Yule knock :-)

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We don’t say christmas present over here, we say julklapp, more or less Yule knock. That’s because when giving presents here in the beginning it was meant to be (I’ve heard) either a prank or an anonymous present. On christmas eve they didn’t lock the door and put new straw behind the door and when someone came with a present they knocked on the door and tossed in a present that then landed on the new and soft straw. So they named it a Yule knock 🙂

     

Later on when present giving became more common it was the Yule buck that delivered the presents. The goat has always been important back in the days so for people living back then it wasn’t an odd thing to come with the presents. There are different explanations to whom this buck was, most seems to think he was supposed to be one of the Norse god Thor’s goats, the ones he flew up in the sky in his chariot and created thunder but when I was young a by that time really old lady told me that it was the devils duty to do good one day every year.

     

Well Sinterklaas and Santa Claus started to turn up down in Europe so I think they wanted to be up to date here in Sweden as well so suddenly the Yule Gnome came to life 🙂 My guess is that since the gnome was a well known being here since way back in history and was known to help the farms they were living in, perhaps not happily or joyfully to be honest, so why not combine him and these other present givers. Not totally though, our gnome was still very short, mostly dressed in grey or green, except for the caps, they were almost always red (old christmas card)  click on the red text and You’ll see what it could look like.  . I doubt it was supposed to be someone one actually met because to be honest how many small people could quickly and swiftly move around to each place during one day.

     

However if one look at really old christmas cards this is how they were depicted. Also he never flew around with reindeers up in the sky, he either came walking with a goat (the same one apparently as the one previous delivering the presents himself) that pulled a small sled filled with packages or with a horse also pulling a sled filled with presents. It didn’t take long though until he grew taller and I guess that’s when he started to visit homes and hand out the presents himself. I have no idea to why but he always came on Christmas eve instead of Christmas day. Also for Your information, The Yule Gnome lives far north in Swedish Lappland, not Finnish Lappland as the Finns believe  🙂 🙂 🙂 even though they have been far better in spreading that nonsense around the world 🙂 🙂 🙂 So now the kids can visit the Gnome both in Sweden and Finland and I must admit from what I know about the Finnish one it’s far superior towards our place.

     

The Yule Gnome has evolved to something closer to Santa now days, he has fatten up some, says ho ho ho and it looks like he’s always wearing an all red clothing and he never comes down the chimney even though most kids now days do believe he comes by reindeer 🙂 instead hi visits the children in their homes. I have seen one comming by horse but either he comes walking or in a car 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now days even Mrs Gnome visits the children, turns out that Mr Gnome was a bit too happy to have a schnapps at every place he went to so by the time he finally reached the last homes he was pretty drunk, no one understood him and the children refused to see him 🙂 🙂 🙂 Mrs Gnome isn’t that keen on schnapps thankfully 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

So never mix up the Yule Gnome with our old gnome, All he requires is a bowl with rice porridge at Yule eve night. They are rare now days though but if You do have a stable or barn place the bowl in there so the risk of him burning down You place is lower 🙂

 

This photo was taken three years ago. I thought we at least should have one wintery photo 🙂

Have a great day!

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The sun so close but still so far away.

We did actually have some sunshine today, not much while we had our morning walk but a few minutes after we had come back home. It was a really good walk though because Alma was unusually quiet, then again she pulled the leash more than usual but I can take that. That sound she has cuts like a knife through the brain.

     

She has an evil eye towards the cattle that walks outside my garden. I have no idea why because she really doesn’t care especially much when we pass the other cattle when walking in the village 🙂 🙂 Every time we’re going outside she runs to the gate and stares towards the cows and shows her displease and they don’t even have to be close to us. Once she even jumped over the gate when a calf came way to close to the fence 🙂 🙂

     

The Yule Gnome passed my cottage today 🙂 I had let the dogs out to pee and did the same myself when I looked up the road and noticed that the gnome was very close to my garden 🙂 🙂 I can only hope the rose bush I stood behind didn’t show too much of me. I doubt that the gnome saw especially much because of the mask in front of the face, it didn’t fit well 🙂 🙂 So I said hi and the voice of the gnome was from a woman and her job today was to walk pass my neighbors cottage so the kids could see how the gnome passed by 🙂 She looked rater much like the old time Yule gnomes looked here back in the days since she was rather thin, more about that either tomorrow or on Yule eve.

     

No white Christmas here this year, on the contrary it seems like it will be a muddy ten coming days. Almost up to 10 C (50 F) some days and rain every now and again. Much like the winters I had growing up by the ocean, If it became cold it was so cold that waiting for a bus or tram would be considered torture and if we were really lucky we would have a fierce wind blowing from the ocean 🙂 🙂 🙂 It did happen that it would be so cold that the ocean froze and when it did they made roads on the ice so even lorries could drive on them, nasty for us but perfect for those living on the island outside my home town 🙂

     

I’ve just had my last cup of tea for the day and today I even made dinner for two more days so I guess I’ll put what’s left in the freezer because on Christmas I’ll have christmas food all day 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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I think Sara’s mother came from this farm. I haven’t seen her since we found Sara so I don’t think the mother is still alive.

The weather has really been boring for a couple of days now but it is well above 0 C (32 f) so I’m not complaining too much. The cottage becomes a mess though because since the dogs don’t want to be outdoors besides for walk they play indoors instead 🙂 🙂 They aren’t allowed to do it in the living room because of the aquarium so mostly they play in my bed 🙂 🙂

This was all sunshine I saw yesterday, not much but beautiful and a lot more than today 🙂

   

Today was a good day for Alma, not so much yesterday though but the periods when she is calmer seems to stay longer now. In this speed I’ll be long gone and dead by the time she’ll be able to behave like most other dogs, a year ago I’d never thought that would happen so it’s a step forward 🙂 🙂 🙂 I took a look at the trees in the cool cellar and despite that it actually has been pretty cold down there Some of them now shows new leafs! I don’t want that to happen 🙂 They are supposed to rest until at least early March Now I’ll have huge problems rearranging everything so that they’ll get light as well. I’ve also had a walk in the garden to examine how the new smaller trees are doing in the garden.

   

The Pawpaws look really healthy and have little to no frost damages and it’s the same with the Camellias I placed out there because they just too too much space in the cool cellar. I think that if winter doesn’t get colder than it has been so far they might even survive, I’m not counting on that though but they do look healthy. I have three different Mulberry trees out there too, A black called “Mulle” and it is the least hardy of them. Rather big frost injuries on that one but it will most likely survive and if it does it will become hardier next winter. I also have a white Mulberry tree and it is supposed to be the hardiest one but that too has some big frost injuries but it is far better than the black one. The one that has managed the winter best so far without any frost problems is the Red mulberry. I have two more in the cellar and it is of course those that has been growing new leafs 🙂 I have no idea how this will affect them towards next winter when they’ll be standing in the garden.

     

The Persimmon tree looks really well as well. I was a bit worried about that tree because some fungi had attacked it during summer and it looked so sad before it got cold 🙂 I also had those new branches that grew up from the roots of the dead persimmon hybrid, well they are no more but not because of the cold but because unknown dogs 🙂 🙂 had trampled them down while playing in the garden. I hope I’ll get lucky, even though this year has been anything but, and that new branches will grow up because then I’ll protect them so much better.

     

It has finally stopped with shorter days and longer nights 🙂 Today the sun rose somewhere behind the clouds at 8:53 am and set at 3:16 pm here where I live in the village at the outskirts of the world.Some places further north haven’t seen the sun for ages. Then again we’ll get it back during summer where the sun won’t set at all for a long time. Even here further south it’ll be bright for a long time after the sun has set because of the angle towards the sun so when the day is at its longest we still only will have a couple of hours when it’s almost dark. Well it is time for that last cup of tea with lots of ginger in it and then I’ll most likely fall asleep in front of the tv.

   

Have a great day!

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This was the sunrise on the 17th. I think most photos will come from that day in the blog today.

Almost as boring weather today as yesterday but with less rain, only in the early morning just before we should have went out on our morning walk. I had to go to the grocery store in Gudhem first though to pick up my “new” computer. We might get to see the sun shine tomorrow but according to the weather sites that might be the last time this year but then again we all know by now how good they are at guessing the weather here for longer than an hour or two 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

A nice scratch on the concrete ring is never wrong 🙂

I haven’t really unpacked the computer yet, I need to move the one already standing on my desk to somewhere and put it together again before I start with the new one. I don’t want to disconnect the old one before I know I actually have the new one running 🙂 🙂 I ordered a new keyboard to the mac and in my stupidity I then thought that it would be a mac keyboard, of course it isn’t. So at first I thought why even try and start it up until I have the right kind but then I found on a site that I can actually use the new on but need to go in to settings to make the computer understand that it is a “normal” keyboard and make it work as it is supposed to. Everything well described on this site and I do hope I’ll find it again 🙂

     

Thankfully keyboards aren’t that expensive so I’ll wait some time to get the right kind again and since I’ll use the new one I don’t think I can send it back later and get the money back but keyboards do get worn quickly so I might keep it and give it to someone who needs one.

     

I’ve gotten a cold again, really fast after the one that lasted for so long 🙂 🙂 We have three nasty things going around here at the moment according to the news papers and the flu seems to be the most popular at the moment. I just have a slight fever so I doubt that it’s any of the nasty ones but just a common cold which is bad enough 🙂 🙂 Natures christmas present to me this year was a cold and not the flu yay 🙂 I’m eating my vitamin D, have lots of ginger in my tea and gets lots of daylight now so I’m fighting with everything I have 🙂 🙂 May the force be with me 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I am drinking the last cup of tea here by the computer, and it’s a couple hours left before there’s anything worth watching on tv, so i think I’ll find myself a book to read or perhaps I should start drawing to see if I have the patience to do that. I don’t have much patience to do anything for a longer time since covid hit the first time but I think of it as I need to train my brain just like an athlete needs to train what ever it is he/she does to get back to normal again.

 

Have a great day!

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The weather is so dreary that I today show photos from the folder “For a rainy day”. Really fits today 🙂

The weather has been so gloomy that it was depressing today, strong winds, rain (quite often misty rain which is the worst kind) and everything is muddy. Misty rain is awful when it hits the wind shield while out driving, it’s sort of sticky so nothing happens when the wipers tries to wipe it off and it was of course exactly how it was when I drove to the grocery store.

     

Also the ground was still frozen so it was slippery as h..l here and there all the way. Thankfully almost no cars on the road at that time so I could have the speed I wanted without disturbing anyone else.  I had hoped that my “new computer would arrive while I still was out driving, I got a message that it would arrive today some time during the day and it did some time and unfortunately in the late afternoon, so I’ll pick it up tomorrow.

     

Now my neighbors care is fixed so from now i can use it when ever I want. I won’t want to use it more than I’ve done so far anyway but the possibility is there 🙂 🙂 🙂 Today I used their Peugeot, a slightly newer one than the one I had. Nice car but if it came with a warning, like icy roads and such things the display only shows it in French 🙂 🙂 I still have some french left in my brain but since the text only shows for a couple of seconds I really didn’t manage to read it anyway 🙂 🙂 🙂 My old Peugeot always beeped a lot but almost never showed a text. I had no idea what was going on but that was actually much less stressing 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

The wind will keep on blowing pretty hard until late morning tomorrow and stay rather calm until the evening when it will return again. I really can’t complain because this is the weather we’ll get instead of cold and wintery that I dislike so much. One advantage though, the electrical bill will stay very low as long as the winds continue to blow 🙂

     

Time for a last cup of tea for the day and I’ll have a sandwich or two with Christmas ham (made in the store I used to work close to, it is delicious and I didn’t expect anything else, I’ll also have beetroot salad (our kind with lots of mayo in it and I’ll also most likely have a slice or two of a really strong hard cheese 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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Now I know why I slept so bad these last days, the full moon was bright this morning.

A storm passed by during last night, I knew it would be windy but not even close to what it was 🙂 It didn’t reach my garden because my neighbors cottage and garage blocked it but I could hear the roar from the wind blowing through the forest and it was loud! I couldn’t see any trees that had fallen though so the ground must have frozen enough to hold a grip on the trees.

Jackdaws having their morning flight.

 

This is the only place Alma always is quiet at, she saw her first wild hogs here, piglets. Today both she and Malkolm stared down to the trees so I guess there might have been hogs there today again.

I’ve finally made that clay thing I wrote about, a viking ship advent candlestick. If it was supposed to float on water it would sink because it is warped in all directions 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’ve had much fun making it though and that’s why I tried it but I think working with clay is not a hobby I will continuing doing 🙂 🙂 🙂 As it is now it’s also a sure fire-hazard because the lights are put deep in the lichens and they dry as soon as they come indoors and would start to burn as soon as it gets warm enough. So perhaps I must buy some more clay so the the candles stand above the lichens with no risk of them falling down. Even normal advent candlesticks can be dangerous if not watched properly and is one of the biggest reason to fires in homes this time of year.

One could see already at the beginning this ship wouldn’t be seaworthy. I evened out most of the side and then
I painted it. I had the idea to try and paint it so one could see individual planks but realized that I really didn’t care that much 🙂 🙂
Painted some more and decorated it with lichens. As I wrote this is a fire hazard since the candles stand in the lichens and moss but I won’t light the candles and this looks good 🙂

I managed to cancel the second computer order I made yesterday already today. To not risk them missing it I put a message on their web site, their forum, I emailed it and also finally managed to call them 🙂 🙂 To be honest the price was so low that I most likely would have been able to sell it for a better price on our ebay called Tradera if I had failed but why go through that if I don’t need to. One of my brothers’ who’s a Mac fanatic (never had anything else ever) is happy about this, I’m leaving the dark side and have seen the light 🙂 🙂 🙂 He’s the only one I know who has a Mac so I guess we’ll have plenty of phone calls until I’ve understood how those computers work 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Alma behaved so well today when we were out walking that it surprised me! Oh how I wish this would continue but she has her moments of peace and then back to even worse than before until she calms down again 🙂 🙂 There were a few moments out by the bog when sounds, I can only describe them as sounding like distant explosions, rolled over the bog. Have no clue to what it could have been but they did worry her for a few minutes. A wolf killed a hunting dog not far from here yesterday, I just can’t understand why hunters so willingly let their dogs run out in a forest where they have wolf-packs?? They know this can and will happen but they just refuse to change the hunting methods they have used up till now. After this has happened they go out in media crying how horrible the wolves are and now they’ve lost a family member and the kids are crying. Well if it was a family member why didn’t they keep the dog leashed??

     

I’ve already had my last cup of tea for the day and after this it’s time to fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂

Have a great day!

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Female woodpecker.

I saw the sunrise from my kitchen window before going out on our morning walk but by the time we came out the sky was covered in an evenly grey cloud cover. Still the day felt brighter than the other grey days we’ve had so far. We had a cold night and some misty rain now and again so the ground looks like it is glaced with glass 🙂

     

Beside being out with the dogs I’ve done very little today. I’ve done almost the last on the clay thing, just a few more things and then it’s finished. I had huge problems downloading my photos though, it took over an hour and even when it had downloaded them they still couldn’t be seen, just like icons 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had to turn off the computer and start it again to be able to see them. This isn’t the first time this happened and it takes longer and longer. I’m not sure if it is a small problem or if this will spread to other things as well.

   

Today we really can’t be without computers in our life, at least if we once started to do our banking through it. Our banks have come so far that they refuse to handle money almost entirely. So I went out online to a business that sells refurbished computers and mobile phones. I have bought all my phones and computers via that business for lots of years and those computers have lasted for as long as one can expect. I think I’ve had this one for five years now. So they go through every computer they buy in, mostly from businesses that has closed down or bankrupted so they all work really well.

     

So I took a look, normally Mac’s have been nasty expensive compared to the rest but since lots of businesses wants to look like they already have loads of money they’ve bought Macs’ so now those can be bought rather cheap as well. So I ordered a stationary Mac with a 21 inch screen and since I know the keyboard is different on Macs’ I ordered one of those too. To be honest I really can’t afford that now but I must know I’ll be able to pay my bills 🙂 When I was paying for it I finished and then I got a message that something went wrong so I did it again and now I’ve ordered two computers 🙂 🙂 I’ve messaged the business to delete one of the orders.

     

I’ve just had my last cup of tea for the day, had one too late yesterday evening and had problems falling asleep. The joy of getting old 🙂 🙂 🙂

   

Have a great day!

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I think most of the photos I use today were taken yesterday when the world still looked frozen and frosty white. Well Sara as well of course.

The cold and wind free days are over and now we have windy but warmer days instead. The only thing I’m not happy about is how much dirtier the floor becomes 🙂 🙂 Still I prefer warmer weather. I have been born in the wrong part of the world, I should have been born in a  warmer climate where it stayed around 20 C (68 F) all year round 🙂

I would like to say this was taken in the early morning but it was already 9:25 am.
I never picked that last squash in the vegetable garden 🙂

 

Today we must have had some rain during the night and the rest of the day, except for a few minutes, the sky has been evenly grey. Now the sky is clear, the full? moon is bright in the sky and therefor it’ll be cold during the night. Tomorrow the day will be cloudy again and I wonder why it always happen that way and not cloudy nights and sunny days? 🙂

     

I’ve done some laundry today and right now I’m waiting for my french rolls to cool down so I can have one or two before falling asleep in front of the tv 🙂 I’ve had some fun with clay for a couple of days now and have had really fun. I’ll show You when it is done. It isn’t beautiful in any way 🙂 🙂 🙂 but I’ve had lots of fun doing it. The problem is that I really have no good place to work with it, I’ve been standing at the kitchen counter and the stove 🙂 🙂 Back pain as a result but it’ll pass 🙂 I do have a lot more time now when I don’t have a job so I thought I would see what kind of hobby I would like besides photography.

     

I doubt I’ll continue with clay though even though this was a kind that hardens without having to stand in a kiln lots of hours. I have lots more things I can do and also sit down while doing it so if You’re unlucky You might have to look at several more failures until I know if I have another hobby or being happy about having my cameras 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I think it is time to try one of those rolls, this time they at least look good, and of course that last cup of tea for the day 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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Sunrise, well the sun wasn’t supposed to rise in a couple of ours but the tiny gap in the clouds really made it look nice.

The morning was quite cold today since the sky was clear and I could see the stars before the sun rose. No wind which I like but making our electrical bills go sky high (for those that pay per hour, I don’t so it doesn’t affect me that much. I pay for the average price of the month so I really should love the wind so our wind power plants turn as much as possible 🙂 🙂

Here comes photos I took on the way to the store/factory and back home again.

   

I drove to the grocery store in the village where I used to work, I didn’t know I needed as much as I bought 🙂 I forgot the list I had written and only remembered fruit, cat food and a cheese so I brought home a little of everything 🙂 🙂 After that I drove to the factory and wished everyone a good christmas.

     

I had driven almost all the way back home when I realized that I also was supposed to pick up a package in Gudhem so I had to turn and go back out on the roads again. It’s the opposite way than to my old work place 🙂 So up the hill bring the package bought something I thought I had forgotten and drove back home again. It wasn’t until we were out in the forest that I suddenly remembered something I really needed 🙂

     

So as soon as we were back from the walk I put the dogs in the dog yard again, jumped in to my car, drove to Gudhem and bought it and felt pretty annoyed about it all so I also bought a soda and a big chocolate bar 🙂 🙂 🙂  I now refuse to look at the list if I actually needed something more because I refuse to drive to any store again until next Monday 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

Clouds arrived while we were out on our walk and now we have fog again. It’ll be cold during the night but from tomorrow and some days ahead we’ll have warm temperatures again. Yes I know they aren’t that good in guessing the coming weather over here but I wouldn’t complain it it actually reach 10 C (50 F) for a couple of days or why not the rest of the winter 🙂 🙂

Lots of playing in the garden after I had come back home from the second drive to the store 🙂

   

Have a great day!

The monster kitten is for once sleeping 🙂 🙂
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Jackdaws build their nests in chimneys so we always need to have netting over the opening.

Fog again today but it varied in thickness, not so thick in the morning but better later in the day. Still it was good enough to have walks in 🙂 The horse guy was cutting down trees somewhere along the creek, mostly thinning out smaller ones by the sound of it, so I was a bit worried that Alma would go insane with all that noise but she stayed far more calm than I ever thought I could hope for.

     

So to stay away as much as possible from the noise we walked along the creek up streams. WE didn’t pass the creek where we usually do but continued towards the bog. If we would have continued to the little lake in the bog it would have been better to walk on the other side of the creek but I had the wrong boots on, one can continue on the side we were walking on too but it’s a bit more tricky with swampy areas and small spruces.

     

Lots of animals must have been there just until the horse guy started because both Alma and Malkolm were very excited following tracks everywhere. Well mostly Malkolm followed them and Alma joined him when he stopped to examine some tracks some extra 🙂 🙂 She really can’t concentrate on anything for longer than 15 seconds, I’ve actually timed her 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

The horse guy and the horses had a break when we passed that place again so I could get a nice photo of them. I think it is time for that last cup of tea for the day and then fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂

     

Have a great day!

       

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We had sunshine most parts of the day yesterday and were supposed to have some today as well so of course we hadn’t 🙂 🙂 🙂 Instead we had my second favorite weather today, fog and at times really thick fog. Tomorrow we’re supposed to have fog all day so perhaps the sun will show itself then instead 🙂

     

But we didn’t just have fog, tiny, tiny snow flakes fell all day as well but since they were so small and few it isn’t noticeable anywhere on the ground, I can accept snowfall like that 🙂 🙂 It was a nice morning walk despite it being below 0C (32 F) because there was no wind what so ever blowing. Also both Malkolm and Alma behaved pretty well after the first couple of hundred meters (much the same in yards) of the walk.

     

I still, to my own surprise, have christmas feeling. I normally have them late October to some time in the middle of November and then they die out 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess it can be because I don’t have to go out to scrape the windows of the car, feel well rested and actually just because the snow is falling even though it can’t be seen 🙂 I haven’t felt this well rested in years to be honest but I still can’t promote unemployment unless one is rather wealthy 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not so I better keep on looking for a job or win the lottery 🙂 🙂

They have removed the blockage in the creek so now the water level is much lower again.

 

It is time for a cup of tea but nothing more, the dogs and I have just eaten some pancakes and that’s enough for me but they and the cat will have their dinners just after this, even though they all had pancakes as well 🙂

     

Have a great day!

· 8 Comments ·

It has been a boring day, hunters were out in the forest all day so no walks, I don’t want to walk there with Alma yet since she finally seems to calm down a lot when walking in the forest. I think we’ll walk there when most people have their Christmas vacations, very little that can stress her moving around then.

     

It looks like the cattle has moved to their winter pastures as well so we’ll have walks there too during christmas vacation, almost no cars will drive on the big road besides that area. Most likely lots of wild hogs if we go out just before the sun starts to rise but with that much open space they’ll not care about us at all.

     

The weather has been grey and dark with misty rain all day as well so none of the dogs were especially happy to be in the garden either. So instead we’ve been napping a lot 🙂 I should have done the laundry but never came around to do it. I won’t get a job next week either I’m afraid so I’ll have plenty of time to do it, at least until I’ve run out of clean clothes 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We might get some sunshine both tomorrow and on Tuesday so I hope I’ll catch some of that but it will stay warmer here, especially at nights just because of the clouds so I’m not complaining too much 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll also have an egg sandwich with blue cheese and some normal hard cheese or perhaps cheese and apricot jam 🙂

I only brought in one of the Camellias and the ones outside look really healthy despite -13 C (8,6 F).

   

Have a great day!