Yet a snowy day and it´s not melting away :-) I´m a bit tired of the “second day weather” we´ve had reasently and now they say that it´s going to be below freezing point at least five days. The dogs, cats and I have taken som really nice walks today. It´s cloudy but absolutely no wind at all here by the cottage. But I can see that is blowing rather much up on Mount Mösseberg. The wind powerplants are spinning on rather fast.

At last, snow that actully stays more than a couple of hours.

Have You ever heard about “Jantes laws”? In every society there are unvritten rules that one don´t break if one wants to fit in. There was a Norwegian author (Aksel Sandemose) that once wrote down such rules in one of his books, that applies in Skandinavia. I think that it´s just the last twenty years thet theese rules slowley stopped to rule our lives. Here they are:

This little creek is frozen solid now.

You should not think you are anything special.
You should not think that you are as good as us.
You should not think you are wiser than us.
You must not imagine that you are better than us.
You should not think you know more than we do.
You should not think you're better than us.
You should not think you are good for anything.
You should not laugh at us.
You should not think any one cares about you.
You should not think you can learn anything.

Until last winter there were thick forest here, so I never actully looked that way when we are walking home. Bu today I did and got a bit puzzled because I couldn´t understand what cottage that was. But then I started to laugh out loud. It´s my cottage :-)

Not to nice are they? But that is generally how things have worked here. A child to workers have always become a worker, no matter how bright he/she has been. Why should he trie to be better than his friends? So if, for instance, any one gives me compliments about my pictures here in the blog I don´t know how to answer. Because somewhere back in my head something tells me that there are so many much better fotografers than I am, so it must be something else that made the pictures so good :-) The weather, the motive, pure luck. So don´t be surprised or angry if a sweed always answer in an avoiding way, we just don´t know how to respond to compliments :-)

Toedor (and Bertil) of course followed us on one of our walks today.

But as I wrote, it´s starting to loose its grip on us and I think we can thank all our immigrants for that. They are not used to that kind of thinking and that will probably help the rest of us getting loose from theese rules :-) And You can imaging how we react when we hear a good athlete, from another country, tell the world how good he is :-) :-) When it comes to me and my work it´s a differnt thing. I´m never late to tell my bosses that I probably is the best painter they´ll ever meet :-) and that I get to little pay for it :-) But privatly, well You know, it was good weather that day and the motives are everywhere and the camera is really good :-)
Enjoy the day now!

More and more of the spruces are getting yellow and then slowley dies. I wonder why? Can it be because we have had very dry summers lately? Or perhaps because of the warm winters? Our spruces need a cold winter to survive.

This morning they said on the weather forcast, that there would be no snow or rain tody. It rained slightley when I came home and the rain glaced the road with a thick layer of ice. Now it´s snowing outside. Not much, but it snows :-)

There were large piles of timber just before the creek.

Not a nice sight, but it could be worse. This was a place where one almost was certain of that one would see a gnome or a small troll. Now the mystique is gone.

I and the dogs went down to the creek when I came home, because there were no sound from the machines cutting down the forest. The only thing I can say is that it could be worse. Fortunally they have only been close to the creek in the end of the way we walk. They have cut down a lot of birches, so it is going to be a lot lighter there now. I wonder if the wood anemones or the violettes will gain most from that.

But the creek is still running its way.

We are supposed to be six persons on the paiting departement at work, but today we were only three. So we really had to work hard today. I have to admit that my back felt perfect the whole day, but now it´s a bit sour. But i do think it´s going the right way anyway.

The waterlevel has sunken almost two decimeters (eight inches).

I saw a tv program yesterday called “Swedens worst driver”. How theese people even got their driverslicense is a mystery! I don´t remember when I laughed so much before. But then I realised that theese people actully is driving amongst us others! One of them lives not far away from me and that makes me frightened. I´m not the best driver in the world, backing is my Achilles heel, but compared to them I´m an exellent driver. Another question is: How many more people drive as bad as they did on the program?
Have a nice day and be careful out there!

They have taken away a lot of birches here. I wonder if the Wood anemon or the violettes is gaining from that.

I took this picture and the two following yesterday evening.

Back to work today and there were no problems working. But now when I´m home I really feel my back. It´s stiff and has no will to cooperate with the rest of my body :-) I´m going to feel terrific tomorrow :-) But I think thet it actully is best for my back if I move as much as possible during the day.

Now it´s daylight almost until five pm and I thought i should take some pictures. But then I met a neighbour when she was walking her dogs, so no pictures from today. My neighbour has five small dogs of an African breed, Basenji. The really don´t bark. They sort of screams with a sound that reminds of whisteling and they yodel. Or that´s wat it´s called. It sounds more like a strange long burp :-) Basenlis are really energetic and seemes to jump around like a bounce ball. They are everywhere at the same time :-) That maces Orvar a bit nervous so he´s trying to hide behind me all the time :-) Can You see it? A 99pound dog hiding for happy 22 pound dogs :-) He actully likes them, but only one at a time. I´ll try to take a picture of those dogs next time I see them.

The roots on the aprikot seeds are long enough to manage to be sown in a pot now. The risk that they are going to rot is now minimal.

The aprikots that I took away the shell from the seeds and then put the seeds cold in the fridge was ready to be placed in pots today. All seven is okey, so it was just to place them in pots with soil and now the pots stands in the kitchen under a fluorescent. Now I have at least as many seeds in the fridge again. So if I´m lucky I´ll have fourteen small aprikots trees in a while. Perfekt gift to someone who loves gardening. But I´ll save some for my self of course.
Have a nice day now!

I´ve put the pots in plastic bags, because I´ve a tendensy to forget to water them :-)

I have two flies that have woken up from their winter rest. They are trying to get out through the window all day long. Normally I would do anything to get rid of them, but now they sort of remind me of summer, so I´m letting them be. Outside they would die instantly and that is normally the way I like flies to go :-) Living beside a bog and a lot of cattle gives a lot of flies in summer, but now they are just nice to listen to.

The fog is slowley mowing in over the field.

Theese old agricultural Implements have stod there for many years now. Will probaly never be used again, so now they´re a natural part of the landskape.

Bertil just had to walk on this frozen ditch :-) Teodor didn´t think the weather was good enough to take a walk in :-)

I went down to the creek this morning, to se if I could se where they are cutting down trees. Just as we reach the open fields the two machines broke through the woods. But it seemes they just are thinning the area, not cutting down all trees. But I´ll not be sure about that until Saturday when they don´t work there. Then I can take the old road to see it from the other side. I know thwt the owner is a responsibel land owner, so sometimes he just thinnings the forest.

The first machine broke out of the forest just as we reached the creek. This one is picking up the cutten wood that

this machine has left it. It does look as they just are thinning the forest.

The birds have finally found the tallow ball I hung beside the kitchen window. Unfortunally they all now have their backs towards me and tha camera :-) One picture a can show anyway. My back is much better now, so tomorrow I´ll get back to work again. I think one and a half day is a good start to check how good my back is.
I wish You all a pleasent day!

Instead of following the creek, we went into the woods they say the Red deer are hiding. I´ve never seen the Red deer but I´ve seen the Fallow deers a couple of times. In this wood area there also are a lot of moose and small deers. There were a lot of fresh moose droppings so we turned back after a while.

This is about two meters up in the air. Mooses do a lot of damage to the forest when they are hungry.

This is the back of a Talgoxe. They didn´t want to sit so I could take a good picture :-)

This is how it looked this morning. Not much snow but at least it´s snow and not rain.

There was i thin layer of snow outside when I woke up this morning and for once it didn´t melt away immediatly. The whol world changes when it comes a little bit of snow I think. So we took an early morning walk and everything was silent. At least at the beginning. Suddenly I could hear a car comming and short after that they started to chop down some part of the forrest.







I know that they have to do that sometimes, that´s why people own forrests but I´m not happy about it. Lets just hope it isn´t one of my favourite places to walk by at least. Last Year the did cut down the forest on some of my favourite places and in the beginning I thought it was terrible. But then I got uset to it and have to admit that it´s not that bad after all. The heavu spruce and pine forrest is more open and lets the sun shine all the way to the ground. Now there is a lot of deciduous shrubs and trees growing up instead. Unfortunally the owner is most likely to plant new pines and spruces, so I have to enjoy the area as it looks now as long as it´s possible.

Yesterday there wrere open puddles here but the nigt was a little bit cold, so now snow is covering them.



Normally I wouldn´t se this little tree, but the contrast between the almost black bark on the tree and the white snow made it visible to the eye.

It´s still to warm and to little snow for the birds to come to the feeders. They are all in my garden looking for small insekts that might live under the bark in the bushes and trees. They always spred the seeds from the feeder over the ground and now when they aren´t there i thought it might attract mouses and rats. But I can´t see any trases of those rodents yet. Perhaps the cat Bertil has frightened them away? He´s a master of catching them. Fortunally for me he eats them. Some cats have the idea thet they must show their owners how good they are, but not Bertil. I doubt that Teodor even consider to catch a mouse, why should he? He nows that there will be food for him inside :-)
Have a nice day now!

It´s wonderful to walk in the forest early in the morning. So quiet and calm. Soon one can hear the Black grouse play here.

It´s warm and foggy outside today, again. But it´s quite nice taking walks with my dogs, the cats rather stay indoors now. I´ve noticed that now when it´s warm, the birds don´t come to the feeders anymore. Now they are scattered all over the lawn at the backside of my house instead.

My back is a little bit better today. Not so much pain as it´s stiff. Think it´s going to be okey in a day or two now. The problem of being home from work is that I have a lot of time over. Could clean the house of course, but Nah! I saw a replay of the tv series House. It´s fun to see once in a while, but not to often. He who plays House is a great comedien actully.

For once I managed to make my dogs sit still for more than two swconds :-)

I was going to make a video with my new camera and did so. But the memorycard I have only allowed me to make it twenty one seconds long :-) I can tell You that it was the best twenty one seconds I´ve ever done :-) :-) I´m going to buy a new memory card as soon as possible. I could have made a video with lower quality and gotten yet another twenty one sekonds, but it´s still to short I think.

The ice on the puddles has melted, but on ponds it´s still very thick.

Well now I´m going back to watch TV and then another walk with the dogs.
Enjoy the day now!

Here and there rests of old sandpits can be found in the forest.

It seemes I strained all my muscles in my back yesterday when I slipped on the ice outside my garage. I have no problems walking or sitting absolutely still, but otherwise.... Well it could have been much worse, so I´m not complaining. But I can´t work with this backpain, so tomorrow I´m home taking care of my back.

Once again it´s raining and on top of that foggy. Warm though, so it´s quite nice walking outside. The only thing that can be heard is a tractor fetching the white big plastic balls containing silage and in the forest a small bird that sounds like small bells of silver. I´ve never seen the little bird, but the sound of it is delightful.

Bjurums castle.

I went to the grosery store this morning and on the way home I drowe past the castle in Bjurum. Once uppon a time there was a littele village just beside the castle. But previos owner let it laps. But the new owner seemes to change that. Some of the houses has been renovated, lets hope he´ll continue with that. The proble is to make people to move in. The communications isn´t the best out here, so one really needs a car to live here and petrol is not cheap to be honest.

I call this "The portal". In the summer it feels like one is going through a gate when passing theese trees.

I baked a bred yesterday and I have to admit that it became really tasty with a hint of basil and rosemary in it. So now I´m going to make a pot of tea and make a sandwich with ham and cheese :-)
Have a really nice day now!

It´s once again a windy and rainy day here by the cranelake. Thw roads were slippery if ice before, but today they are even worse. I managed to make it to the woods anyway, so the walk became really nice despite of the rain. The creeks are almost empty now even if it´s raining. The ground is frozen solid, so the water can´t reach the ditches now. Places that has cold winters are more or less a desert now because all water is frozen in the ground.

Still some snow left despite the rain. This mushroom was like a beacon with its orange colour.

We managed to get home without any falls on the slippery roads. But then I thought that it was best to get some more Fire logs into the house, so I went to the garage to get a couple of packges. They are wrapped in plastic and weighs about ten kilos each ( littel more thar 22 pounds). I had the two packages on my shoulder and was about to close the garage doors when I felt that my feets were gliding apart. Slowley, slowley I was sinking down into a spagath. I really didn´t want that so there was only one thing to do, so I had to fall backwards instead. The fall were soft because there was a hughe puddle of water behind me :-) :-) I couldn´t do anything but laughe when I lay there :-)

There is almost no water in the creeks now, exept for some ice. Sweden is a desert wintertime.

Today I´ve also sowed the wonderful Bushpoppey (Romneya coulteri). We are a lot of peoplethat have sown the seeds from that plant, but only a few has managed it to germinate. We have tried to put fire on them, watered with ashes, had them coo and warm. But almost never anything happens. But now I read that it can work if one uses a natural acid called gibberline. One can buy Gibberline but it has very short sustainability and one needs only a few drops. But one can also put old leafs in the soil. Because when they decay the produce gibberline. So I picked some old leafs in the garden and mixed them in the soil. I´m going to have it in the kitchen until tomorrow, after that I will place them in my cold cellar under the greenhouse light. Then it will be warm during the day, but cold during the night. So cross Your fingers and hold Your thumbs so they start to germinate soon :-)
Be good!

The seeds from the Romneya coulteri is as big as the poppy seeds one has on white bread. So much harder to germinate though.


I picked some leafs in the garden. I tore them in smaller pices so they star to decay faster.

Now the seeds are sown, nothing else than to waite now.