Last post here, tomorrow I’ll be at the new place!

Not long till the sweet cherries are ripe now. I hope I can get some so I can sow the kernels because these grow on a tree which is less than 1,5m (much the same in yards) high and this tree is rather old so it won’t be any higher.

I didn’t wake up even once during the night 🙂 One could therefore presume that I would be fully rested but that would be too good wouldn’t it 🙂 I do however feel much better now so with a little luck I’ll be fine this last working week before my vacation starts. This will be one of the longest weeks in the year as it is even without this nasty cold hanging around.

 

The morning was truly wonderful, 8C (46,4F), sunshine and a weak breeze keeping those few flies, that was thinking of annoying me, hiding in the bushes. Very few birds sing now, to be honest I think I only heard one or perhaps two. Could have been the same bird just moving a bit. We walked in to the village, it’s been a while since we did that and it looked like it always does 🙂 I was enjoying the morning so much that I mostly forgot to take any photos 🙂 Still I took plenty yesterday so no shortage of photos today.

 

We barely made it home until the first clouds arrived and the weak breeze became much stronger. It is still rather nice outside but the wind is a bit too strong to have the kitchen door open. Thunder and showers are predicted to arrive around noonish but the weather will be rather pleasant both before and after it has passed. Most important is that the humidity won’t be sky-high any time today.

 

Most spider webs don’t look like this year, so far I’ve only seen three like this one.

Do You remember that I bought ten Dahlia’s for almost nothing at all because they had passed their best before selling date? I soaked them in luke warm water for 24 hours and then planted them in pots. I now have eleven since one root fell in to pieces so I got several plants from that one. The problem was that I didn’t know where to put them when they started to grow but the cats helped me with that 🙂 Do You remember that I sowed melon seeds? I planted those in a big wooden box and the cats found the brown soil to be rather pleasant to sleep on and while doing that they also killed the melon plants 🙂

 

We bumped in to this lady yesterday and we all got just as surprised. I told her to stand still so I could get some nice photos and she stood there patiently 🙂 The grass is so high that she had to jump away but she did so very slowly and in no panic.

I know have planted some of the Dahlia’s in that box and put up sticks here and there so tha cats won’t use it again 🙂 I also planted the rest in my old wheelbarrow, another place the cats slept and killed the plants. If You plants Dahlia roots and it only gives one stalk per root it’s possible to get many flowers anyway. Just cut off the top of the stalk above a pair of leafs and it will start to produce new branches which will give plenty of flowers, somewhat smaller perhaps but lots of them.

 

All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.

I may not have poppies like the Beekeeper but I do have buttercups 🙂

One can also take cuttings and plant those to get more plants and they’ll all give new roots that You can plant next summer. Many believe that if one sows Dahlia seeds those won’t be able to survive a winter to be planted the next year but that’s wrong, they’ll be just as good as the ones one buy or perhaps even better. Very few Dahlia species are hardy enough to survive in the more northern hemisphere though so they must be stored in a cool but frost-free space during our winters in buckets with moist sand or soil.

 

I think it is time to take another walk with the dogs before the rain arrives. The wind is so strong now that I won’t get annoyed by any flies 🙂

 

It turns out that I now have used all free space here in this blog, it won’t even upload a single photo any longer! So this was the last post here! Welcome to my new place: The Cottage by the Cranelake. Still We Have Hope. ( Just click on the name and You’ll get there!)

Have a great day!

Raining.

Fire weed. All standing photographs are more manageable if You click on them.

It’s raining outside, it is one of those gentle summer rains that can be quite nice to be out walking in if one has agood raincoat or big umbrella. I have neither so I’ll stay indoors as much as possible as long as it continues. It started just after we had come home from our morning walk and will continue for several more hours they say.

 

It wasn’t the brightest of mornings 🙂

It looks like my coughing has changed character, instead of attacks it now sort of is there all the time but calm enough to let me sleep for longer periods. Still we were up at 4am, I didn’t feel there was any use in trying to fall asleep again. Instead I sort of slumbered in front of the tv the rest of the morning. They showed something called Lucky Dog, it’s about a man who rescues dogs from shelters and place them in families, quite often with special needs and I’m pretty sure all of You in the USA have seen or heard about that show.

 

He’s really good and I like how he works with the dogs but still I just can’t seem to like him 🙂 I don’t know what it is but there’s something about him that I obviously don’t like. That is very rare when it comes to me, that I just don’t like a person without understanding why. I could have understood it if there was something he did while training the dogs that I didn’t like but I think he’s great with them. Good thing there’s no risk I’ll ever have to meet him then 🙂

 

Today will be a do very little day, no use in mowing the lawn since the grass is soaking wet, I might do some laundry already today but that’s it. I di have several books to read and also several dvd’s I can watch if I like to. Nova and Sune wants to do things but as soon as I open the door and they see and hear the rain they turn right back indoors again, they are bored and they blame me for it 🙂

 

I’ll make a pot of tea now and perhaps I’ll make a sandwich or two as well, perhaps there’s something on tv worth watching otherwise we might go out on a short walk despite the rain.

 

Black currants behave much like weed here, so this is a self-sown bush that has almost ripe berries now. Much smaller berries but with lots more taste.

Have a great day!

It is still a bit too expensive.

Musk mallows grow everywhere here.

I only woke up once last night and managed to fall asleep again after ten minutes or so. Still I was so tired when the alarm sett off that I almost seriously considered to come late to work 🙂 Still the day has passed rather quickly and I did feel less tired while I was at work.

 

It has been mostly cloudy with some rain today and a few seconds of sunshine too. The humidity is as high as it can get, around 99% and will stay like that until tomorrow night. I guess I should be happy about temperatures being rather low because 99% humidity and high temperatures are really nasty, now it will stay close to unpleasant as worst 🙂

 

Saint John’s wort.

The weather predictions varies faster than the speed of light 🙂 We might get lots of thunder and rain this weekend but it can also be only light showers and perhaps some sunshine too. I would like to mow the lawn this weekend but I won’t do that if the grass is wet. Too much work to clean out the mower during and after using it on wet grass. I would like to have one of those robot mowers, they are quite popular here but still a bit too expensive for my taste. Now it would work rather well in my garden since the two big hole diggers aren’t around any more. Nova and Sune are content in just eating the leafs of the dandelions and don’t dig up the roots 🙂

 

It is time to give the dogs their food and after that I’ll give myself something too.

 

 

Have a great day!

I don’t feel well but I do feel much better.

The most delicious berry we have I think.

I’ve been busy these two last days, yesterday so much that I didn’t even check in to the net at all 🙂 I don’t like being busy but I do survive not going out on the internet and that’s always nice to know 🙂 I was however, for quite some time, not sure if In would survive this cold though 🙂 I did and even though I would lie very much if I said I feel fine I do feel better than in a long time.

 

All standing photographs are more manageable if You click on them. Geraniums spread like weeds in my garden but they are beautiful so most are allowed to stay.

The coughing comes and goes and I’m quite happy if it only comes around while I’m awake. I did get one full night of sleep last night but the one before was the nastiest I’ve had. I’m not sure I slept at all and could have been a danger on the road to work if something had surprised me. So I’m glad that it was this morning when the doe and her young one decided to walk out on the road just in front of my car.

 

Soon to be red.

The Beekeeper have poppies everywhere and lots of them too.

I managed to stop in time and could only laugh when I saw the youngling trying to walk on asphalt, it looked like it was the first time it tried to walk at all 🙂 They really can’t get a good grip on that hard surface. Another animal had not had the same luck during the night, the big road was covered in blood and there were so much of it that it must either have been a wild hog or a moose hit by a lorry. At least it can’t have suffered.

 

I have two poppies and the second one is tiny.

It is time to get something to eat and I think I’ll have cocoa today, the weather is somewhat chilly and the rain has come and gone all day.

 

My Honeysuckle climbs up a dead old havthorn.

Pink Foxglove.

The first tomato turning red.

The Japanese rose.

 

Have a great day!

 

Aaron’s rod.

The weed of weeds, Nepeta sibirica. The Swedish name is big dragon flower. Can survive in the harshest of climate zones.

I woke up and was really confused, so I went to bed.

From the Balda Jubilette.

Sorry but I am running late again but on a Tuesday 🙂 I suddenly remembered that bills need to be paid even if one has been sick for over a week 🙂 and when I realised that I remembered a few other things I needed to do as well.

 

 

These three as well.

Yesterday I was going to watch the football match between Iceland and England. England has always been my favorite team but in the Icelandic team seven of them play in our top division at the moment and five more have been here too and not to forget, their coach is Swedish. So I had a bit of a problem on what team I should hope to win.

 

From the Minolta 7000.

I fell asleep in front of the tv five minutes before they started and woke up 25 minutes in to the match. I read England 1 Iceland 2 and thought I must still be sleeping, so many goals in just 25 minutes can’t be possible. It was 🙂 I was so confused that I decided it was best to go to bed 🙂 I’m sad for the English team but so happy for the Icelandic 🙂 Now I hope they go all the way 🙂

 

From the folder “For a rainy day”.

 

Have a great day!

My neighbor asked me if I was feeling any better and laughed when I answered I live.

Bertil has started to follow us on our walks again.

The fever is gone now but the coughing still stand strong, it woke me up at 4am and it’s no use to even try to fall asleep again so we went out for a walk. The morning was so nice and cool! The flies stayed calm and the birds were singing, lot fewer birds singing now, they are raising their younglings and have no need to sing any longer.

 

It wasn’t that bad working today, mostly because I worked in the neighbor factory. The paint box has a constant temperature of 20C (68F). The air I breathe however is cooler and much drier. I thought that would make me cough a lot but it didn’t, instead I barely could talk at all when I was finished for the day 🙂 I was badly hoarse before I started to work but that was nothing compared to after 🙂 It was nasty warm at my ordinary workplace though so I’m pretty glad that I’ll go to the neighbor factory tomorrow too 🙂

 

I do hope I can sleep an entire night soon, it’s ok in the morning but it doesn’t take long until one starts to feel like a zombie. I can’t hear properly in either ear, it sounds much like how the tv used to sound when there was nothing on back in the days 🙂 My nose is stuffed most of the time too but those things I don’t get so bothered about, all I want is to get a good nights sleep 🙂

 

The first of the annuals I sowed to open up, the cornflower.

It isn’t big but it has now survived two winters here, my Cercis canadensis. The Eastern Redbud.

It is time to make a pot of tea and I’ll put cough drops in it and hope for the best 🙂

Have a great day!

It finally opened up.

My Pink Dandelion! Only half the flower opened up yesterday (the deep pink part) and only for an hour or so before it closed again. My guess is that what looks more or less white now will be more pink tomorrow. This is a rare dandelion from the Himalayan mountains. I had lots of small plants last spring but Orvar and Hector ate most of them 🙂 🙂 I really couldn’t complain since I always gave them the dug up dandelions from my flowerbeds 🙂

It is another steam bath day, high humidity and rather warm. There is however a weak wind and it just makes it even worse 🙂 It is like walking around in a steam bath where they have a fan working 🙂 The flies are nasty and they are predicting thunder around noon, I do hope they are right this time. We were supposed to have thunder last night but I could just hear it once or twice from a great distance.

Clouds can look just amazing!

I mowed the lawn yesterday, perhaps not the best idea I’ve had in my life 🙂 I figured that it might be the chance I had because it was supposed to rain during the night and we’ll also have rain several days next week. I divided my garden in to four squares and as soon as I had mowed one square I went inside to drink lots of water and to rest for a while. I have to admit that it was much easier than I thought it would be. The grass was really high but dry so it didn’t fill up the mower around the blades like it always does when the grass is wet. My neighbor took most of what I mow outside the garden, he knew I had that high fever. I have the best neighbors one can get!

 

Finally there’s enough water in the clean creak so that Sune can take a bath again 🙂 Guess if he was happy, he just stood still in that deep hole for a long time 🙂

I had to go to the grocery store in Gudhem this morning, cats don’t like it when their food bowl is empty 🙂 I also bought some aspirin, I really can’t take any of those medications since they already have destroyed my stomach but aspirin is one of the few I can take a pill once in a while. I have headache after coughing so much and coffee just don’t help any more. I didn’t see what kind they gave me until I came home, this one is supposed to melt in the mouth. It was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever had 🙂 🙂 🙂 It wasn’t until after I had it I read I could put it in half a glass of water instead 🙂

 

I have some laundry to do but that’s it today. I’ll just relax all day and hope that the aspirin helps with the coughing too so that I at least get one night of sleep before work tomorrow 🙂

 

This lily relative and the one in the next photo look very much the same but this one is only half as big. Can’t of course not remember the names 🙂 but I do guess they are very closely related.

Clematis integrifolia.

Have a great day!

 

The Bladder Senna is in full bloom now (Colutea arborescens).

The blue Jacob’s ladder.

The white Musk mallow always open up a day or two before the pink one. A bit weedy here but easy to remove if they become too many.

I got to sleep a few hours last night :-)

We’re having a rather wonderful morning here, a bit warm perhaps but a cool breeze helps make it all feel very comfortable. It wasn’t that nice while we were out walking early in the morning though, cloudy and the temperature was actually much lower but the humidity was so high it felt nasty just standing still. As soon as the sun started to show the humidity fell and now it’s just right.

 

In some places it was quite successful.

In other places not so much.

I did get some sleep last night, only woke up twice to try and cough my lungs out 🙂 I had fever again last evening but today it was totally gone again. I guess the same thing might happen again today but I can feel a big change now. Yes I’m tired and I still cough some but it doesn’t feel like death would be a nice alternative 🙂 🙂

 

A few cranes flew by.

While photographing the other cranes I suddenly had to cough. I didn’t know I stood beside all these ones 🙂

Yesterday Great Britain voted to leave the EU, today loads of people say they wish they hadn’t voted like they did, a bit late to change ones mind the day after, isn’t it 🙂 600 000 people have signed a petition that they should get the chance to vote again and that will of course not happen. Donald Trump made himself even more unpopular in Scotland than he already is (which is extraordinary since he really is very disliked there) by saying the Scotts had voted to take back their own country by leaving the EU. The nut head hadn’t checked the Scottish results at all, 60% of the Scottish people voted to stay in the EU 🙂 🙂

 

The first Bumblebee beetle for the summer. I have no idea what the bronze colored one is called but it can be found everywhere here.

I can fully understand why people want to leave the EU. There’s no transparency in how things work, The entire state machinery is fully corrupted even if it has become slightly better now days but they still give lots of EU funded jobs directly to organized crime. The ones working in the parliament, a place which has very little power at all, make more money in a month than most people do in a few years and very few of them pay any taxes at all. They only have to report to the parliament that they are there and they’ll get paid even if they don’t show up anywhere. Most rules to get EU grants are based to how things are in Southern Europe and not at all to how it is up here in the north, so the EU are now destroying the Swedish cow pastures, they say we have too many trees in our pastures and must cut them down. We’ve always had lots of trees here, it gives shelter for the animals for instance, it keeps the soil erosion at a minimum too and the trees give fire wood for the winter.

 

Last year I got two flowers on my Alstroemeria, this year it will be covered with them 🙂 Two mild winters in a row was just what it needed. If it likes the garden it is said to be a nasty weed, who cares it is beautiful 🙂

Delphinium oxysepalum.

Nettle butterfly.

Nettle butterfly larvae. It feeds mostly on nettles and it is more than welcome in my garden 🙂 I hope they’ll eat them clean!!!

Britain will of course not perish because they’ll leave the EU and since this won’t happen over a night we’ll all get used to the idea and things will run as smoothly as always. The EU however might not be the same after this, suddenly people all over Europe demands to have a right to vote about membership too 🙂 I like the idea of a united Europe but since the leaders seems reluctant to fight corruption and to make changes so that it gets more democratic the best thing would perhaps to let it die and to build up something else and actually try to get the people in Europe to like it too 🙂

 

Two days ago the first of the fragrance peonies opened up.

Yesterday the second one did.

My woodland has now grown outside its area. It is very hard to see but beneath the rhododendron leafs two Aralia relatives grow now. One thorny as hell and one without thorns. Naturally I can’t remember the names on them 🙂 It doesn’t help that I have sown them myself either 🙂 Both are bought from my favorite seed seller Garden’s North in Canada.

It is time for a pot of tea and then a nap I think, I have lots of sleep to catch up after this cold from hell.

Have a great day!

Midsummer’s eve.

Troll butter.

Today we celebrate Midsummer’s eve here in Sweden, a holiday as big as Christmas over here. The traditions go way back and the christian church did of course do what it could to make it a truly christian holiday and one could say they failed miserably 🙂 They made tomorrow John the Baptist day since it is 6 months before Christmas day so that sort of fits rather well. If You ask anyone today when John the Baptist’s day is I’m pretty very few would be able to say the right day. For some reason we Swedes always celebrate the eve, never the actual day 🙂 Tomorrow will be a day to cure hangovers for many people and in nine months lots of kids will be born 🙂

 

It rained almost all day yesterday. The dogs loved to finally get out on a walk this morning, I was exhausted when we came back 🙂

The Midsummer pole, some also call it the may pole but in this case the swedish word for may doesn’t mean the month but to dress, is dressed with leafy twigs and flowers. Some say that tradition is very old others that it came from Germany in the early middle ages, what we do know however is that back in the days they had huge bonfires but to be honest, it is not so wise to have if the summer is dry, who knows how well that fire will spread with some help from the wind 🙂 Anyway, the midsummer pole is dressed and risen early in the day and later in the day people will start dancing around it. My favorite song is the little frogs and it is quite fun to see grown up jump like little frogs around the pole 🙂 Another favorite is of course the priest’s little crow who drove a car by himself and we all know that is a pretty difficult task for a crow so he slides here and there until he ends up in the ditch and of course that’s what all dancing will do too 🙂

 

Photo comes from: http://www.grottanfredriksdal.se/?page_id=332

The bog ladies had had fires during the night.

It doesn’t take a lot of dirty imagination to see what the midsummer pole really is 🙂 and lots of magic is connected to it. The pole is usually made as a big cross and at the end of each side of the cross hang wreaths, those wreaths were important to save because when winter arrived it was important to put in the bath, that would keep You healthy for the rest of the winter and that was very important since they didn’t have any antibiotics. Even though the night is very short here at this time of year it still was important to keep ones eyes open just in case any of the beings we have here would come too close. They were especially active this coming night. A common troll was no big problem, it seems they usually were good friends with humans (and no our trolls don’t burst if the sun hits them or become stone. They also look very much like us with the exception of the long fury tail). A mountain troll however is a nasty piece of work and they would most likely kidnap any human getting to close. They are however easy to see because of their size and they are also rather ugly).

 

This is how normal trolls look like here. The painter was John Bauer and this painting comes from the boom series Amongst gnomes and trolls. This is about a changeling, the troll mother (to the left) wanted of course the best for her daughter so she swapped babies with a queen. Her daughter was anything but nice though 🙂

This however is a Mountain troll, shrewd but not too intelligent. This is also a John Bauer painting.

 

Young girls had their best chance of knowing who they would marry this night. They had to, totally quiet until they fell asleep, pass seven (or nine depending on where one lived) fences and pick seven (or nine) flowers to put under their pillow. If they managed to do that they would dream of their husband to be. One way to make sure one would be healthy all year long was to roll around in the midsummer’s morning dew, naked of course. The dew had lots of magical powers so people collected it too in empty jars just in case someone got seriously ill. This was of course the night it was important to collect as much healing herbs as possible, preferable with lots of dew on them. In some places they drank spring. They had beforehand cleaned out a spring in the forest or where ever it might be and during the night they went to the spring and drank the water, that would also secure good health they thought. Naturally that could be a problem because of the spring nymph. If they didn’t sacrifice to the nymph the effect would be quite the opposite.

 

I woke up at 2 am last night while almost successfully trying to cough up my lungs over the bed. My throat had been so swollen for a few das that if affected my ears but suddenly I could feel the swelling get smaller, I got my hearing back again 🙂 and my fever vanished and has stayed away all day! I still have that nasty coughing and I’m pretty sure it will stay for at least a few days more. I would feel alive again if it not had been for the rather high temperature outside together with over 95% humidity. It feels like I’m walking in a steam bath 🙂 🙂 An hour ago they predicted rain and thunderstorms but now they say mostly sunny and no thunder at all 🙂 I don’t care because I’ll most likely just sit on my sofa doing nothing. The beekeepers wanted me to come over but I don’t have any energy to do anything 🙂

 

The four last ones, for this time, taken with the Kiev4.

It is time to make a pot of tea I think and perhaps I’ll repot some plants with too small pots but I doubt it 🙂

Have a nice midsummer’s eve!