Category: Walks.

They gave up early.

October 15, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

Another quite lovely day here. A bit chilly in the morning but the sun did its work and the temperature rose up to 10C (50F), very little wind as well so I could have the kitchen door open for quite some time.

The hunters gave up pretty early, not surprised since I’ve only seen two moose tracks since early July. So we’ve had a couple of really nice walks today. This nice weather unfortunately also made the few moose flies we still have pretty energetic, at least none of them landed on my neck like yesterday. Those moose flies are no more thankfully.

They are now investigating whether we should have the European bison, the Wisent, roaming our forests again. I think they died out a couple millennia ago, perhaps because humans hunted them to extinction or perhaps for another reason, we don’t know. I’m not sure what I would feel about that, it’s another huge animal I would risk hitting with my car while driving to and from work. Then again since moose now are quite rare here in southern Sweden it sort of would even it out. I guess that hunters would like it since they sooner or later most likely would be allowed to hunt them as well.

If they do allow it I think we also should allow the European pond turtle back and why not the Black rat, this warmer climate would fit them both well and I’m pretty sure the Black rat wouldn’t help spreading the plague again, we just need to make sure the rats they bring here doesn’t have those lice that carried the disease 🙂 🙂 🙂 We already have the Red-eared slider here ( even though it still is a bit too long winter for them to reproduce) so why not the one that actually lived here so long ago.

Tomorrow will also be really nice and we might get frost once again. I didn’t win the lottery so I’ll have to go to work again. It’s a long work week and to be honest it actually feels worse on Monday knowing we have to work on Friday as well than it feels working on that Friday 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Strong winds.

October 14, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

WE had a lovely morning with sunshine and slightly chilly temperature, The wind was strong though and the gusts even stronger. No hunters out in weather like that (and certainly not in the kind of weather we’re having now), so we went out for a walk. Nova finally got what she wanted so out to the bog we went.

The moose fly season hasn’t ended, I found out that after we had come home when one of them were walking on my neck, that fly is no more 🙂 Anyway, we walked out on the peninsula that she loves to walk to and while we stood there for a while I think I actually could hear two wolves howling. They must have been far away and the wind drowned the sound every time a strong gust passed by. So I can’t say that I’m sure I’m right but when that sound reached us the dogs suddenly were in a hurry to go back home again. Due to their reaction I’m pretty sure it was wolves howling.

Especially since it’s the last two days of the moose hunt premiere no humans would be out there shouting and to be honest I doubt that any hunters, even in the neighbor hunting areas would be out a day like today. Trees will be falling in these gusts so even an avid hunter wouldn’t risk their life today. So since the dogs were in a hurry we hurried back to the village. I can’t say I was worried though because they were far away and the wind wasn’t in the direction towards the wolves so they would be able to figure out where we were. They did calm down the closer we came to the village though.

Yesterday when I walked around in the garden I suddenly found the last of the cacti I had placed in the trees during summer. I had apparently placed it high up in the summer apple tree. It wasn’t damaged by the frost so I replanted it in a bigger pot and brought it indoors. I have no idea what kind of soil it should have but I think it is one of those living as an epiphyte on trees and I figure that epiphytes can’t get any lime from the rain water so it shouldn’t require lime in the soil, so I used some of the rhododendron soil I still have. I finally did find a spot for it but anything I now find outdoors that needs to be brought inside will live in the cool cellar during winter, no matter what it is 🙂

One thing I’ve really missed now when I realized that I can’t eat gluten is Digestive crackers. I used to eat them almost every week, preferable with some blue cheese or cheese like camembert or just a strong normal cheese. The ones I’ve found in stores are more or less inedible and only a person that lacks any kind of taste buds would eat them with joy 🙂 🙂 So I found a recipe on the net and baked them yesterday. They are much better than the bought ones but still just barely ok. Too brittle and way too sweet. The sweetness is easily fixed but fixing brittle is a bit more difficult. There are plenty of recipes out there though so I’ll continue until I find the best one.

The weather now is very different from this morning. The wind is even stronger and the gusts have reached storm strength. I can only hear it because my neighbors cottage an´d garage takes almost all the wind. The roaring in the trees when the gusts comes are so loud now that even Alma has started to look out the windows to see what makes that noise 🙂 🙂 Tomorrow will be sunny and less windy so I guess the hunters will be back but hopefully they’ll be gone before the sun sets so we can have a nice walk.

Have a great day!

Not warm but not cold either.

October 13, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

We had meh weather here this morning. It wasn’t cold but not especially warm either, It was cloudy but it didn’t rain and no gaps in the clouds where the sun had a chance to shine through but it was still kind of nice. Nova wanted to go out to the bog but I thought that we had been there almost too often lately so we walked down to the creek instead. Then she wanted to walk in to the forest there but I managed to persuade her to follow the creek down-stream instead. I was a bit surprised that she wasn’t cranky for the rest of the walk because she usually is when she doesn’t get her way 🙂 🙂

We were out to the bog yesterday morning, the hunters weren’t out at all. Yesterday we had a lovely but somewhat chilly day here so it was nice to walk in the forest where the ever lasting wind couldn’t reach us that well. We walked out to the bog and on our way back, Nova walked like always ten meters ahead of the rest of us, suddenly a huge wild hog bor rushed out from the bushes beside the path we were walking on and in the the bushes on the other side 🙂 🙂 🙂 It happened so fast that neither Nova nor Albin even noticed it 🙂 🙂 Alma did however and for a couple of minutes she was screaming like obcessed and then suddenly calmed down like nothing had happened 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think that we might have reached the end of the moose fly season now. Not a single one landed on me or the dogs yesterday or today. The mosquitoes are all gone so it would be nice if we from now on also could be moose fly free as well. Still ticks though but very few, it is getting too chilly for them as well. Wasps however seems to find their way in to my home every day now though. Every now and again a big wasp queen tries to fly through my windows and I have to catch and release them. They do a lot of good by eating flies all summer so if I can save them I’ll do it.

The only orchid I now have has been hanging in the apple tree all summer. I’ve watered it once or twice but that’s it. I brought it in just before the last frost and hung it by my kitchen door. I was looking at it yesterday when I was thinking it perhaps was time to water it again. It did look a bit odd and then I realized that what I looked at was a bunch of flower buds. If I see the signs right there is at least three more bunches on the way. Many months earlier than I though any would show but who cares 🙂 🙂 I almost broke the stem when I lowered the pot in to a bucket full with rain water 🙂 🙂 I really need to replant is and perhaps divide it in to two or four new plants but when ever I do that to orchids they die, also I have no idea what kind of soil or substrate it should grow in. Well I don’t need to think about that until after the new year has started.

Have a great day!

It did.

October 8, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

Yes the frost did arrive last night and just as I was on my way to bed I remembered that I had the rest of the cacti and the orchid to move indoors. So out I went at around midnight with a light on my head to find all of them and to bring them indoors. I brought in all of them except for the thorny one and one more. I placed them in the patio because early frost almost never gets in there.

I brought those two indoors today when the sun shone and it looks like they are ok. I did wake up a bit late for once so most of the frost was gone but I found a few plants that still were more or less covered in frost. I don’t know how cold it had been but my cousin who were by the ocean had -6C (21,1F), so I’m pretty sure it must have been much the same here.

The hunters arrived early I guess so I knew we couldn’t take a walk in the forest and since I’ve never managed to make neither Albin nor Alma to behave when we meet joggers or bikers or anything remotely moving we no longer can take walks in the village. One screaming dog I can handle but two is just too much. Plus to be honest there are now days a couple of dogs more that really can’t behave either 🙂 🙂

To my big surprise however all the hunters left quite early so we did manage to take a walk out to the bog anyway. Guess if I was happy because both Alma and Albin had so much energy that they started to become pretty annoying 🙂 🙂 🙂 I don’t think it reached 8C (46,4F) today so I wore my bright yellow winter jacket. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing so if any mosquito had survived the night they were at least not flying around. There was one moose fly though and it fell down behind my t-shirt on my back. It took some time to get it but it did at least not bite me.

We’ve had our pancake Sunday and I’ve also made lots of rice porridge. This cold weather sort of demands that 🙂 I did forget to do the laundry though but I’ll do that tomorrow before going to work. Hunters will be out in the forest again so I’ll have plenty of time to do it then. Now I have to stay awake until at least 11 pm so I don’t wake up way too early tomorrow and mess up my working day 🙂

Have a great day!

The frost will arrive tonight.

October 7, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

The feeling on Monday the week I know I’ll also work on Friday is actually far worse than it feels to work on that Friday 🙂 🙂 Still it isn’t fun but when things works as they should it’s quite ok. Still I would rather not have to so I’m holding my thumbs for the lottery today 🙂 🙂

It has been a rather nice day even though a bit too chilly and a storm that arrived yesterday also continued for quite some time today. The winds were north north-western so arctic cold has cooled down our days rather a lot, we’ll have our first frost tonight so the radiators are working downstairs. I’ve also ordered a new radiator because Alma and Albin were playing so wildly one day a couple of weeks ago that the sofa fell straight into the radiator. The plastic “feet” to the radiator broke into thousands of pieces.

I guess I could have tried to just order new “feet”, if that’s even possible but since the radiator hit the floor pretty hard I do want to try it while I am at home to see that the hit hasn’t broken it. It is one of those oil filled ones and since no oil has leaked I’m pretty sure it still is ok and one can never have too many radiators. I have one old radiator left of those who were here when I moved here and one never know for how long that one will keep going.

The morning walk was really nice, despite it being a bit too chilly. The wind was so strong that no insect that values its life would fly around in it 🙂 The sun shone from early morning and did its best to make the day nice but it had huge problems with that 🙂 We walked in the forest though so most of the wind was stopped by the trees. Nova wanted to go out to the bog again but I persuaded her to walk down to the creek and there she could decide whether we should follow it up or down-stream. She chose up-stream and the older forest. We did however go out to the bog in a later walk when the wind had calmed some so she did get her way eventually 🙂

The moose hunt starts tomorrow so we won’t be able to have any walks for most of next week. The hunting leader did however say that there will be times when they won’t be out there and he will text me when that happens. Personally I would have liked to take a walk in the village again but since I’ve never managed to make Albin and Alma behave when they see something moving, like a jogger or biker or a dog that is happy to see them, we really can’t take a walk there any more. Also there’s still cattle in tye huge pasture so we can’t walk there either.

So I can look forward to a week when I don’t have to leave the cottage at all before I go to work every day 🙂 I’ll just relax close to a radiator, perhaps reading a book or so 🙂

Have a great day!

Chilly wind.

September 30, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

It looked really nice outside when I woke up in the morning and looked out through the windows but it wasn’t. The sun was shining but the strong wind we had was way to chilly. That changed later in the day thankfully.

Nova wanted to go out to the bog again this morning so that’s where we went. One good thing with the strong and chilly wind was that most mosquitoes and moose flies blew away. I did kill one mosquito so I had to get rid of a blood stain when I came home 🙂 and the one moose fly that landed on me is no more either 🙂

I was going to do so much today but I never came around to it. To be honest, all I’ve done today is to do dog walks, some of the laundry and pancakes, I have no idea what I’ve been doing for the rest of the day 🙂 🙂 So I guess I can say that it has been a good day 🙂

They say we’ll get sunny and warm weather tomorrow so I hope I can come around to start picking the apples on my apple tree. I did after all buy one of those fruit picking things, the ones one can reach way up in the tree without having to risk the life by climbing on a ladder 🙂 I’ve bought what I need to try and preserve apples the way we always can buy pear halves in. Apples can of course be stored in my cool cellar for quite some time but I really want to try this. Pears on the other hand can’t be stored at all to be honest so I guess that’s why one never see preserved apple halfs in the stores 🙂

Have a great day!

I don’t like wild hogs!

September 24, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

Working those one and a half hour longer on Fridays really makes a lot of difference, more than I thought it would. I’m constantly tired even though I have taken long naps several times during the weekend. It’s not only me feeling like this, my work friends says the same thing. So today I’ve mostly napped and done the laundry 🙂 🙂

Alma behaved like an angel today when we started our morning walk. I was really surprised! She didn’t pull the leash and only whined a little. I got that feeling You know that this is too good to be true :-)So we kept on walking, she being just as great when suddenly wild hog ran out from some trees and over the gravel road. She didn’t behave like an angel after that 🙂 🙂 To make things worse Albin too started to act like insane.

I managed to get two photos with pigs in them despite the way Alma and Albin behaved.

I can deal with one insane dog but not two, the rest of the walk was not as nice and to make things worse we had to go back the same way again and even though we didn’t see any more pigs those two nuts behaved like we did 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so tired of wild hogs now! Nova however behaved like the Lady she is, she watched the hogs and then continued on her merry way down to the creek and was just as calm when we passed the place on our way home.

Yesterday I started to put some potted plants down in the cool cellar. Only those who need their leafs all winter so far, the rest like the small apricot trees can stay outdoors until the frost takes their leafs. they don’t need any more light after the leafs have dropped so I can place them where it is darker in the cellar. Still I realized that I most likely need to buy a new plant light anyway, I don’t have more plants to place there but they have grown and become much bigger.

Have a great day!

They play dare :-)

September 23, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

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Today started rather nice, it was slightly cloudy when I woke up but the sun started to shine between the clouds while we were out walking. Also it was cool enough to keep most mosquitoes and moose flies away and that makes any day a good day 🙂 🙂

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I know I can’t have fallen asleep before two am and I woke up at six thirty am and I’m still less tired today than those days I’ve slept around seven to eight hours 🙂 🙂 I know the tiredness will come later but so far it feels pretty good. It si raining now and thunder just passed the village pretty close and I can see that more is on its way. There is at least no risk what so ever that any lightning will manage to start a forest fire, at least one thing we can than all the rian that has been falling for so long now 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Also I was thinking of using my new lawn mower for the first time today so I guess I should than the rain for not being able to do that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today and tomorrow will be a bit cooler but we’ll have more sunshine tomorrow ands no rain, after that it’ll get cooler again but there really is no use in looking at those guessings since they have problems guessing the weather that will happen in two hours 🙂 It does at least look like we won’t have any frost nights the coming ten days. Normally the frost arrives around September sixth but so far it hasn’t even been close to happen.

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We’ve had lots of fog during nights though, sometimes I haven’t been able to see the road at all when driving home 🙂 🙂 Deer has probably had a competition about who’s the bravest and can run out in front of my car as close as possible, also a badger must have been competing about that as well. The winner however was a bird that actually was sleeping standing on the road, He can’t even have been more than an inch from getting hit by my car.

The mum I bought. I would rather had bought a rust colored one but this was the one they had 🙂

The rest of the photos show what’s in bloom right now .

I managed to get some photos in my garden before the rain and thunder started. Not much in bloom right now. I bought a Chrysanthemum yesterday. I’ve actually only seen this one for sale in the grocery store in Kvänum but they’ve had Asters instead and i didn’t want that. It is the wrong color and filled flowers but I wanted one so I bought it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ll plant it in my garden and if winter is mild enough it will survive until next year. It will look quite different (much higher than now) and might not flower in time before frost but I still want to try it. The only problem now is that I really don’t have any space for it 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

She got a bit lost in the high grass.

September 17, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

We’ve had a rather nice day. They said the sun would shine from early morning but it wasn’t until around 9 hours later we actually saw it 🙂 It has been warm outside but not warm enough to have the kitchen door open for more than a few minutes at a time.

I’ve ordered a new lawn mower. It is bigger than the one I have now and it cuts wider and has a much stronger electric motor. I guess that means I’ll be able to cut even longer and wet grass than I can now. I also got the question if I wanted to buy an electric cord to go with the machine but I thought I had already spent more than I like on something I really don’t want so no thanks 🙂 🙂 The old ones I have will work a couple of years more as long as I don’t mow them with the mower 🙂 🙂

The hunters were here early today, not for hunting but to mow the lawn outside the little hunting lodge and I could also hear some hammering and the sound from a chainsaw. I’m pretty sure the chainsaw were cutting up fire wood now when the moose hunting premiere soon starts. They’ll be outside in the forest for a week and not shoot a single moose because we have very few moose in this area. The hunters will be out from now and tonight though so I guess they’re hunting wild hogs again.

Here comes some photos from earlier in the week. We’ve had fairly many mornings with fog now.

I’m baking those gluten free french rolls again, this time I have both butter and milk in the dough. I take the cold butter and cut it in small pieces and then I put that and all the different ingredients in a mixer until there are no lumps of butter left. I do it that way because then the butter won’t disturb the yeast. All gluten free bread dough is a sticky mess to be honest, I’m surprised that it doesn’t just flow out over the oven plate but instead actually manages to keep the shape even though it is rising. Well it works and I really like them.

So no more chores today, I did the laundry as soon as we came home from our walk. We walked in the pasture behind my cottage because I didn’t know if the hunters had their dogs with them and it’s a pain in the a..e to walk with Albin and Alma if there are dogs nearby 🙂 🙂 The grass is so high that Nova got lost in it for a while 🙂

Have a great day!

September 16, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

We’ve had a really nice day here today. Yesterday evening I watched when the fog slowly rolled in and became rather thick, all dogs outside in the village was barking like crazy at the time so I think a wolf or a couple must have been walking around here. This morning I woke up just before the fog was disappearing again. After that we’ve mostly had sunshine and a weak wind blowing which made the day rather wonderful.

We walked down to the creek just after the fog had vanished, lots of animals had been running around because the dogs had to sniff all the scents on the ground every second meter or so 🙂 Birds were tweeting but we didn’t see any animals at all. We had come all the way down to the creek and started to follow it up-stream when the dog suddenly walked close together and a bit faster than before.

As You can see no Nova in front of the rest of us, I could see that they weren’t happy about something around us.

They kept on walking like that until we had passed the creek and was on the other side again. I have no idea if wolves were close or not but they must have been there shortly before we arrived. It’s when wolves have been around that is the only time Alma is quiet and actually does what I tell her to do 🙂 🙂 🙂 I did put out the wildlife camera, I hung it on my gate but the only thing it caught was a car and a cat passing twice. Well I’ve just looked at the screen so far, it could have been a fox as well but I’ll know better when I’ve downloaded those photos. I’ll have the camera there again tonight.

Otherwise I’ve had a rather calm day. I took a long nap and after that I mowed the lawn. I think I need to buy a new lawn mower, once again I managed to hit something, this time the teeth of a rake hidden in the high grass 🙂 , so now the rotation disk is so tilted that the entire mower shakes like it has some kind of disease 🙂 🙂 🙂 We have also had our pancake Saturday like always. The dogs get one pancake each and I get the rest that I make 🙂 Today I had apple sauce with my pancakes. I gave my neighbors some of my apples and got a jar with applesauce made from them. Tomorrow I’ll use my new fruit picker so I can reach the bigger apples higher up in the tree. I’ll have some myself but the rest will go to my neighbors. They are the best neighbors one can have 🙂

The sun is setting and it is time for something to eat. The dogs will have their food later tonight, slightly earlier than when they would get it on a work day because if I’m not working it’s impossible for me to stay awake for that long 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Finally a chilly night.

September 15, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The temperature had dropped down to 5C (41F) when I drove home after work last night and we all loved it 🙂 After staying in a way too hot factory for so many hours the cold air made us less tired. Good thing it did because when I drove homewards I had to break hard three times. Two times because deer was passing the road and once for a hare. There was a fox passing to but from a place much further down the road.

Nova wanted to go out to the peninsula at the bog today but I managed to make a turn andd walk down the path to the island we like to walk at.

I wasn’t sure it would be dry enough to even walk that way but it was just enough dry and hard to walk there.

The big creek is still full of water but this creek was actually less full than I thought it would be.

So because of the cold air last night was the first time in a very long time I wasn’t attacked by mosquitoes when I went out of the car, this morning was cool as well but a few mosquitoes didn’t care about that, so now I have a new itching spot on my right hand. So far it looks like this isn’t a moose fly year. We went down to the bog this morning and not a single one landed on either me or my dogs. I really wouldn’t be sad the least if those nasty things just died out 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have been really tired today though even though I slept really well and just enough hours. So after I had been at the grocery store in Gudhem to pick up a package I took a two hour long nap in my recliner. To be honest, two hours sleeping in a recliner is a bit too long. Yes it is comfortable but since one doesn’t move at all the body really aches afterwards 🙂 🙂

It does look dry enough to walk there but I won’t do that mistake again. The mud is knee deep and jumping from one grass tufft to another is great as long as one doesn’t loose ones balance 🙂 🙂

The package I was picking up contained an old Kodak SLR camera. I really didn’t want the camera but I wanted the two lenses that followed with it (I haven’t checked if the camera works, to be honest I haven’t even looked at it yet 🙂 ). The only problem now is that I actually can’t find the camera I wanted those lenses for 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well it’s here somewhere so sooner or later I’ll find it.

Next year I’ll plant the Gladiolus along the east wall of my cottage, there’s less wind there so it’ll be easier to keep them standing up.

The Nasturtiums are finally taking over the old wheel barrow.

The Red leafed rose still gives a flower or two.

This year we even get a chance to see the Jerusalem artichoke in bloom.

Besides that very little has happened here. I do get more hours awake with the dogs working evening shift and it looks like I’ve managed to change the hours I sleep to fit my working hours but I also know that if I stopped working I’ll go back to my old self within a day 🙂

Have a great day!

So I’ve survived my first week.

September 10, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

The photos can come from any day this past week.

So I have survived my first week working the evening shift 🙂 To be honest it is the ones one is working with who makes the day bad or good and these people I work with made it good 🙂 The job itself is just as boring or fun no matter what shift one is working even though I really don’t want to work nights ever again.

I’ll be working Monday to Thursday every week and then for some reason they’ve decided that we also must work every other Friday and to make it even better they’ve made that day longer. So I’ll be working one and a half hour more those days. In my opinion that’s a not too smart idea but I’m not the one deciding these things. So yesterday I was quite tired all day and even though I had an almost two hour long nap I still was so tired in the evening that I went to bed earlier than I had planned.

The dogs and I have had some really nice morning walks this week, one of the big plusses about working in the evenings. Later on when the nights are getting so long that they’ll start before 4 pm I still will have those walks in daylight. The dogs have mostly behaved really well but one evening some deer had started to “bark”, they do that when they are warning about dangers. So naturally my dogs had been answering and since they too then must have been warning about something the evening had become pretty lively 🙂 🙂 🙂

Alma also shows how happy she is that I’m at home again by shouting her lungs out 🙂 🙂 🙂 I told her that I really like that she likes me being back again but could she possible be doing that a bit more quiet 🙂 🙂 To my big surprise she is now mostly shouting in either the old garage or in the dog house 🙂 🙂 I’ve also noticed that there is a big space in the big fridge at work so that I can go to the grocery store and buy things that needs to stay cool just before I start to work! That’s a huge plus because I don’t want to have to go grocery shopping either early in the morning at work days or in the weekend.

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So so far things work as good as they can. Tomorrow I’ll most likely be a bit late for work because I’m waiting for a package. Originally I was going to get it to the grocerystore in the village where I work but for some reason the mail delivery company decided that no” Either You go and get it at the big office in Falköping or You’ll have to stay at home and sign that You’ve gotten it. The thing (it is one of those things one use to pick fruit high up in the trees) costs less than $ 10US! I’ve had packages delivered to my home (well mostly to my neighbors but they were close enough) costing three times as much and not having to be at home at all. I really don’t understand how they are thinking at Post Nord as the company is called 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and after that perhaps a tiny nap so that I won’t go to bed too early tonight.

I had more than twenty-five Admiral butterflies in and around my apple tree yesterday.

Have a great day!