Category: Walks.

I wish You all a Good Yule!

· 8 Comments ·

So the important parts of Christmas, or Jul as we call it, is over. I’ve baked gingerbread and failed something spectacular 🙂 🙂 🙂  It’s like eating hard bread and at first they don’t taste much but after a while the mouth is burning, I think there’s just to much ginger in them 🙂 🙂 Still they go down with lots of cold milk 🙂 After that I grilled the ham and had the first slices on a couple of vörtbröd sandwiches 🙂

After that I went out with the catch of the night and guess who had returned for a fourth time? Yes the mouse with the short tail. This time however it was in a bad shape and it didn’t make the trip to where I now let them out again. I guess it takes just too much energy for a small yellow-necked mouse to do those long trips, especially in snow and cold weather. I went back for the dogs so we could have our morning walk.

More snow had fallen during the night and it continued to do so until at least noon. Small tiny flakes so it didn’t add that much to be honest, just enough to cover our tracks from yesterday. Snowy days makes the world very quiet, especially since no one was out driving tractors or cars. We did hear a few birds tweeting and a couple of ravens as well. So when one suddenly hear three big moose running in the forest it will be a bit stressing 🙂 🙂 🙂 The best thing is just to stop and hope they don’t run over you 🙂 🙂 We didn’t see them this time but running moose in a dense forest do make a lot of sound 🙂 🙂

I had a christmas lunch around 1 pm ad it feels like I won’t have to eat anything more this week 🙂 🙂 I didn’t think it was that much but christmas food is anything but light 🙂 I napped in my recliner for a while before Donald Duck and his friends celebrates Christmas (The Wonderful World of Disney). We’ve seen this hour long program at 3 pm every year since 1960 and we know most of it by heart now. It is actually one of the most popular reprograms we have here in Sweden and even though they sometimes makes changes in it we don’t care, not as long as they don’t touch Ferdinand the Bull. Last time they tried to do that and show the ugly duckling instead the complaints were so many that they showed him after the original program and is back again since then 🙂 We Swedes can tolerate a lot but not that 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve had a few of my gingerbreads with lots and lots of cold milk and now I’ll skip the tv and read some book instead and I doubt I’ll have anything more to eat. I will however have that last cup of tea but that’s it.

I wish You all a Good Yule!

I guess it’s ok during Christmas :-)

· Leave a comment ·

They said the chance/ risk, depending on how one look at it, that we in southern Sweden would get a white christmas was slim to none, so I wasn’t especially surprised when I let the dogs out this morning that we had snow on the ground  🙂 🙂 🙂 Also it continued to snow for quite some time and the temperature has dropped so we will have a white Christmas here this year.

I had a parcel waiting for me at the grocery store in Gudhem so I decided that it was best to pick it up before we went out on our morning walk. I had ordered an aquarium book from 1942 so that I would have something to read this christmas plus the fact it is so old that I would be able to read about cold water fish people since long has forgotten about 🙂 I had hoped to find shredded coconut as well because I had forgotten to buy some when I went to the store yesterday. There’s nothing mice seems to like more than shredded coconut. Unfortunately they didn’t have any but it did remind me of potatoes when I saw the last two bags they had 🙂

A sort of a second flowering 🙂
It is actually quite hard to see these huge animals as long as they stand totally still.

This morning the box had trapped three mice! This time a definitely recognised one of them. Some time in its life it had lost a part of its tail so it was easily recognisable. I went out with them before I drove to the store. We went out on our morning walk as soon as I came home and walked much the same way as when I released the mice. We passed the last little field before entering the forest and something caught my attention. I didn’t see them at first but then I saw them, three moose! One big cow, one calf and the third too small to be an adult moose but still too big to be a calf. I’ve seen them before a couple of times and felt happy that they’ve survived the hunting season so far.

The dogs didn’t see them but they understood they were somewhere near 🙂 I must say that Alma has come a long way, just a few months earlier and she would have gone berserk 🙂 🙂 For once she actually started to follow the scents on the ground instead of screaming like obsessed and whining like she has gone crazy 🙂 🙂 We didn’t see any more big animals but both Alma and Malkolm kept their noses to the ground for the entire walk 🙂

I have actually been rather active today because when we came home again the first thing I saw when I went down in the cool cellar was that the trap had another prisoner. Well if that mouse with the short tail come here again I just as well get a cage and have it as a pet 🙂 🙂 🙂 It wasn’t the least stressed to see me, rather the opposite to be honest 🙂 🙂 It had taken it slightly more than two hours to find its way home again 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I just took the trap and walked even further away before I released it again 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was worried for a while that I for some reason had all forest mice and yellow necked mice in the entire area but I think I’ve just caught the same ones all the time 🙂 🙂 🙂

After that I made the gingerbread dough. The recipe said that I should have agave syrup and coconut fat but since I’m not a millionaire I used normal syrup and butter. The dough will rest until tomorrow morning before I make the cookies. I will however not be without anything nice to eat today because my neighbours daughters (six and three years old I think) wanted me to have something as a christmas gift, so they made me some fudge and butterscotch to have during christmas, well it won’t last that long because it was delicious 🙂

After that I baked two loafs of Vörtbröd, they came out rather nice, I and the dogs have already tried a couple of slices with a christmas cheese 🙂 So tomorrow I’ll bake the gingerbreads and also grill the christmas ham. I bought a small already cooked one because now days we really don’t use the water it was cooked in as they did back in the days when every calorie one could get was important. They used to heat it up and dip stale bread in it the get up all the fat still in the rather salty water. It has never been a favourite of mine so I buy ready cooked instead.

It is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and of course some of the christmas candy my neighbours gave me 🙂 Tomorrow is our big day of christmas and if I get some time over I’ll write something here 🙂

Have a great day!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Well it’s thankfully frost and not snow :-)

· 4 Comments ·

I knew it was going to get colder but I didn’t know it would be that cold. the temperature dropped down to -7C (19,4F) this morning. The fog was gone though and the sky clear so I forgave the cold weather since it would mean sunshine 🙂

One funny thing with fog and below freezing point temperatures is that the ice created on the windshields on the car is just as good protecting against bullets like kevlar is 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really don’t like the motor running so the heat will soften the ice in but even that heat had problems thawing that ice, so I removed as much as I could and drove to the edge of the village. There I stopped and removed most of what was left but it still wasn’t easy 🙂 🙂

So I guessed right, there was almost no traffic on the roads, the big ones were ice free but the smaller ones in the forest was anything but. I wasn’t in any hurry though so I just drove as fast as it was possible and still have a chance to stop if any animals would jump out on the road. Usually they stay calm when it is this cold though but one never knows. The only wildlife I did see today was the two tiny mice I caught in the box trap 🙂 🙂  I’ve decided to move the peanut bird feeder from the kitchen window because I know they will climb up to it and eat the peanuts and that’s ok as long as they don’t walk inside again like they just had bought some takeout 🙂 🙂 🙂

I had written down a list what to buy in the grocery store and even remembered touring it with me but I still wasn’t prepared for how much it was or the price to be honest 🙂 🙂 I bought big packets of most things because it will most likely cost even more in the long run if I buy the smaller packages. Plus I would have to drive many more times to get what I need so I’ll have to add the petrol price as well and even though the petrol price is really low here right now it still costs a lot to drive shorter distances since the car barely gets warm enough to work effective. I will at least not starve during christmas and new years eve 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I wished every one in the store a merry christmas (or as we say a good yule) and continued to my old working place and wished those who worked a merry christmas as well. There were more people working today than I thought it would be but I think everyone has taken tomorrow off and most likely till after new years eve. I don’t think I’ve ever worked during christmas time ever. Normally I have stopped working at December 22 and not come back to work until after the 6th of January. I always saved a week of vacation and the rest of the time I used the hours I’ve saved during the year.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I had planned to bake a couple of loafs of bread today but it takes such a long time so I wouldn’t be in bed until midnight and that’s way too late for me so I’ll bake them tomorrow and I’ll make some rice porridge in the slow cooker at the same time, it is after all our christmas porridge (and also the porridge we give to the yule gnome at christmas 🙂

Have a great day!

The next best weather, fog.

· 6 Comments ·

Yesterday they said on tv that we would have fog all day today and usually they’re wrong 🙂 Not today however, fog all day and some time the sun even managed to shine through. No hunters out either so we managed to have rather nice walks today.  It is supposed to stay well in to the afternoon tomorrow but the temperature will drop below 0C (32F) so the roads will be slippery.

I’ll drive to my old workplace tomorrow to wish those few that will be working a merry christmas. Most people in the industry and offices will take a winter vacation now, most likely two whole weeks so even if I’m out on the roads before it gets bright and the roads most likely will be slippery I’ll probably drive on them alone 🙂 I guess the worst traffic before christmas is done by now so perhaps not so many people will kill themselves in the traffic due to stress.

So finally the tide has changed, days will finally start to be brighter, well at least longer because so far the winter has been long, grey, dark and murky. To be honest our winters usually are all those things and I can just say that I’m happy that we at least haven’t had any snow to speak of. It looks like our winter comes later and later every year, now it starts sometime in late February and usually ends around late March. I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t come at all 🙂 🙂

It took two days until another mouse was caught in the box trap. I released it early this morning, came home and set it up only to find a new one sitting in the trap after an hour 🙂 🙂 🙂 My neighbours kids think I’m so exciting because they are allowed to look at the mice in the travel box 🙂 Today their friends were over for a visit and those kids loved to see the little mouse too 🙂 🙂 🙂 The ones caught now are a different species though, the previous ones were the yellow necked mouse but the latest ones are a slightly smaller close relative the Wood mouse.

What I don’t want to catch in then trap is the Bank vole, perhaps even more cute than the mice but it can also carry a nasty disease called vole fever. It starts like a slight cold but if one is unlucky it can kill humans. This year there’s a warning for people living in the northern parts of this country that it might be vole fever they have instead of a cold because these last years have been good for bank voles (well every little rodent one can find actually) so the risk of getting vole fever is really high now. We do have them here as well but they are more common further north.

It is time for that last cup of tea and later on I’ll make some rose-hip soup as well. Nothing on tv to watch besides the news so I’ll probably read a book or surf the net for the rest of the day 🙂

Have a great day!

· 2 Comments ·

I haven’t caught any mouse in over a day and a half now 🙂 I won’t say hooray yet because since I do have a sort of semi wild garden there’s most likely more just waiting to come in 🙂

I was lucky to get a photo of our smallest bird, the Goldcrest. It rarely sit still for more than a second 🙂

We couldn’t have our morning walk today because the hunters came, I doubt that they had any luck though. So I was even late with getting the sod far last mouse out of the cottage. It didn’t suffer because I put in plenty of food before it was caught 🙂 So cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs for good luck so none of the rest out there decides to move in 🙂 I guess it’s useless to hope but anyway 🙂

Dark and murky all day long, ok the day isn’t that long anyway 🙂 Only less than 23 hours left before it oh so slowly turns towards longer days again. In the beginning the sun will rise slightly later though and at the same time set later as well but in a few days even the mornings will turn again. No one will notice much for quite some time though but just knowing make life better 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have my vitamin D at the same time. I do still get a lot of vitamin D anyway since I can be outside in the daylight despite not having any sun but that’s not really enough anyway.

Have a great day!

· 6 Comments ·

Dark and grey again even though we almost could see the sun for a few seconds in the afternoon 🙂 We were supposed to have rain but it missed us. Perhaps a good thing because there’s so much water in the creek now that if we would get lots more it would overflow.

I could see a few ravens in the sky but no other bigger animals, they tend to stay where it is calm and today was nothing but. We did however see a big forest machine in the distance and the sound from it stressed Alma so much, she really doesn’t like strange sounds or any change what so ever. We managed to have a walk without her freaking out too much anyway 🙂

I realised how old I am now when I was on Reddit and looked at their different forums about aquariums. Back in the days when I was a kid I learned one way to have and keep an aquarium healthy and have never really changed my ways as it has worked well. Today having an aquarium is high tech! They fertilise the plants, use CO2 as well and they even use soil  and having soil in aquariums was something they always said was a big no no.

They also test for the, for me, most odd things like ammonium. Can’t remember that I ever had a problem with that, must smell horribly if that happens 🙂 🙂 I don’t however think necessarily were better back then but it sure was less complicated and less expensive 🙂 🙂 Anyway when I looked at those forums I started to remember all the old books I read until they broke and realised I don’t have any left and started to look on the net. So now I have two of those books I read and a third is on its way. These are of course old school because I’ll never start with any of that they do now days 🙂 🙂 The book that’s on its way is printed in 1938 so it’ll be interesting to see how things have changed since then 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. There’s absolutely nothing I want to watch on tv so I guess I’ll be reading those two books all evening long 🙂

Have a great day!

A new morning routine :-)

· 2 Comments ·

We’ve had two really grey and dark days but today the sun suddenly appeared again (of course not while we were out walking) and it felt really strange 🙂 It didn’t give any heat away though so I guess it appeared just for show 🙂 Still we were in the garden enjoying it as much as we could. It is and has been very windy as well but no wind could reach us here in the garden.

Well I guess it’s a bit wrong to call it logs, they’ll grind it down and make pellets of them. So this is the place I let the mice free.

It was so dark for a while yesterday so I switched to black and white for a short while.

I’ve sort of started a new routine. Wake up and let the dogs out to the garden and when they’ve come in I go down to the cool cellar and check what the box trap has caught during the night. When it gets brighter outside I take the mouse/mice out to the forest in the travel box and let them out just beside a big pile of logs they haven’t removed yet and walk hone.

The clouds thinned out so I turned back to cooler again 🙂

When I come home I leash the dogs and out we go on our morning walk. They are really interested in the smells at that pile of logs 🙂 Alma seems to have understood that if she is quiet we will see bigger animals and two days ago we saw a big moose. Unfortunately just as it vanished in to the forest so I didn’t get a chance to take a photo. Lately I’ve driven to the different places where I can pick up parcels so we might have our walk after that instead, it’s usually brighter outside if we do it that way.

Thankfully I don’t have any more parcels waiting to be picked up so I hope I don’t have to go anywhere until Monday when I’ll visit my old work friends again and also do that last christmas food shopping. I need a small ham and mustard and I’ll also check what I need for making gingerbreads. It’s always nice to have some gingerbreads at christmas but the gluten free we can but are an abomination to the world but I’ve made this kind before and they are delicious but perhaps a bit strong spice-wise 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and most likely a slice or two of the just a few hours old Vörtbröd I baked today 🙂

Have a great day!

They behaved really well today :-)

· Leave a comment ·

Rain all day long, not even the monster likes to go outside. It is warmish outside though but that doesn’t help much since we really can’t be outside anyway.

The travel cage for hamsters that I bought arrived today so I went to the grocery store in Gudhem to pick it up. They have so many parcels there now that one really can’t wait a day or so to pick it up, sort of annoying since I’ll get another one tomorrow. I’ll most likely have to go to the supermarket in Skara to pick up another one and that’s a bit annoying since that means I’ll almost go all the way back home just to continue 20 km the other way 🙂 🙂

We went out to the bog this morning and we could hear lots of animals moving around. I must say that both Alma and Malcolm showed their best behaviour all the way, even when we met a young Fallow deer buck. There was some whining and some pulling the leash but I don’t think they ever have behaved better than today 🙂 Before our morning walk however I went out to the forest by myself with the box trap.

It had caught a small yellow necked mouse but it was still so dark that I had to wait a couple of hours before I could release it. When it was time to do it another one sat in the trap as well 🙂 Rather big so I guess the small one was a female and the big one a male. There was no coconut flakes left so I guess the big one wasn’t out to get fed 🙂 🙂 This time I went further away in to the forest just to make sure they can’t find their way back home again 🙂

The Fallow deer buck has two tiny antlers, hard to see though. Must be around two years old.
Now I don’t have to walk out to the forest with two cowards following me to release the mice, They can stay in this cage until it is time. I’ve put some peanuts in it so they have something to eat while waiting 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea and I’ll also have the last of the ice cream. I’ll buy more tomorrow since I most likely will have to get that parcel at the supermarket anyway 🙂

Have a great day!

They are not the most courageous :-)

· 4 Comments ·

So yesterday after it had gone dark I found another little mouse in the box trap. I thought I really couldn’t leave it there all night so I took the trap and started to walk towards the forest. Since I was sure I wouldn’t  meet anyone (even though there are some people who loves to walk in the forest in the dark) I let the dogs follow me unleashed.

This is what spruces look like when cattle is around 🙂 They don’t eat it but scrub themselves towards them when it itches 🙂

They were running all around me and had lots of fun. Then I suddenly realised that they’ve stopped, turned around and watched how they hurriedly ran back home 🙂 🙂 🙂 I have no idea why but suddenly I stood there all alone in the dark not knowing why 🙂 🙂 Well what ever it was it left me alone anyway so I just let the mouse out and walked back home. That little travelling cage I’ve bought hasn’t arrived yet but I know it is on its way. I’ve learned one thing, if ever anything serious will happen to me I really can’t count of any help from the dogs 🙂 🙂 🙂

I said I hadn’t seen any signs of beaver actions lately, well I saw this today 🙂

The morning walk was rather pleasant, no wind and it almost reached 10C (50F). No sun of course but slightly more daylight than previous days. Alma and Malkolm almost behaved all the way as well. We did see a Roe deer around a football field away and that did of course stress out Alma and it didn’t help that they were cutting down forest somewhere close but as soon as we were on the way home again she calmed down.

Tomorrow is Saint Lucias day here and oddly enough we Lutherans who rarely celebrate anything celebrates this catholic saint 🙂 I’ll tell You more about it tomorrow but I can say this that this custom actually have spread to the US even if it still is very few who does this over at Yours.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and even though I’ve just had dinner I still think I’ll have a couple of vörtbröd sandwiches with cheese, spotted sausages and shrimp salad 🙂

Have a great day!

Lots of water in the creek.

· 6 Comments ·

So we had a night without any disturbance thankfully but Alma was in a hurry to go outside. She hurried away behind some bushes in the garden so I couldn’t see how bad it was but she’s full of energy and happy so I guess she’s ok.

She’s not the one pooping outside the garden unless she’s desperate and that was what she was when we were out on our morning walk and this time I could check how bad her stomach was, I have seen worse 🙂 and most of what comes out are peanuts! I have no idea how much she ate from that big bag of peanuts but by the look of it at least a third of it 🙂 🙂

So she’s getting better but she farts and the smell is something that most likely can knock down a rhino 🙂 🙂 It is a horrible mix of sweet, sour and something that must have been dead for a week or so. I’ve tried to let the wind blow through the cottage, sprayed more of that air cleaner and used loads of matches but it has already sort of stuck to the walls and furnitures! I better go to the grocery store in Gudhem tomorrow to buy more rice.

Besides that the day has been rather nice, we walked down to the creek this morning and the latest rain has really filled up the creek again. It would of course not have been this full of water if the beavers hadn’t blocked the concrete pipe that goes beneath the gravel road. The thing is that I haven’t seen any more traces of beaver activity and haven’t in a few weeks so if they’ve moved they really should unblock that pipe. If we’ll get more rain which is quite possible that creek soon will overflow and start filling the fields as well 🙂

It is time to have that last cup of tea and some ice cream as well 🙂

Have a great day!

Only 13 more days till the winter solstice.

· 4 Comments ·

So I had another little mouse in the box trap this morning, I do hope that’s the last one for this season 🙂 But just in case more will visit I’ve now bought a small travel cage for hamsters on our eBay called Tradera. So if they’ll get caught while it still is dark outside and to be honest it seems to be dark all the time now, I can put it in there until the daylight returns. I guess it’s best to give them some peanuts during the time they’ll be in the arrest 🙂

Today it was so dark that I had to put the camera on ISO 5000 and the photos still came out rather dark, so most of them are being brightened up. The colours did look a bit odd so I changed it to black and white as well (any coloured photo I might put in was taken yesterday). To make it even funnier it has rained all day.

At the beginning just drizzle but after a while we had heavy rain instead plus a small storm was passing by. Didn’t notice much of it here in the garden though, the neighbours cottage and garage plus the forest took all of it instead 🙂 That wind did bring warmth with them so we might even reach 10C (50F) on Wednesday.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I have a slight fever and a slightly sour throat now, Don’t know how I got it since I barely leave my home. I noticed my neighbours were at home as well today so I guess they have it too. It doesn’t feel like an influenza thankfully t I’ll drive to the supermarket tomorrow morning and buy some ice cream and rose-hip soup 🙂

Have a great day!

· Leave a comment ·

Perhaps the darkest day so far but fairly warm, no wind and no rain so I can’t complain too much. We had our morning walk fairly late because I had to pick up two parcels that arrived a bit late yesterday at the grocery store in Gudhem. One was the two quality street boxes and the second was with two peonies.

Yule is here soon so they really need us to pick anything we get as soon as possible otherwise I could have waited until Monday, even though the peonies do feel better to be planted as soon as possible. We walked out to the bog and since both Alma and Malkolm behaved so well we walked to an area we seldom walk at because it’s more or less a big thicket and walking with wild leashed dogs there is a nightmare 🙂

Worked well today though so the both gf them had so many more treats than they usually have on our walks 🙂 We didn’t hear any animals walking close to us but we did hear lots of hunting dogs from a distance. I guess most animals laid low listening if the dogs came any closer or moved away.  After that we’ve been doing very little and I think I should have taken a nap because I really had time for it. I did look at my neighbour while he was carrying a dryer over the garden and up the stairs to their cottage though 🙂 Looked exhausting 🙂 🙂

There’s ice under the water and that’s a bit surprising since it has been warm for so long now.

It is time for that last cup tea and then watch the news I think. It’s most likely the same as yesterday and the day before and most likely about the orange blob doing something stupid or Hegseth doing something even more stupid. Well our politicians do stupid things too but on a much lower level. The hunters will be here tomorrow morning so we’ll have a late morning walk I guess. We’ve most likely had a wolf passing close to the garden because the dogs still refuse to go especially far from the entrance even during daytime.

The wild hogs have dug a hole just a couple of meters away from the hunting lodge 🙂

Have a great day!