Category: Winter.

Much hardier than I thought.

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It’s finally warmer again but not especially close to what they guessed, instead of 10 C (50 F) it reached 4.5 C (40,1 F). They did guess it right when it came to the rain though and it it also quite windy so the photos You see today are from yesterday when it still was cold and sunny, so much nicer to look at 🙂

     

Nothing much has happened here and that’s just how I like it 🙂 I had decided to let one of my seed grown Gardenias stay outdoors because I have very little space indoors now 🙂 So I ignored that the cold period would come and it fell down to -12 C (10.4 F) and I thought that was it, after all it comes from warmer areas. So I brought it in anyway and now it has a slightly too dark place in the cool cellar. So I just checked the hardiness for it and to my very big surprise it is hardy down to -12 C(10.4 F) 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well I hope any pests it could have gotten from when living indoors, like whitefly have died 🙂 🙂

     

I have also gone tired of my Camellias since they only flower while down in the cool cellar, I know they can take this cold and some more so I’m not surprised that they still look really healthy out there.  I want around in the garden to see how my small trees had managed this first cold period. The Persimmons has frozen some, the tips of their branches but looks good otherwise. To my very big surprise the Pawpaws looks totally untouched by this first cold and those were the ones I was most worried about 🙂 The English walnut is also untouched by the cold and the Red mulberry, White mulberry and the one called M. accidosa or Mulle as its name is as well 🙂

     

Well this was the first cold weather for most of them and winter is young, Last winter really didn’t start until early February and ended in the middle of March just to come back to easter again for a week, just as I brought home Malkolm 🙂 🙂 We had 40 cm (20 inches) of snow and it took a week for it to melt away 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wouldn’t mind if this was the last snow for this winter but my neighbor wants snow on her birthday on December 3 and on Christmas, after that she doesn’t care either 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think I’ll skip that last cup of tea for the day and Instead I’ll make some rose-hip soup, fits so well on a windy and rainy day like today. I’ll also have a slice or two from the loaf I baked today 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A bit chilly.

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We had a clear sky when I woke up this morning and I could see that the sun was rising even though it still was a couple of hours before that happened. I opened the door and followed the dogs outside and realized that if we stayed outdoor for more than a few minutes we would all die 🙂 🙂 still standing as the ones the Ice queen in Narnia froze to statues 🙂 🙂

     

-12 C (10,4 F) but thankfully no wind at that moment. we did get a very weak wind when we went out on our walk though but by then the sun was up shining, not that it felt especially much warmer but my imagination is strong so I decided it was 🙂 🙂  We walked down to the bog and out to the island I like so much to walk at.  This time I decided that we should walk on the more beautiful side of it. I think it must have been well over a year since we were there, can’t remember Malkolm ever walking there so it must have been long before he moved here. That side of the island is as it most beautiful when spring hasn’t turned to summer because the sun reach that side and all mosses and lichens shine so beautiful in that light early in the morning.

   

What I didn’t know was that lots of dead trees had fallen during the storms that it was impossible to walk that way. It’s a nature reserve so fallen trees stays where they are. So instead we had to walk through a dense shrubbery containing mostly of young birches, really fun to do that with a dog like Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 We finally managed to walk through it and to the island again. Unfortunately the frozen water in the bog was covered with snow and so was all moss and lichens, not by much but enough to hide what it looks like there. Still a beautiful place though. We did hear a deer jumping away so after that Alma was slightly impossible to walk with.

    This is actually the county border, I live around 200 meters from it.

I did make a macaroni pudding today and I must say it was delicious 🙂 I ate too much of course but there’s still enough left for dinner tomorrow. I also tried one of all the recipes on apple pie made in a micro. Well I wouldn’t call what I did a pie in any way, it was more like oatmeal cookies with apples mixed in 🙂 🙂 Still really nice but not a pie. There seems to be loads of those recipes so I think I’ll try another tomorrow 🙂

     

It’ll have be cold tomorrow as well and sunshine all day long, at least that is what they all are guessing but it will be almost 10 C (50 F)  on Sunday. It will also rain they say but I will not complain, I really don’t like winter 🙂 I really am born in the wrong part of the world when it comes to the cold season 🙂 🙂 Time for a last cup of tea for the day and then some tv watching, for once there’s actually something I want to see 🙂

     

Have a great day!

The water filled puddles are impossible to see when the thin layer of snow covers them.

 

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It was snowing when we woke up and went out to the garden this morning, mostly tiny flakes though so the roads are white but barely no snow can be seen in the fields. Pretty cold outside but it was the wind that made it feeling too cold. Not around here in my garden but when we passed the fields the cold wind blew right through me.

   

There are lots of these old roads in to the forest, they were made so that it would be easier to get timber in and out of the forest.

We walked down to the creek and followed it down stream. The surface has already started to freeze, mostly because the water flows really slow because there’s apparently a log blocking the water flowing. So since this is the first time Malkolm has seen frozen water in the creek he happily took a step out on it 🙂 🙂 🙂  Thankfully it was easy to pull him up since he’s wearing a harness 🙂 🙂 He didn’t go down especially far, only up to his stomach so he had wet legs mostly. I think he enjoyed it though 🙂 🙂

The secret passage. It’s almost impossible to see the opening even when looking at in the real. Could be a way to Narnia, I should try it some day 🙂

   

The day has been calm after that, we’ve been in and out to the garden and I brought in the wildlife camera, just three blurry photos of our fox. It does look really healthy and it has thankfully been a long time since we had Fox scabies in this area. Dogs can get it as well and it’s easy to get rid of, not to the fox though and they usually scratch themselves to death. My old dogs got it fairly often, three of the four scratched themselves like crazy but the fourth showed no signs of having it. Turns out that some dogs can have it but never react to it, the scabies itself isn’t dangerous for the animal but it’s the mites pooping they are allergic to. She was full of it but never reacted.

   

I’ve baked some bread today and since the oven was working I threw in some brined pork after the bread was out. Smelled fantastic 🙂 I think I’ll make macaroni pudding tomorrow and put the pork in it. I think however I’ll make it closer to mac and cheese than the traditional way with eggs and milk and I do hope rice pasta will work. Rice pasta never need to boil for long so I was thinking of perhaps just let it sit in water for a while before mixing it all together and let it soften in the oven.

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have some of the bread I just baked. I think I’ll have perhaps some ham and blue cheese on it 🙂

Malkolm and Sara playing in the living room, a bit blurry but I wanted You all too see how vicious she is 🙂

   

Have a great day!

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Lots of snow falling for about five minutes so not much on the ground.

So we’ve missed almost all snow but I heard it was a bit chaotic on th e northern parts of our west coast during the morning and now they expect up to 50 cm (20 inches) of snow at the east coast just north of our Capital Stockholm. Down here where I live we even had some nice sunshine during the day but also some snowfall but it looked worse than it actually was.

Much nicer weather yesterday so most photos comes from then.

   

I hadn’t planed on leaving my cottage until as earliest on Friday but I got a message that I could go to the vet to bring old Nova back home. So to the vet I went and just as I was about to leave the vet came and asked how Sara the cat was 🙂 He truly likes that little kitten of ours 🙂 🙂 I told him that I didn’t plan on letting her outside for quite some time yet because she’s tiny and he said yes maybe when summer arrives 🙂 I was planning some time after Christmas, for a short moment depending on the weather 🙂 I guess it depends on how much she wants it and she will be in a leash the first times 🙂

     

My neighbors kids had chickenpox last week, I didn’t know that when I walked in to their home 🙂 🙂 I have a tendency to get it even though I’ve already had it several times, I’ve heard that it is because my immune system is, as a nurse said to me, quite fucked up because of my rheumatism which is an autoimmune disease. So now I’m just waiting for that itching again, it isn’t that long ago I had it 🙂 🙂 to be honest it was more or less over by the time I was there so I’ll most likely not get it but now of course I do feel that it itches everywhere 🙂 🙂 🙂 Just like finding one tick walking on an arm and after that one feel they walk everywhere 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think it’s time for that last cup of tea for the day and perhaps some hard bread with christmas ham on. They’ve already started to sell slices of it in the stores so I bought a little package, goes really well with some brie 🙂

     

Have a great day!

     

Well our weather service :-)

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So this morning they changed the weather predictions, no snow at all but slightly colder perhaps. The low pressure will continue to the south of us before it turns north so the snow will fall over eastern Sweden. I’m all for that even though I now have bought everything I need for quite some time just because of the snow prediction they showed yesterday  🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Well by now we all know how great they are in predicting the weather over here so I wouldn’t be the least surprised if we get that snowstorm anyway 🙂 🙂 I will at least be prepared for it. The insulation in these old wooden cottages have been made as good as it gets but the windows and doors are usually letting the cold indoors, old cottages tend to live a life of their own and move some with heat and cold. So today I’ve started to hang up draperies or what ever I have that covers the door and of course I’ll have something thicker at the bottom so that any cold coming from the doors stay there. Last year I couldn’t find any thicker draperies that could cover the entrance door so I actually used three thin sheet.

     

I really couldn’t believe how effective this would be since they were so thin. Well turns out that layer on layer works really well so the entire door froze 🙂 🙂 🙂 I couldn’t unlock the door from either side and since the outside of the door was covered in snow/ ice the door had also frozen to the door frame 🙂 🙂 🙂 During warmer days I just pull it all to the side and when needed I’ll just cover the door again. I don’t want it to insulate too good when it comes to the windows since I need it to have potted plants there. It gets a little bit dark indoors to be honest but sunny days I’ll just push all covers to the side to let the light in.

I cleaned some carrots I brought in from the vegetable patch in the water barrel, this is what I found this morning 🙂

   

I cleaned some carrots I dug up yesterday in the water barrel, this is what I found today 🙂

I’m just about to put some bread in the oven, we call them tea cakes but that’s not the name in English, I’ve looked and it’s absolutely something else. One can say that it is sort of flat french rolls 🙂 Even these gluten free ones taste really nice, especially as warm with some butter on and a, in my case, strong cheese 🙂 One can even put some jam on them as well, really yummy 🙂 so I’ll have that last cup of tea for the day together withe one or two of those tea cakes 🙂

    

Have a great day!

I could hear Cranes today :-)

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We’ve had yet another storm passing by and this time it was fierce with hurricane force gusts at the ocean and almost hurricane force gusts here inland. Well I couldn’t notice much of it here at the cottage but I could hear the sound from it. Also the forest shielded it from me when I drove to and from work except for where my work place is, there it hit my car in full force and I must say it really surprised me 🙂 I also picked up a work friend on the way because he only drives a moped car and he would have blown away over the fields if he had driven that to work 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We did hear how the roof at the factory started to creak just before I drove homewards again. It was short lived though so already the next morning it was quite weak. We’ve had very mixed weather here lately besides the storm, lots of rain, some snow and surprisingly enough even two days with sunshine, yesterday and today. Yesterday was somewhat destroyed since the hunters had decided to have their last hunt (well they can come all year round to hunt wild hogs but then they’re usually here at nights) for the season.

     

Today was supposed to be cloudy and with rain and it did start cloudy but no rain and while we went out on our walk the cloud cover started to break up and after that we mostly had sunshine even though the occasional cloud arrived and blocked the sunshine. The first Crane has arrived this week and today I could hear a few for the first time as well. Geese and swans are plentiful though. I haven’t seen any bigger animals at all lately, not even pigs but today a squirrel crossed the road and Alma wanted to go crazy but managed to calm herself down and Albin sort of gurgled but nothing more 🙂 I don’t think Nova saw it at all, she can’t see much any more to be honest and it sounds as if I’m scolding her when I talk to her because her hearing is even worse 🙂 🙂

     

I just remembered that I haven’t done any dinner for work this week 🙂 Well I’ll go to the grocery store and buy some ribs or grilled chicken instead and also some potato salad and then after work I can figure out what to have for the rest of the week. I haven’t just been lazy today though. I’ve done the laundry and baked bread. Ok that does sound a bit lazy but then again it’s only me here and I have food for the dogs 🙂  The dog food I normally buy for Nova and Alma was sold out when I tried to order it so I bough something similar of the same brand. I’ve realized that Nova won’t eat anything if it isn’t made from chicken, duck doesn’t work at all, so I was happy to find this one. It smells like pellets one gives to rabbits and looks like it as well but the old lady just gulps (well as much gulping an almost 18 year old dogs manages to gulp) it down. She can do that with other food as well but then after four days just refuse to eat it, we’re on the sixth day right now and she still likes it so I guess I’ll continue to buy this one instead 🙂

     

Have a great day!

41 cm (16,4 inches) of frozen mud.

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The morning looked quite beautiful but this only stayed for a few minutes and after that the sky stayed evenly grey. Yesterday morning we went down to the creek, I knew there would be lots of water because they have flood warnings about the creek and where it flows out in to the lake. That however wasn’t the big problem, the big problem was where the road makes a dip before reaching the creek.

There’s almost always water here but now there’s a ditch on the right side that is supposed to lead away that water that instead lets more water in because of the high water level. So I thought why not jump over the smaller ditch to the right and then go through the forest until we can go out on the road again and then follow the ditch. Alma had been unusually annoying and really didn’t walk well. Anyway we reach the ditch and I tell the dogs to jump and both Nova and Albin did, Alma however stood absolutely still for the first time in her entire life. I made a total stop in the air because I held her leash and then went down in to the frozen mud.

It was much deeper than I thought it would be 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yesterday was the day that Alma learned how strong voice I actually have and after that she walked really well and didn’t whine even once 🙂 🙂 🙂  The odd thing was that I never got cold feet but above the boot I froze quite a lot 🙂 🙂  Alma and I are now the best of friends again and we made a deal yesterday evening that if she stopped whining all the time while we’re walking I would be less angry when she pulled the leash. The morning walk today started a bit shaky but after that we both kept to the deal 🙂 🙂

Today Nova wanted to walk to the bog again and it is more and more looking like the shallow lake it once was, there’s water everywhere. Just a little more water and I’m pretty sure ducks soon will swim around there 🙂

I didn’t see any ducks but lots of geese flew above our heads, it looked like Greylags mostly but I’ve already seen lots of Canada geese as well. They always come a couple of weeks before the first Cranes but we do normally have one or two cranes here around this time and when they arrive we’ll get a snowstorm passing by 🙂 🙂

They’re guessing it might stay warmish during days and most nights but a few nights will be freezing cold. Also we’ll most get rain for most of the week and perhaps some snow mixed in it as well. I don’t mind if it rains, then perhaps the bog will become a lake again and who doesn’t want a lake property 🙂 🙂 🙂 but why does it have to be freezing after that rain? I’m really tired of driving on icy roads now.

I’ve heard that the air high up, I think it was the stratosphere, might become really warm next week and that the polar vortex therefore most likely will collapse and that can give us nasty cold weather again. If so I hope it does so over Siberia since they are used to it anyway 🙂 Could perhaps help to keep the permafrost stay a bit longer 🙂 Well with my luck it will happen here so I won’t put away my winter clothes just yet 🙂 🙂

If it is this much water in the creek up here I can only guess how bad it is down at the lake.

I need to fill the peanut feeder every day now and now when I work day time again I’ll have to do it the evening before. That will keep both the night shift and day shift happy. I must say though that the night shift (house mice) are eating way less than the day shift 🙂

Have a great day!

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It started to snow when we were out this morning, if it had been rain I’d call it misty rain but it was snow and the flakes so small that it mostly looked like mist from a distance 🙂

I wouldn’t call what we’re having a storm but the wind is quite strong and the temperatures below 0C (32F) so it hasn’t been especially enjoyable to be outside today and since the wind comes from eat it also reach the cottage and garden. It will stay much the same until tomorrow evening and after that the snow will arrive instead. Damned if You do and damned if You don’t is the feeling about it 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

It’ll snow until Tuesday morning and they’re guessing we’ll get up to 15 cm (6 inches of the garbage. The fun thing is that already on Wednesday it’ll get warmer and we’ll get lots of rain instead, yay. Nights will mostly stay cold though so it’ll be anything but boring to drive to work the coming days 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

The rest of the photos were taken yesterday.

The wind didn’t reach us when we walked in the forest though so it was quite nice to be out there. Unlike yesterday when we walked down to the creek and the wind hit us when we walked by the fields. The wind managed to go through my wind proof jacket so that says a lot about how strong that wind was 🙂 🙂 So we have mostly stayed indoors this weekend.

     

The cold made a comeback and I’ve been freezing a lot every now and again but it seems it has left me for this time at the moment. I did however miss a step when I walked down to the cool cellar so now my back feels quite sour. It’s always something isn’t it?

     

I have managed to change my sleeping hours though, took one day 🙂 🙂 🙂 So it feels like I’ll have no problems with going to work in the morning again. I can’t even pretend it feels fine to go to work but it feels fun to meet all my old working friends again. Some of them had already stopped working for the day when I arrived at work.

       

Have a great day!

Back to day shift again.

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This hasn’t been the best of weeks for five people at work. The economy is bad over here and we don’t have as much to do as we used to so on Monday we were told that the evening shift would stop but that we all would start working day shift instead.

We were told that we would get info about it already the same evening. That didn’t happen but we were told we most likely would get the info on Tuesday or more likely on Wednesday but that didn’t happen either so of course we understood that it must be more serious than that. So yesterday we finally got the info and they have to let five people go. I’ve been working there for so long so there was never any risk that I would have to leave. The rules here is that last one in is first one out when people have to leave. They can do some exceptions when it comes to competence and since I’ve been working there for almost 17 years now I do have lots of competence.                                                                                                                 
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I feel so sorry for those who has to leave because this is happening all over the country right now. There is however a light at the end of the tunnel because the inflation is going down and they haven’t risen the the loan interest and will most likely lower it in late spring and when people see at least the interest rate going down they will feel hopeful for the future and start to spend money again, so perhaps they will return to work before summer starts (well it starts quite late here to be honest but it will start even if it doesn’t feel like that right now).


We’ve had lots of snow falling lately, light fluffy snow that is impossible to get a grip in while walking 🙂 🙂 and we’ll get a bit more than three inches next Monday if they’re guessing it right. The fun thing is that it will start to melt away again already on Tuesday 🙂 🙂 Nights will be chilly though so once again we’ll have slippery icy roads that makes it exiting to drive to and from work again. I’ll stop working at five pm Mondays to Thursdays and four pm on Fridays, crappy hours to be honest but way better than the ones I have so I’m not complaining.

Today I woke up to nasty cold but sunny weather and we went out for a walk as soon as we woke up. I couldn’t feel any wind blowing, unusual since we seem to have a constant storm blowing here otherwise. Nova is usually the first one to want to take a walk but today she preferred to stay in my bed, I can fully understand her because she is after all 17.5 years old now. I did worry for a while that something was wrong with her because she slept really heavy and didn’t eat especially much. The afternoon meal however was gulped down so I guess it is the changing of when we sleep and eat once again that disturbed her. Now they’ve been used to eat after noon and around three am and suddenly we’re going back to normal hours again.

The swamp behind my garage is now a little lake instead.
More and more birds have realized that they can get an entire peanut if they go in to the feeder 🙂

So even if I finally get to go up early in the mornings like I’ve always had it still is difficult to change back but perhaps I finally will get a good nights sleep again, haven’t had that since my christmas vacation. Today however have been a day of tiredness. I baked a bread and while waiting for it to be ready I fell asleep in my recliner, with Albin sleeping on my stomach 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had set the timer but didn’t understand what it meant when I woke up 🙂 🙂 Took around five minutes until I remembered that I had the bread in the oven 🙂 Turns out that it was a perfect time for the bread to stay in the oven, I must remember that till next time 🙂

Have a great day!

Still so windy!

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The first skein (or wedge or team) of Canada geese in the sky. I’ve learned that a bunch of geese in the water is called a gaggle of geese but that it changes when they either flies above the water surface and again when they fly high over the water. Sometimes they just make the english language a bit too tricky 🙂 🙂 Especially when a flock of geese also is ok to use 🙂

You know You’ve been disconnected from the world by working the evening shift when You get surprised that the Swedish parts of the European Song Contests starts tonight 🙂 It is after all the biggest talent show we have here (well some artists are well known and experienced but quite a lot of them are mostly known from sites like Ticktock or YouTube)In this country 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Another storm is passing by and I would have been much more tired of this wind if it hadn’t brought warmer weather at the same time. The winds just never stops blowing even though it was a bit calmer yesterday in the morning when we had our morning walk, After that the wind came back and we even had some rain. Today was very different, a full blown storm but sunny and warm weather. I only wore a t-shirt and hoodie when we went out, must admit that it was too little to wear while walking in the open fields but just enough when walking out of winds reach. I always have to plan for how Alma pulls the leash and how I always have to hold against it, so normally I would sweat like a pig even if I walked totally naked in a blizzard 🙂 🙂 🙂 Lately though she has started to stay mostly calm and I do hope this is the beginning of how she’ll behave for the rest of her life 🙂 🙂 🙂

    

We  walked down to the creek, followed it up-stream and went back home via the gravel road in the forest. I never saw any animals but I know there were wild hogs nearby because we walked up wind to them and they do smell rather a lot 🙂 🙂 🙂 The wind was so strong that not even ravens were out playing in it and it needs a lot of wind to stop them doing that 🙂

   

Still lots of ice where the sun can’t reach. I’m glad I have my studded boots!

I’ve started to check the seeds I’ve sown in damp paper towels and put in the fridge. Normally I only do that with seeds I want to keep an eye on because I have few or they’re hard to get. This time I had sowed columbines, I had already tossed out loads of columbine seeds in the garden but wanted to be sure that I at least have a few new ones just in case those outside wouldn’t make it. All seeds but the columbines were still dormant but six columbines had germinated, so I planted those in a pot, put a see through plastic bag over them and then took them down in to the cool cellar. The cool cellar will keep them calm so they don’t start to grow too fast and now at least I know I’ll have new columbines this year 🙂

     

Also the sixth pawpaw seed that had started to germinate has now a small stalk and at first I thought something had gone wrong because it looked like it had broken at the top but I took a photo of it and magnified the photo and to my surprise there actually is a tiny, tiny new leaf growing at the top of that stalk 🙂 I’ve also checked the pawpaw “trees” (so small that I refuse to actually call them trees 🙂 🙂 ) and two are totally dead while the third seems to have made it through that nasty cold night we had when it dropped to -24C (-11,20F). The English Walnut, the peach tree, the apricot tree and the persimmon hybrid tree all seems to have managed to cope with that cold weather we’ve had 🙂 Plus I’ve checked the trees I have in the cool cellar and the most of those, pear, apricot, sea buckthorns, peaches and the small pawpaw seedlings that dropped their yellow leafs because I think they thought it was time to rest before spring all look really good as well.

     

Well everything but a citrus plant looks rather well but winter isn’t over and it is soo easy to either over water or let them dry out too much when having anything indoors. Plus many plants are killed when they are brought out in spring, the shock of going outside can actually be too much for some plants, especially if they already have leafs growing, the sunshine will burn those leafs just like it would burn our skins.

The little pawpaw stalk. I had to magnify it a lot to be able too see that tiny little leaf at the top. It is so small that the camera couldn’t focus so I had to place a hand carved spoon made from cherry tree by myself for about 42? years ago 🙂
The pawpaw outside is still alive despite that cold weather. It is well protected by a huge Hungarian lilac though.
The hazelnut bush is ready for spring.
Unfortunately another hazel I have believes that only because we now have a few days with warmer weather it’s ok to open up the leaf buds 🙂

I better get ready for that song contest now, it’s a few hours left before it starts but I’m pretty sure I’ll fall asleep while waiting for it to start 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also yesterday I heard from a work friend that I’ll be informed on Monday that I’ll have new working hours, any other hours but the ones I have will be better and You’ll know next Friday.

I try to scare away the woodpecker as often as I can, the male one is easy but the female one is much tougher 🙂
Field sparrows are plenty around the peanut feeder.
It isn’t all peace and quiet between the different birds 🙂

Have a great day!

Almost like the old lake is back :-)

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They were up early waiting for more peanuts 🙂

Our painter at work managed to crack a lot of his ribs last weekend so guess who had to take his place while he is at home recovering? I truly hate that job and especially the heat that’s constant there because of the huge oven on one side of the painting box and the huge washing machine on the other side. The washing machine also adds humidity to it all making it even more nasty. Plus I wear the white overall that doesn’t breathe at all so it’s like walking in ones personal sauna all the time. I truly hate it!

I’m glad I didn’t have to drive anywhere today, usually one slides to the right and down again though and not to the left and down in to the cow pasture 🙂

Still I’m the only one that can do it and after fifteen years painting with powder paint I know what I’m doing. Side effects to the heat and personal sauna is leg cramps and lots of peeing since I drink loads of water all the time and I’m tired every second I’m awake. Working only four days a week doesn’t make it better at all since I’m napping away the Friday and still is really tired on Saturday. I think weekends would be better if we had more daylight, as it is now it still gets dark so early that I really can’t do anything outdoors, instead I mostly half sleep in front of the tv, yippee.

Today I woke up to a really nice and sunny morning, they said we wouldn’t get any sunshine today so I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw that the sun was slowly rising behind the mountain 🙂 -) 🙂 I had to fill the bird feeders before we went out on our morning walk, the birds were sitting close to the feeders just waiting for me to wake up 🙂 After that we went out to the peninsula by the bog. No wind and sunshine made the walk really nice, I could even feel heat from the sun and I think that was the first time this year that happened.

I think these paw marks comes from Salmiak, very few other cats walk down this road normally.

   

Not much snow left after this weeks rain but there was still some frozen snow on the ground in the forest. When everything else is quiet it sounds like small explosions when walking on frozen snow 🙂 🙂 so there wasn’t any chance what so ever to be able to see any wild animals today. I could have stayed all day (well at least for as long the sun still wasn’t covered by clouds) out on that peninsula. Back in the days with all the old dogs we quite often did stay out there for hours but today suddenly all the dogs wanted to go home so I guess a wolf might have been close to us or perhaps lots of wild hogs, the dogs don’t like them especially much either to be honest 🙂 🙂 🙂

So much water in the bog now that it almost looks like the old shallow lake they once dried out here.

   

We’ve had our pancake Saturday, some of the laundry is done and we’ve also napped in front of the tv. All that is left to do today is to hope for that big lottery winning 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A slow say.

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It has been a slow day today, I haven’t done much than having a walk with the dogs, Alma couldn’t behave at all today so it was a constant war between her and I. She’s in heat so I guess that’s why she’s utterly impossible at the moment.

     

I have made jam though. I had three big quince fruits that I needed to do something with so I thought jam would be the thing to do. One of the fruits wasn’t nice though so I tossed in the berries I picked before the first frost arrived, mostly strawberries (that didn’t taste a thing) and gooseberries that tasted a lot.

     

Turns out that the strawberries taste a lot in the jam and I can’t taste anything from the gooseberries 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can however taste a bit of quince 🙂 The jam will work perfectly with pancakes though, so instead of pancake Saturday we’ll have a pancake Sunday 🙂

     

There were some kernels in the quinces so I’ll sow them later today, the wet paper towel method. Put the seeds in a damp paper towel (and cover the kernels with it) and put it in a plastic bag and then in to the fridge. If they are viable they’ll start to germinate in a couple of months. I’m not sure what to have for dinner today though.

     

I have some sausages and meatballs in the freezer and I think I have an egg or two (must have three for the pancakes tomorrow though) plus some baked beans. That sounds rather nice to be honest but I can skip dinner as well and only have a few hard breads with cheese and ham, that’s not bad either 🙂

     

Have a great day!