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 BlÃ¥kulla 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 SmÃ¥ländska cheesecake (slightly different from the American one) I bought yesterday 🙂
and three from the folder “For a rainy day”.
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 SjörÃ¥ (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 🙂Â
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 🙂
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It is time to make something to eat and then some tv watching I think.
Have a great day!
I really couldn’t complain.
This and the next four photos are taken with the Kodak Retinette.
I’m feeling much better now even though I perhaps wouldn’t admit it in the early morning 🙂 Still tired though but that’s just normal.
Much less grainy when the light is good.
The day has been sort of slow. Every now and again it felt like the clock was speeding but then it suddenly stopped. Especially when I used the wrong powder paint when we were painting the last things for the day 🙂
Four taken with the Zeiss. It is a good camera but it too need better light.
It was the right color but the wrong gloss, so instead of being early I had to actually stay a few minutes longer than normal. I really couldn’t complain since it was my own fault 🙂
Four from the Nikon D70.
Tomorrow we’ll have a maintenance day and do things we normally don’t have the time for, all except for me who is going to the neighbor factory to do some painting there instead. I don’t have especially much I need to do with the paint box so I can just as well go to the neighbor factory instead.
The last four are taken with my Nikon D5100, the one I almost always use.
The cottage by the Crane Lake, life goes on. 
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