Monday, May 4, 2009

The Anemones and Hepaticas are relativly young species so they mutate quite a lot still. This is a blue Wood anemone. In nature one can find everything from pure whit to dark blue or red. Sometimes they are totally filled with petals and therefore sterile and sometimes the petals are green. The flowers can also be really small or gigantic, the biggest flower I´ve seen on a Wood anemon was five centimeters wide (2 inches) usually they are only two centimeters (one inch).




I woke up this morning feeling really great in my back, until I stood up :-) Now my neck and left shoulder has got the idea that I must know they exist too :-) But the day is still young, more bodyparts can get the same idea still :-)


I sowed a seed from a Paradise apple more than eight years ago and this spring it will flower for the first time :-)




It must have rained some this night I think. There was this cool fresch smell in the air and the grovel road looked slightly darker then it usually does. But perhaps rain is the wrong word, it´s more like someone have been spitting here and there from the sky and it has been no use for the vegetation, it was to little for that. The sky was cloudy and the wind bitterly cold when we took our morning walk. I thought it would be better walking in the forest but the wind got to me there too. My dogs ran around sniffing for what might have passed this night or ate things I really don´t want to know about. Finally the migrating birds seemes to have caught up with spring here. It has been unusually warm here and I don´t think that all birds sort of understood that down in Europe and Afrika. But today we once again have that eardeathening sound from all singing birds as we usually have hear at spring.



Can You see the little ladybird under the leaf on the sorbus flowerbuds? Brown with white spots. (Click on the picture to enlarge it so You can se it better) I´ve never seen a brown before. By the way, ladybirds are called "Key maids" in swedish.






I´ve told You about the swedish heats to the Eurovishion song contest here before, now it´s time for the european finals. The first semi final is at May twelve. Ten songs goes from each semi final to the big final that Saturday. Nine from each is chosen from the european viewers by televoting, but one from each is chosen from a special jury. They do so because some songs might need to be heard more than once to be liked. Stupid really if You ask me. I dont think that one more time will help them at all. The swedish song was chosen that way last year and it came way back amongst the last ones anyway :-)



Now my old plum tree has started to flower.



For those of You who doesn´t know, this is deadly serious for sweeds. The Eurovishon song contest (both all swedish heats and the European heats and final) is the most watched programs in Sweden, they even beat Donlad Duck on Christmas! and that says a lot. We have already heard the songs that will be in the first semi final and a small jury group has given their votes, those votes doesn´t mean anything in the finals it´s just for the swedish viewers. Tonight they start showing the songs from the second semifinal. This they do so all songs gets the chanse to be heard to everyone befor the competition. This jury of ours never gets it right though :-) Last years winned, a melodramatic song from Russia, didn´t get especially many votes from them. So if the jury dislike a song it will probably be one of those songs that will have a chanse to win :-) :-)

This little violet grows everywher in my garden. The smell is fantastic but so strong that my nose sort of shuts down for a while, can´t smell a thing after that for a couple of minutes :-)



I usually likes the songs from south eastern europe with a lot of influence from asia and the arabic countries. But this year Norway (Click on Norway and You´ll see the song on YouTube)looks like a winner ( I really think it´s great), at least up here in nothern Europe. It´s really good but I think Bosnia has a really good chance too. Sweden then? Well who knows There was a voting on the rehersals in Moscow last night and the true fans of this (and they aren´t many) seemes to have voted for our song. I´m happy if she reaches the finals, it´s tough to combien opera with discopop. The funny thing is that songwriters from other countries can participate in all countries competitions so usually ther´s a lot of sweeds competing in the final :-) This year we have a great artist/songwriter competing for Azerbaycan .He is one of my favourites normally and his name is Arash (born in Iran) and he sings with Aysel(Click on Arash and You´ll se the official video on YouTube). This is one of my favourites and I really hopes it wins. No song is allowed to be more than three minutes.


She stood there absolutly still all the time she could see me. Probably the youngling was near by. Click on the picture to anlarge it so You can see her better.







Now it´s time to use the heat pad again and then out to the sun that has started to shine again! Have a great day now!

Click here and You´ll se the swedish song for the contest.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a wonderful song, I hope she wins. She could sing opera, I think.

The anemones would make lovely ground cover too. I think I found another flower on your blog before that would work in my wooded area. I would like to find something that blooms in the spring and summer. Something that makes it look like a carpet between the tall trees and palms.

Exercise your neck and shoulders Christer. You need to draw blood into those muscles to have it work on the constricted areas. Heat will work too.

Really nice post today and thanks for the music. Love it! Have a good one.

Fleming said...

I love your blog, with its beautiful photographs and descriptions of nature. I've just seen your blog for the first time because you left a Comment on "Cat in a Bag" about an excerpt from my blog which was posted there -- about church in my childhood. I share your interest in growing things and cats. I live in Florida, and it's interesting to compare the flowers here with those in Sweden.

Fleming said...

I forgot to mention that we have cranes here in Central Florida too! When we lived in the country there were two cranes which hatched two babies each year at the little lake behind our house. The parents would bring the babies to walk around our house every day.

Of course there are cranes here in other open places, and often I hear their loud calls as they fly near my house. Sometimes golfers have to pause their games because cranes refuse to move out of the way.

I also think it's remarkable that my childhood church experiences in Florida were similar to yours in Sweden.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
I´m a bit ambivalent to that song. I like opera and I like popsongs but I´m not to happy about mixing them together. She is an opera singer usually and sha can sing in a "normal" way to, most opera singers can´t. I´m hoping for the best of course.

Yes, it was the "Snake eye" You liked too. I´m not sure that the Wood anemone can make it in Your warm klimat though.

I´m moving around as much as possible and its actully feels better now. I´ll stay at home one more day I think and then back to work.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Flemming!
Thank You, I try my best :-)
We have a couple of nesting cranes just on the other side of a field next to my cottage. At the moment they are very quiet because they probably have small ones by now. But soon the will start walking around in our gardens very early in the mornings :-)

I never went to Sunday school, but much of the rest of what You wrote is very similar. My church, The Swedish mission church, is very much like the one You were to. Usually it was like You described, there wasn´t much place for a fire and brimstone preacher though :-). The singing, when one didn´t know how to stop the laughter (I still can have big problems with that :-) ) Especially when the older women sang and their voices sort of jumped up and down through every song. Like uncontrolled wailing.
The shouting of "Amen", but in a very quiet way so it wouldn´t disturb any one :-) and the preaching that could take sooo long time if the one preching loved his or her voice a bit too much :-)

All the questions from the children when I was a leader in something called Nying, almost like scouts. How will I know or how can God :-) But we weren´t to hard on the kids being christan to go to Nying. When I was there we had a couple of Jewish girls there and before me there were a couple of muslim children.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Christer.

Katarina said...

Vilket tålamod du har som har väntat 8 år på blomningen...då blir det extra kul när trädet äntligen blommar!
Katarina

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hej Katarina!
Ja, det är sant att det blir lte extra roligt då :-) Dessutom väntar jag på att de bägge äppleträden som jag sådde från Granny Smith kärnor skall blomma. De är ungefär lika gamla nämligen :-)
Christer.

Kat said...

Christer,
As always your pictures are beautiful with great detail. I, who choose flowers by color, am envious of you and your talent and knowledge of the different flowers.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kat!
I was lucky to get this camera of mine when my Sister in law bought a new one. I and the camera doesn´t always agree with how the pictures will look :-) But we´re beginning to become really good friends anyway :-) :-)

I´ve been interested in gardening since I was five or six years old so after a while names and how the plants like to live sort of stays in the head :-) But as amny garderners I could write a book about all plants I´ve killed during the years :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.