Category: Walnuts.

Saint Lucia’s day.

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Grey, dull and rain all day here.

We didn’t have an especially long morning walk today, we had walked perhaps half of what we usually do when I suddenly heard a shot not especially far from us. It wasn’t our hunters but in the castles grounds neighbouring to this area. Well even if they were outside where we usually walk I really didn’t want to get too close just in case those hunters weren’t sure where to shoot, so we turned back home again.

A male Bullfinch.

So today, December 13, is Saint Lucias day and even though it isn’t a holiday now days we celebrate her. Its origins here is from the 16th century when we still were a catholic country and that’s when it was a holiday as well. I don’t know how they celebrated back then but that it wasn’t the way we do now. One can say it’s a procession led by a Lucia, all in white wearing a crown with lit candlesticks (kids have electric candles of course) she is followed by maids, star boys and sometimes gnomes and almost always a Saint Stephen. I’m not sure how all these are bout together but that really doesn’t matter when it comes to traditions, does it 🙂 🙂

This procession then travels to different places to sing  Christmas songs, like in retirement homes, hospitals or work places. Schools usually have their own ones. I hated that because I was always forced to be Saint Stephen and had to sing solo for the entire school about Stephen the stable boy 🙂 🙂 🙂 The gnomes sing about gnomes and the Star boys sing other Christmas songs 🙂 (I’ll try and post a video at the end). Everyone looking at this have coffee and gingerbreads and a wheat bun called Lussekatter 🙂

This is also broadcasted on tv so the ones at home gets a chance to see it as well. The first written story about a white dressed Lucia was written down 1764 at a place called Horn in this region of Sweden. It was traditionally a feast day here so I guess it fitted to have the first Lucia procession here (It’s a bit of a story to how they celebrated this day here before Lucia took over but that’s for another day). She was dressed in white but instead of having burning candles on her head she had candlesticks in her hands and she also wore wings. The way we celebrate now is from the early 1900’s when it spread from this region to all of Sweden and to our neighbouring countries.

It is time for that last cup of tea that stands beside me 🙂 I woke up at 4 am and as soon as I did Alma came over to me and placed her chin on my head. I took that as a I must out now 🙂 She is much much better now but she still poops out the occasional peanut 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thankfully the farting has stopped so now the cottage have gone back to smelling like it usually does 🙂 🙂

There isn’t a specific Saint Stephen in this video or gnomes but I guess that pagan gnomes perhaps doesn’t fit in a church 🙂

Have a great day!

So tired.

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I’m a bit tired today because a certain big dog decided to raid the peanuts that was supposed to go to the birds. Of course this created chaos and havoc to her stomach. If I’m saying high pressure diarrhea due to huge amount of gasses sort of ruined the night 🙂 🙂 🙂

I wish I could say that we had morning mist here but it was misty rain instead, the nastiest kind of rain.

Today my home smells of an oddly mix of shit and air cleaner spray 🙂 🙂 🙂 She isn’t the dog that tells You that she needs to go outside, she just sneaks down the stairs and waits to have the door opened. To be fair I think she only thought it would be a fart but so much more happened 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I’ve boiled a lot of rice and she’ll have some fish in it as well. I have Malkolm on the same diet since he has been a bit sad in the stomach as well because the previous food didn’t really agree with him. He will however have some of the new food I’ve ordered in his rice.

Besides that I’ve had a calm day. I’ve been to the supermarket and bought rose-hip soup and Orange ice cream with lots of strings with chocolate 🙂 The cold isn’t any worse than before so I don’t think it’s any of the three flus going around that I’ve gotten. I do try to avoid humans as much as possible but today it was tricky because I was later than usual to the supermarkets so lots of customers walking around but to my surprise no line at the cashiers.

I think it is time to give the dogs something to eat and I’ll have ice cream and later on most likely some of that rose-hip soup 🙂 Some people love to put vanilla ice cream in hot rose-hip soup or a layer of whipped cream on top of it but I prefer to have it by itself.

Have a great day!

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A grey and dull day but since we didn’t have any wind it actually turned out to be a rather nice day even though the temperature never rose above 7C (44.6F) and as it looks it will not fall especially much during the night either.

The hunters were out in the forest today and I doubt they had any success, turns out they had hunting dogs  but I couldn’t hear any barking until they were about to jump in the the cars again just before they left for the day. To be honest I’m a bit worried about the wild life here because it looks like we have very few of the bigger ones at all. I hope it is because of the wolves being here for a while and that they will come back when the wolves move back towards the south again.

I haven’t see a single hare either in a very long time. I really don’t like hares (or bunnies) to be honest Those front teeth can bite through anything and I’ve felt this way since, when I was a kid, my best friend had a pet rabbit 🙂 I can’t remember it ever biting me but it is enough to see those teeth to be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do have the same feeling about water voles, they can grow pretty big to be honest and their front teeth are even worse (and very yellow with looks pretty nasty 🙂 ) and if getting too close to them they’re pretty aggressive 🙂 🙂

No sights of any animals more than some ravens and woodpeckers when we finally could have our walk but there are lots of rather tine mushrooms growing up in the forest. Usually pale grey or sometimes the same brown colour as fudge. Actually quite pretty where they grow in dark green moss and it feels sort of christmassy 🙂 One of our Christmas ornaments, especially in our advent candle sticks but some also have them in their Christmas trees are red toadstools. Have no idea why but I guess the red colour helps with that.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and since there’s nothing I want to see on tv today I’ll need to find something else to do but can’t come up with anything, not because I have nothing to do but because I really don’t want to do any of it 🙂

Have a great day!

I’ve started to use those wood chips I’ve made.

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I was expecting a sunny morning and I hoped for morning mist again. We had sunshine but the mist wasn’t here but closer to the mountain.  It was a bit chilly when we walked down to the creek and my shoes got drenched in the morning dew and Malkolm who always wants to walk in the grass and follow tracks was even worse 🙂 He had no ticks walking around on him though so that was a good thing 🙂

Lots of small birds tweeting and Jays arguing but there were now bigger animals around. Once I saw a pure white wild hog and I have to admit that it was really beautiful. I didn’t manage to get a photo of it and have always hoped to see another one. Turns out that they are quite common, perhaps not pure white but with spot or markings of other colours on them. Since we don’t have white moose in this area I really think I deserve to see a white wild hog again 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve put up the new LED light ramp in the cellar so this morning I started to clean up down there. Lots of soil and sea leafs and twigs on that floor so it took its time. I knew that the monster pooped down there when she had sucked in when I didn’t notice it and therefore locked her in for hours sometimes 🙂 I did however not know how much until I had that light put up, on the plus side though is that I didn’t find any moose droppings which I see as positive 🙂 🙂 🙂

I took some photos to show what my garden looks like at the moment. This shows the south side east corner.
South side western corner.
North side towards east where the cottage stands.
North side towards west.
And the north side towards west corner where my Pawpaws grows.

Lots of smaller lorries have been driving up and down to where the latest neighbours live, looks like they’re moving out today. Too bad I liked them but I fully understand them, the owner of the place is just too greedy. So now we’re waiting for new tenants or perhaps someone from a big city buys it, they usually have no idea. what places like that costs here, anything is cheaper here than I the big cities. I’m not even sure if they could buy a two bedroom apartment in a big city for what they want for this place but it is still too much. Lets hope that who ever comes here are just as nice as the ones moving out.

This is one the other side of the cottage, the northern side looking towards west.
And this is the opposite side towards east. Big and thorny roses on both sides of the entrance 🙂

I’vedecided to plant those five Pawpaw seedlings I have, I can’t trust the cat wanting to go down in to the cellar so I think it is best that they’ll stay outside and I’ll cover them as good as I can instead. The biggest threat to their lives are the dogs running around playing with each other 🙂 🙂 So I’ve put up sticks so the dogs can avoid running in to them. Oddly enough the dogs actually tends to avoid those sticks but can happily run in to smaller trees so hard that they break them 🙂 🙂  According to our folklore the winter will be harsh if the Rowan trees have lots of berries, this year they have almost no berries so it should be warm, almost hot here 🙂 🙂 🙂 Unfortunately it doesn’t show anything more that if they have lots of berries the spring was absolutely perfect for them.

I’ve started to fill up the area around the English walnut with the wood chipping I made from what I’ve been cutting down. The layer is around 20 cm (eight inches) thick. Just remember when using fresh chips they will when slowly decaying steal a lot of nitrogen from the ground. No bigger problem with a walnut though since they have taproots.
The Pawpaws are small and while living in a pot they were eaten by slugs. So far I’ve never seen a slug in this part of the garden, there’s just too little to eat for them I guess.

It is time for that last cup of tea and perhaps a bowl with corn flakes.  Nothing on tv at all so I have no idea what to do for the rest of the evening 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

One more nice day tomorrow, after that the rain comes.

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Sunshine again this morning but it didn’t last for long, a meh fog arrived and after that it stayed cloudy for quite some time. It wasn’t really until late afternoon we had sunshine again but it was at least warm and nice.

So the kitchen door has stayed open most of the day and if I’ve said that we haven’t had especially many wasps (Yellowjackets) here I changed my view about that today. This is the time of year the new queens have left the nest and the workers therefore has nothing to do. That makes them confused and pretty angry and it doesn’t get better when they’ve eaten fermented apples on the ground. They can be pretty nasty and attack without any reason at all. This is the only time in the year I kill them if they start to be nasty towards me. They do so much good all summer but now they have no purpose since the queens are gone.

Since I hadn’t planned to do anything special today I finally used the chain saw. As I’ve mentioned earlier grape elder wood aren’t good for much after they’ve been cut down, not even in life the wood is especially tough, so even though they were quite thick it just too 15 seconds to cut those stumps off. I did go out on the net to see if it can be used to anything and it did say one could use it as fire wood but it wasn’t recommended since the wood (the entire plant actually) is poisonous.

The bog is yellow now, autumn is here.

Besides that I really haven’t done much today. I’ve planted one of the quince seedlings, there was sort of a space vacant when I had cut down the grape elder. Well I cut down two grape elders to be honest and should therefore be able to plant one more but the other one grew beside the huge rose I still am cutting down and also there grows an English walnut not far fro it so in the long run, if the walnut keeps on surviving it will be too much shade there. My black walnut on the other side of the garden is now higher than the cottage and grows way too close to it. I never thought it would survive here but oh how wrong I was 🙂 🙂 I will have to cut off the branches that soon will be long enough to slam hard on the roof when it is windy.

It will be nice weather tomorrow again but after that they say it will go downhill, lots of rain and lower temperatures. I really don’t need to go to the supermarket yet but if I go on Saturday as I’ve planned it will be a bit nasty weather to drive in. On the other side I’m waiting for a parcel with a LED light bar that I need to have down in the cool cellar and it might arrive tomorrow but on the opposite way to the supermarket 🙂 🙂 Well the lighter can wait until the weather gets a bit nicer again 🙂 I’m sitting here with my last cup of tea for the day and today I’ll watch Elsbeth on tv 🙂

My little meadow is still full of flowers.

My Black walnut. I wish that I had planted it just a meter (much the same as a yard) to the right but I guess in the long run that wouldn’t have helped anyway 🙂

Have a great day!

I also found my grass trimmer :-)

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Cool and nice morning today. It had rained some during the night but it didn’t make any difference, the ground is still bone dry. I made a quick trip to the supermarket, just to buy a few things I might need over the weekend. I had a list, followed it but still came home with loads of things, like canned fruit 🙂 🙂 So the trip that would go fast and not cost too much became just the opposite 🙂 🙂

Finally a butterfly eating from the Butterfly bush 🙂
My little meadow is still rather full of flowers.
They started showing late but now I have plenty of them, the California poppy.
The pile is gone, only a few that were too big is left.

My hands have lots of small cuts and they hurt because I forgot how many branches from the wild roses I had put in that other pile of branches 🙂 🙂 🙂 but now I’ve worked through both piles. It was the same with this one, lots of rather old half rotten left and those can easily be handled with the lawn mower. I also found my old grass trimmer in the patio 🙂 🙂 I didn’t have to do anything with it, it just started and worked perfect. The first thing I did with it was to trim away lots of stinging nettles 🙂

Besides this I’ve done very little today, I didn’t even do the laundry I had planned to because the compost grinding too much longer than I thought. I can do that tomorrow if they’re guessing on the weather is right, rain all day as best or very little some of the time as it looks right now. It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I’ll take a look on what’s on tv tonight, I think it’s Death in Paradise tonight 🙂

Have a great day!

It’s getting warmer again.

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We were supposed to have sunshine all day today but we only had glimpses of it until early afternoon. I didn’t mind since it now is so dry here that as soon the sunlight hits the vegetation it looks like everything is dying. Chilly nights with lots of dew seems to perk them up. It has been fairly warm though so to avoid the worst heat and most flies I mowed the lawn pretty early in the morning. The flies were there anyway and will most likely stay until they move the cattle again. We also now have a few biting ones and one bit Malkolm on the stomach and it bothers him a lot.

New shoots growing out on the Honeyberry bushes I cut down quite hard.

After the lawn mowing, which went pretty fast since the grass hasn’t grown especially much in the drought, I did some laundry. Not much but heavier things, I have a very small machine so the heavier stuff needs to be laundered by themselves. I have several sweaters that needs to be cleaned but as it is now I’m not really in a hurry to clean them 🙂 🙂 🙂 I also baked some bread and this time in the Owen because I wanted teacakes and the machine can’t do that. Also I had some strong cheese left and I’ve realises that cheese and the machine really doesn’t go together 🙂 🙂

I’ve also cut down another bush, some kind of Cotoneaster. They are seen as a bit of too invasive and since the birds love the berries (taste like shit to be honest 🙂 ) they then spread the seeds everywhere. So since the only reason I had it was because Hornets loves the nectar from that bush don’t show up as much because the Beekeeper has moved with all his bees I really didn’t have any reason to keep it. Hornets loves to eat bees of all kinds and now the honeybees are gone so no reason for them to visit the bush either. I still have most of the roots to remove but thankfully this one doesn’t spread via the roots.

Clarkia, one of my favourites in summer.
My Hardy Hibiscus finally showing buds.
I now have a new hardy Kiwi fruit vine and this one is said to be self fertile so as long as it flowers and there are pollinators around I will bet berries.
No summer without Californian poppies 🙂 Our name for it is Sleepy head in English 🙂

After that I planted three of the pear tree seedlings I have. Pear trees grow pretty big and I rather have something smaller but I know a way to keep them at a reasonable size. I planted them all close together and am planning on trade them together as soon as they are high enough. I have seen it done  but with other trees and it’s a bit too much competition so they will all grow slower and hopefully not as high as they normally would grow to be.

 tried to get a better photo of my English walnut but that didn’t happoen

I tried to get a better photo of my English walnut but that didn’t happen 🙂 🙂 🙂

The three pear tree seedlings now planted They need to become a bit more high before I braid them together.

Tomorrow will be really warm and the day after that will be nasty hot according to the guessing at the weather sites. No rain in sight the coming ten days but then again they do guess very bad lots of times, perhaps we at least can have a thunderstorm shower or two when and if that happens. We do have lots of dew though so that saves many plants at the moment. It’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that we’ll spend the evening in the garden, I don’t think there’s anything worth watching on tv.

Have a great day!

I’ve felt a bit cold today.

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I’ve felt that the day has been a bit chilly even though it almost reached 20C (68F). I think it’s mostly because I have been tired all day since I didn’t sleep that well during the night. I have no idea why though. I did warm up a bit when I visited my friend in the garden center though. They’ve been closed for four weeks and they’ll open for the new season tomorrow again. This one is so much bigger than the one I had and it was completely empty of new plants so they have a big job filling it up before they open tomorrow morning 🙂

They did have some plants left in the greenhouse and I I took a look and like a scavenger brought a few plants with me home 🙂 Just a few since I’m planning on sowing new perennials this winter. Now they need to stay in shadow (as much as possible) so they don’t get burned by the sun, just like us they get burned easily if they have been indoors for a long time without direct sunlight hitting them. If You buy plants in a garden center when they stand in a green house always ask if they have been standing indoors all the time or been outside because then You’ll know how to treat them when You get back home.

There’s so little water in the creek now that it’s early visible in some places.

I now have cattle just outside my garden and with them the flies have returned, no biting ones but those annoying ones that do whatever they can to annoy us. Trying to get in to our nostrils and ears or just fly around in front of the face until You wish You had a spray can with pesticides so You could just spray and get rid of them 🙂 🙂 🙂 The problem is that most would hit ourselves and there’s no end to how many flies that now hangs around just waiting to the chance to take the others place 🙂 🙂 🙂

There were also more flies on our morning walk today, not as many as we use to have but enough to force me to wear the hood on my hoodie. I could hear lots of animals moving away when we walked so that could be the reason there were so many, it was most likely wild hogs and a few deer being a hotel for those flies until we came along. This has not been a year for biting flies, I’ve only seen a few and only been bitten once. Also we have very few wasps/ Yellowjackets this year but those wasps that is do eat a lot on my apples before they fall to the ground. I normally give fallen apples to my neighbours but this year they are all half eaten before they hit the ground.

Sometimes when one has bought soil something starts to grow in the pot that has nothing to do with us. Normally tomato seeds that survived the sewage plant. So when I first saw this one I thought it was a tomato. Now I’m not sure because the leafs doesn’t smell anything. The only other thing this can be is a potato plant and since we don’t eat potatoes tomatoes this seed must have survived on of those industrial compost makers. I’ll plant this in a pot and when it hopefully flowers we’ll know what it is 🙂 🙂 🙂

It’ll be warmer tomorrow so I’ll mow the lawn while the grass is fairly short. They’re guessing we’ll have sunshine tomorrow, especially in the afternoon but we really need rain, even some of my trees now look sad and I really can’t water them all. I only water the newly planted plants so they survive. People who knows gardening usually say that one should water trees and bushes once a week and then at least 10 litres (slightly more than 2,5 gallons US) because just enough for the day You’ll teach the tree/ bush to never develop the roots that should grown down to the ground water. That might be true but if there’s drought and there’s a risk having no water at all to think like that might just make You teach the tree to die. When the rain comes those deep roots will start to grow.

The English walnut isn’t big but it lives, so I’ve started to remove nettles and other weeds from it so the sunlight can reach it.

The Flowering quince decided to flower a second time. I do hope this one stays calm and doesn’t spread via its roots like the Japanese since I just have removed. No thorns on this one and that’s a huge plus 🙂

I’ve just had my last cup of tea for the day and there’s nothing but re-runs on tv so I think I’ just have an early night today.

Have a great day!

Traditions and folklore.

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Sand cherries, so tasty but it’s hard to get any because of the birds 🙂

So yesterday was midsummers eve and that’s a big day here, treated like a holiday even though it’s midsummers day that is the holiday. Still very few work on midsummers eve and most of us is payed as if it was a holiday. Also the last holiday here until Christmas.

Mock orange.

The potatoes grow well now.

Eastern redbud. Doesn’t like it here at all.

Back in the days everyone danced around the midsummer pole and many still do but mostly because of the children. We dance around it while singing almost the same songs we do when dancing around the Christmas tree, like the little frogs, the priests little crow and Anders Persons house is on fire (he has actually existed and is said to have been a truly nasty person and no one was sad seeing his house burning down). The history of the midsummer pole is and has been under debate a very long time but I think it used to be a German tradition.

If You want something that spreads happily, smells rather strange and will flower until frost comes the Nepeta sibirica should be You choice 🙂 🙂

After dancing around people went home to have the traditional lunch/dinner. We swedes aren’t that uneventful when it comes to the food so it is more or less the same as what we eat all other holidays 🙂 🙂 You can’t celebrate midsummer without freshly boiled new potatoes and they should be boiled together with lots and lots of dill. Five gazillions of different pickled herring and either pickled or smoked salmon. For us that can’t stand the herring (and we are really few people) there’s always meatballs, a couple of different sausages, oven omelet with mushroom stew and perhaps some chicken as well. Naturally we also have different kinds of hard bread and normal bread plus different kinds of cheese, both the regular one and blue cheese and brie/ camembert. What never is missing is the cream-layer cake with Swedish strawberries. If You would happen to have strawberries from another country (mostly because the Swedish ones are nasty expensive) You will be seen as a person with little or no value to mankind 🙂 🙂 🙂

When the evening comes the old folklore comes to live. So if You are young and not married yet You can actually learn to whom You one day will be married to. This must be done while being totally quiet of course. You’ll have to take a walk in nature and, depending on from where You come, either climb over seven or nine walls/ fences and at each fence You need to pick a flower and of course it needs to be different flowers all the time. When the walk is done You’ll have to go to bed, putting the flowers under Your pillow and go to sleep so it is best to be one of those that actually remember Your dreams 🙂 🙂

My citrus trees was damaged pretty bad during the last frost but now they show new growth again.

The beings are also very active that night so never go close to a flowing water if You hear someone play the violin because that could be Näcken. They say he’s longing for company but ig he catch You he will drown You so I’m not so sure about the company part 🙂 🙂 He can also show up as a horse (Näckahästen), usually pure white, and trick mostly children to climb up on him. Once they are he’ll run strait out into the river and drown the poor kids. They do say that no one can play the violin like he so I’ve learned that one actually can ask him if he want to teach how to do it, there’s always a price to pay though.

Can’t be seen much but this basket is starting to fill up with nasturtium and peas.

The English walnut is growing slowly but steadily.

This is also the time to think of the coming winter and ones health. It is important to collect as much morning dew as possible this night because that can help You survive the long and hard winter. I’ve come to understand that dragging a sheet over the wet vegetation is the best way to collect as much as possible. When that is done one must save the dew in sealed glass jars and when winter comes and one feel a bit poorly just either add some dew to the bath water or perhaps mix it with lemonade/ tea/ coffee and that will make You better. I’ve never tried that but perhaps I should considering everything 🙂 🙂 🙂

One of the few Greater sea-kale that germinated and now I better protect it so the bugs don’t eat it.

This year the Rapunzel looks great. A bellflower where there once were several varieties for food. I think they taste like radishes.

The first potatoes are ready to be picked 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I feel I’m slowly coming back to normal after a week with evening work. Tired as h… but I think by tomorrow I’ll feel fine.

Have a great day!

I managed the first week but I’m soo tired now :-)

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View from my window upstairs.

So my first evening shift week is over and I must say it worked better than I thought it would. I did get more and more tired as the days passed and this morning I was so tired that I would have preferred to stay in bed all day long 🙂 🙂

My black walnut is finally greening up.

The weather was perfect for that because it has been raining constantly since yesterday and will continue through the weekend. I don’t mind the rain though, wee need it because even the weeds started to look sad now 🙂 🙂 I do mind the temperature though, 4C (39,2F) as lowest during the day and it dropped down to 2C (35,6F) on my way home just after midnight.

No flowers in my woodland but Solomons’ seal has some buds now.

It’s a strange feeling driving home at night, even though I’ve driven that road so often during daylight it’s a totally different thing when it is pitch dark. There are almost no lights from the few houses along the road so even though I really can’t drive the wrong way I still don’t really know where I am :-)It isn’t before half way home when I pass the village Gudhem that I know where I am because there’s a petrols station that brings some light to the area and after that it’s pitch black again 🙂 🙂 If the sky is cloud free it really isn’t really dark here anyway this time of year, the sky is already becoming brighter after midnight so there aren’t any stars in the sky at all. o if one wants to look at stars here one better do it in winter when it is cold and nasty 🙂 🙂

I got my first pay check today so I drove to the grocery store in the village where I used to work, I’ve been doing most of my grocery shopping there since I moved to this area, must be 28 years now so many of them are like friends and they know more about me than most people 🙂 🙂 Also I know where everything is placed in that store so without the chats with the employees the shopping goes really fast 🙂 🙂 After that I visited my old work place, well my old work friends and told them how I really like working at this new place and how fast I just became one in the gang. It has never been like that in my old work place, if one is a bit shy it really is hard to get to know people there and that I know have work friends and bosses that actually treat people with respect., they asked me how that felt 🙂 🙂 🙂

The dogs have been behaving really good during this week. Ok Alma did one thing I wasn’t especially happy about, My kitchen door is to be honest just an old balcony door with no insulation in it, so I had put up insulation but not yet covered it. I now need to buy new insulation 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m actually now thinking of making the insulation much thicker and covering it with a sort of box so that I can have potted plants there during winter. I will check with friends who now better than I how to do it so it just doesn’t comes loose drop off the door one day 🙂 🙂 🙂

My Red oak shows leafs as well.

It’s easy to see why this rose is called Red leafed rose in English.

The Kankakee mallow has adapted well to where they grow now, I think I have six more in pots though and they look fine today, I think they liked the rainy and cooler weather a lot.

It is time for a cup of tea and perhaps baking some bread but I am so tired so I might skip the bread until tomorrow since I bought hard bread today.  I will not spend much time outside because of the rain but it is a bit warmer now at least.

Have a great day!

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The morning weather was a bit dull and grey so I went to the grocery store before we had our walk, no wind to speak of but it felt like the weather was a bit depressed, out of energy. Could be because the hard winds that passed during the night 🙂 I had just driven out from the parking lot when I for some reason remembered that I hadn’t bought any milk or cheese, I can’t live without either so back to the store I went.

     

It was quite nice when I came back home again, a little bit more wind and sunshine every now and again. We only had a short walk in the forest because Nova had rather stayed at home continuing to sleep in the sofa 🙂 She didn’t look too happy when I showed her the harness 🙂 Alma is getting better when walking leashed but so far we’ve only tried this when walking in the forest where it mostly is quiet. Today not so quiet though because some trees had fallen during the windy night and every time there came a gust they squeezed towards other trees and then making a noise that sounded like something was screaming very loud 🙂 🙂

     

Only one walnut had fallen down during the night so there’s still four or five up there on the branches. It’ll take some time before they turn from green to black and I can pick out the nuts. I really don’t need more walnut trees but perhaps I should poke down some nuts here and there when we’re out walking in the forest and by the bog 🙂

     

I think it is time to have that last cup of tea for the day and perhaps a slice or two from my new baked breads 🙂 I’m not that hungry to be honest but the first ones tasted pretty good 🙂

The last Wildapple apple.

My two Pawpaws still have green leafs and I don’t like that. It would have been better if they’d dropped them and prepared for winter. My seed sown ones are finally in tune with nature and are now spending winter in the cool cellar.

But they aren’t the only ones. The sand cherries have just started to get colors and the peach tree is also still totally green.

Have a great day!

Warmish.

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The four walnuts I found on the ground yesterday.

It’s quiet in my cottage, the dogs and kitten are sleeping and even though the tv is on downstairs I can’t hear it. We went out to the bog this morning and I tried something old with Alma, I thought she has become older so perhaps it will work this time. It is more quiet out there and even though we do see animals every now and again that still can’t compare to a huge tractor passing in front of us, curious calves running towards us and dogs barking in dog yards 🙂

     

To my very big surprise it worked really well! This was only one day but we’ll continue with this for a while and if it works I’ll tell You what we did 🙂 It was fairly warm already in the morning and with almost no wind it did feel like an early spring day.  No birds singing of course but some tweeting from smaller birds flying by and I could hear a Jay screaming from somewhere in the forest plus a few Ravens as well. One moose fly that I managed to get rid of when we had arrived here at home again, they should all be dead by this time of the year but there’s always a few that survives for a longer period I’m afraid.

     

I found eight more walnuts on the ground today and since almost all leafs are gone from the tree now I found seven more up there just waiting to fall down. This year I’ll use a hammer to crack them since they destroyed my very sturdy nut cracker last year 🙂 🙂 🙂 It wasn’t the best nut cracker to be honest but since it was made from thick iron I never thought they would break it 🙂 🙂 🙂 They’re still green on the outside so it’ll take some time until I can crack them open. I hope that they aren’t empty like the few hazelnuts I got 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It will stay relatively warm and nice for a while now, with that I mean up to 59F as most but it looks like the sun will stay away most of it. I won’t complain even if the sun will hide behind the clouds as long as it is around that temperature. I’m not a fan of winter, truly dislike below freezing temperatures, hate scraping ice from the car windows and hate even more to shovel snow from the ground. To be honest it’s just four meters I really need to shovel and some around the car but I really can’t stand it. Now days winter tends to arrive when we usually was waiting for spring, some time in March and with fierce snow storms. Like this year when it arrived twice, the last time it came at easter just when I had brought home Malkolm. We had had spring for a few weeks by then when the snow arrived again and forced me to take a week of vacation because I couldn’t leave a small puppy in a dog house/ yard when we had well over 40 cm (16 inches) of snow everywhere 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day but I think I’ll skip anything to eat. I’m not hungry and don’t even crave anything sweet, a first time to be honest 🙂

I must say that this little compost works really well.     

Have a great day!