in the oven the flatter they became 🙂 🙂 I can still cut them in half like a roll though 🙂 The taste did differ a bit but the taste of nuts sort of vanished this time. So not bad at all but I’ll try something else the next time. I didn’t buy a lot of millet flour because it was anything but cheap but it is fun to try it 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’ll have another one of those rolls as well. Tonight they show our Oscar gala, Guldbagge galan (The Golden Beatle award). I haven’t seen any of the nominated films but they say that this was a good year for Swedish films.

Have a great day!

One more day before it gets cold again, yay

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Mostly grey and dull today, the sunrise that almost happened was really beautiful for a few seconds and then it was gone behind the clouds. I didn’t mind that much because it was at least over 0C (32F). We actually almost saw the sun one more time when there was a rip in the cloud cover.

Yesterday.
Today.
Lots of water yesterday
but less today.

I had to pick up a parcel today, the oat, sorghum and millet flour I ordered online this week since they didn’t order anything to the supermarket had arrived. I actually got the text message on Thursday but decided I could let it be until today. My phone has this thing of if I touch the screen in the wrong way (which I to be honest still doesn’t know how that works) the phone then put that message in the archives. I didn’t even know there was an archive for text messages. I had apparently done that with this message.

Worse in the forest though.

So there I stood in the store and couldn’t for my life remember what shipping company had been used 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully no one else was there and the store owner did what she could to find the parcel anyway. It took well over 15 minutes but then she found it, it stood just by the door 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have now figured out how to find archived messages but I still need to know who the sender is, otherwise it’ll be gone for ever it seems 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I tried to use millet for the first time and I failed something spectacular 🙂 🙂 🙂 I found a recipe online, did exactly as it said but the dough was less thick that what it would be for a sponge cake?? I think, but it didn’t say so in the recipe, that this bread should have been thin but wide. I poured it in to a normal bread tin and that was so wrong. It collapsed already when I put it in the oven 🙂 🙂 🙂 It is edible though and millet has a sort of nut taste to it. I’ll either do the bread in a lower tin next time or I’ll find another recipe 🙂 🙂 I do think it’ll be really great to have now when I’ll have rice pasta and spaghetti sauce after I’m done here.

So I’ll wait with that last cup of tea for the day, I can have some after dinner instead. lots of snow has now melted away and there’s one more day before the colder weather arrives again so I hope most of what is left will melt away before it gets cold again.

Have a great day!

It’s melting but too slow.

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The photos today are old because I didn’t take especially many today since it was slippery and wet everywhere.

I think that the interview went well yesterday so now I’m waiting for an answer that I’ll get on e-mail. If I then would come to the department where the one talking to me work at there’ll be lots of heavy lifting so I hope it helped that I once walked up ladders with 25Kg (55,1pound) boxes  filled with powder paint 🙂

This morning however I realised that I must have Malkolm neutered before I start to work so that I can stay at home while he’s healing. I guess that if I get a job I won’t start working next week but the week after, so I called the vet as soon as they were going to open. Naturally they were closed today (could have been a longer time because they didn’t even have the emergency vet at the moment, So I had to call another vet in Falköping. They have good reviews but it always feel better to go to the usual one. Anyway it’ll happen on Tuesday morning.

This place was cheaper and that doesn’t hurt. I’ll ask what they charge for Alma, my usual wet takes over $ 2700 US and that is at the moment way too much and even if I do get the job it’ll take some time before I dare paying that much money, I really want to have some savings if there’s an emergency of any kind. Perhaps Alma would calm down some when that surgery is done, it can happen but it’s no guarantee that happens.

It is warmer here now and the snow is melting but not fast enough for my liking 🙂 The problem is that the ground is frozen so the water has nowhere to go. I now have a little lake growing on both sides of my gate 🙂 🙂 It will start to get colder again this weekend and on Monday we’ll have below 0C (32F) both day and night again. I do hope it won’t get as cold as last week but February is usually our coldest month. I have at least started to notice that we do have longer days now even though it perhaps is just half an hour or so.

Have a great day!

Finally, it is melting!

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It took its time but now we’ve finally had above 0C (32F) but the day began with mostly snow falling but also some rain. The roads have been rather bad and for once even worse in this village. My neighbour was going to take her children to pre school but had huge problems to even go up the small slope up to the village road. After that it was even worse, so she had to go back home again and can’t work tonight.

Our fox has survived the hunters so far 🙂

I walked up to my mailbox just a few minutes ago and if it doesn’t freeze too hard tonight it’ll be much better when I have to drive around noon tomorrow. I’ll go to a job interview so hold Your thumbs and cross Your fingers for good luck 🙂 Anyway, it had rained before we went out for our morning walk but it turned to snow when we were out. Instead of dry fluffy snow we now have what and slushy snow 🙂 I could get a grip when walking though so I think that was better 🙂

I can’t figure out if this is a track from a piglet or perhaps a small roe deer. I think it is a piglet.

Bot Alma and Malkolm behaved better than they have ever done I think. Well the only thing Malkolm does is to pull the leash because he wants to follow tracks as fast as he can but he does listen when I tell him to calm down, the majority of times 🙂 🙂 Alma is a different thing but today she stayed mostly quiet and also followed Malkolm to see what he thought was so interesting 🙂 So no aching shoulders on me today 🙂 Otherwise I haven’t done much. I baked some French rolls before we went out and I’ve realised that it’s the cheese that make any bread much better. I didn’t have any leftover cheese this time so the rolls sort of missed something 🙂 I also did some laundry just so I have some clean clothes tomorrow 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have another of the rolls I baked because they’re always best the day they’re made 🙂

Have a great day!

Still waiting for those warm temperatures.

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That spruce beside the birches looks like the perfect christmas tree (or Yule spruce as we call it).

Since I knew we would have both snow and rain later in the day I drove to the supermarket as soon as we had some daylight. The road outside the village wasn’t especially well plowed but the big road thankfully was, we had gotten some snow during the night but most of it was already plowed away. No rain so far though but lots of snow, I do hope they’re right about warmer weather is on the way but it is still below 0C (32F) here.

I am a bit irritated about this supermarket now. Since I can’t eat wheat, rye or barley I have to buy other kinds of flour, like sorghum or buckwheat and they were out of most other flours before christmas and they still haven’t ordered them. I guess I’ll have to go to Falköping instead because there’s one place that always make sure to have other kinds of flour. They do have oat flour but as it says on the packet it can contain gluten. Most of the times it doesn’t but sometimes it does and a lot of it as well. So I’ve decided to order it online instead. If I include the gasoline price when I go to the store it will be much the same to have it transported to me.

They did however have everything else I wanted plus I found spare ribs for sale so I forgave them this time 🙂 No more mice caught in the box trap and it sort of feels good since it has been so awfully cold outside. They wouldn’t have had a chance if I had had to leave them outside in this weather. Also since the monster refuse to go outside now she instead wants to go down in to the cool cellar several times a day 🙂 🙂

It is time to make a pot of tea and I’ll have a couple of sandwiches too since I now have something to put on them, You call it condiments we say pålägg which would be onlays in English 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally, it is getting less cold!

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It is slowly but steadily getting less cold now and that makes me smile. Thankfully we had clouds covering the sky during most parts of last night so it wasn’t as cold as they guessed it would be but to cold for me 🙂

So it almost felt warm when we went out for our morning walk today, only -11C (12,2F). No wind and a thick layer of clouds so the whole area sort of had a led grey hue to it.  The wild life had noticed the change towards less cold as well so today we saw lots of tracks in the snow. Mostly wild hogs but also deer, both Roe and red deer and also some moose tracks. The squirrels are to light to make any prints in the hard surface the snow now has (still powdery beneath the surface though) but the foxes were just enough heavy to make paw prints.

We did hear a few smaller birds tweeting close to the village but that was it, no Jays or Ravens made any sounds. A squirrel ran down a pine trunk on the back side of the tree but we could hear it and just had to follow the snow that fell from the surface while the squirrel ran downwards. It felt like walking in a world where only the vegetation was left. Well the whining from Alma sort of destroyed that feeling a bit but she was actually much more quiet than she normally is.

Tomorrow I’ll brush off all snow from the car and go to the supermarket. I really don’t have much left in the larder or the fridge 🙂 I also need seeds for the birds, some birds just don’t like peanuts, especially not those who only comes to the feeders when it’s too hard to find food in the forest like the Bullfinches. To be honest they are rare then to but it looks like both the House sparrow and the field sparrow prefers seeds before peanuts. 

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. If I hadn’t had dinner just an hour ago I woukld have made a couple of sandwiches because I made some French rolls yesterday that almost tasted like normal ones and as always I’ll never recreate them since I just mixed together what ever kind of flour I had. Perhaps one day I should write it all down 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

This must be the most sad looking Thuja in the world. The ground is dry and it never get any sunshine 🙂