Just a tiny bit lost.
Yes the flies are here but so far they “only” annoy the horses.
Sunny and even warmer today and I love it 🙂 The night was warmer than earlier too and I guess that’s what made it easier for the sun to warm up the air this morning. Yesterday we reached at least 20C (68F), I say at least because when the sun hits the thermometer in the afternoon it shows almost tropical temperatures 🙂 Today will be slightly warmer they say. I know this won’t last for long, after al it is just early in May yet but I will enjoy it for as long as it lasts.
We started walking towards the small lake like always on Saturday mornings. Soon that road will be cut of because it is a part of a big pasture. I could walk there alone since the cows only would be curious on me but they would most likely try to kill us all if I brought the dogs. I had just walked up the ridge when I thought Hell No! So we walked back rather quickly, jumped in to the car and off I drove.
We had almost reached my old home when I saw something by the side of the road.
- I stopped the car, thankfully this happened on a place where I could be seen from a far distance, and started to photograph him.
He was so busy looking for voles and mice that he really didn’t care about me opening the car door.
He was in no hurry when he walked away.
I really had no idea where I wanted to go, at first I was thinking of going to our biggest lake Vänern but it is rather far so instead I drove to the place where I lived before moving to this cottage. You’ve seen photos from there before but mostly in autumn and winter I think. The forest is kept like it is a nature reserve even though it isn’t. That means that no trees are cut down and when a tree falls it stays where it has landed. If one is lucky they have at least cut it where the nature trail goes 🙂 Or it can be like this morning, one is forced to walk in the more swampy areas and hope not to sink 🙂
The old tomb.
The forest is very different from here because it is mostly deciduous trees but mixed with some spruces and pines. An even bigger difference is the bird song, it is so strong there that no other sounds can be heard, heavy spruce forests don’t invite that many birds to be honest. Not far from this little forest it’s possible to hear the Nightingale. I’m not sure I would call the song beautiful but it sure is very exotic in this part of the world.Â
White Wood Anemones everywhere here.
The old fire pond isn’t used any longer, now it is filled with frogs and small fish instead 🙂
After the walk we jumped in to the car again and I thought I should drive the smaller roads back home again. When we came to the village where I work I hoped that the grocery store would be open but I had forgotten how early we were out walking 🙂 So we continued and passed my work place. There is this small road I can drive home on, at least during summer because it is a horror to meat anyone o that road during winter, there’s just no place for two cars to meet, especially if the road is slippery 🙂
I must have missed the road where I was supposed to drive on because suddenly I was totally lost 🙂 Well, that is a bit of a lie since I knew that I sooner or later would find a road I would know where it led. The only places I would end up at was the big highway, the road to work or the bog on the opposite side from where I live 🙂 The roads are very narrow and winding so even though I saw places that I wanted to photograph I just couldn’t stop.
The cherry trees are in bloom there.
Bjertorp castle.
I decided to stop at the super market if I could find any parking lot in the shadows, after all I don’t want my dogs to die og heat stroke. So I ended up parking on the lots reserved for families with children. I was thinking that not many families would be out grocery shopping that early in the morning anyway 🙂 I rushed in to the supermarket bought what I needed, except for bread which I really need 🙂 and I also bought one soft ice cream for me and two sausages for the dogs 🙂 They always look surprised when one asks for not fried or boiled sausages 🙂 some places always believes one wants them cheaper 🙂 The dogs enjoyed them and I enjoyed the ice cream 🙂
Tråvad church.
These beehives have been standing there since I lived there, eighteen years ago. I doubt there are any bees in there though.
I think I’ll have a small nap and after that we’ll take another walk and I do need to start thinking of mowing the lawn too, before it gets too warm.
I wonder if any bird is using it now? It still works to be honest and predators would have problems getting in.
On the way homewards again.
Have a great day!
A three and a half hour walk.
A nice start to the morning.
So up we went almost as early as usual even if we were going to the garage to get new brake pads on my car, they have the same working hours as I do and I wanted to get there as early as possible even if it could take some time before they would get to my car (which it actually didn’t, they fixed my car right away). I looked out the windows and saw to my extremely big surprise that the weather predictions actually were right!!!
I have no idea what this is and there were no signs to tell me either. I’ll see if I can find anything on the net about it.
This however is an old tomb. My guess, from the stone age.
Kinnekulle. This mountain is well known for it unusual flora. Even Carl von Linne thought it wonderful. Behind that mountain is our biggest lake (the third biggest in Europe) Vänern.
The sun was shining and there were only a few thin clouds up in the sky. I have to admit that it was a bit chilly when we went away but since I was planning on walking for several hours I really didn’t mind that much. The garage opened just as we arrived so I just gave the owner my keys and went away. I had decided to follow the old pilgrimage road eastwards. I have no idea why they made this a pilgrimage road back in the days but it seems to have important churches and monasteries as some kind of connection points.
The village Gudhem. Mostly small houses but there are a few apartments too.
This farm was like something from a fairytale. The pilgrimage goes straight through it so more photos below. It was hard to get any photos though, I had my telephoto lens on, a bad choise if wanting to get photos close-up.
I love how the moss sort of glows in the early morning light and when being photographed towards the light. Photographed with the light from behind it just looks anemic 🙂
I knew I wouldn’t be able to reach the church (Kungslena church) which the pilgrimage lead to, it is 22 km (13,7 mile) away and even if it will go fast getting there it will not be the same back since it is all uphill back to Gudhem again 🙂 and the dogs must be able to stop every now and again to sniff on all the messages other animals have left. It would have been interesting to get to the church though. The church standing there now was built some time in the 13th century but they are pretty sure there was a church made of wood standing there long ago. The odd thing with this church is that it has three steeples and it is very beautiful.
I’m not sure if it was three houses belonging to the same farm or three different homes really close to each other. That was usually the case back in the days. The homes were close to each other in the middle of the fields. This one had hen, ducks, sheep and goats and I saw a horse too.
I later heard from a neighbor that this is a self-sufficient farm and they also sell what’s left when they have taken what they need. I wish I could have gotten a good photo of the pond with a tiny bridge too but my telephoto lens didn’t allow that.
I think we had walked half way there when we turned back again. To be honest I thought it would take twice the time to get back since it was all uphill but it didn’t, so we passed the garage and went the other direction too. My first thought had been to walk that way instead but there are signs at Forentorp ängar (I’ve shown You photos from there before, the old mill to the monastery stands there) that they have cows and calves on the fields where the pilgrimage goes through so no dogs allowed. Cows with calves have a tendency to want to kill dogs and their owners and since I was getting new brake pads I thought dying would just be a waste of money 🙂
This is the odd part of that farm, the badly colored slightly Austrian inspired house You can see here 🙂 It didn’t fit in at all but I guess it is a practical thing to have 🙂 and yes, there’s a horse.
I think I found it, the mythical place where old tree stumps goes to die 🙂 🙂 It looked so odd, it is actually a huge field filled with old tree stumps.
We came back to the garage after being out for around 3,5 hours and the sun had shone all the time. The wind was rather cold so when that hit us it got nasty cold but when we were out if its reach it got a bit too warm 🙂 especially with all that uphill walking 🙂 I decided to take a short nap when we came home, I set the alarm and woke up when it started. I turned it of and slept for two more hours 🙂 The dogs didn’t seem to mind at all 🙂
All standing photos are more manageable if You click on them.
White Wood anemones are popping up everywhere now. The anemones in my garden is slightly behind but I’ll show You them as soon as they open up.
This would make a nice bowl. I think it is the biggest burl I’ve ever seen!
My neighbor told me that it had snowed while I was sleeping! Guess if I was happy not having to see that 🙂 but it is so warm that it melted straight away. The clouds arrived just as predicted too and now they are leaving us again, just as predicted???!!! Is this a sign of the end of the world??? I can’t remember the last time they were exactly right before 🙂 🙂 It is time for a pot of tea and then I’ll see if there’s anything interesting on tv, I doubt that though 🙂
It was impossible not to take a photo or two of this foul. It had such long legs and jumped around having fun.
I have plenty more photos to show but they’ll come in tomorrow’s post.
Have a great day!
The Yule tree.
This is how it looked on one side of my cottage this morning.Â
The wind blew so hard during the night that I woke up several times when the heavy rain hit my bedroom window. Today the wind has moved north and become even worse they say. The arctic winds will bring cold air so already tomorrow we’ll have below 0C (32F) and snow will start falling in the early Sunday morning. The wind seems to calm down by tomorrow but will be back when the snow starts to fall again, how nice.
This is how it looked on the other side. Guess which weather won 🙂 We went back to bed instead and slept for a few hours 🙂
Suddenly the sun broke through and out wer went.
The German custom of having a christmas tree, we call it yule spruce since most of us have a spruce (even if some rather have pines or even junipers instead) became popular rather late by the common people. The first ever recorded yule spruce was in an aristocratic home 1741 (Stora Sundby the place is called) but it didn’t became popular amongst the common people until around 1850’s. The first ones were usually very small and placed on a table or hung from the roof. Only the rich people could afford christmas baubles, others had perhaps apples in them and perhaps pine cones. The really poor couldn’t afford apples so there are examples of people wrapping colorful paper around potatoes to have as decorations.
The sunshine lasted for a few minutes and by the time we came to the creek I was soaked 🙂
But there was actually a custom in at least southern Sweden to have a yule tree, it could also be called yule apple and a few other local names I just can’t translate 🙂 Usually it was a crab apple tree (or bush would be more correct) dressed with apples or perhaps a spruce where all branches and twigs except for those in the top had been cut of. It could also just be a tree trunk where on had drilled holes and put in a certain amount of apple twigs. They never had candles in them though, only apples as decoration.
I have a few photos in my mobile phone but can’t find the cable to download it into my computer. So today I mailed a few of them to myself 🙂 These are all taken November 6th when I was waiting for my car to be repaired.
This looks like an old stone age tomb, this and another one was placed where it now days is a pasture for cows.
There was another thing called Yule tree and that was a candlestick in the shape of a tree, with both apples and candles in it and there was also something called Äpplstaken which looked like a Yule tree but with only apples in it. They could however not compete with a yule spruce so they became almost forgotten. They have made a sort of come back and here’s a link to the museum of Blekinge: Yule tree which show You a few more modern made ones. Just click on each photo and it will become bigger. Blekinge by the way is one of the most southern regions in this country and  where most of my family comes from (even if I’m a 16th part Russian and a 1/4 Serb 🙂 ).
The garage isn’t far away from the old abbey ruins.
It is time to give the animals something to eat. We have only been outside once today, the wind and the heavy raining sort of forced us to stay indoors so one could think we would have lots of energy bit it is actually the opposite, we’re all really tired despite the long nap we had. I do hope tomorrow weather will be a bit better.
Have a good continuing of Yule!
The old health resort.
- Not the brightest of mornings.
It is not the brightest of days here, in fact it is very dreary and gloomy here. The clouds are hanging low and it drizzles every now and again. We were supposed to have some heavy showers but thankfully those have missed this village. There will be no improvement in the weather today but they do still predict some sunshine for tomorrow after noon.
Yesterday I drove to Falköping after I had been at the garage to get some things I wanted for the weekend and I was looking after a grocery store the garage owner told me about because even if Falköping is a tiny town the traffic is murderous and it is hard to find any parking spaces. I missed it yesterday but realised when I came home that I needed to find it. I had an email in my computer telling me a package was waiting for me there. I can’t understand why but all other delivery services use another store than this one.
- The sign says “The Mösseberg park”. I guess this must have been the entrance to the health resort area.
- I think that most of these smaller buildings were the homes of the different doctors that worked in the health resort.
- Here to the right was the Senior phusician’s office and to the left it was the office for the accounts.
The package would stay there for two weeks but I thought it best to go there this morning. I thought that the store, like all other stores would open up at 9 am but I thought wrong, they didn’t open until 10 🙂 Thankfully I had brought my camera so I drove to the old health resort on the mountain and took some photos to show here. It is mostly building because I didn’t want to go to the top of the mountain where they have a tiny zoo and a beautiful walking area. I was still a bit early when I came back to the car so I went to a petrol station and filled up my car, it turns out that the petrol price was 1/9 of an US dollar lower there than in the village where I usually fill up with petrol.
- Many of these houses are still homes but some seems to be used by the Conference center.
- The old hospital/ resort, now a conference building.
I went to the store and picked up the package and yes it is an old camera 🙂 🙂 I was thinking the other week that I have no old-time Nikon and there is one that usually is very cheap because for some reason people rather buy the later versions even if this one is really good. It is a Nikon F-401s (in the US 4004s). It is seen as a beginners camera and the first one that Nikon tried autofocus but it can be handled fully manually too. I already had a lens I could use so this one costed around 10 US dollars. I’ve already started to use it and so far I like it a lot. But now I feel that I really don’t need any more cameras 🙂 🙂
- There are two ponds just cloise to the entrance and both are shaped like number eight 🙂 They have put two small islands in the ponds.
- The area has lots of roads looking like this.
We met a neighbor when we went out walking after I had come back from Falköping and he told me that earlier this week he had heard Sune barking like crazy and he just wouldn’t stop. So he walked down to the dog yard and found a terrified Sune with his hair standing straight up. Sune calmed down when my neighbor started talking to him and suddenly he went down the hole they have digged leading into the garage and stayed there quiet 🙂 Wer are now both wondering what could have scared him so much because my neighbor couldn’t see anything.
- More modern but really ugly looking homes just close to the older beautiful houses.
He finds both moose and wild hog interesting so we doubt that any of those had been close but it could be either the lynx which pass here every now and again or perhaps the wolves have come back? I don’t worry about the lynx, they’ll rather run that try to fight with a dog but I will keep my eyes open to see if I can see any tracks from wolves. I doubt a wolf would try to get in to the dogyard and if it did it wouldn’t be able to get through that small hole into the garage, that would also be a very dangerous thing to do for the wolf because it would not know what would meet it inside the garage, the risk would just be too great. I’ll keep my eyes open though.
-
On my way back to my car again.
- There’s an old building on the other side of the road to the park, looking much like the ones You’ve seen and in it there’s an antique shop.
- A last look back.
It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps something little to eat. They are showing NCIS Los Angeles on channel six right now but I lost interest when they for the zillionth  time found a muslim terrorist organisation, I mean there must be some other guys they can fight at least once in a while 🙂
- I went back to where I was walking yesterday while they were changing my tires to see if I could take some nice photos today instead. But the fog was gone and no sunshine so not a chance 🙂 I met the garage owner on my way home and he looked a bit worried until I waved and smiled to him 🙂
Have a great day!
I wish they could leave the time alone.
I really don’t like the change of time, today I woke up at three am. For three weeks I’ve started an hour earlier every morning so I’ve been up around 4:40 in the morning and today we went back to normal hours which means I can sleep an hour longer but my brain really didn’t understand that so we woke up an hour earlier than last week 🙂 I wish they just stopped this nonsense.
But I did get a beautiful sunrise right in my eyes when I drove to work and a beautiful sunset when I drove home. it was more or less pitch black when I came home and since I couldn’t find any flashlight we never took any walk after work. I’ll have one tomorrow, restless dogs is no fun to have indoors 🙂
Lots of refugees are coming to Sweden now, mostly people from Syria but also from the other war hit countries nearby like Afghanistan and Iraq. So many are coming that we now have problems to find any places for them to live. I heard of one place far north called Riksgränsen (something like the border of the kingdom or realm). It is a rather well known place to go skiing downhill but the hotels don’t open up until February so there are plenty of space to stay at right now.
- One of the Minolta cameras.
- Taken when Orvar still was around.
The refugees like it but the reporter described the place like “Something from the book The Shining 🙂 🙂 🙂 Almost no people live up there and this time of year it’s shut down and deserted and I can understand how he was thinking but lets hope it stays by that 🙂 We also have lots of poor people from south-eastern Europe here begging outside populated areas like stores. I’ve seen photos and reportage on tv that shows how they live in their home countries so I can fully understand why they go up here to get some money, they really have no hope where they are living.
- The little village where I work before anyone woke up. I think this was taken a Saturday morning.
We even have a lady sitting outside the grocery store in the village where I work. We talk Swedish with her and she answers in her language 🙂 Many of these beggars are threatened and abused but so far this woman has been treated well. I guess those who hated these people forgot about them now when all the refugees comes, I guess it is hard to spread the hate towards several groups at the same time. Many of these people from southern Europe have realised that people tend to be kinder to them if they instead of begging sell things instead, so now many weave baskets or make other things that they sell to people passing by. I doubt however that this would work as well in such a small village as the one I work in.
- The rest of the photos were taken with the Edixa and the Jupiter lens.
It is time to make something to eat and then some tv I think. No photos from today since it was dark when I came home.
- Up by the Abbey ruin in Gudhem.
- A view over the lake and the mountain in the back is actually further away than it looks. It is called Kinnekulle.
Have a great day!
So nice today!
It’s a warm and sunny but slightly windy day here, last time I looked the temperature had reached 14C (57,2F) and our after work walk was really nice. I had my winter jacket on and as soon as we were out of reach for the wind it got too warm wearing it 🙂
I drove to the garage directly after work, the last thingy would be changed that they got an error code on and I don’t think it took five minutes to change it. The garage owner however was out on an errand when I arrived and the employee didn’t know exactly what was supposed to be done so we both stood outside in the sunshine leaning towards the wall and just enjoyed life.
I still haven’t paid the bill though, he doesn’t want me to do that until he knows the car is ok. So I asked him if I would start to cry when I finally saw it but he said no, no 🙂 They have only put in used but functioning parts now because the car is old and soon it won’t be economical to repair it. This time however I have already paid so much in repair costs that I really need to keep it for at least one more yer 🙂 I do like my car and I will keep it for as long as possible.
Now I’ll drive around with this new thingy in my car for a few days so we know that it works as it should and that the car stops coughing while I drive around in it 🙂 I need to buy new winter tires too soon but I hope this warm weather continues for quite some time because I’m so tired of paying car bills right now 🙂
- These four were taken with the Edixa and Jupiter lens. They show Gudhem’s abbey ruin.
- This is a copy of the grave after the ” Queen” (well she was called a queen even if the land she ruled over was quite tiny) who donated the money to build the abbey.
Yesterday a nazi went in to a school here in Sweden and stabbed two people to death with a knife. Two more are badly injured but it sounds as if they’ll survive. The nazi himself got shot by the police and died later in the evening too. Lately several refugee centers have been burned down so even if I got surprised that something like the school killing happened it still wasn’t totally unexpected. I’m afraid the brown ghost has risen again.
- I think these four are taken with the Minolta 5000.
It is time to get something to eat and I’ll have a big pot of tea with it. I think I’ll watch some tv, not because there’s anything interesting but I do sleep so well in front of it 🙂
- This one is bad and I’ve cut out a small part of the photo. It shows European goldfinches. These four photos are most likely taken with a Minolta 300.
Have a great day!
- I have no idea what camera I used here 🙂 Only seven out of thirty-seven was good enough to be able to see what the photos were showing 🙂 I think I might have adjusted the lightmeter wrong so it measured the light for an ISO 400 film instead of ISO 160 film 🙂
That doesn’t happen often!
- Looking towards the lake and church on my way to work.
I went to work this morning, by my own free will 🙂 That is something that rarely happens to be honest but I didn’t go there to paint anything, I went there to wash the painting box. I do that with distilled water every Friday morning but every sixth months or so I need stronger stuff to get it clean. I need to wash it several times so it isn’t anything one can do on a normal working day because it would just take too long to get the painting box dry again.
- I think I’ve told You that my work place is on the Västgötaslätten (West Gota plains) and that it is farm country.
- These photos were taken when I brought out the dogs do they could do their businesses.
The powder contains some wax and that stuck to the walls and needs to be removed, if not the powder paint just moves slightly on the walls and is almost impossible to get rid of. Until one tries to remove the next paint we’re using and then some of it mixes with the other color and after that I’ll never have any clean color again 🙂
- Silos like this one can be found everywhere here. It isn’t many miles between them here.
- On my way to my old home.
- I parked the car in a small spot in the forest.
The best thing to use is thinner but then there must be at least one more person there and both of us must have proper breathing equipment or our brains will start to melt away. Another problem is that I’m not sure if all the fumes will have disappeared until we start painting again so it isn’t a good thing to use. I can also use methylated spirits and even if it stinks something bad it still doesn’t melt my brain 🙂
- The closer one lives to the castle the higher status one has 🙂
- They had animals in here back in the days, now it’s a storage for all sorts of things.
- Bjertorp Castle. It is a luxury hotel now days.
So I brought Sune and Nova with me and went to the factory. No one else showed up while I was there and that was a relief since no one should be there. One time when I was working on a Saturday there also was at least one burglar there too 🙂 Ok, I had four 100 pond dogs with me so I wasn’t especially worried 🙂 Nova and Sune however are much smaller but dogs always scare people if they don’t know them and if they are burglars 🙂
- All land is now owned by the University of Uppsala and they work together with Weibulls to get new plant varieties. Unfortunately those varieties are things like rapeseed and cereals and not apples and berries as I hoped when I heard about it 🙂 🙂 This house however must have been the home of someone very important employee back in the days.
- This is a memorial stone plowing VM 1976. I guess it is important for farmers 🙂
We went to where I lived before I moved here to the village at the outskirts of the world. I had planned to walk in the forest with them but hunters were out hunting so we stayed on the roads by the fields and to the castle that once was built there. It is the youngest castle in Sweden and is just slightly older than 100 years. It has a somewhat interesting history but I’ll tell You more about that when the film rolls from the old cameras are developed. I might have destroyed the film I had in the Hasselblad camera because I dropped it when I was going to tape it together. Light must have leaked in and most likely on the photos I took by the castle. I also had the digital camera with me and the Rolleicord.
- There’s a golf course just beside the castle and this is the club house. I missed taking a photo of the golf course 🙂
- It was always easy to explain to people where I lived. Just turn in to the tiny gravel road where the big barn is 🙂
- A beautiful place to have tractors in.
- This is the promised land for wind power plants. I think I read that this county produce more electricity by wind power than the entire county use in one year.
Trees have grown big since I moved away fifteen years ago so I couldn’t see the cottage I lived in from where we walked but to be honest, it looks much the same as the cottage I live in now 🙂 It is time to make a pot of tea and after that I think I’ll take a nap.
- Walking back to the car again.
Have a great day!
- The stones You can see to the left are parts of a bronze age grave. There are several other graves close to it.
Image
I’ll get more chances to get ice cream.
- I took this photo from the window upstairs just before the sun was rising above the tree line.
I woke up to a rather cold morning today, only 2,8C (37F) when we were out walking. I have to say that even if I had to wear a fleece jacket the morning still was pretty wonderful. It was so quiet that the sounds my shoes made towards the gravel sounded so loud they would wake up the world. Not a single fly disturbed me and life just felt pretty good 🙂
- This one too.
I had planned to go to Falköping to pick up Orvar’s medicine early this morning and I wanted to bring one of my older but not too heavy cameras with me. The problem is that they tend to leak in light so the film got more or less destroyed. But how to find those leaks I wondered for a long while until two days ago. I asked a work friend who knows a lot about everything if he knew if there was some kind of flashlight that was so small it would fit into a camera.
He was thinking for a long time until he smiled and said that I should go to a toy store, He knew they sold key chains that also worked as a tiny flashlight. So the first thing I did yesterday when I went to Falköping was to go to the only toy store I know they have there and yes they did have such a key chain 🙂 The good thing is that the batteries in it are solar-powered! So if the lights get weak I just put it in the sunlight for a while and then it works perfectly again 🙂
So last night when it was dark I put the tiny flashlight in my Rolleicord and voila! I found where it leaked in light. It is the lid that actually fits good but it doesn’t take much to make it loosen its grip just enough to let in light. So I loaded the camera with a roll of black and white film, taped black soft tape (we call that kind of tape for electric tape because it’s perfect to use when connecting two electric cables and keep that connection water proof) over the edges of the lid. I’m pretty sure it didn’t leak any light this morning.
I drove to Falköping so I would be there around 9 and realised that they wouldn’t open the pharmacy until 9:30 🙂 So I started to walk around the town square taking photos. I had already taken one at home and double exposed it 🙂 and did the same with the first one I took in the town 🙂 I sort of had forgotten how it works 🙂 The rest eleven photos should be ok though. They were opening a small market this morning and people never mind if one takes photos with one of these old cameras so I could walk around quite undisturbed the entire time 🙂 I won’t send in this roll of film until I have four rolls of film ready to be developed, this was the third one. I can say that I wish I had brought more film and the electric tape because twelve photos was just too few.
Now I’ll do the same with my almost 100-year-old Kodak, it too leaks light and even if I did tape it almost everywhere the last time I tried it, it still leaked in light somewhere. That camera however will only allow me to take 8 photos because the negatives will be so much bigger. I was amazed however how sharp photos I got from that old camera!
- This and the following photos comes from the Rolleicord camera. They were originally color photographs with ugly red injuries from light leaks (You’ll see that in the next photo). But I could make them look much better by making them look old in my editing program.
It is time for a pot of tea and perhaps something to eat. I never got any ice cream this morning, I just didn’t want to stay in the town after taking all photos and getting the medicine because the coffee and tea shop wouldn’t open for another half hour when I left the pharmacy. Well, Orvar will need more medicine in 40 days so I’ll get the chance again 🙂
This is how almost all photos looked like before the editing. I do hope I found all leaks now!
- This is Varnhem’s Abbey church. The abbey was demolished but the church was saved.
Have a great day!
- This is a cafe just beside the church. The church is a huge tourist attraction now days.
I can’t avoid the lawn mowing this weekend :-)
The weather predictions says nothing about heavy rain and strong winds, on the contrary. It says sunny and nice weather. I know I shouldn’t be surprised but still 🙂 It isn’t especially cold but the humidity is so high that it’s getting uncomfortable here in my little home, so I’ve started a fire in the stove to dry up the air some. So now I’m wondering about the rest of the weekend, the predictions says really nice and warm weather so I guess that can mean storms, snow and hail 🙂 🙂 🙂
So how about my feet this morning You may ask. The left foot complained a lot yesterday while I was wearing shoes and the right one was quite happy. This morning I didn’t feel any pain in my left foot while it was almost as bad as it was before in my right one 🙂 I do hope that my right foot will get better too otherwise I think I need to call the hospital so they can adjust the insole. Early days yet though, I better give it a week before I know how it will work out.
The sun did shine when we walked down to the creek after work and as soon as we were away from the winds it felt quite nice, almost t-shirt nice but as soon as we reached the fields it felt like almost scarf cold 🙂 We were lucky to get inside before the rain started. I may not like this rain but nature sure does, there’s no chance of avoiding mowing the lawn this weekend, it’s amazing how fast the grass grows when a spring rain comes along.
The Marsh Marigolds are looking up.
I’ve bought some soil to fill those pots that are empty after I filled some with those dug up grass tufts. It is still too early to sow anything that isn’t really tough because nights are still very cold and I’ve had to scrape the car windows in the morning before going to work. But it’s always nice to be prepared for when it is time. I’ll also replant the tomato plants I have standing in my kitchen widow. I don’t have any space to place them to be honest so I’ll have to figure out how to rearrange the pots I already have there or see if I should toss out some of them 🙂
The last photos from the Hasselblad camera. I’m waiting for more from two other cameras though but it seems that slide photos takes longer to get back. Not too many take slides nowdays I guess 🙂 I wouldn’t either but that was what I got without understanding it 🙂
It is time to give the dogs their dinner and I’ll make some rose-hip soup for myself.
Have a great day!
So comfortable.
I still have plenty of old photos to show thankfully 🙂
The morning started out so beautiful, the sun shone and the frost sparkled like million diamonds. It lasted for around ten minutes and then the clouds covered the entire sky. The temperature rose fast at first but then it slowly dropped again and they say it will stay slightly above 1C (34F), it’s drizzling at the moment but they say we even might get snow later on.
The dogs are a bit restless because they want long walks but I keep telling them that lots of street dogs in Egypt are jealous of how great they have it here even without long walks. Can’t say they are impressed by that 🙂 so I open the door and let them out every now and again so they can chase each other until they have no energy left 🙂
Last week I did something I’ve never done before, I ordered shoes online. Last autumn I got this flyer from a company selling clothes, shoes and other things to mostly hunters and I was going to order some winter shoes already then but for some reason I never got around to do it. So I looked at their site and found a hiking shoe that looked really comfortable and also was on sale 🙂 I thought that any business selling things to men and women who knows how to handle a rifle really didn’t want to anger them and sell crap 🙂
They arrived yesterday and I have to say that they probably are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever had. Good thing they arrived yesterday too since they wanted me to bring my every day shoes to the hospital when I get the insoles, which by the way is tomorrow. I also received the first photos from the rolls I mailed last week so You can see some of them here today. I’m waiting for two more rolls to be developed and I’m hoping they’ll be ready today.
I went out into the garden earlier today and spread some of the annual flower seeds I’ve bought this winter, the rain and eventual snow that will fall today will be a perfect start for them since it will be warmer again already on Thursday. Now I’ll just have to remember that I’ve sown them so I don’t remove them while weeding 🙂
Square photos means Hasselblad photos. I drove to Forentorp ängar (Forentorp meadows) to take a few photos.
The old mill that once belonged to the Abbey up on the hill in Gudhem.
This is how most of this are looks, meadows, fields and farms.
Have You, like me ever wondered why, in fantasy novels, when humans are in war with all the mythical beings they can find, the mythical beings always loose? I mean they have all the powers in the world and should by all logic win against humans just by blinking their eyes, still they always seems to have this fatal weakness that the chosen human always find out about so he (it’s usually a he, isn’t it) easily can kill their leader and then defeat them all 🙂 🙂 🙂 Sometimes it’s best just to shut down that part of the brain that demands logic in stories 🙂
I drove to the lake on my way home to get some photos of the cranes.
The yellow building way back is Dagsnär castle. More photos will come on Thursday.
Have a great day!
Sunny and cold morning.
The night has been rather cold and the morning walk felt somewhat chilly even though the sun shone with full power and there were only a few clouds around, the weak wind didn’t make much difference though. I could hear cranes shouting out on the bog and trumpet swans flew just a few meters above our heads. We walked to the little lake because I thought there might be a few birds there now but none could be seen, the lake had frozen during the night and the big lake would probably have some open water spots so they would go there instead.
I saw some new fence poles by the old decaying cottage so I guess that it soon will be torn down to make place for cattle. I took a few photos and You can see them in my NG photo album: National Geographic. Just click on the red text and a new window should open up showing my photos. You’ll also be able to see two that I took with my Hasselblad camera that I won’t post here. Nothing much happened during our walk though, not even the sound of aa animal moving around could be heard.
The old decaying cottage. I saw new fence poles close to it so I guess it soon will be torn down.
More photos from this cottage can be seen in my NG album.
I bought some vegetable seeds when I was at the super market yesterday, they were for some reason price reduced with 20% so I thought why not 🙂 I bought a big pack with broad beans and normal sized packages with spring onion, broccoli, squash and different colored carrots. The ground here isn’t good enough for carrots though, too many pebbles in it so they split and get fun shapes but I was thinking of growing those in raised beds together with the spring onions. If lucky that will confuse both the carrot and onion flies.
I’ve never really looked towards this place before but it does look like an old stone wall, perhaps this was the place where the priest once lived close to the old church that later on was abandoned?
The night was cold but I didn’t expect to see the lake frozen.
I’m thinking of finding a potato that is resistant towards potato blight which is a big problem here, I guess the air is too humid so it thrives on my potatoes every time I grow them. I will of course also sow at least one pumpkin plant, after all I did get one pumpkin last summer even if I didn’t see it until all leafs had been frost-bitten 🙂 I’ll sow some tomato seeds today too, can’t live without at least a few own grown tomatoes 🙂
Yes spring is here, the coltsfoot flowers 🙂
It is time for the last cup of tea for the day, after that a short nap and then we’ll head out for another walk. Nova’s ear seems better and doesn’t hurt any longer, I have plenty of medicine for her so I’ll just keep on dropping it into her ear for as long as it is needed.
Square photos are Hasselblad photos. I’ll show two more from this roll of film and I’m still waiting for that last roll to be developed.
Have a great day!
This is Jupiter and I still haven’t figured out how to take photos that doesn’t show it like a burning star 🙂 I’ll get there but it will take some tries. I’ll try tonight again if the sky is clear.
Orion’s belt.
The last three just shows randomly taken photos of the night sky. These stars are towards north north-west. Lots of them out there and lots are even galaxies.
Like giant heart beats.
The night sky yesterday.
To bad the weather couldn’t stay the same for one more day. Today is grey and windy and even though it is much warmer it feels much colder. I’ve had the fire burning in the stove all morning but still it feels like the heat stays close to the stove, as if it too freeze if it wanders too far from the fire 🙂 The weather will stay much the same all day but tonight we’ll get snow, not much around 2,5 cm (an inch) but after that the rain comes and the roads will be nasty to drive on. I’m glad I drive to and from work when most people either already are at work or already at home.
and this is how it looked with lots of editing 🙂
This morning.
They are warning for a new storm this weekend, well the Swedish meteorologists are but not the Norwegian and since the Swedish ones have been fairly wrong in their storm predictions lately I think I’ll trust the Norwegians this time. The wind will come (if they do come) from west so I’ll most likely not notice much of it anyway here in my cottage.Â
Nova behaved so much better on our walk this morning, she isn’t used to me yelling at her so I guess she really didn’t want to experience that again 🙂 We were walking across the same field when I realised that we have rather big five earth mounds on an otherwise absolutely flat surface. They are all rather smooth in their surface and very even all around so I’m guessing they must be old tombs. There are absolutely no reason to why they would be there on that almost absolutely flat surface otherwise. I must see if I can find any info about it. People living here would most likely know a lot but they tend to keep quiet because if they aren’t known to make them known would give them lots of problems. They might be forbidden to use the area until it had been looked through and it can take many, many years until anything would happen.
This is a popular mushroom this year 🙂
Yesterday evening when I went out to take a photo of the moon I heard the strangest sound from the bog and it was rather loud too. It sounded like giant heart beats. dum-dum……….dum-dum………dum-dum……. and it kept going on for a very long time. I wonder what it was, I must say I was rather curious but I’m not insane trying to go out there 🙂 Nothing sounding like giant heart beats can be a good thing to walk in to in the middle of the night 🙂 Nothing odd could be seen from where I was this morning though but then again I can’t see much of the bog here 🙂
This is the biggest of the mounds.
Two smaller here
and here is actually a sixth mound, Stone Circle Hill as I call it.
I think it’s time for a short nap, then a pot of tea before we’re going out for a walk again. I got the new film rolls yesterday but the weather isn’t inviting enough to bring out that heavy camera 🙂
Have a great day!
The first photos are taken.
Finally I reached the best part of our walk, Forentorp Nature reserve or Forentorp meadows as it also is called.
But it will take some time until we can see any result. I have absolutely no idea how these will look but I am pretty sure that they are sharp 🙂 It was a bit tricky to watch through the seeker from above but thankfully a previous owner has made some changes so I didn’t have to see the objects I photographed up side down 🙂 That was fairly common in the old cameras but it could be fixed by changing something inside the camera.
The trees are mostly old oaks and their branches twines together so that very little light comes down to the ground. So very few flowers but lots of mosses and lichens. I never walked in to the fields though since I was on my way to my car.
It does feel like walking in to a big cathedral here and it is a nice place to take a break and a cup of coffee if one brought it. No place to buy things like that here.
It took some time until I understood why it was impossible to wind to the next photo after taking the last one. One sort of winds a spring in the camera so as soon as the photo is taken and the protective plate (there’s a protective plate in front of the film in the cassette just in case one would accidentally release it from the camera which was the first thing I did 🙂 ) is back on place. The shutter button stays pressed down and I need to release it before I put in the plate, when I’ve done that it’s possible to wind the spring again. Easy 🙂 🙂 🙂
Here one can find buildings almost 600 years old, this barn however is much younger 🙂
This mill however is very old. In tomorrow’s post You’ll see the ruins of the old Abbey up on the hill and this was the Abbey mill. The creek in the previous photo must have been bigger back then I guess because that is what powered the mill.
No special objects this first film roll but I have to say some of them refused to come and when I forced them they looked as if I was torturing them 🙂 I also used both lenses I have and followed the cheap sheet in most photos but tried some adjustments myself too of course 🙂 I had the camera on my tripod to get it as steady as possible and I do hope it helped. I think the best thing is to release the camera from the tripod when walking elsewhere because it was a bit tricky to keep control of it all with that heavy camera on it and it has happened with my other cameras that it just released the camera itself 🙂
The forest opens up later on and small patches of fields shows up instead.
I think I’ll wait to photograph with this camera again until I get back this film roll. I’ve written down every adjustment I’ve done before taking the photo so I’ll know what I did to each and every of them. If they turn out good I just carry on like this if not I might need to actually learn how to use this camera 🙂 🙂 🙂 It was fun though and it takes no time to take twelve photographs. I must admit that I do like the wonders of technology so that we now days can delete a bad photo the second after we’ve taken it 🙂
For years I’ve thought that the next time I’ll see this barn it has fallen. It’s much tougher than I thought because it has looked the same all the time 🙂
The roads I walked on are ancient and I just love walking around here between these walls.
I’ve taken lots of photographs during these days when I’ve shown the photographs from our walk and I’ll use them as spares when it is too dark to take photos after work. The sun is now going dow just after 6pm so it won’t take long until that happens and I must start to save photographs taken during the weekends again.Â
This is an old pilgrimage and they are still used today for that reason. The signs need to be restored though, snow plowing does remove much more than snow 🙂
The first really steep hill towards the garage and to areas where more people live.
The cottage by the Crane Lake, life goes on. 
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