Category: Walks.

It is much dryer than I thought it is.

Much the same weather today as yesterday so still quite nice. They say we’ll have a couple of warmer days before it drops significantly. By that it means below 0C (32F) during nights and just barely above during days. Well the ground will at least not be muddy any more so I guess I’ll be fine with that 🙂

It isn’t as wet in the ground that I thought it would be and I didn’t think it would be especially wet at all but it is even worse. Normally this time of year, if the ground isn’t frozen it would be hard to walk out to my favourite island in the bog. I thought it would be less water but still very muddy. There was neither water nor mud but completely dry so we could walk out there without any problems what so ever.

Normally it would be hard to walk over this area because of water and mud. The mud can be up to half a meter (much the same in yards) deep 🙂

Fun being able to get out there but still a bit worrying because this is what it is like out there during heatwaves and droughts in summer time but without the ticks and blood sucking flies. No hunters in this area but I could hear hunters all around us (safe distance so no risk of getting shot). I really would have liked to go on the north side of the island because it is much more beautiful there but trees have fallen during storms this year and since it is a nature reserve a fallen tree lies. It is possible to walk around them but if we do it means we’ll have to go through thickets and that’s not fun with two dogs in leash 🙂 🙂 🙂

We didn’t walk far on the south side, which is much easier to walk but less beautiful but now when I know we can go out there again we can do that later in the week instead. That was actually the first place I saw wolf tracks a couple of years ago and the dogs were anything but happy to be there. The tracks were as most an hour old because we had new snow on the ground that had started to fall just an hour before we went out. It showed that at least three wolves just had passed , could be more but they tend to walk in their own footsteps. I’ve never seen any wolf though but several in the village has and also some of the hunters have seen them. If I ever will I’m sure that I either have no camera or that it malfunctions when I try to take a photo 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think this lichen is what they used to have ,back in the day when we had one glass windows, as insulation when they put in another one glass window (Is that perhaps what You call storm windows?)when winter arrived and we of course call it window lichen 🙂

I think, if I’ve learned it right that this lichen is the one reindeer eat, so of course we call it reindeer lichen. It is more towards greenish than the photo shows.

I’ve ordered my Christmas present. I really don’t want it now but I’ll need it next winter. Before covid I would just have waited since they have things on sale every day and it wouldn’t have become any more expensive. Now however we have all learned that things have changed and prices will up because of tariffs and inflation (even though our inflation is lower than it has been in years now that’s not the case in all countries). So I bought myself an aquarium, a smaller one, because next year I’ll have goldfish in the little pond I’ve made and also in some of the water barrels I’ve put up. Those fish will be too big for the aquarium I now have changed to an aqua terrarium so they’ll need somewhere to stay the winter.

One problem though, I haven’t a clue where to place it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it’s about a year until I need to have it up and running so I’ll figure it out by then 🙂 Well it is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I still haven’t a clue what to do, absolutely nothing to watch on tv but I can always watch a dvd.

Have a great day!

The sunshine is still warm.

Dryer and colder winds will fly down over the country and I could feel it early this morning. 0C (32F) when the dogs and I went out for our morning walk. All the cars were covered in frost and the ground was slightly frozen so we weren’t especially muddy when we came back home.

Two male Bullfinches.

Sunshine all day long though and the heat from the sun was so strong that I could have the kitchen door open as long as the light hit the south heading wall. I can’t say it felt like early spring but it was really nice. This was however most likely the last sunshine we will see for at least ten days if the weather sites have guessed it right 🙂

The temperatures will fall so from tomorrow it will be a bit chilly here. Not below 0C (32F) during the days but perhaps during nights.  I took a look at the Kaki fruit kernels (an Asian relative to the Persimmon fruit) in the fridge, It does look as at least one might germinate so hold Your thumbs and cross Your fingers for good luck 🙂  This time of year is a bit boring when it comes to gardening and sowing. Well some plants need a winter or two to be able to germinate so I’ll start with those but not until January.

I bought myself a big Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) bulb when I went to the grocery store in Falköping after our walkThe ones I’ve seen has been ridiculously expensive but these were manageable in price. It says this one will have red petals with a white string in the middle of every petal. I don’t care if it is or not (usually lots of those bulbs are wrongly marked but who cares just as long as they flower 🙂 ) Have You ever sown the seeds from the Amaryllis? It is quite easy but it’ll take around three to four years until they flower and the flowers will most likely not look the same as the parent plant, sometimes one get the most amazing flowers from seeds.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and later I’ll watch On the Tracks on tv, it’s really the only thing I watch now days 🙂

Have a great day!

Normally or perhaps back in the days we would have winter now, mostly the temperatures would stay way below 0C (32F) at nights and barely reach above it if it even managed to do that. To be honest, I don’t miss it at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 I know the greenhouse effect and climate change is anything but good for us but I must admit that I like these warmer days and nights.

I can’t tell You how warm it has been today because the battery died in the thermometer 🙂 A new battery in today so I’ll know what it is like tomorrow 🙂 They are however guessing that it might reach above 12C (53,6F) and it will stay like that until at least Friday. No sunshine though but cloudy and a bit rainy. With the sun shining it would have been t-shirt weather in my garden 🙂 🙂

I went to the supermarket today and I saw a heard with Red deer not too far from the road and on my way home here in the village a young Fallow deer buck crossed the gravel road just in front of me. I saw it early so there was no risk of me hitting it with the car thankfully. Normally it is suicidal cats that cross the road way too close to the car so it was nice to see something else for once 🙂 🙂 🙂

This time of year is when I normally feel the Christmas feelings just to see them go away some time in the middle of December 🙂 🙂 Not so far though, I guess I was annoyed enough to see a big Yule gnome (or Santa) standing by the entrance to the supermarket already in the middle of October. Personally I can’t understand those people who start with any holiday two months before it happens, I usually get tired of it after a week or two.

I’m not a Christmas present guy at all but I usually buy myself a present this time of year, something I really want but perhaps normally wouldn’t buy, not because it is expensive but because I really don’t need it 🙂 🙂 One year I bought myself a Hasselblad camera for my birthday, I really didn’t need any camera since I do have way too many as it is anyway but I wanted to spoil myself with something 🙂 Today I think I have around 60 cameras, both for film and digital ones 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be fair, most of them pretty cheap, like an over a hundred years old Kodak camera that I bought for less then $ 3 US 🙂 It still works perfectly.

I have an idea about what I would like to buy this year even though I should be careful with money since I still am unemployed. So I will have to think a lot more about it before deciding. I’ll be just as happy at Christmas without it just as long as it doesn’t snow and is cold 🙂 The last cup of tea for the day is standing beside me and after that there’s a science program on tv I want to watch 🙂

Have a great day!

Mösakärringar.

The mist rolled out from the forest when we went out for our morning walk and people growing up here says that it’s because Mösakärringen ( I can’t find the phonetic letter but o and e goes together and so do the a and e so it should be something like this: Moesa Kaerringen) a translation would be something like the bog hags puts out there fires after a cold night. They are a local variation to wood spirits but I call them Bog Ladies because who knows they might exists and that sound much nicer 🙂 🙂 🙂

I saw it at several places and sometimes in the forest. We were lucky to have sunshine when we were outside but mostly it has been cloudy today. Rather nice and warm though to be honest. We went out to the bog and when we reached the end of the peninsula we stood still there for a while and both the dogs and I could hear something walking behind some trees. I have no idea what but it really tried to be as quiet as it possibly could. It might have been the two moose we happened to scare away on our morning walk yesterday.

Do You remember when I pushed all those thorny rose branches through the compost grinder? Those tiny thorns are now aching their way out from my hands. The spot gets swollen and there’s usually a small blister filled with puss and that has been happening all over my hands for a couple of days 🙂 🙂 🙂 Not nice but it’ll soon be over thankfully.

Today I put an entire chicken in the oven, I’ve done that so many times before but those times I mostly did it without any spices because it was meant for my severely food allergic dog Albin. He couldn’t eat any kind of fish or meat but he could eat chicken. Also he couldn’t eat all kinds of rice either so it was always rather tricky to get his food right. Mostly however he ate vegan dog food, the first time I bought it I must say it felt so wrong because dogs usually eat meat but it worked so great that I finally could stop cooking chicken and it too na couple of years before I tried chicken again 🙂 🙂 🙂

Since the oven was on I also baked a big loaf of bread and even though it didn’t rise especially much it still turned out to be rather good. No matter how tasty these gluten free breads can be when one doesn’t use readymade mixes nothing will beat a French roll with butter, cheese and a slice of bell pepper 🙂 Oh how I miss them 🙂

I’m drinking the last cup of tea for the day and since there’s nothing I want to look at on tv I’ll continue to watch Eureka before it is time to go to bed 🙂

Have a great day!

When it’s dark here it really is dark.

So I was at the job interview yesterday and I felt rather good afterwards. I went to another place in another town but he said the other place looked much the same and I really liked this place. Not especially big but it fitted a couple of cars that they were working on. So I think if not all but most cars had dents and plastic details sanded and painted but no bigger vehicles. 

He’ll cal me wether I get the job or not so now I’ll just have to wait. I can’t remember when the job ad will be removed but I guess it will be a week or two before I’ll hear anything. So until then I’ll just keep on enjoying every day as I have so far. Just hoping for sunnier weather because it is hard to be outside doing anything, especially since the dogs hate rain 🙂 🙂 🙂 We do need lots more to be honest since the groundwater levels still are really low and I hope that all the rain that fell yesterday has helped with that 🙂

The water levels are really high now, not because of the rain but by beavers blocking the water 🙂

0C (32F) this morning but I couldn’t see any frost when we went out on our morning walk. We had some sunshine but lots of clouds did their best to stop it. Still warm enough to keep the radiators off for a couple of hours. The neighbours have now moved out and it’s so boring to see how dark it is down there. When it is dark here it’s pitch black and it is impossible to see anything. I made a video or two showing that and I’ll see if I can find it. Many years old and other neighbours but still shows what it is like here during winter. It doesn’t help much with snow on the ground because it needs light to reflect and if we can’t see the moon it will still be just as dark 🙂 🙂 🙂

I passed the big freezer in the supermarket the other day and they had giant (or are they called Jumbo) shrimp. I know one shouldn’t buy those since the “shrimp farms” destroy the mangroves, at least that was what happened years ago but perhaps they’ve managed to change that now days? Anyway I really wanted some Chinese food when I saw them, I really like deep fried shrimps but can’t really have them any more since they tend to have wheat in the dough. So I thought why not do it myself but with corn flour instead? Or should I just fry them even though it wouldn’t be the same.. Most of the time I really don’t think about not being able to eat anything with gluten but sometimes it’s really annoying 🙂 🙂

It is time to make that last cup of tea for the day. For once they actually show something on tv that I want to see. It is called PÃ¥ SpÃ¥ret (On the tracks) where two two person teams tries to guess where a train (can also be some other kind of transport) will guess what the final destination (always a town) is. this trip can be from all over the world and they get clues all along the way, The earlier they can guess the destination the more points the team will get. Sometimes it’s really tricky but sometimes when it is a town nearby it’s easy of course 🙂 People can also compete via the Swedish Television app if they like to.  We’ve seen parts of the world one never could believe existed 🙂 🙂 🙂 No price money for the winners, only the honour 🙂

There should be two videos below here where You can hear my voice explaining what You are watching 🙂

Have a great day!

Very little has happened these last days and that’s how it should be 🙂 The weather has changed loads of time, lots of just cloudy, a fair amount of sunshine and some rain as well, especially today will be rainy, they’re guessing it will rain all day long.

The dogs just look at me when I open the door for them to go outside 🙂 🙂 The little monster however will not be stopped by some rain, my guess is that she’ll go straight to the woodshed because she’s rarely especially wet when she comes back home again.

We have been lucky with the weather when we’ve had our walks though and yesterday morning was so chilly that I could see frost on the ground here and there. So no moose flies to deal with 🙂 It should be the end of their season anyway so from now on I shouldn’t have to wear the hoodie to avoid getting those nasty flies walking in my hair. It is a horrible feeling to wake up to at night 🙂 🙂

Today I’ll go to a job interview. The job is in a town called Skövde but the interview will happen in another town called Lidköping. Apparently they have two factories (I’m not sure it should be called a factory but I don’t have a better word for it), the job is about sanding objects before it is going to be painted and eventually later on also paint the things. To be honest I have no idea what kind of things we’re talking about but a job is a job and since I don’t tend to win the lottery I hope I’ll get this job 🙂 🙂

I have come to like staying at home all day though 🙂 🙂 but getting payed is better than hoping for that lottery winning after all 🙂 🙂 This time at home have however made me realise that I will love to retire when that day comes 🙂 🙂 🙂

I haven’t had any tea yet so I better make some before it is time to drive to that job interview. Since the weather is like it is I guess I’l spend the time until then in front of the tv or perhaps watch an episode or two of a Town called Eureka 🙂

Have a great day!

There will be photos that were taken today and yesterday.

It has been a couple of calm days here, mostly grey and dull, some rain and even some sunshine, around two minutes of it 🙂 🙂

We were lucky that those minutes happened while we were out walking but we need more of it now when days get shorter and it’s still around two more months of that until it finally turns around again. It does however help that I am unemployed because I never had enough daylight when I had a job so I guess that’s positive 🙂 🙂 It was the same last year and to be honest I really didn’t get sick last year so I’m hoping for the same result this year, as soon as that cold that seems to love me finally leaves 🙂 🙂

The hunters were here today and had brought hunting dogs, I didn’t hear a sound from them so I guess that’s why they left early. There has been unusually few deer , hares and other animals around lately and I guess that can have to do with the wolf/ wolves being here. Well I didn’t think we would have a chance to tale a walk in the forest today so I was pretty happy when I noticed that they all had left.

Because of the rain we haven’t been out in the garden much either so I’ve mostly watched the dvd collection of A Town called Eureka and I’ve also been drinking a lot of coffee so it is time to make that cup of tea instead before I continue with watching dvd’s 🙂

The old rose covered all space behind the chips I made from the branches in my compost grinder, around 4 square meter (I think it’s more or less the same in square yards)

Have a great day!

Grey and dull.

Not the happiest weather today, cloudy and boring when we were out on our morning walk but on the way home the rain arrived and it continued to rain half the day or so. Even though the garden is rather muddy (and also my home) we still need more rain so the groundwater level finally rise to more normal levels. I’ve cleaned the bottom floor so much now that it feels that there isn’t much left of it 🙂 🙂

I’ve now made an appointment for when my car will go through the annual vehicle inspection, December 29th. We used to have it every twelve month but we’ve it every fourteen month because that what they have down on the continent. I can’t see the logic in that but since we’re member of the EU we do what they do. I usually have it the last day I can because if there’s something that needs to be fixed I have one more month to drive before it is illegal 🙂  I really don’t like to have to do it when it is winter but next year it can be done as late as late February to early March 🙂 All problems are so much nicer when it is warmer and nicer outdoors 🙂

It is Persimmon season now and it is one of my favourite fruits. This time however they sold Kaki fruits, a relative to the Persimmon, they taste much the same but You can eat the Kaki even though it isn’t fully ripe. These are always seedless but every now in a blue moon some have a seed in them and I’ve been lucky twice already 🙂 Both Persimmon and Kaki fruits are just as cranny as Pawpaw seeds to germinate but I’ve done as I always do, put them in a moist paper towel and inside a plastic bag and placed them in the fridge so I’m hoping for good luck. I doubt these will be especially hardy though but I can have them in pots for several years before they grow too big. The problem I can see is that those pots will be nasty heavy and difficult to bring down to the cool cellar during each winter 🙂 🙂

All the chickens have moved, I’ll miss them.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I’m thinking of perhaps having an ice cream at the same time but I have already had two today 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

It was at least not raining today.

Waiting for his turn at the bird feeder. The photos will be from both yesterday and today.

I haven’t done much today or yesterday to be honest, well I drove to the store in Kvänum and was surprised over how much it costed but I really shouldn’t have because everything is nasty expensive now days. Didn’t think I bought that much but then again I did but a quite big chunk of cheese and Wiener sausages, they do cost more than the others but it is worth it 🙂 🙂 Also I bought a few batteries and even though they’re not especially big the price on them is so after a while I realised it wasn’t that bad after all 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have two old dvd players, one that doesn’t open up so I can put a dvd in it and one that do open up but for some reason doesn’t put out the sound when it should so people can talk like crazy but no sound, however it does come after a while at the wrong place 🙂 🙂 So I had bought a new cheap one to replace them. Well something didn’t work as it should on that one either, it might be as simple as something is wrong with the HDMI cable. I’ve tried everything, even the old screen to my last computer. I was in the kitchen when I tried it but nothing happened. So a bit annoyed I ripped out the cable to the screen and would bring it back from where I fetched it. Well I didn’t rip out the right cable so the dvd player fell down on the floor in a quite high speed.

So that one doesn’t work either now 🙂 🙂 🙂 That’s when I remembered my old laptops have dvd players so I brought one of them down to the living room and put in a dvd. All worked just fine until it didn’t. So since I now was a bit more annoyed I hit my fist over the laptop and everything stopped and the screen froze 🙂 🙂 🙂 Nothing worked so since I do need this laptop when I want to write out documents for the road association meetings I shut it off and then on again. Now the dvd player works just as it should and everything else seems to be working fine as well 🙂 🙂 🙂

When I was in Kvänum I also visited my old work friends and I talked with my old apprentice about that I need to get a banked on my new phone and that’s always tricky as best. so he showed me what to do and that worked so easily that it surprised me, so now I don’t have to worry about the old phone shutting down again because now I have it on my new phone 🙂 Yesterday we had muggy weather with rain on and off but today the sun shone all day long 🙂 Also the sun warmed up the cottage so much that I could turn off the radiators 🙂 The muggy and rainy weather will return again tomorrow though. We do need it but days get so boring when we have to stay indoors all the time, then again I can now watch my dvd’s so that’s better 🙂 🙂 I bought all seasons of an old favourite of mine called “A town called Eureka” it has not aged bad at all 🙂

It is time to give the animals their food and after that I guess I’ll watch a couple of programs on my old laptop 🙂 Of course I’ll make a pot of tea before I start 🙂

Have a great day!

It could have been so nice if it wasn’t for the biting cold wind.

This could have been a really nice day if it wasn’t for the wind that has been blowing all day long, a cold biting wind that made it hard to stay outside for any longer period of time. Not even the dogs wanted to stay out for especially long and kept coming to the door to go inside again.

Cold and frosty in the morning and despite the sun hitting my car I still had to scrape ice from the windows at 9:30am, not a favourite thing to do 🙂 🙂 Still the morning walk was quite nice because the wind hadn’t arrived yet and the sun still giving some warmth. We walked out to the bog and while we stood at the end of the peninsula we could hear something walking towards us. We never saw what it was but it did sound relatively big, like a red deer or perhaps a moose.

The dogs didn’t really react to it more than that they stared in the direction the sound came from and looked curious 🙂 It was impossible for anything to walk silently in the forest because of all the frozen leafs on the ground, it sounded like we all were walking on cornflakes spread on a hard floor 🙂 🙂 🙂 I went to the supermarket after we had come home because I had very little to eat in my fridge.

It was a costly trip, much more than I had expected 🙂 I did buy everything on the list but I also went in to the pet shop (can one say it’s a pet shop supermarket because it’s really big that store?) I found a prefect food for my aquarium fish and it costed a fortune but then again the fish are few and will eat very little so it might last for the rest of my life 🙂 🙂 Also I bought two new ceramic food bowls for the dogs, Malkolm seems very unwilling to eat from his old one made from some kind of metal. Those weren’t cheap either but oddly enough didn’t cost more than the fish food 🙂 🙂 🙂

After that I went to the Dollar store just around the corner and bought seeds for the wild birds in the garden. They also coast a little fortune but compared to any other store they were cheap 🙂 🙂 I don’t want the birds to stop eating what they can find in the nature so I’ll only feed them when I know nights will be frosty. They still need to know how to find food if I for some reason can’t help them. They have noticed that birds who live in areas where lots of people feed them forgets how to find food elsewhere and even what things they can eat. I also only give them seed mixes even though they all most likely would love to just have sunflower seeds for much the same reason. We have very few sunflowers flowering here since those who do comes from either what we sow in our gardens or from bird seeds that birds brought with them from the feeders and dropped them on the way to where they can eat them safely.

It is time for a cup of coffee I think, it’s way too early for that last cup of the yet. I actually bought peanuts for the bird feeder by my kitchen window, I know mice climb up and eat those peanuts but that was before the little monster moved here 🙂 She’s outside most nights and I’m pretty sure the mice soon will stop eating the peanuts because she’s a really good mouse hunter 🙂

I have now two bigger and four smaller apricot trees in my garden and this is the only one giving me autumn colours.

Have a great day!

Despite we’ve had so many really cold nights here now the moose fly still flies, very few others show themselves even when the sun shines now but moose flies just refuse to give up. I do wonder why we even have them now since we have almost no moose left around here.

I thought this was a hole in the tree but it isn’t. For some reason the place where the branch once sat has gone completely black 🙂

The morning walk was nice though, despite the moose flies, and since we had a cloudy sky and on and off rain it was fairly warm. There are still some leafs hanging on the trees but every day get less colourful and a bit more dull. Some Yarrow still flowers but very few other flowers.

Most people stay in their homes as well, only the tractors are still active, farmers rarely have some time over to do other things. Even the hunters seems to have given up this year, I’m not complaining because that means I’ll be able to be in the forest without getting disturbed 🙂 🙂

I just found the wildlife camera but so far nothing have shown in the garden. The only thing it has taken photos of is the dogs and I 🙂

These are the best tasting tomatoes I’ve eaten in years but I have no name so I’ll save some seeds and sow them next year again 🙂

The little cold I’ve had for some time now just refuses to give up and today I was freezing all the time so nothing much has happened here but I’ve had a lot of ice cream 🙂 I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll most likely will fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂

Have a great day!

Wolves, eagles, ravens and a try from someone to scam my mother.

Yesterday mornings sunrise. We didn’t see much of the sun until just before it set.

So my mother just called me because she had gotten a text message from me saying I couldn’t manage any more, meaning needed money. Well the thing is that I haven’t sent her a message because I know she most likely don’t know how to answer 🙂 🙂 🙂 So the one sending it wanted to scam her for money. What that person doesn’t know is that she barely knows how to make a call and wouldn’t be able to send any money until Monday when the banks open and only if she could get a ride 🙂 🙂 🙂

I really don’t know how this works, if they can do the same to other relatives so I’ve been calling around to relatives so if they get the same message they won’t answer to it. This is at the moment a popular way to trick money out go people because who won’t help a child/ relative in need if they can? I’ve told my 89 year old mother to report it to the police even if it actually won’t help because like everywhere they have too little staff and no money to check in to it. Just imagine how much good these people could do if they tried to help people instead!

Yesterdays morning walk was a disaster 🙂 🙂 All of a sudden Malkolm refused to walk in front of me and Alma when we were walking on the very narrow path beside the creek. He did everything to avoid walking and it almost resulted in he almost tied my feet together with his leash. I just couldn’t understand what he was doing but after a long while we managed to continue. Normally he walks with his nose close to the ground but this time he looked straight ahead and pulled the leash unusually hard, then suddenly Alma joined him and they almost made me fall and they didn’t calm down until we were at home.

I can’t figure out what I didn’t understand him until I realised that they behaved like they did the first time we had wolves close to us 🙂 🙂 🙂 This time the reaction was much stronger so I guess that if I had looked around I might have seen it but I was more occupied in not getting tied up and fall 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I think we better avoid the creek for a while, not because I think the wolf still might be there but because it is still too fresh in his memory. So we walked out to the bog instead and today he was like he always is, nose glued to the ground and slightly pulling the leash. It was pretty cold and the temperature was quite low, -6C (21,2F). Thankfully we had sunshine and the sun is still warming up the air quite a lot.

So I have actually had the kitchen door open as long as the sun hit the southern wall. It is sad to see all the leafs falling off but when they are gone the sun hits that wall for a much longer time 🙂 I could even turn off the radiators for several hours. Now it’s dark outside and the temperature will drop quite a lot again tonight.

I’m making rice porridge in the slow cooker and it’s almost time to have some 🙂 So I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day and enjoy the porridge instead with lots of raspberry jam 🙂

Sometimes White tailed eagles flies over the cottage and they always have ravens chasing them.

The Raven is a rather big bird but looks pretty small beside the eagle.

Have a great day!