Category: Wild hogs.

May 25, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

Well today didn’t start like yesterday mostly was at all but it was warm enough for me not to care about it 🙂 A nice little summer rain and we spent a lot of time in the garden before we went out on our morning walk.

We walked out to the bog and unfortunately we met our new neighbour, well the new neighbours Arte really nice so that wasn’t it but they have a new puppy, Border collie by the looks of it and when Alma and Malkolm saw that they went insane. The puppy barked so that was what my two idiots did as well, scaring their white dog who normally comes rushing towards Alma and Malkolm with joy, today it turned away because of my two idiots. It didn’t help that one of their cats was present as well 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do hope we can repair this so that they won’t be scared when they meet us again 🙂 🙂 🙂

After that I’ve been a bit busy today. I’ve made dinner for the coming week at work and since all I had was potatoes, prince sausages and a packet of bacon at home that will be what I’ll have for dinner next week 🙂 I both boiled and then fried the potatoes so it took some time. I have as usual also done the laundry. It isn’t fun but has to be done.

a feeding station. Too many wild hogs around now days.

We didn’t continue since that grass now is a paradise for ticks. Had it been dry the ticks would have dug themselves down into the ground.

As You know I’m at war with the stinging nettles in my garden as well as with the Cleavers plus now days the Greater Celandine. So I have been raking a big part of the more wild areas of the garden ripping up lots go cleavers, they will grow up again but I’ll continue every week since they are annuals and if they don’t produce seeds they will slowly disappear from my home. They tend to grow well amongst the nettles as well so hopefully I’ve damaged those too 🙂 The greater Celandine is easier though, just rip them up with their roots. The problem is that those seeds can lie dormant for quite some time but I’ll be happy if I just have some control over them. They are really beautiful but they spread like crazy 🙂 🙂

After that I’ve tossed out lots of older seeds here and there in the garden, they might grow or they won’t 🙂 I’ll have a really beautiful wild garden if they do 🙂 🙂 It will be a good weather for those seeds though, its of rain tonight and tomorrow, also the temperatures will rise again and we’ll even get some sunshine in between rainy days (well we all know by now how great they are in guessing the weather here 🙂 🙂 ) It should also be time to sow beans, peas and other vegetables now so I’ll have lots to do this coming week 🙂 Carrots and beetroots are already sown and on their way growing. Also the strawberries that always gives berries in the autumn for a reason I don’t know flowers really good right now so perhaps I’ll get some berries for Midsummer, a holiday that perhaps is even more important than Christmas is here.

I bought a tree peony last spring and the variety I bought seems to have died but a new branch is growing up from the roots. Usually these varieties are grafted on herbaceous peonies but it does look like tree peony leafs coming up so who knows what it once will look like.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, tomorrow I’ll have dayshift again 🙂 The bread I baked yesterday turned out so much better than I thought since I forgot to start the timer 🙂 🙂 So I might have a sandwich with the tea 🙂

Have a great day!

The wild hogs comes closer and closer.

April 6, 2025 · 8 Comments ·

The wild hogs are now just 50 meters (much the same in yards) away from my cottage, in the cow pasture beside the dog house/ yard. I did wonder why the dogs kept running around like crazy during the night 🙂 🙂 🙂

-6C (21,2F) as coldest last night but it can’t have lasted that long because it was close to 0C (32F) when we went outside after we had woken up. They said the sun would start to show around 8 am, so of course it didn’t arrive until after noon but when it did the world warmed up properly again 🙂

I haven’t done much today, I sowed some leek seeds and was about to sow some bell pepper seeds but for some reason I still haven’t 🙂 🙂 I’ll do it after writing this 🙂 I can’t start sowing especially much yet because I don’t have the space indoors and we’ll most likely have frost several nights the coming week, days will be warmer again though.

This is how it looks after I removed the grapevine. I think I’ll plant an apricot tree there.

Can never remember the name on these, spreads really happily everywhere though.

I started to clean up my garden yesterday and continued for a while today. I also gathered all the pots I’ve spread around the garden 🙂 🙂 For some reason I never empty them in the autumn so I really need to do it now before weeds grow and cover them so I can’t find any when I need to 🙂 🙂 I’ve also continued to rip up stinging nettle roots and this time I managed to stay away from those nasty leafs. I have way too many nettles in the garden but then again they are edible so it is perhaps not such a bad thing to have just in case the orange idiot does something really stupid (worse than what he has so far and he’s done some really stupid things) 🙂

I also tried to nap in the sofa while the sun shone through that window. Stupid idea when one has two dogs and a cat 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can however tell You that when I gave up they finally decided it was time for them to have a nap 🙂 🙂 🙂

The orchid that flowered earlier this winter decided to give me more flowers, didn’t see that until I thought it was time topwater it 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I must remember to buy more tea tomorrow when I’ll drive to my health care place to give blood before the kidney x-rays. Some time this week I’ll know if I got a job at the coffin factory, if not it sounds like I have another one on the way, they promised to call back this week and give me a job if I didn’t got the coffin job.

Have a great day!

So now the snow falls again.

March 11, 2025 · 4 Comments ·

Not the best photo but it is at least Cranes, they were flying to the other small lake we have in the nature reserve.

It is snowing again and will continue for a day or two more. How much we’ll get is hard to guess since they change the amount on the web sites all the time. It will most likely stay for the rest of the week but after that they’re guessing we’ll get warmer temperatures again. I’m not surprised though because as the first Crane arrives here we usually get at least one more snow storm before spring really arrives.

The two days previous to this one was quite wonderful though, a bit chilly in the mornings but sunny and temperatures rose to 10C (50F) and above. Lots more Cranes have arrived though so now I can hear them every morning as soon as I go outside 🙂 I’ve also heard the Larch and the Eurasian curlew. The last one has become a bit rare so I always enjoy hearing it again. So even if spring has reached a temporary halt it feels good to know it’s just around the corner.

I’ve been a bit busy now, well busy isn’t perhaps the right word but I have been to an interview at a staffing agency for a job in the same village as where I worked before but for another company. I must say it did feel like a good meeting so now I’ll have to wait and see what happens. The staffing agency will now recommend the people they think will work well for that company so all I can do now is to wait and hope for the best.

A while ago the employment agency asked if I wanted the help from a job coach and I said why not and today I met her for the first time. She asked me what I had done so far to get a job and it turns out I’m doing what they want me to do. I’ll have a talk with her over the phone every second week and meet her in person the other weeks. When I returned back home she had mailed me some links to companies looking for hiring people. So tomorrow I’ll send an application to each place, as long as the orange idiot doesn’t disturb the world too much I might have a chance.

I would say that the cold is gone but the coughing isn’t. Still very little coughing during nights thankfully. Lots of people have that cold or flu or what ever it is at the moment so I guess I should be happy about having it early especially now when we’ll get winter weather back. I could at least go outside to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather, those having it now just have to suffer through it and not have anything to make the day better.

Can You see the back of the wild hog in the middle of the photo?

Our morning walk was quite nice though, despite the cold wind and dark skies. We walked out to the bog and stood at the end of the peninsula. Alma is behaving so much better now, even the whining is quieting down. We stood there at the end looking out over the bog, all quiet, when we suddenly heard something walking towards us in the thicket. Two wild hogs that must have known we were there suddenly showed themselves to us. This was a bit too much for Alma so she started to whine a lot, so they slowly turned away from us and walked in to the thicket again. I did however get a photos of one of them, even if it only was the back side of it 🙂

It is time for something to eat, haven’t had dinner today. Thinking something easy like sausage and baked white beans. I’ll have my last cup of tea for the day after that 🙂

More croci are showing up just before winter comes back.

Also some spring irises show now. They are built to survive some time of winter returning.

Dying needles on the Himalayan cedar, lets hope it just sheds of the old needles and not dies.

Have a great day!

January 20, 2025 · 2 Comments ·

So this is the pasture the wild hogs now walk around in at night.

We did see the sun shine for a few minutes just as it was setting, otherwise the day has been rather depressing 🙂 A meh fog in the morning, later on just grey and dull.

Today I’ve been a bit busy though. First I ordered and downloaded an antivirus program, the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I paid the bill, pressed the link and voila finished 🙂 🙂 The Macworld said it was the best and it wasn’t especially expensive either, I also got a discount for being a new customer and that didn’t hurt 🙂 If all things computer was that easy! I never remember my passwords to anything so I rarely log out from anything but I need to get a new password now when I change computer, since I don’t remember them 🙂 So I tried Facebook. I could just as well hit myself in the head with a hammer! I thought I would get a link via my mail but no not any more. I tried to change it several times but no such luck I’m afraid, now I have no idea if the old one still is there so I can come in to Fb on my old computer 🙂 🙂 🙂

When the first wave of hate towards Fb had calmed down I finally found the old way but it sure wasn’t easy to find it 🙂 What angered me the most was when I tried to change the password their new way it didn’t work so a new page turned up so that I could change the password, the only problem was that I had to log in to be able to do it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then I needed to do the same for my blog and it took four seconds to let me in again 🙂 🙂 🙂 To be honest I’m not sure I want to stay on Fb anyway but I want to have a chance to say bye if I do decide to log out totally. Now all I need to do is to slowly but steadily add my favourites so things can go back to normal again.

But I have done other things as well, like baking bread, well very flat French rolls 🙂 🙂 🙂 and to dinner I made a shrimp and vegetable pie, not bad at all 🙂 I had a bit too much though so now I’m burping shrimps and Broccoli 🙂 🙂 I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day. I had too much too late yesterday so I’ll have this cup early so I don’t have to get up in the middle of night again 🙂 The hunters will be here tomorrow morning again, they have noticed that the wild hogs now walk around in the pasture just outside my gate. Wild hogs are good for nature but not gardens 🙂

My hardy Rosemary, survived -18 C (-0,4 F) beside it some Oregano but they survive everything 🙂

The Himalayan Cypress also looks good but the most dangerous time for plants here is when spring starts and those late frosts suddenly kill them.

Have a great day!

January 4, 2025 · 2 Comments ·

The temperature had dropped down to -15 C (5 F) during the night but when I had to clean the car from all snow, I think there was at least 30 cm (12 inches) of snow at the roof of the car it has become balmy -11 C (12,2 F) 🙂 🙂 It had helped a lot with the snow so the ice on the wind shields was very thin and easily removed thankfully.

You can always see where the wild hogs have been.

Almost no traffic on the road to the super market (one car far behind me and two on the way back home 🙂 ) so I could take it slow . They had removed the snow really well though so I didn’t feel that it was especially slippery to drive. I realized that I had forgotten the list I wrote before leaving so I was guessing what it could have been what I wanted 🙂 🙂 I did need a small package of dog food just in case they’ll get problems delivering it the coming week because of the heavy snow fall we’ll have on Monday and then because higher temperatures and rain the days after.

So of course I returned with two bags of seeds for the birds, sometimes I do wonder about myself since I actually went there for the dog food and still missed to buy any 🙂 🙂 So I’ll have to go to the supermarket again tomorrow, normally I always drive early in the morning so there will be as few customers there as possible but they’re guessing it’ll be just as cold tomorrow morning so perhaps I’ll wait a bit longer 🙂

I was thinking of walking out on the peninsula but no way I’ll have us all covered in cold snow 🙂

The entire road in the forest looks like this. Wild hogs are good for nature but not for us trying to walk on the roads 🙂 🙂

We could almost see the sun when we went out for our morning walk and it looked like we would get a really nice walk but Alma had one of those days when nothing seemed to be good. It wasn’t until we were almost at home that she finally calmed down. As soon as we’re at home though she’s the best dog in the world. I think today she was stressed because wild hogs had been everywhere last night until this morning, they most likely only moved because we arrived.

I really don’t want to go to the supermarket tomorrow but it is after all better to drive when it is cold than if we’re having a snow storm or after when it’ll be warmer and most likely rain. Swedish winters are the best 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

I missed a foggy morning walk.

November 13, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

We had thick fog this morning, perfect for a morning walk but I was going to visit my friend in the garden center and it takes some time to get there so I had to skip the morning walk. We had our “morning” walk when I came home just after noon instead.

I do miss the days when I had my own garden center but it was a lot of work for very little money. Unless it’s a holiday of some kind or beginning of spring very little happens, very fun though but it is nice to have dinner every now and again 🙂 🙂 🙂 Quite often if not always I get some plants/flowers with me home, it is when the plants are too old to sell 🙂 So today I came home with two Butterfly orchids that had seen better days and a huge Croton. Crotons really hate dry air so they usually don’t last for long in modern homes, it usually don’t take long time before the first pests arrive, like spider mites and even if one can be successful in removing them the first time they don’t take long to come back.

Too dry air in a 100 year old cottage is rarely a problem as long as the plant doesn’t stand too close to a radiator but it is so big that I have no idea where to place it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Don’t need much sunlight though so perhaps I can find a spot in the bathroom? Not that I have much space there either but it will not be a very dry air in there anyway 🙂 🙂 Or perhaps I’ll place that orchid I was wondering about where to place just in case Sara the cat would get the idea to chew on it in the bathroom and the Croton by the entrance door where daylight can reach it? I think that might be a good idea.

This is a really muddy place that we have to pass to get to the island. Put your foot in the wrong place and You will sink down to Your knee in mud 🙂 🙂

Anyway, we walked out to the bog and the island I like there and today we followed it, on the less beautiful side, for as long as we could. Alma had behaved reasonable good until we came out to the island but was extra stressed when we started to walk. We made quite a lot of noise by walking on all the fallen and now dry branches and that when I hear something moving. We stopped and I saw in the corner of my eye something moving. It was wild hogs. At least one rather big boar and three smaller ones. Alma couldn’t see them thankfully so she stood quiet and tried to see what it was moving. The hogs walked in to the thicker forest on the island so we continues to walk our own way.

It is easy to walk here because of the absolute flat surface, the other side of the island is just the opposite and also very swampy 🙂

This tree looks like something that will wake up at night and start wandering around looking for prey 🙂

Behind those birches there’s a big but swampy meadow, I only walk there during droughts 🙂

Alma doesn’t like wild hogs so she was pretty happy when we arrived back home again but I have to say that if this had happened a year ago it would have been more troublesome to go back home at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day but nothing to eat, I made rice porridge again today and it is filling well and there’s no risk of getting hungry again today 🙂 By the way I also picked up the Quality Street tin box this morning, now I’ll place it in the pantry and never look at it before Christmas eve morning 🙂

It looks like there still is mist at the far back of the photo, odd because the fog/ mist had already vanished elsewhere.

Have a great day!

Our squirrels are really shy so this was a surprise to see today 🙂

Autumn flowering strawberries?!

August 24, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

I did see the sun slowly rising above the forest when I woke up so the first thing we did was to have our morning walk. It didn’t take long before clouds covered the sun but the walk was quite nice anyway. WE walked in to the village again and today one of the dogs was outside when we passed.

This was the last we saw of the sun while we were out walking but it did come back for a long time later in the day.

If I as a human would walk on old stone age tombs or move a single stone they would arrest me but cattle can damage it as much as they can and the owner wouldn’t risk being arrested 🙂

We have quite a lot of crab apples in the village, these apples taste horrible 🙂 🙂

I was so glad to see that all my dogs behaved perfectly while the dog we passed barked like crazy, it was especially fun to see how the owner opened the door to try and quiet the dog, didn’t work at all 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I must say that Alma’s behaviour has become so much better. Ok she pulled the leash a lot after all that excitement but she didn’t make even the tiniest sound and that’s a huge change. Malkolm did sort of bark twice but since Alma and Nova were quiet he stopped as well. Really good for a seven month old puppy 🙂

The branch doesn’t look that big but it was and it was quite heavy as well 🙂

The only problem I’ve had today is my back. My immune system attacks my spine (and most of the cartilage in my joints, slowly but steadily, I got my first hip implant when I was 38) and most of the time I can take it but times like today it’s just nasty. The best thing I can do is to move use my back a lot and after a while the pain goes away, so today I picked up things that had flown around in the storm yesterday, I even moves away a big branch that fallen down on the gravel road and also watering the trees and bushes with the big water pitcher. Didn’t that hurt You might ask? Yes like insanely but now in the early evening it feels much better 🙂 Tomorrow and several mornings ahead will be much the same but this will pass. I can’t take any anti inflammatory medicines because I destroyed my stomach with one of those, it was amazing as long as it lasted though 🙂

This little oak always have lots of acorns even when other trees haven’t.

I went outside in the storm yesterday just before it went dark. I already knew I had planted my Black walnut way too close to the cottage, I did that just because I never thought it would survive 🙂 🙂 17 years now and it still stands 🙂 🙂 However when we have winter storms it doesn’t move that much but with all leafs still on it it almost reached the roof of the cottage, not good! I really don’t want to remove it but I might have to in a year or two. What worried me more though was the two huge Birches over at my neighbors, if they fall half of my cottage will follow them to the ground 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I have home insurance so I’ll get another one built up if that would happen. The only thing is that my bedroom would be the first thing they hit 🙂 🙂 🙂

My Hardy Hibiscus finally shows the colors of the coming flower.

I seem to have autumn flowering strawberries, didn’t know that excisted, so I’ll pick each ripe berry when they are ready and put them in the freezer.

A few Apples had fallen off as well so I bent down and picked them up, took a bit longer to stand up straight again 🙂 🙂 and went in and made an apple crumb pie, it tasted so yummy 🙂 I did add some coconut to it and that made a big difference.

It is raining outside, it isn’t supposed to but what does the rain care about that? It’s a misty rain, You know the kind that looks like mist or fog and that always eat its way through the clothes no matter how You dress. They’re guessing it’ll be like that most parts of tomorrow as well so it’ll be a perfect day to take a long nap 🙂

Have a great day!

I took this photo on my way to work one morning, nothing special a Roe deer in a field but take a look behind it.

I never saw the giant Red deer standing in the shadow by the trees just behind it 🙂 🙂 🙂

A morning I liked.

July 16, 2024 · 6 Comments ·

The morning was almost perfect here today, only almost because as usual the vegetation was so wet that Malkolm was soaking wet when we came home even though he barely walked in the high grass today. It was cool, morning mist and the sun slowly rising. We skipped having breakfast before going outside hoping to be in the fog as much as possible. The mist actually stayed our entire walk so I was more than happy 🙂

I went up to the mail box before we went out on our walk, back in the days I would have had all dogs with me, unleashed, because they would stay close to me. If I tried that today Alma would be all over the place, most likely chasing cats at the farm, Malkolm would follow her and Nova would have turned back home again 🙂

I did hope that we would see some bigger animals since the sun just had started to rise but we only saw one and that was a wild hog down by the creek. It was passing the gravel road perhaps twenty meters ahead of us (much the same in yards). At first it stood still just watching us but decided to pass since we had stopped only looking at it. The thing is that wild hogs never comes alone and I had no idea if this was the first or last of them I decided to turn around and walk back home instead.

It is getting more tricky to have our walks now days. Nova is old and I’ve noticed how much slower she is compared to just a year ago. So it is a bit tricky to understand what speed we should walk in. First we have Alma who most likely would love to run around as fast as she can, last is Nova who now days mostly enjoys to just walk really slow sniffing on everything she can find on the ground and Malkolm in the middle 🙂 Malkolm is more like Nova, more interesting in smells than speed so it is Alma who has to adapt the most and adapt is not her strong side 🙂 🙂 She too can find smells interesting but can’t concentrate for more than fifteen seconds, I’ve actually measured the time and it’s rare that she can be interested in anything for up to twenty seconds 🙂 🙂

She did behave pretty well when we met the hog though, I must give her that! The weather after that was rather nice, lots of sunshine and just a weak wind blowing. the rest of the walks she behaved really well. I thought of mowing the lawn but even though it was fairly warm and the sun shone the grass was still soaking wet, no mowing tomorrow either because it has just started to rain again and it will most likely last until early morning tomorrow. One newspaper shouted out that after this rain we’ll get higher temperatures again and lots of sunshine so I checked the weather sites. Yes we’ll get one day with high temperatures and then it’ll drop down to 20C (68F) again 🙂 🙂 They always do like that when they know most people are desperate to at least get some sunshine before work starts again 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time for a last cup of tea for the day and then bed I think. I guess it’s stupid to hope for another morning like we had today but I’ll be happy if it is cool and with some sunshine 🙂

Have a great day!

The new compost.

July 12, 2024 · 2 Comments ·

This morning was sunny and quite chilly with some morning mist hovering above the ground. It wasn’t supposed to be like that but since the sky was clear blue I thought I had some time before the more cloudy weather would start. It started as soon as we came outside the entrance door 🙂 The sun had evaporated the fog so it rose and then created a evenly grey layer between us and the sun. It had also warmed up the air a lot so the few flies we have here were really annoying.

All vegetation was soaking wet, both from the rain yesterday and the morning dew. So we just walked down to the creek, followed it up-stream and turned back homewards again. We did see a Roe deer and when we just had turned around to follow the creek down-stream again a wild hog gave us a friendly warning that it stood hidden on the other side of the creek and that we shouldn’t try to go over to that side 🙂 🙂 I never saw it though but it did sound as if it was big 🙂 🙂 🙂

I had just done some laundry when a package arrived. It was the new compost I’d ordered, the one that looks like a tombola and that one shall spin every now and again plus it is supposed to stand in direct sunlight so the things inside it sort of get so hot that it in a way boils into compost. I was naive to believe that it would be put together already in the package but oh how wrong I was 🙂 I also believed that it as most would be just to sort of pop it together in to the compost. Turns out nothing of that was remotely close 🙂 The package was rather flat and when I opened it the first thing I noticed was a bag with a zillion screws and Screws and nuts. I have to say that they had packed it really nice and there were even some Screws and nuts extra so it didn’t matter that one of the screws was defect.

I think this is the first year that the Beekeeper will get cherries on this little tree.

So I unpacked it all and at that time it was cloudy and not too warm. I started to put the pieces together and I’m really happy that I am ambidextrous (for those of You who don’t know what that is, I am both right and left handed since birth) because I think it would have been pretty tough to reach all the screws from the outside to the bolts on the inside otherwise. So I stood there in a bad posture of course and then the sun broke through warming up the air even more plus trying to fry my back 🙂 I’m glad I remembered to put the middle piece in while I still could (a sort of wall in the middle to make two compartments, when one is filled but not really ready to use one has a second compartment to start to fill up), it would have been impossible otherwise.

They had packed everything really well and I now have more plastic than the world needs this year 🙂

Each segment had to be screwed on individually and overlapping the previous one with eight tiny screws and bolts. I also got a screwdriver and for some reason I just can’t understand a pair of very thin gloves that only would have made me drop anything smaller than a tea cup 🙂 🙂

In this photo I thought I would show the middle wall but forgot to brighten up the photograph 🙂 🙂 🙂

So every time one puts anything in the compost one is supposed to spint it a few times and one must also spin it around every now and again so it composts evenly. This one is supposed to be totally smell free.

The normal flies acted pretty calm while I stood there sweating like a pig and to my surprise only one horse fly tried to bite me! Last winter really thinned out the fly communities and also the ticks seems to have been culled hard thankfully 🙂 Still plenty of them around though but clearly fewer than before. I moved the compost to the sunniest place in the garden, just in front of the vegetable patch and put in the fruit peels and other things in to the first compartment 🙂 So all needed now is that the sun actually makes a try to shine for more than an hour a day 🙂 🙂 I’ll have some twigs as soon as I’ve started to prune the bushes that now have grown too much and removing small plants that has spread too well with their roots. I do have a rather wild garden but even I have a limit to how wild it can become 🙂 🙂

My garden raspberries aren’t especially tasty but the birds love them.

I do however have plenty of wild raspberries, they truly behaves like weed 🙂 The wild one are probably the most delicious berries we have this far south in the country. We have even more delicious berries up far north but they can’t give any berries this far south.

The Elderberry tree suddenly started to flower 🙂

The dogs are sleeping deeply right now. Malkolm on my left side and the other two in my bed. They’ve enjoyed a sunny afternoon being outside playing but quite often come in to drink lots of water. The weather will be mostly rainy this weekend but they’re guessing that our early mornings will be almost cool and sunny, so I better get up and go outside with the dogs as soon as we wake up 🙂

Doesn’t Malkolm look worried here? Two seconds after I took this photo he attacked Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

I didn’t mind they were wrong about today’s weather :-)

May 25, 2024May 25, 2024 · 4 Comments ·

So today was supposed to be all cloudy and hot but without any wind. It started out that way but then the sun broke through so the hot part was right because we now do have a wind blowing thankfully. Before it started it was like living in a steam bath here. I couldn’t move a meter without sweating like a pig.

The cattle walking in the pasture outside the beekeepers place for the first time this year.

Rowan trees usually don’t grow especially high, this one is at least fifteen meters high (much the same in yards). We had one much bigger but that one was a victim this years thinning. A bit odd because it seems they’ve saved almost all other Rowan trees this time and we do have lots of them here.

We walked down to the creek while it still wasn’t too warm, we couldn’t follow it down stream though because now they let the cattle walk in to the pasture outside the beekeepers so they block the road with those electric wires and I really didn’t want to go through passing them with Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 I really didn’t want Malkolm to learn from her how to do it 🙂 🙂 🙂 So we walked it up-stream for a while until the grass became too high, damp grass close to a creek is a tick magnet. After that we walked back the same way and suddenly four wild hogs ran out in front of us, perhaps ten meters (much the same in yards) away from us. Alma reacted like always so no photos of them I’m afraid 🙂 🙂

This flowers Swedish name is Hag’s tooth 🙂

We actually woke up at 3:45 this morning because someone needed to go outside to do his business 🙂 Normally we would all just stay up and then take a walk as soon as the sun would start to rise. No sun was supposed to shine today though so we all just went back to bed and slept for two more hours and that is really unusual! The sun was shining when we went up again, went back in to the clouds while we were out walking and then came back and has stayed here all day and by the looks of it it’ll stay until it sinks down beyond the horizon. One good thing with yesterdays heavy showers is that I didn’t have to water anything today 🙂

The Persimmon hybrid that I bought last year and that looked healthy all winter through until that last snow storm is dead. Since it was a variety however it’s always grafted on a root from the actual persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, and I have hoped that the root has survived because it is so much hardier than the rest of the trees in that family. Today I noticed that a new branch is growing up from the root 🙂 🙂 So since I bought a real Persimmon this year I now will have two 🙂 Lets hope that one is female and one is male so I can grow my own fruits in the future 🙂 So now I have two Persimmon trees and with the my own seedlings nine Pawpaw’s 🙂

Can You see the little green dot at the base of the dead tree trunk? That’s new growth from the Persimmon roots 🙂

This is a new variety of White Mulberry tree with tasty berries. Normally the white mulberry tree gives edible fruits but someone said if one likes the taste of dry grass they’r pretty good 🙂 🙂 This one however gives sweet and tasteful berries. It was quite damaged by frost before it arrived here but it is coming back again.

This is on the other hand another Mulberry tree with the name variety name Mulle 🙂 (Morus accidosa). I once had a smaller tree here but one day my two big dogs dug it up and had lost of fun tearing it apart 🙂 🙂

I’ve bought a tea bush as well this year (Camellia sinensis). It’s just as picky as the Camellia we have as pot plants or in the gardens where the climate allows it but it doesn’t flower until late spring I’ve read plus if it gets big enough I can always try to make a cup of tea from its leafs 🙂 🙂 🙂

We’ve had our pancake Saturday, I’ve sown almost all of the flower seeds I still had (but there’s at least two more but I just can’t find the seed bags 🙂 ) and we’ve had a short nap when it was as warmest. I don’t think we slept for especially long but that nap did more for me than the two more hours in the morning did 🙂 So for the rest of the day I’ll just relax. I didn’t win the Euro jackpot yesterday which is strange since so many really hopes that I will win 🙂 I’ve promised that if I win that much money (around 100 million US dollars) no worker at my work place would have to work any more 🙂 (not even the ones I dislikes). With that much money I still would have perhaps 25 million US dollars left to myself and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t miss the other millions 🙂 🙂 🙂

I did sow Salvia pratensis seeds last year and I think this is it 🙂 The Swedish name for it is Meadow sage and it looks like it’s the same in English!

When You think all the Greater celandine have died out but then You remove some grass and cut away some branches and suddenly it’s everywhere in the garden 🙂 🙂

This is a rhubarb but not an edible one, this is the Chinese rhubarb. Well it is used in traditional medicine but don’t try it for a pie 🙂 Mine has grown in the shadows and too dry for too long so this year I moved it. It can become really big and is quite beautiful as an ornamental plant.

Well the smaller lottery is today with “only” 7,5 millions US dollars as minimum maximum winning. I think it might be higher at the moment. I’ve said that if I “only” win those millions all they can expect from me is a cup cake 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

Our weather service is quite useless to be honest.

April 6, 2024 · Leave a comment ·

We still have quite a lot of snow left and since our quite useless weather sites now say it won’t be that warm tomorrow as they’ve said for five days the white crap may stay longer than I had hoped for. Ok it is still going to be above 10C (50F) but nowhere near to what they said before. Honestly I have no idea why they even get paid when they do such a lousy job!

Still the slightly warmer air that has arrived hit the cold air from the snow and gave us a rather nice and thick fog instead. We went out quite early in the morning for our walk because since I thought it would be warmer the fog might vanish quite fast. It didn’t because it stayed until way after noon 🙂 🙂 I thought Nova would go out to the bog again today but she decided that a walk along the creek would be nice.

Much of the snow had melted on the gravel roads so Malkolm wanted to walk most if it himself. It wasn’t until we reached the path along the creek when I had to start carry him even though he did protest a lot 🙂 There was so much snow that it even was hard for the rest of us to walk there without sliding down into the creek 🙂 birds were singing even though I think the fog dampened their will to. I did hear something walking around and since fog brings out my imagination I thought it might be a troll.

It wasn’t though, it was just a badger talking a walk in the snow 🙂 🙂 Could have been wild hogs because they’ve done a great job digging up the road from the creek. They had done a great job digging up the field as well to be honest. I don’t know how many of them we have now but by the look of what they do to the roads and fields they are way too many. I’ll protest to the wolves because it is after all their job to remove as many of them as they can 🙂 🙂

Thew Starlings wren’t too happy about the weather 🙂

Always when a new puppy comes to live with me I always start by letting them go off leash when they’ve been here a week, so today I did the same with Malkolm. To be honest I never did that with Alma because she was all over the place all the time when she arrived here and even though she’s much calmer now I still never would let her off the leash 🙂 🙂 I noticed how Malkolm behaved because he too noticed that she’s a bit wild 🙂 So when we walked he walked close to Nova but when we stood still he went to Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 Here at home it’s almost only Alma he’s with and I think that’s how Nova wants it to be 🙂 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll leave them in the doghouse/ yard/ garage for an hour because I have to go to the grocery store. He has already been there for fifteen minutes once and I doubt he realized I was gone. So I’ll check with my neighbors if they can see or hear him while I’m at the grocery store, I doubt it though because I’m pretty sure Alma will play with him the entire time 🙂

Have a great day!

Suddenly they came running!

December 30, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

Two days ago we had snow and quite a lot of it as well, yesterday we had mostly icy rods and some snow left in the forest, today we have some ice left on the roads but mostly meltwater lakes all over the place. Tomorrow it’ll turn towards colder weather again and more snow on Monday to Tuesday. I’m glad the snow is gone but it could just as well have stayed since we’ll get more of it anyway 🙂 🙂

We almost saw the sun when we went out on our morning walk, I could see that round disc shine through the clouds but it didn’t last for long. There was a hunting dog barking in the forest but none of our hunters were out today, so I guess the dog had followed what ever it was it followed for quite some distance. So for once I decided that we should try the fields again. It is well over a year since we were out there, mostly because both Alma and Albin behaves like obcessed every time a car passes by.

There were only two cars on the big road so it went rather well. They had put up more electric fences and since I didn’t want to try to open them up so we could go all the way down to the road we stopped when it was around a football field away from the road. We were just about to turn around when I heard a sound I at first couldn’t figure out what it was.

The Boar is a coward so he came running first of all the pigs.

Then it hit me, it did sound like when cattle is running around in panic. The thing is that there aren’t any cattle in the fields now when it is winter. Then suddenly they came around a small mound but it wasn’t cattle, it was wild hogs! Alma and Albin started to scream like insane but the hogs didn’t care about us at all, all they wanted to do were to get away from something chasing them. They came from the direction to the village but since I mostly tried to keep Alma and Albin by my side (nova is never a problem, she rarely cares about wildlife but I have to say that she looked a bit curious about these pigs 🙂 🙂 🙂 ).

I’m so glad that I managed to take some photos of the hogs this time 🙂 Normally they run sop fast in to the trees that it is impossible, the fields however have no trees 🙂 I never saw what it was scaring them that much but I guess it was a wolf or wolves because later today just as it had gone dark the dogs wanted to go outside but as soon as they did they refused to leave the entrance stairs, just sniffed in the air and wanted to go back indoors again.

I’ve done the laundry and we’ve had our pancake day so from now on it is just relaxing for me 🙂 I might have to go to the supermarket tomorrow because I have no bird seeds. I could also fill up with other things to be honest. It would be nice if I didn’t have to do it on Monday and Tuesday because of the snow that will fall and after that they’re guessing it will be nasty cold again. Always better to stay at home in the cottage when it is nasty cold 🙂

Have a great day!