She wouldn’t miss them at all.
Nothing much to say today, it has been raining some and then we’ve had some sunshine too and in between it was just cloudy. The weather jiggamathing in my phone told us that it snowed at work today, we looked out the windows and noticed that the sun shone stronger than it had in a long time 🙂
I’ve picked away two ticks from Sune and one from Nova. I’m not surprised because the days have been rather warm. I hope thy got the only few we had around but I’m afraid I’ll have to remove plenty more soon. We are all hoping for a warm and dry spring, ticks don’t like that and the fly larvae will die if the ground gets too dry. I love animals but I have a few exceptions like flies and ticks 🙂
Teodor met us on our way home.
Yesterday there were 19 400 cranes by the lake, the latest numbers hasn’t shown up on the web site yet. We are still far away from the record which is 26 500 and I think we won’t break it but who knows.
He talks a lot 🙂
It is time to get something to eat and after that I’ll most likely fall asleep in front of the tv 🙂
Both he and Bertil just love Nova but honestly, she wouldn’t miss them if they disappeared 🙂
Have a great day!
It won’t be long until they figure it out.
It is so typical, I’ve woken up around 4am to 5am the entire weekend so I thought it would be easier to start the first day after daylight savings time. Naturally I felt like dead when the alarm woke me up at 5 this morning. The one day I would have liked to wake up just before the alarm started 🙂
I just took a few pohotos today, the shower we see here hit us after just a few minutes.
The day has been so, so. Some parts passed so fast that I had hopes the week would too and some parts didn’t pass at all 🙂 but it has felt like it was Monday today, so now I must convince my brain that it is Wednesday tomorrow so the day will pass faster. Tuesdays almost never pass fast so I’m afraid my brain will think it is Tuesday tomorrow.
But I still have plenty slightly older photos to show.
The old village school works as a café this time of year.
Lots of birds nest at the factory and most of them crap on our cars (I have to say that it is rare that they crap on my car though). Seagull nest on the roof and Barn Swallows and doves nest beneath a big roof where we have materials we’ll paint. So now they have done what they can to prevent the Barn swallows to nest beneath the roof but I’m not sure they are successful, they don’t seem to care about the doves that much though. The Seagulls however is something they fight with a rabid energy.
They tried to shoot them but we were rather many who protested against that so they stopped, now they tries kites. Last year they actually managed to scare the gulls (they put them up after the younglings had fled the nest) but we’re not so sure they’ll work this year. The gulls are there watching the kites and they are very intelligent so I think it won’t take long until they figure out that those hawk like things never leave a certain area. Pigeons have already stopped fearing them 🙂
I like Seagulls and since they don’t crap on my car I hope they’ll nest on the roof this year too 🙂 I do like the Barn Swallows but it is nasty with all that crap and it is so strong that the washing machine can’t get rid of it all, still it is nice when they fly in to the factory to pay us a visit before they fly out again to catch flies 🙂
I don’t long back to this no matter how beautiful it looks 🙂
It is time for something to eat.
Have a great day!
So we went to the lake, as I had promised You.
The water tower/ lookout tower in Falköping. The clouds had gathered over the mountain but it was sunny everywhere else.
Yesterday they said that the strong winds would be gone today, I don’t know what universe they live it but it’s sure not the one I live in 🙂 it is much nicer though and so far the day has been rather fine. Rain will come tonight though but will be gone by tomorrow morning. I think I like this strong wind after all 🙂
In to Forentorp we walked.
We woke up pretty early today and since I had promised to go to the big lake this weekend to get some photos of the cranes I thought I just as well could do it today. I also had to fill the tires on my car with some more air and that would take quite some time and I really didn’t want the dogs to have to stay in the dog yard a day when I’m at home (Sweden has a holiday today too). So I put the dogs in the car and off we went. The first stop would be the petrol station to fill the tires and also to buy some oil, my car tends to eat it every now and again.
The old mill. Unfortunately they have removed the wheel and the water now runs beside the mill. I guess that’s one way to make sure it doesn’t get water damages, it is after all several hundred years old.
After that I drove homewards again but stopped at the nature reserve Forentorp Ängar (Forentorp meadows), You know where the old mill once belonging to the abbey in Gudhem. Unfortunately most pastures had signs saying cows and calves were walking in them so dogs weren’t allowed and the only open one was occupied by a woman and her Boxer, she was training it tracking. I guess she must have had some blood that she would drop every now and again so the dog could follow where she had walked.
The creek must have been bigger back in the days, this doesn’t look like it would be strong enough to spin that wheel.
and back to the car we walked again.
So we didn’t stay there for long but continued to the lake. Since we just had our daylight savings time most people would still be asleep when we were there but I had forgotten about those staying here in caravans, most of them seemed to be outside looking at the cranes. Still I got some photos before we went home again and took a normal walk in the forest. Lots of birds are singing now so I do hope we won’t get a too bad setback even though it is more than likely that we will get. I can’t remember when we had spring this early before.
This is just around 300 meters (much the same in yards) away from where most tourists and cranes are but so much more beautiful.
I’ve done the laundry and I have a tomato sauce in the slow cooker, I’ve just started it so it won’t be ready for several hours yet. Tomato sauce only get better and better by the day so I’ll have it to work too 🙂 The clouds are getting thicker and thicker so perhaps it is a good idea to take another walk before the rain starts.
Hello darling, nice to see You again.
Should we give it a go?
Oh grow up! in front of all these people?!
Okidoki, see You later then.
Have a great day!
Some of all the caravans parked by the lake.
One better have a fire in the stove now so the Jackdaws understand that it is not a good idea to put sticks dowm our chimneys. This one however they’ve used for years.
and Sune took a bath in a creek 🙂
The wind tells me otherwise.
This could have been a rather wonderful morning if it wasn’t for the wind, strong and cold. If one can find a spot where it doesn’t reach though it’s quite nice. At the moment if sounds as if it reaches every corner og my cottage, so staying indoors feels like a good choice to make today. The predictions are actually right about the wind so I hope they are right about the temperature too because it will rise above 14C (57,2F).
I had planned to clean up in the garden today and to be honest, the wind would help me get rid of it all. I wouldn’t have to do much but toss it up in the air and gone it would be 🙂 It is just too cold in the wind though so I’ll save it for another day when the wind has calmed down and I’ll have to carry it away myself 🙂 The weeds and grass have grown very well this winter since it has been so warm.
The old church ruin.
We walked to the little lake again this morning and this time I did hear some cranes there but I just couldn’t find any when we arrived, rather irritating 🙂 Lots of them flew above our heads though. There are now around 15 000 cranes by the big lake and more will arrive before most of them have moved to Norway. The ones staying in Sweden rest by other lakes (well of course the ones staying in this neighborhood rests by this lake too 🙂 ).
I have now started the new place when this don’t have any more space. I still have around 400MB to use so the move won’t take place for another month or so, it all depends on how many photos I put in here. The continuing is called “The Cottage by the Cranelake. Still we have hope.” (click on the red text and a new window will open up to the new home of the cottage). I am however not sure if I’ll keep how it looks, the bright white background for the text can be difficult for those having problems with their eyesight. I’ll see if I can change that to something less bright. There are other backgrounds but yesterday I couldn’t find anyone I liked.
I’ll see if there’s anything worth watching on tv. The weather look so inviting but the sound of the roaring wind tells me it isn’t especially nice out there. Well I can always take a nap 🙂
Have a great day!
A tad cold on my head.
The night was rather chilly so the world was covered in a thing white frost layer, quite beautiful ans since the sun is slightly blocked by thin clouds it stayed for quite some time. Even though we went out later than yesterday the cranes hadn’t arrived and when they finally did we already had passed that field and I really didn’t want to walk back. These cranes are the local ones so we’ll get plenty of chances to see them later anyway.
I can’t decide whether I want to take a nap or to go on another walk. I did nap too long yesterday so even if I was really tired yesterday evening I still had troubles falling asleep. The problem is that if even if one set the alarm it is too hard to get up if one still is very sleepy 🙂 I’ve heard that a nap shouldn’t be longer than maximum 30 minutes, I’m not sure I would have heard the alarm after only 30 minutes yesterday 🙂
I shaved off all my hair on my head yesterday and my skull had the colors I would think a zombie would have 🙂 Lots of pigments from the powder paint was still there despite me washing my hair every day 🙂 It was a bit chilly on the walk this morning, I didn’t wear anything on my head 🙂 but it is amazing how fast one gets used to it, it felt absolutely ok by the time we came home again.
I think we’ll take a walk again and then I’ll see if I need a nap when I come home again. Today I was looking forward to watch an episode of Grimm again, channel six never change what they show no matter what holiday it is. Well it turns out they did this Easter. Ok, they’ll show Tintin (very, very big here in Europe) and after that Ice Age 3 instead but I wanted to watch Grimm, this latest season is really good!
Have a great day!
He’s so fat now! He doesn’t get more food than his brother Bertil but still he just gets bigger and bigger! I think he might be eating food up at the farm because they feed any cat who comes. They are organic farmers and all cats are welcome since they eat mice, voles and rats.
It has been quite pleasant.
The day started out slightly foggy and drizzly, the fog gave up but the drizzle kept on until early afternoon. It has been warm though and the wind has been rather weak so it has been pleasant to take walks anyway. I had planned on doing some repotting of plants but instead a took a nap, an hour and a half long nap and the only reason I woke up was because of a telemarketer. I was actually quite happy she called so I finally woke up but not so happy that I bought anything from her 🙂
I have tried to find any folklore about the beings and their activities at Easter but have found almost nothing, only the witches seems to have been active this holiday. I guess however they are out and about like always though even if humans were more concentrated on scaring witches. I did however find a lot of sites about the old Norse believes and can dig in to that if You wish to know more. The Norse beliefs (or Asa tron as we call it) is a growing religion here though even if few say it out loud yet. Almost all swedish names for the days in the week comes from the Norse gods. Monday and Saturday sort of linked to it too since Monday is the Moon’s day (it was pulled across the sky by the horse Rimfaxe) and the sun was pulled across the sky by the horse Skinfaxe).
Tuesday (Tisdag in Swedish) is Tyr’s day, he was the son Of Oden. Wednesday (Onsdag in Swedish) is Oden’s day. Thursday (Torsdag in Swedish) is Thor’s day (His name in swedish is Tor) and Friday is Freya’s day (She’s called Freja in Swedish), Saturday however has nothing to do with any beliefs, it is the day for baths 🙂 Saturday is called Lördag in Swedish and to löga is to take a bath in old Swedish 🙂
I had high hopes of seeing cranes by the little lake today but there wasn’t a single bird of any kind there 🙂
It is time to shave off all the hair on my head again, it doesn’t matter how much I wash my hair, I can still find powder paint if I scratch on my skull 🙂
Instead I found the cranes just a few hundred meters (much the same in yards) away from my cottage. Unfortunately my camera prefered to focus on the trees 🙂
Have a great day!
Tonight they fly to the big party.
Old photos again today. I have a few new ones in the camera but I just didn’t have the energy to get them in to my computer 🙂
Tonight is the night when the witches flies to Blåkulla to have a party with the devil, at least according to old folklore. We actually call them påskkärringar which directly translated is Easter hags but the word kärring actually means my loved one in Swedish so it is hard to translate it good 🙂 Anyhow, tonight is the night. Blåkulla is most likely an island by the east coast of Sweden and its real name is Blå Jungfrun (The Blue Maiden). Naturally most of You think that witches fly by broom but not all do, many actually fly on an upside-down cow 🙂 Rather practical if one gets thirsty on the way 🙂
Three from the Zeiss camera.
Anything could actually work to fly to Blåkulla so to make sure nothing one owned would be used by the nearest witch they put away anything they thought could be used in sheds or barns and then they painted white crosses on the doors. But it isn’t only women flying there to be honest, there are also men and quite a lot of children too. One way to at least make life difficult for the witches was to, on Easter eve when they were flying back home again, start huge bonfires and use fire works. Today most of us think of the animals and the environment since there usually are lots of bad thing in the fireworks like led so we don’t use that much of it, there’s even talk about forbidding it totally and I won’t mind if that happens even if I think it is beautiful.
Three from the Kiev.
One could say that this is the Swedish (and Finnish) Halloween because today in the eastern parts of Sweden kids dress up like witches or wizards and goes from house to house to get candy, we in the western parts do it on Easter eve instead. I doubt it will happen here though because the kids here are either too young or too shy 🙂 I don’t have any candy at home anyway so I do hope no one comes here 🙂 I will however look up in the sky to see if any witches fly over my cottage, I won’t start a bonfire or use fireworks but I will wave to them and wish them a happy easter 🙂
and three from the Retinette.
It is time to make something to eat. I’m not sure if I’ll just make a few sandwiches or if I should have a piece of the Småländska cheesecake (slightly different from the American one) I bought yesterday 🙂
and three from the folder “For a rainy day”.
Have a great day!
Not so many by the lake yet.
Only older photos today.
I can’t think of anything much to write about today. Nothing much has happened and nothing else seems to pop up from my mind either. Warm again today but we did have some drizzle on my way home after work.
Yesterday there were 5100 cranes by the lake and they only count them every second day as long as we have that few ones here. Not until they reach 10 000 they start counting daily again. Lots of cars going to the lake though so I guess there are more people than cranes there now 🙂
Time to get me something to eat and I do hope I don’t fall asleep as early in front of the tv as I did yesterday, at 7 pm 🙂
Have a great day!
Turns out it is an old April first joke :-)
This and the coming three are taken with the Kiev 4.
The thermometer says we’ve had 14,5C (58,1F) here today but it was quite cold when I drove to work this morning, I had to scrape ice from the car windows. We had the kind of fog that sort of looked like it was flowing like a river on the ground, unfortunately in places where I couldn’t stop to photograph it. It has been a slow day though, mostly because we didn’t change colors especially often. I think we painted black almost for 8 hours.
I really have very little to say today. An old April first joke from 2007 has started to go around on Facebook here in sweden, it says that a Great White Shark has been spotted in Swedish waters 🙂 Even though I think the great white is a fascinating fish I still am rather happy we don’t have it here 🙂 We do have sharks but they are all very small. Occasionally we get visits from Greenland shark and the Basking shark but those are, even if they are huge rather harmless.
These five are taken with the Retinette.
This and the two next was taken in Falköping when I was buying fire logs.
It is time to get something to eat I think. I’m so glad we’re having a short working week because I sat and wondered what day it was and thought it must be Tuesday since the day passed so slowly 🙂
and these four was photographed with my digital Nikon when we walked to the lake in the bog.
Have a great day!
We had spring on the spring equinox.
We started our walk just as early today as we did yesterday but instead of going to the lake in the bog we walked to the lake in the forest. I thought it must have thawed that much so I would be able to see open water and perhaps some cranes too. The open water guess was right but there wasn’t a single crane there this morning, instead I saw three Mallards. I did manage to photograph them but to be honest, they are so tiny in the photo that it is hard to say whether they are birds or branches floating in the water 🙂
I didn’t put on a sweater to have beneath the jacket which I was very happy that I didn’t. It was below freezing when we started but the sun warmed up so good that it would have been too hot after just a short while. We came home after an hour and a half but the weather was just too good so we only had something to eat before we headed out again. We walked out on the bog where we usually walk and even if it was rather warm already then the bog was just enough frozen to carry me most of the time.
The cranes out there could easily be heard and I didn’t want to disturb them so I kept our distance all the time. Unfortunately I could hear the cars going to the big lake the whole time, I guess there are more people than cranes there now. Yesterday they counted 3800 cranes and by the sound of the traffic there must have been more than three times the amount of humans 🙂 I’ll go there next week instead so I can take a few photos to show You. I think I’ll go there early on Good Friday perhaps even before the people in the caravans go outside and it will be easier to get a parking space too if I go early.
The first real good web for the year. I’ve also seen three butterflies.
They put up parking meters everywhere around the lake this time of year and the money goes to feeding all the birds. 25 000 cranes and I don’t know how many geese, swans and ducks there are sure eats a lot 🙂 so we all pay the fee without complaining. As soon as the cranes have moved north (these flies to Norway) the meters are gone again packed away to get used next year again. I better make sure I have enough with coins, it costs around 20 Swedish kronor (around $ 2,2 US) to park an entire day there.
There are actually three Mallards in the middle of this photo but not even if I magnifie the original photo they show especially well 🙂
I just did the last of the laundry when we came home and then we went out again. This walk was however a bit shorter and only took half an hour. I just checked the thermometer and it is 11C (51,8F) outside right now, not bad considering the predictions were much lower. The snowdrops are still the only flowers in bloom but the lungwort will open up any day now if it stays above freezing during the day. Also both Scilla and tulips have started to show above the ground now. I planted the Shagbark nuts I’ve had in the refrigerator all winter in pots and placed them outside by the north heading wall so no sunlight can reach the pots. They all look just fine so I hope that at least some will germinate. The black walnut has survived the winter without any damages at all, it is now six or seven years old and perhaps 1,2 meters high (around 6,3 feet).
It’s best to always stay close to a good chimney, one never knows if someone will try to take it.
It is time to feed all the animals and after that I think I’ll have something myself too.
Have a great day!
From the Retinette.
I got one chanse and I took it :-)
We started early this morning and were out before 6:30. We didn’t have any fog as I had hoped but the sky was almost totally clear so we would get sunshine. A bit cold so I wore a sweater beneath the jacket, I thought it is better to be a bit warm than to freeze. How stupid I was, it is better to freeze a bit because one will get warm just by moving around and wearing an extra sweater and at the same time being fried by the sun is like walking in hell 🙂 and that does not help with the temper when two leashed dog do what they can to tangle us all in to a lot of small trees and bushes 🙂
They were of course only leashed in the nature reserve, none of them have much of hunting instinct but a nature reserve with almost no smell of humans but loads of smells from animals can start hidden talents and that is something I really don’t want 🙂 We reached bridge three without and just as I walked across if one of the boards broke, thankfully it was close to the bank so it never fell down into the creek. I walked slowly backwards to land again and was thinking of going back home but then I figured that since it held enough when I stood at the middle of it I really should be safe walking across it. The creek isn’t deep but it is muddy and the water is a bit too chilly for my taste 🙂
Already here we could hear the Black Grouse roosters trying to impress the hens. There are very many out there now, it isn’t that long ago they were almost extinct in this area.
The sun warmed up the ground a bit too fast so long parts were more or less swampy, even where the path led us right. It was even worse when we reached the lake. It was impossible to go where we had been last week and that was quite annoying since I could hear cranes just nearby. I looked between all the trees towards the lake and suddenly there one was, a crane. There were too many trees to use the autofocus and I knew I wouldn’t have especially much time to get a photo. I focus between the trees as good as I could and suddenly the crane showed again. As soon as I got the photo the crane was gone again. We did try to walk around the southern part of the lake because I could see a small boat on the other side.
This lake is known as what we call poor lake. It isn’t very nutritious so either all the fish in the lake is tiny (we call those fish for thousand brothers, there are loads of them but all are tiny) or there are a few but rather big fishes in the lake. I did however find some folklore about it. It is said to have a powerful being living in it, something we call Sjörå (a kind of lake nymph), she’s also called the Lake Lady. She is unlike many of our beings not one to kill humans just out of blood thirst, unless one make her angry of course by for instance we killing or destroying the animals and surroundings. You will understand that it is her You see because she usually sits on stone in the water, combing her beautiful but green hair.
Here You can see how one of the boards are much lower than the other. I have to admit I got really scared when I heard the cracking sound 🙂
The ground was pretty good until we came out to the more open spaces in the bog.
She has a somewhat strange herd of cattle, they are striped and the cattle usually grace around the lake. If one should come too close to them the cattle then will run straight into the lake and vanish. If one would fish in that lake and happens to catch a big pike it is best to put it out in the water again because it could actually be one of those striped cows. She will help anyone who will sacrifice anything to her, like a few coins or silver. She will then make sure one will get a good catch if fishing in the lake or warn if bad weather is approaching. Make her angry though and she will most likely drown the one doing that. She also dislikes the being living in rivers and creeks which we call Näcken (and also the Creek Horse which also lives close to rivers and creeks(Bäckahästen), so it can be a good idea to be a good friend to her. Näcken and Bäckahästen will kill You just for fun.
We never managed to get closer to the lake than this. There is one path leading to the lake from another direction and I think I’ll try that one later this year.
I got one chance to get a photo of a crane and I took it 🙂
I tried to reach the boat but the surroundings were just too swampy today.
I won’t go there tomorrow because it was just too wet now (unless the night gets seriously cold so the ground freeze again) so this was the last time this spring I could go there because from Monday until the early summer this will be a bird sanctuary and no one is allowed to be there. The bird sanctuary actually starts here in the village so unless one is going straight home to someone one knows here one can’t wander around as one wish. We who live here are of course allowed to walk around but not out on the bog. We were out for over three hours and as soon as I started to relax all my muscles got cramps 🙂 It didn’t matter what I did it just refused to let go for a very long time 🙂
It is time to take another cup of tea, then some laundry because I had no clean t-shirts left and after that a nap I think.
Have a great day!
One photo taken with the Retinette.
For the first time this year.
From the Kiev 4. All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.
We had thick fog again this morning but since I start working an hour earlier on Fridays it was just too dark to take any photos. Too bad because I was all alone on the big road and could have stopped slightly illegal on the wrong side of the road to get a foggy river photo 🙂 I don’t think I would have dared even if the light was right 🙂 but it sure was tempting 🙂
I think it was on Tuesday evening I took these four photos.
I was looking for the cranes that You can see fly away in this photo and really didn’t see the deer until I took the next photo 🙂
Time just flew away at work and so did the fog outside, so by the time I was driving away from work the sun shone and it still does. I stopped at the grocery store and just as I walked in so did around fifty school kids from the nearby school. I must say they behave much better than we did when I was that age but they do have a tendency to be everywhere at the same time 🙂
I did think that it would take forever to get out again but they all just wanted one or two things each and it seemed as if they had just the right amount to pay so it didn’t take any longer than it usually does. It was so warm in the car when I drove home that I had to let the climate control start to cool it down 🙂
We could to my big surprise walk out on the bog despite the warm and sunny weather.
A smell reached me when I came home and opened up the car door, I can’t say what it was but it smelled spring for the first time this year. As if there were lots of flowers in bloom. It can’t have been that though since only a few snowdrops still flower here. I did however buy a small pot with dwarf daffodils, or as we call them Easter lilies. I’m not sure if they smell at all because only one of the buds has opened up some but I’ll know as soon as they do.
I think this is Eriophorum brachyantherum. Called Close-sheathed cotton-grass. We call it Myrull (mire wool).
I think this is what we call window lichens. It was placed between the one glass windows and the extra winter windows during winter to suck up all the moistness between the windows.
It is time to give the animals their food and I’ll have something as well I think. I think I’ll have cocoa even if it is warm and nice today.
Four photos taken with the Kodak Retinette. This is at work early in the morning.
The old forge to the right.
Perhaps I should clean the lens more often 🙂 but I do like the rays from the car headlights.
Have a great day!
So much fog, so little time to use it.
Taken with the Kiev 4. The Bertil photo I showed on Monday was taken with a Minolta 7000 and not with the Kiev as I wrote.
Sorry about not posting anything on Tuesday, I suddenly had lots to do and it lasted til Wednesday too. Now things are back to normal again and I hope it stays that way, I really don’t like unexpected work, to be honest I don’t like expected work that much either 🙂
The coming eight photos are taken with the Kodak Retinette.
Breakfast table for a squirrel?
We’ve had foggy mornings here and yesterday when the fog finally lifted we reached a bit over 15,5C (59,9F). I did feel that it was much warmer at my work place and I drank loads of water but not enough anyway because the headache came like a letter in the mail. We should have gotten much the same weather today but even if the fog finally lifted it stayed as thick clouds in the sky. Still it did get reasonable warm anyway and since I had to work I really didn’t mind if the sun didn’t shine 🙂
Note to self! If using a view finder camera check where the lens is if one is going to take a photo through a fence. The dark shadow in this photos is the fence 🙂
I brought old-time cameras with me in the mornings so I hope I’ll get some nice fog photos to show when those films are developed. I could only stop for a few minutes in each place if I didn’t want to come too late to work. I have some film photos to show already today though and I think I saw some fog in a few of them 🙂 I do hope that we’ll get fog on Saturday morning too, the Norwegian site say we might because if we do I’ll try to get to the bog lake again to take more photos there. They say that there’s a path going around the lake and I’ll see if I can find it, after all the sun is up until well after 6pm now so I will have lots of time if I start early in the morning.
The coming eight photos are taken with the Minolta 7000.
The other painter at work works beside the line where I work with a separate smaller oven and he usually take all bigger things that are too big to put on the line. Normally It is I who help him to place the things right before he starts to paint them. Today he only had nasty heavy things and all were soo big that we couldn’t use the lift (a chain and hook hanging in the roof) so we had to do everything using only our muscles, we don’t have plenty of that I’m afraid 🙂 At one moment I had to have my hands lifted above my head for over five minutes, that’s not nice 🙂 When I was going home I wanted to pick up some garbage from the floor and I barely could do it, guess if my back was stiff after today 🙂 🙂 I guess that one shouldn’t go on like this if one has rheumatism in the spine 🙂 I’m soo looking forward to tomorrow morning when I’ll try to get out of bed 🙂 🙂
It is time to get something to eat, I’m thinking hard flatbread with cheese and I think liver pate and sausages of some kind 🙂
Have a great day!
Today the fog came!
The day has passed relatively fast even if we painted the things I really don’t like to paint. chemical cabinets. They look just like lockers but are white which makes them harder to paint because of course no metal is allowed to show and white paint is difficult that way. Another reason I don’t like them is that they are the reason my shoulder hurts. We had stopped painting them but the factory who made them had enough parts to make 50 more. I wasn’t happy when I heard that. Now however we’re supposed to never paint any again.
I’ve gotten more films developed. These four are from a camera called Kiev 4. Made in the Soviet Union back in the days and tough enough to kill a moose if one would hit the animal in the head with it 🙂 I also had a film from the Zeiss camera but it looks like I once again have a huge light leak in that camera.
We had thick fog here this morning so I brought a camera with me. I don’t know why but the places which would give the best photographs are never placed so that I can stop and take a few photos. It’s always on the highway where they have no resting spaces. There is however a small lake just beside one so I stopped there. The fog was so thick that it was impossible to see the lake but I hope the trees will help me getting a few good ones. On my way home I stopped on a tiny road and walked to where I could see the river when I drive by.
Four from the Kodak Retinette again and this time I’m more happy with the result.
I had two photos left to take so naturally I did a double exposure on one of them 🙂 I do hope the second one will be that good that it makes up for that mistake 🙂 Nova’s ear is still not good but better. She now behaves like crazy when I come home which she never does when her ears are bad. I’m glad the medicine took care of the pain before anything else can be noticed. If now only the pus stops flowing things would be rather good. Sune tales care of most of it though, I’m so glad I don’t like things dogs like 🙂 🙂
There will be more photos from the old cameras later on. I have just taken a short glance on them so far. The rest of the photos are from the weekend or earlier in winter.
The cold is still taking its victims at work. I met one who came at the same time as me and he sounded as if he didn’t have long time left to live 🙂 The coughing was so bad that I told him to go home but he wanted to try to work anyway. He left shortly after I had talked with him 🙂 Another one was so hoarse that it was hard to hear anything he said and when he managed to say anything it sounded as if he was a teenager again just as the voice starts to break 🙂
It is time to make something to eat and then some tv watching I think.
Have a great day!
They are very similar, almost the same :-)
The weather has been more or less the same today as it was yesterday by slighty more chilly and the humidity makes it even less nice outside. The spring warm weather as they almost screamed out should come and stay for at least a week never did, now they say it will come tomorrow and maybe stay two days 🙂 They really just should stay quiet and never say anything more until they actually learn how to do their job. After all, they have been bragging about their new very advanced computer, one of the most advanced there is 🙂 🙂 🙂
The roads had already started to thaw when we were going homewards againI had planned on going to the lake i the bog again today but I skipped that and walked to the small lake in the forest instead. I could hear cranes, geese and trumpet swans, not many yet but many enough to actually saying spring is just around the corner, for at least two days 🙂 The roads had already started to thaw on our way homewards again so we were all rather muddy when we reached the cottage. We walked in the cow pastures later in the day just to avoid as much of the mud as possible.
I’ve done my chores, the laundry, vacuuming and scrubbing the floors and now I’m thinking of shaving off my hair again. It is so long now that the powder paint tends to stuck on the scalp and when it does it starts to itch and then the dandruff starts. It doesn’t matter how well I wash my hair, it still stays there and since we now will get two days of spring this may be the best day to do it.
Yesterday evening we had the big finale in the Swedish part of the Eurovision song contest and the winner is a 17-year-old boy with the song If I were sorry. It was well liked by both us Swedes and the international juries Swedish television always have (so we Swedes don’t chose the wrong song 🙂 ). I do like the song but it is a bit too much like another song written and sung by an American called Matt Simon and his song is called Catch and release. I’ll post both songs at the bottom so You can decide for Your selves if it is a copy that won here. My personal view is that it is but it was allowed to compete so I guess EBU (the European Broadcasting Union) thought different. It was my favorite song so I don’t care 🙂
The fun thing is that lots of countries think we make this contest soo good that they want to see it live too, so yesterday three other countries watched it live, they sais Iceland, Estonia and a third country I didn’t hear which it was looked at it live (they could of course not televote like us Swedes though.
The badgers are very active, You can see how muddy it is in the snow by the hole to the right.
It is time to give all the animals something to eat and after that I’ll have something myself.
Have a great day!
and there it was.
Thankfully the road was still frozen when we started walking, it wasn’t when we came home.
I do wonder why the ones working at the Swedish weather forecast service SMHI get paid at all 🙂 No sunshine, no warm weather and no fog what so ever. If the Norwegians can get it right why can’t the Swedes? All week they’ve promised sunny and spring temperatures and to be honest, we’re not close to that. It is however rather nice outside since there’s no wind at all and it is warm enough to make the roads muddy again after a reasonable cold night. It could be worse though, March can be a nasty cold month with lots of snow so I guess this is better after all 🙂
It sure isn’t beautiful down stream the creek any more but I hope it will be again.
Today I had decided that I would reach the lake in the bog and my biggest problem before we left was if I should bring the Hasselblad camera, loaded with B&W film. I decided I would left it at home because it does weigh almost 2 kg (over 4 pounds) and the bag has a tendency to squeek. At first it was like SQUEEEEEK, SQUEEEEEK, SQUEEEEEK all the time. I tried everything to stop it doing that and tape was the best thing I could find. Now the bag says sqrrek, sqrrek, sqrrek instead but at least more quiet but I can tell You that the sound does drive anyone insane after twenty minutes 🙂 🙂 >Naturally I should have brought it even if I would have gone mad long before we reached our goal.
So we walked down to the creek and the first thing I heard was a couple of cranes shouting in a field nearby, that is a wonderful sound at least as long they just are a few. When they reach over 20 000 it’s an awful sound 🙂 I saw a fox hunting out on a field and it too heard the cranes. It can of course not take a crane unless the bird is more or less dead but as the opportunist it is it started walking towards the sound. The snow and ice on the ground cracked with a sound of an explosion every time I took a step so I knew that the fox most likely would be the only animal we would see on our walk. We did however see a few cranes, trumpet swans and geese fly above us though.
I followed the beekeepers instructions on how to get to the lake and when the creek reached its end it split in two, one towards north and one towards south. We followed the one towards north and did after a while find something looking like a path, the snow-covered it pretty good but it was visible every now and again. It felt like we had been walking for hours (which in fact we actually had 🙂 ) and I was almost to the point of turning back since I thought I’d misunderstood the instructions when I finally saw it, the lake.
Here the creek splits in two, we followed the one towards north.
I think this might have been one of the places where one controlled how much water would leave the area.
The pines out here don’t look healthy 🙂 They are probably much older than I am.
The last few meters we mostly walked on ice I think. It is a swampy area where we finally reached the lake but thanks to the cold nights the ice still carried my weight. It is absolutely quiet out there, I think there is one property just beside the lake but that’s it and if I now the authorities right they have most likely forced the owners to sell because that is what they have done with all other landowners close or in the nature reserve. The authorities say they want to protect the area but since they now have forbidden any restoration of the ditches letting the water out of the area the water level will rise as soon as those ditches stop working. When that happens all the places they want to protect will drown so it is a somewhat strange way to protect anything 🙂 Well, in time I’ll get a lake property with zillions of biting flies all summer long, am I not a lucky guy 🙂
Finally! We’ve reached it!
The end of the creek. It felt like I had found the source of the Nile 🙂 All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.
The last part was filled with grass and Bog myrtle.
I think we were out for almost 3,5 hours and we all took a nap when we came home. To be honest, I’m not sure anyone of us wants to go out again today but I’ll make a try later. It is time to make a pot of tea and then some more sleeping in front of the tv 🙂 So was it worth walking out to the lake? Yes it was 🙂
We can only see a small part of the lake and I’ve looked at maps but aren’t quite sure where this is, I really need to buy that map which shows even the tiniest of paths and creeks. I will come back here again. There is an easier way, I can drive much closer and get there by a walking on a bigger path the last hundred yards but that’s no sport 🙂
Have a great day!
Then we walked back home again.
They’re back!
Can You see them 🙂 Cranes! I did of course not bring the tele-photo lens but I’ve cropped the photo a lot and if You click on the photo it will get bigger.
We now have around 250 cranes here by the lake and the first caravan has arrived too 🙂 This year they say they’ll only count the cranes every second day until they reach over 10 000, that’s when they start counting them every day. I think the record is somewhere around 25 000 during one day. There are also more or less the same amount of humans there too at the same time but fewer caravans 🙂 Naturally hunters now scream that they need to shoot some since there are so many, well not hunters around here though because that would be like cursing in church 🙂
I took a few photos on my way home. This is the church in Kvänum.
This building stands on the mountain. I think it has been some kind of factory but I really have no idea.
The Abbey ruin in Gudhem.
We’ve had a perfect springwinter day here. The night was nasty cold, it fell down to almost -10C (14F) but the temperature rose up to almost 7C (44,6F) and the sun shone almost the entire time. If I would have been at home today I would have packed a picnic bag (I have only two baskets and one is occupied by the cats and the other one has other things in it 🙂 ). Then I would have walked out on the bog and found a sunny spot to just sit and enjoy the day. We did go out on the bog after work but the ice had started to melt even in the shadowy places so to sit down and enjoy the day would feel a bit stressful since I wouldn’t know if it would hold me on the way back home 🙂
The church in Gudhem (means God’s home).
We might get much the same weather tomorrow if the Swedish weather site’s predictions are right. They say it will start foggy and I won’t mind that and after that it will be semi sunny. The Norwegian however says cloudy all day and not as warm as the Swedish site. I do hope the Swedish one is right for once 🙂 even if I know the Norwegian usually is more accurate but I’ve heard that even a blind hen can find corn so who knows 🙂
The church in Bjurum, just beside the lake.
Dagsnäs Castle.
I’ve started a fire in the stove, it isn’t that cold in here but I’m tired and feel a bit frozen anyway. We were all tired at work and a new wave of colds have hit us. So far I don’t feel I’ve caught anything so I hope it stays that way. No big difference in Nova’s ear but it’s just the second day she gets her medicine so It will take a day or two until I can see a difference I think. Sune is just as healthy and happy as always 🙂
Geese and the roof on the first caravan for the season 🙂
Turns out it is Canadian geese.
We have four cars on my little gravel road and normally it’s fine but now the forest machines have destroyed it totally and everything is muddy. They will fix the road but they can’t do it until it is dry.
I’ve just tossed Teodor out the door. Three times he has gone to the door to get out and every time I’ve opened the door he has turned back again. The fourth time I got tired of it and tossed him outside 🙂 There’s a limit to how patient I am and four times was at least one time too many 🙂
Breakfast table on the bog 🙂
It is time to make something to eat and today I’ll make a sandwich or two on hard thin bread probably with lots of cheese and spotted sausage, really tasty 🙂
Have a great day!
We’re learning sign language again.
I harvested a lime again, it is sklightly bigger than a not too big walnut 🙂
I understood something was wrong with Nova yesterday since she tried to avoid me at the same time she came running to greet me when I came home after work. Naturally I thought it was her right ear that was infected again but this time it had wandered over to her left ear instead. The poor girl hates to get the medicine down her ear but she does come when she knows it is time. I do hope that this is the last time she gets it in this ear because she can barely hear anything in the right ear after all these ear infections.
They are, to my big surprise, bright orange inside! They taste just like a lime should though.
The roads are so muddy and bad here now because of the forest machines, so we didn’t take any walk today. We did yesterday though so all photos comes from then.
People would think I hate that dog since I always scream at her but I actually most often scream that she’s a good girl and that I love her 🙂 Sometimes I need to throw something reasonable close to her to get her attention 🙂 She usually look up from what ever track she follows if a pine cone comes rolling beside her 🙂 So once again I’ve started to learn a dog some kind of sign language, it works really good if she just understand I want to tell her something 🙂
Stones from the Stone Circle Hill.
I’m baking scones at the same time as I’m writing this. I have no bread at home and I really didn’t want to go to the grocery store after work. I need to clean the oven because lots of smoke came out of it when I opened the hatch. At first I thought it was the scones but they looked just fine, they need a few more minutes in there though. I’ve eaten all the marmalade but I might have some rowanberry jam left, goes really well with cheese 🙂 I do hope my fire alarm doesn’t star because of the oven 🙂
The birch in the well. All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.
It is time to see if those scones are ready yet and if I can find that jam.
Have a great day!
They could use more spices.
No new photos today, all are at least a few days old.
I have to admit that the roads are much better than I ever thought they could be after such a long and heavy snow fall, ok they were nasty slippery this morning since the night had been a bit cold but they were clean from snow. They were even better now when I drove home even if it had snowed again during the day. The pavements in the village where I work where not that good though, so I took the car when I was going to the neighbor factory to paint today. I drove almost meters (much the same in yards) 🙂
The day passed relatively fast but nothing much happened to be honest, things just worked as they should and I did try not to check the clock too often. I talked with the guy who delivers food from the restaurant to us in the factory. I asked if they couldn’t use more spices because even if the food is well made it doesn’t taste a thing. He told me that they weren’t allowed to use especially much spices since everyone should be able to eat it. Well, I said, You do have more spices on the food you serve in the restaurant (it always tastes good there) so why can’t You use that much on the food You deliver too?
He actually got surprised, he didn’t know that the food tasted so much different. I told him that if they wanted to deliver any food they really needed to change how it tastes because fewer and fewer people order their food from them now, they rather buy that nasty ready-made food from the freezers in the stores, You know the kind where one wonders if it is rubber instead of real food 🙂 I doubt this will change anything but one can always hope 🙂
All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.
It is time to make something to eat and after that I think I’ll watch some tv (well most likely I’ll fall asleep in front of it 🙂 ).
Have a great day!
The last three from the Hasselblad camera with the 12 photo cassette.
I long for when they finally stay out all night!
All photos are from yesterday but one can’t see the difference in the weather today. Snow, snow, snow.
The snowfall started much earlier yesterday than they had predicted so I guess it’s not more than right that they got the ending of it wrong as well, it should have stopped this afternoon but it just keeps on falling and falling and falling. If the temperature hadn’t risen just above 0C (32F) during the day I think we would have gotten a snow cover at least 30cm (15 inches) thick. Oddly enough it wasn’t the snow cover that annoyed me most this morning.
I woke once again up to the nasty smell of cat poop filling up my home, at 4:10 am. I tried to ignore it but it is just impossible. I don’t know which cat it is but one of them refuse to cover their business when they are finished and that cat won’t live for long if I find out who it is 🙂 🙂 It doesn’t take long to fix but the smell stays for hours and I was wide awake when I had flushed it down so there was no idea going back to bed. Guess if I’m tired now 🙂
I had huge problems getting the dogs in to the dog house when I was going to work, not because the dogs behaved bad but because the lock had frozen so I couldn’t open the door 🙂 After that I had to remove all snow from the car and there was lots of snow. So when I finally could start driving I was very late. I backed from my parking space out on te gravel road and guess if I was surprised to see that I almost had crashed straight in to my neighbor, the beekeepers car 🙂 Thankfully he reacted fast 🙂 I had to text him when I came to work and I promised that I would check next time I’m going to work so I won’t do the same thing again 🙂
All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.
The rest of the day has been rather uneventful thankfully 🙂 A bit slow too but rather that than any more almost accidents and frozen locks. The roads home were much better than I thought they could be when it has snowed as much as it has. I must admit that the world look beautiful now but I do hope for an early spring, not so much because of the warmer weather as for the fact that the cats never are indoors at night when spring arrives, I really don’t like waking up to that smell 🙂
No matter how fun she has, she always look serious 🙂
Have a great day!
Ok, these four aren’t from yesterday. They are taken with the Edixa Reflex.
And so it falls again.
I knew the snow was on its way but according to yesterdays predictions it wouldn’t show up until late afternoon, so is anyone surprised it snowed like crazy here already when I got up at 6:20 am 🙂 The flakes are the semi big ones that keeps on falling forever and really builds up to highs heights. Now the predictions says we’ll have snow falling until tomorrow evening and this time I’m afraid they might be right 🙂
I’ve sen a lonely Raven fly around a few days now and that’s unusual here. Normally they are at least three or four and sometimes as many as twenty at the same time.
There’s a wind too that makes it rather nasty out there unless one can find wind free places. The bog close to the trees are such a place so that’s where we walked this morning. I must admit that I was rather surprised that the ice carried me since it has been rather warm during the days. I might go there next walk too just because it is so quiet there and it feels like the rest of the world doesn’t exist. On our way to the bog we saw a fox, a bit too far away but still near enough to be seen clearly. It knew very well that we looked at it but it just didn’t care. I understood that we never would be able to catch it even if we tried 🙂
I’ve cropped these photos of the fox a lot so You would be able to see it properly.
The worlds biggest cross-country ski race (Vasaloppet) is on tv at the moment. If one isn’t interested in cross-country skiing it’s the most boring tv program there is, even more than those very quiet documentaries we Swedes seems to lave to make. You know the ones where almost nothing is said and the person they are filming eat breakfast or drink coffee while the radio is turned on in the background sending a local radio station with music no one really listens to any more 🙂 The radio and the slurping of coffee or porridge are the only sounds in the entire documentary, usually they film something outside the windows, like birds eating in the snow os a car passing by on the snowy road. Those programs are not fun and Vasaloppet is even more boring.
The joy of having a stick with a plastic ribbon attached to it 🙂
He has a ribbon on his stick!
Give me a ribbon stick too!
Well, who wants a ribbon anyway 🙂
They started this race in memory of how the noble man Gustaf Vasa escaped the Danish soldiers, using skis and on the way towards Norway asked the people to help him fight the danes. Well, the have the race in the opposite direction so the finish line is where he was supposed to have started from and it turns out that he actually had now idea what skis are 🙂 They found a letter written by him where he asked what those wooden things were 🙂 He was a despot as king and gladly killed the men who finally helped him to the power. His sons were all more or less insane and did their best to kill each other too, Eric the 14th was poisoned with arsenic put in his pea soup when he was arrested while one of his brothers took the power.
It is time to get out on a walk again I think and perhaps I must shovel away some snow from the entrance stairs when we come back home again. I’ve filled the bird feeders but I’m pretty sure I’ll have to do it again, lots of birds out there and very little else to eat since the snow covers everything.
Have a great day!
It felt colder than it was.
They could hear my neighbor so they stood there looking towards their house 🙂
We almost saw the sun today,it never broke through the clouds but I could clearly see that shining disc trying. Unless it was a UFO of course 🙂 They tend to shine very bright in films, I guess it is the friction that heats them up when they fly down from space 🙂 It did feel much colder than it looked on our walks today and the weak wind there was did what it could to make it feel colder and it was pretty successful.
The old gatepost.
We walked to the little lake this morning like we have done these last Saturday mornings but as we came closer to home I felt that we hadn’t been out long enough so we continued out on the gravel road by the fields. I was hoping to see some deer but there was none. I did however see several tracks from them and also from at first two foxes walking side by side and then from a third fox walking a yard beside the two. It must have been a cub from last year, they wouldn’t have accepted any other fox that far in to their territory.
The nights are still so cold that the little lake still is frozen.
We met the beekeeper on our way home, he had gotten the cold where they get fever but was on the way back. I wish I had gotten that one because when it is over it is really over and not like the one most of us gotten which comes back every now and again all winter. I asked about the lake in the bog and now I understand that I must walk at least two hundred more yards until I can turn towards the bog so I can see the lake, I might walk that way if it is nice enough weather tomorrow morning. Before we continued home I got a jar with honey 🙂 It is a great thing to have a beekeeper as a neighbor 🙂
All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.
I was thinking of walking to the bog on our second walk but then suddenly all the hunters turned up and went out into the forest. I have absolutely no idea what they thought they would get in the middle of the day, especially since they didn’t bring any dog. To be honest, that was just a stupid idea I think. Anyhow, that forced me to walk elsewhere and since I didn’t want to walk on muddy roads we instead walked out on the fields, where the castle cattle walk all summer, the ground hadn’t thawed there at all and we could have walked for miles if we so had wished, at least I didn’t wish that 🙂
It is time to make the last cup of either tea or coffee, if I drink any after five I’ll stay awake all night. I do miss my late night pots of tea.
The last one from the Hasselblad with the photo cassette for this time.
Have a great day!
I don’t mind driving slow but…
The snow and rather sharp light made it difficult to get any good photos, so it will be a mix with new and old photos today.
We were never hit with that snow storm the last time so I guess it was inevitable that we would be hit this time. It snowed all night and almost till noon and finally I think we got around 4-6 inches of the white garbage. I start working an hour earlier on Fridays so the plow lorries hadn’t plowed the road outside the village and if they had plowed the high way it couldn’t be seen. It worked rather well to drive on the road outside the village to the high way since there was almost no other car around.
They have started to clean up in the forest. These three photos show the pile after clearing up at just one place, it is huge!
When I reached the high way I saw a car coming and thought I just as well could let it pass before I drove out on the road, it is nicer to drive free from other cars when the roads are as bad as they were this morning. That was a stupid idea 🙂 I don’t mind driving slow, especially when the road conditions demands it but the driver in front of me had some problems keeping the speed he wanted. It is very hard to keep the distance if the other driver changes speed all the time. It didn’t help that he (I write he but have no idea if it was a man or woman driving) had problems with the lights from the oncoming cars.
So as soon as he finally seemed to be able to keep the speed he suddenly almost stopped because of the lights or what ever reason he could find, then he suddenly drove rather fast just to almost stop again for what ever reason he had. It was impossible to pass him so I just had to try to adapt my driving to his. I felt so happy when it was time to turn of the high way again and thought that finally I would get rid of him. Turns out he was one of those that know nothing about turn signals, he turned too!
Three from the Minolta X300
Hasselblad 16 photo cassette.
We kept on like this for a few miles and more cars were driving behind me and the road got worse by the mile and then he suddenly understood that we’ve given up trying to keep the distance so not only my car lights filled up his car but also the ones after me, he can’t have seen anything to be honest. I think I could have walked behind his car and still have problems not getting to close, so he finally stopped by a small road and let us all pass. I just barely made it to work in time even though I had started much earlier than usual. By the time I had stopped working all roads were just fine again but we still have lots of snow left. It might with a bit of luck melt away until Monday when we’ll get more again. This is typical April weather, just one month too early.
Four from the Edixa Reflex.
The fire is burning in the stove, not because it is cold but the dampness is eating its way inside my cottage. It is time to make something to eat and then most likely fall asleep in front of the tv, again 🙂
Have a great day!
Now days they are so wimpish.
I don’t think I’ve shown this and the four coming photos taken with the Hasselblad camera with the 16 photo cassette.
We didn’t even get close to how much snow they had predicted, instead of 12 inches we got around one and it never got especially cold either so the roads to work was anything but fun to drive on. I was pretty irritated that snow had fallen when we finally had gotten really good roads to drive on the garbage starts falling from the sky.
Almost all of it melted away during the day so the roads were quite good when I drove home again 🙂 We’ll get more tomorrow however so I guess this was a short-lived happiness. No sun is predicted this weekend so I’m hoping for fog since the nights are said to be a bit chilly but days towards the less cold. I would like to say warm but I think that would be to lie a lot 🙂
These are from the Hasselblad too but with the 12 photo cassette.
Nothing much has happened since Tuesday so I have very little to write about today. I rarely look back and remember things but I did suddenly remember an old fairytale written by the Danish author H.C Andersen, The Little Match Girl. They don’t write fairy tales like that any more, todays fairy tales are rather wimpish to be honest 🙂 I remember reading his stories and the ones that the Grim brothers wrote down with lots of evil and violent deaths 🙂
It isn’t the same photographing the dogs when they play without a zoom lens 🙂 These are taken with the Edixa Reflex. These are actually not grainy, it snowed like mad when I took these 🙂
If one would read one of those stories to kids today one would most likely be reported for child abuse 🙂 I must see if I can find some books with those old stories, many of them have faded away from my memories. I do understand that companies like Disney must change how the stories end, I doubt many children would like to see how the little mermaid dies and becomes sea-foam just because she couldn’t bring herself to kill the man she loved.
These four are also taken with the Edixa Reflex.
The cottage by the Crane Lake, life goes on. 
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