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I think we’ve had really beautiful weather here today. Sunshine and warm when I drove to work, I think it was cloudy during our breaks but it was warm and now sunshine and warm again. Tomorrow will be sunny and warm until the night when more rain will come for a visit. Friday rainy again but since I work I really don’t mind 🙂

Chamomile.
We call this flower for Dog biscuits but I have absolutely no idea why 🙂 It is a close relative to the parsnip and can be eaten as such as well. The problem is that almost at the same time it flowers a few other that look almost the same flowers as well and those can be highly poisonous.

We met one of our new neighbours when we walked down to the creek after I had come home after work and Alma was only her insane self, so with other words so much calmer than when we met the puppies 🙂 She behaved really well the en tire walk after that though and that seems to be the norm now. Well if something moves or she think it will move or a bird burp she will be slightly crazy for a few seconds but then calms down again 🙂 🙂

Tomorrow is a holiday here but I’ll work on Friday as usual. Some people will have the Friday off but from what I understand they’re not as generous with giving time off as they were at my previous work place. We have loads to do though so that is something I fully can understand. I’ve always liked when I have one day off in the middle of the week because then the rest of what’s left of the work week feels quite good to work at. Sort of a mini vacation 🙂 🙂 🙂

I think it is time to have a cup of tea, after all I don’t have to get up really early tomorrow so it doesn’t matter if I can’t fall asleep as soon as I lay my head on the pillow like I usually do. I remember when  first realised that if I had a cup of tea or coffee after a certain time in the afternoon I then would have problems falling asleep. It happened from one day to the next, the day before I fell asleep like always the next I was awake so long that I only had two hours of sleep, thankfully it happened on a Friday evening 🙂

My new neighbours ponies, so beautiful.

Carrots and beetroots growing fine beside the strawberries.

Have a great day!

 

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We had the most wonderful sunrise this morning and after that the clouds came rushing in. With the clouds came the rain and it was a lot and until early evening when the sun came back again.

That’s more or less all I can say about the day and weather, I can’t see anything outside from where I work :-)A bit chilly perhaps but it’s really nice now when the sun is shining again. The birds are singing and the magpies have tossed out their younglings.

I have absolutely now idea why they do it in my garden since I’ve always have had dogs ad cats. The magpies toss out their younglings before they can fly so I can’t count how many times I’ve had dogs with small magpies in their moth walking around in the garden. They never kill them, just carries them around which sometimes gives the birds so much stress that they die after they’ve been released. This time the dogs couldn’t come close thankfully.

Honeysuckle is easy to propagate, just cut of a branch, place in in a pot with soil and water.

So that was what I had to say today, time for that last cup of tea and then watching something on tv I think.

Light blue Forgetmenots in deep shadow shines like tiny stars.

Have a great day!

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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 wildlife camera pointing towards

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!

I don’t complain about the weather sites got it wrong :-)

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We were supposed to have rain and strong winds today so I’m not surprised that we had a lot off sunshine and sort of half strong winds 🙂 Couldn’t notice much in the garden though since the winds came from south.

I wonder what they use this for? I thought it looked like a piece of art but I’m sure they have a more practical use for it 🙂

So the dogs, cat and I spent a lot of time in the garden today, the dogs playing like crazy and the cat running up to them so they would chase her 🙂 I spent a lot of time cutting of dead branches from bushes and trees and also got attacked by small black ants, it never hurts when those black ants attacks (the small red ones though is a totally different thing, that hurts like h..l 🙂 🙂 🙂 Still it took hours to get rid of all of them since they were crawling all over my body 🙂 They lives in a pot whee I tossed away the dead plant and since I had no idea they lived there they managed to run over to me in rather big numbers before I noticed them 🙂 🙂

It was a bit warmer today because of the sunshine, sort of perfect this time of year, not too warm so one could do some gardening but not so cold that one wanted to go inside to have a pot of tea. I’ve also pulled up a lot of weeds from places where I didn’t want them to grow, normally they’re quite welcome here if they flower a lot so that the bees get lots of nectar from them but if they grow where I don’t want them they’ll have to go, if not for any other reason than that snails and slugs love to live there.

I’m baking a bread right now and everything would be good if I just had remembered to start the timer 🙂 🙂 It looks nice in colour but I put a tooth pick in it and it felt a bit too damp, then again it might have been a prefect bread since I did put a lot of cheese in it and therefore it should feel like that sort of 🙂 🙂 I put a lot of rosemary in it and the small is filling the entire cottage. Talking about rosemary, the extra hardy one I planted in the garden has actually survived winter and is now producing new shoots 🙂 Still tiny but I can see them now. This is an American variety and I’ve forgotten the name 🙂 🙂 I have also forgotten from whom I bought it so I can’t get the name from the seller either 🙂 🙂

I just went down to the oven and checked, I’ve shut it off and will let the bread stand there for five more minutes, the cooler of it says it should be ready by then. Even though I did enjoy working the evening shift I still don’t think it is worth it. I was really tired all Friday long even though I did lots of things during the day and I’m still tired today. I’ll probably be back to normal tomorrow so I’ll be fit for fight for work on Monday. I’m an extreme morning person, goes to bed at nine pm and up around 4:30 am the day after, changing sleeping hours even though just four hours later does cost me a lot but thankfully this will only happen every fourth week.

New leafs on the Pawpaw trees

and on the ginkgos as well.

It is time to go downstairs again to pick out the bread so wish me luck that it is ready 🙂 🙂

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!

The first evening was quite ok.

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The first day at the evening shift yesterday and I have to say it wasn’t that bad with the hours, I am however not so sure I’ll feel the same on Thursday night 🙂 🙂

Both today and yesterday have been wonderful summer days, just above 20C (68F), almost no wind and sunshine all day. This will shift tomorrow, chilly weather is on the way and tomorrow won’t be that bad but on Friday we’ll only have 5C (41F) as warmest. The temperatures will rise slowly after that but the entire weekend is supposed to be rainy. I don’t mind the rain but those temperatures after having summer is just nasty 🙂 🙂

My left hand is itching and stings a lot after I put my hand in stinging nettles. Normally I wouldn’t do that but I planted a potted sand cherry tree in the garden and there were lots of smaller nettles in I didn’t see and when I tried to remove them it only went worse. Sand cherry tree are not growing upwards like most trees but along the ground but the trick is to let it grow some before planting it so one can plant it upright. That way it is easier to not mow off the branches and it is so much easier to pick the cherries if one get the chance before the birds do it 🙂 🙂

It is time for a pot of tea and most likely something to eat. I might even have a nap with a timer on because one never knows for how long that nap might become 🙂

I’ve mowed this sand cherry tree too often now so it was time to plant it. It becomes quite high when forcing it to grow upwards 🙂

Have a great day!

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I’ve used another lens today that came with an old camera I bought, to be honest I only wanted the lens but it would most likely have been much more expensive if I’d tried ton just buy the lens 🙂 So You’ll notice that some photos will have a sort of blurry sharpness to them.

It was so nice this morning, a bit towards the cool side but with the sun shining and a rather weak wind. That has changed now, the wind is strong once again and even though it actually is warm enough it still feels chilly even on the south side of the cottage when the sun shines through the clouds.

So since I must change my hours to stay awake in the evening now I watched the entire Eurovision final. It really takes too long but I had very little else to do. We didn’t win but came fourth and that’s not bad at all. My sister and I usually text each other during this show and suddenly no texts came from her, she had fallen asleep 🙂 and texted me this at 4:56 this morning (we are both morning people) since I had forgotten to tell her that I’ll work in the evenings this week 🙂 Luckily I did manage to fall asleep as son as my head hit the pillow 🙂

I’ve been emptying my aquarium since the dogs mainly will be in the cottage while I work the coming weeks and since there now longer is any fish in it I decided to empty it instead of buying new fish. One never knows how wild the dogs play will be and if they bring down the aquarium I want the damage to be as small as possible 🙂 I’ll also unplug the radiators because they have actually once managed to trip over one of my sofas and it broke the radiator when it hit it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I always prepare for the worst 🙂

It is time for a cup of tea and then outing the garden for a while. I’ll tray to stay out of the wind and it isn’t often I have to say that because the wind can only hit my garden if it comes from north to north east.

Have a great day!

I can hear a gentle rain hitting my windows.

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The day has been really nice despite the sun quite early hid behind clouds. Still strong winds but fairly warm. It’ll get chilly on Wednesday and a few days more but it’s too early to say anything about the weather so long ahead. I mean sometimes they can’t even say what weather we’re having without getting it wrong 🙂 🙂 🙂 At the moment though I can hear a gentle rain hitting my windows.

Some trees, like the oaks, just doesn’t care if summer starts at new year, they start when they normally do every year.

We saw another deer today and Alma actually behaved pretty well, normally she’s all over the place when she see deer but this time she just stayed excited but nothing more. I had brought an older camera with me and after a while I realised that I didn’t have any film in it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m pretty sure all those photos I took while walking in the forest would have been masterpieces 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve also mowed the lawn. At first I was going to start hilling the potatoes but since all my composts now are full I instead decided that I would cover the potatoes with the grass cuttings. It makes the plant grow potatoes along the stems but also fertilises the soil when the grass slowly decompose. I’ll keep on doing that every time I’ll cut the grass. Plus it is time to start spreading all that compost as well, No meaning having composts if I don’t use it 🙂

I’ve also baked a bread so now I can have a fresh sandwich while watching the Eurovision final. I did have a nap while sitting in the recliner but I feel that I most likely should have had an even longer nap, right now it feels like I’m not going to make it through the show that ends around midnight. I really need to though since I’ll be working until midnight next week. I better start checking what’s moving around in the garden at night, yesterday Alma chased away a poor animal, most likely a cat but it did sound heavier so it might have been a fox.

It is time for a cup of tea, perhaps that will help me to stay awake tonight 🙂 :-)it does when I don’t want it too though 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

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Still very windy with northern winds but today they were almost lukewarm. We only work to 2:30 pm on Fridays so I had the chance to experience it for a while 🙂 We walked down to the creek and thankfully the winds were so strong that the forest flies never came to us.

I had forgotten to buy toothpaste and a toothbrush yesterday when I was at the store so I had to make a stop at the smaller grocery store in Gudhem. They only had toothbrushes for kids 🙂 but any toothbrush is better than none 🙂 I’ll get a bigger one next time I’ll go to the supermarket. I was supposed to work overtime tomorrow but they had missed that lots of people at work are going out to have fun tonight so they had to cancel it. I must admit that I’m quite happy that they did, it’s one thing to say ok on Monday because one never knows how tired one will be on Friday evening 🙂 🙂

I’ll work the evening shift next week and it’s a long time since I did that. It usually messes up the sleep for a while but since this only will happen every three weeks I’ll take it without complaining, at first they said it would be every second week. It would have worked for a while but I’m pretty sure it would have been too much in the long run. When one need a job one has to take what one gets 🙂 I have had another call from a staffing agency but I really like this place so I didn’t answer the call.

I often get the question if it isn’t scary to work with coffins all over the factory but it’s just like working with boxes to be honest. I guess there’s just too much of them. The only time it gets a bit sad is when one need to pass the coffins for children. Especially the tiny ones but thankfully they work with them in a part of the factory we seldom pass.

It is time to have that last cup of tea, today I need to start wit being up late so it won’t be a shock for the body on Monday 🙂 Also later breakfast tomorrow and dinner tomorrow as well.

Have a great day!

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Only photos from my garden today.

We have winds blowing from the arctic and yesterday it was so cold in the wind that it felt like winter again, out of reach for the wind it was quite ok since the sun shone:-) Today the winds are a bit less cold but strong so it only felt pleasant on the south side of the cottage.

I really hope I’ll get plenty with Sand Cherries this year, they’re so delicious but the birds have noticed that too I’m afraid 🙂

The allergy pills I’m taking are rather good, still sneezing isn’t something it seems to care about 🙂 🙂 also the closer to the evening the more I can feel the magic slowly vanishing. Still much better than without the pills and I’ve only used them for a very short period of time. I’m pretty sure it will feel even better after a week or so.

Nothing has happened here so I have very little to write about. Tonight’s the second semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Our song made it to the final on Saturday so that’s fun. I won’t watch tonight either because this thing takes quite some time but as I’ve said I’ll watch the big final on Saturday.

The least hardy fruit tree I planted last summer seems to be the one managing this winter the best, the Pawpaws 🙂

I have a Red oak I sowed ten? years ago. It’s still so small but it hasn’t had any problems with our winters.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I guess it would be nice to have some Digestives with that cup. For those of You who don’t know what Digestives is it is a really tasty biscuit nd goes well together with any kind of cheese or jam or both but is really nice just by itself as well. I won’t have anything on mine because they are already covered on one side with chocolate 🙂

Have a great day!

There she stood just looking at us.

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20C (68F) today but very little sunshine. Really doesn’t matter to me since I’ve been working all day  🙂 The dogs must have had a really nice day though 🙂 Summer arrived a month early (I’m not complaining about that 🙂 ) and so did the forest flies, that I am complaining about though. Forest flies are really harmless to be honest, no biting or drinking blood or spreading diseases, instead they swarm around the head and always tries to check out our nostrils and ears 🙂 🙂 I truly dislike them! Still I can avoid them by wearing a mosquito ha so that’s what I’ll be doing when they become too many.

If You want tulips that comes back from year to year buy bulbs from the wild species. They tend also to spread quite happily 🙂

I did wonder how it would be with the wild bees now when the we don’t have any honey bees in the village and today the sound from the flowering apple trees told me they are ok 🙂 The trees were buzzing loudly so they have not suffered by having honey bees here. I had read that it could go bad for them if there were too many honey bees in an area but how many are too many. Well there were up to ten hives for a while and by the sound from my apple trees that weren’t too many 🙂

I’ll get my first pay check soon 🙂 well checks haven’t been used here for ages even though I’ve heard they still can be used. It’s always something special with that first one, even though it only is half a month since I didn’t start working until the 14th let month. How getting paid varies here, in this place You’ll get paid the moth after so if one quits one will get paid the month after on has quit. At my previous work place they paid for the same month on had been working and any adjustments, like sick days or over time would be on the next pay check. I’ll also get paid from the unemployment agency so it will be almost like it would if I had worked a full month anyway 🙂

I’m baking a bread right now so it’ll soon be time to bring it out of the oven. The dogs are eager for me to bring it out because they always get some and some cheese too 🙂 It’s also the first semi finale in the Eurovision Song Contest. If You don’t know what that is I’m happy to explain it as good as I can. Anyway, Sweden is once again a big favourite amongst the betting sites and if we win on Saturday when the big finale is we’ll be the country that has won most times leaving Ireland behind us 🙂 🙂 I will not see any of the semi finals because it takes forever but I will watch it on Saturday.

Now many people wonder why it is called Eurovision since also countries from Asia and Australia competes but I’ve learned that since they belong to the European Broadcasting system they too can compete. I don’t mind because my favourites are quite often from those countries 🙂

We passed this roe goat on our way home from our walk. Alma didn’t notice her thankfully, Malkolm did but just stood there watching her. I took one photo and then we left because I didn’t want to stress her more than necessary.

Have a great day!

No sunshine but so nice.

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The first strawberry flower. For some reason these strawberries give very little berries now but will produce lots in autumn, it shouldn’t be like that but I have no idea why they behave like that 🙂

Today was really nice despite no sunshine but it was warm, no wind and a few times we had some rain. Showers of drizzle is perhaps a better name for it though 🙂 Alma woke me up at 5 am , was outside for a minute, came straight back in and went to sleep on the sofa 🙂 I wouldn’t have mind sleeping an hour or so too but I had a cup of coffee and a bowl of corn flakes instead 🙂

We walked down to the creek and it’s so nice to do that this time of year when there are no flies annoying us and what’s even better is that no mosquitoes did either. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about ticks, I picked six of them from the dogs by the time we had come home and I also found two already drinking the blood from Malkolm.

I tried three of a work friends allergy pills this week, the kind one can buy over the counter. First day nothing special happened beside the fact that I didn’t have any nose bleed any more, second day nothing happened at all but after the third pill I suddenly wasn’t that tired any more and now my nose isn’t that stuffed either, so I went online and bought a packet together with eye drops. It’s not a nice feeling when it feels like having sand paper under the eyelids 🙂 🙂 🙂

I also did what I always do on Sundays, the laundry and the dinner for next week ate work. I’ve promised to work overtime on Saturday and I’m already regretting it 🙂 🙂 🙂 Then again I’ll have to start saving money again so I can sacrifice one Saturday and still survive it 🙂 I have also sown melon seeds, I always fail with melons but always try it again 🙂 I have actually sown a lot of seeds both yesterday and today but can’t for my life remember what 🙂 🙂 I’ve also replanted tomatoes and some other things and brought out the last plants from the patio, the risk of frost the coming week is minimal.

I have a Fuchsia in my garden, Hardy Fuchsia (F. Magellanic), and it has survived outside this mild winter. All parts above ground will freeze but new shoots comes from the roots.

The fight with the nettles and cleavers is also going on and even if I’m successful at the moment I know both will win over me in the long run 🙂 🙂 I still have lots of vegetable seeds to sow, like beans and peas but I’ll with with those until the ground is a bit warmer. It is time for that last cup of tea and perhaps a sandwich too and after that some snoozing in front of the tv 🙂

Three of my worst garden enemies at the same place. Stinging nettles, cleavers and white bryony. The last one can cover an entire tree during one summer. I have no idea where it came from but it always grows so it’s hard to remove it. Smells bad and is also poisonous 🙂

Have a great day!