Saturday, May 2, 2009

Bertil and Teodor is waiting for food, but a tractor is more interesting to look at thinks Teodor.


The factorys big air compressor had broken down this Thursday, so I had to use the old one instead. The problem with that one is that it easily gets over heated and shuts down, espesially warm and sunny days like today. It´s not a huge problem really, I just have to shut it down, wait five minutes and restart it. But everything takes so much longer time. On the other hand I and my dogs got more time together :-) There is an old garden (two actully, one on each side of the factory) where we sat during the time we waited. In one of the gardens there´s an old orchard with some old apple trees no one cares about any more and today I noticed that there grew rhubarbs in the other one. The original rhubarb is quite big, but there were a lot of seedlings around it. So now I have two small rhubarb plants here at home :-)



I took the following pictures on my way home from work. The quality isn´t especially good but look at them, do You notice anything special?





Most houses/cottages and barns are red with white corners here on the country side in southern Sweden. Most of them has also the exact same kind of paint. They made a survey some time ago and that showed that one thing sweeds want in life is a red cottage with white corners on the country side. I live in one :-)



There´s to much noice in the parks in Stockholm, the traffic is to loud. So now they have hit their heads together (swedish saying) and come up with an idea. They will create even more noice but with nature sounds. Think they hit their heads together a bit to hard this time :-) If one doesn´t get death by traffic one will surly be death by the nature sounds instead :-) :-) They sure knows how to solve problems in our capital :-) :-)



This magpie is not afraid of me, my dogs or cats. It can sit still in a bush just a meter away just looking at us :-)


Nowdays we can see the moon most of the day.






Did You know that the oldest living tree lives in Sweden? I´ve always thought that the oldest one lived in California to be honest. But how wrong I was. There is a small, rather shabby spruce up on a mountin called Fulufjället up in the county Dalarna. It looks likes it has been dying for the last couples years but it has always looked like that they think, because the climate has been so hard there (but now when the climate has become warmer it grows more and more). They took samples of spruce coones, geneticly identical to the living spruce and sent the samples to a laboratory in the USA. They found out that the samples were 375, 5 660, 9 000 and 9 550 years old! They have found twenty or more trees over eight thousand years old too. They started to grow just when the big ice melted away.

We call this Pentecost lilly. Smells wonderful!





Thats all for today my friends. Now it´s time for some tea and a couple of sandwiches :-)
Have a great day now!

This kind of Bleeding heart is called "Second Lieutenants heart" in Sweden.


And this one that is on its way now is called "Lieutenats heart" here. It will take some weeks until it´s as its best.

12 comments:

NinaH said...

I´ve missed a lot on every ones blogs the last couple of days! HAd a lot to read now!;-)
Actually it can be rather nice to have get som minutes off you havn´t expected! Right?!;-)(I mean you & your dogs got some more minutes together!)
Seems you got summer in Skaraborg to!;-)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi NinaH!
Yes it´s rather nice to get those extra minutes now and again :-) and to find the rhubarbs was a bonus :-)
Now it will get colder again and perhaps the spring slows down a bit so we can enjoy it some more.
Have a great evening now!
Christer.

HelenJ said...

My house is green and white! But the neighbours on three of the sides from my house have red houses with white corners.... =)
Have a nice sunny Sunday!
/Helen

NinaVästerplana said...

Mina rabarber har sorkarna käkat upp rötterna på!
Så nu slipper jag o ha dåligt samvete för att jag inte plockar av dom o gör paj..... men det vore himla gott med paj ;-(
Ha en skön vecka
Nina

Anonymous said...

Great post today Christer. My house is brick on concrete block. I built it that way to avoid too much damage if a Hurricane comes through. I thought it would decrease my insurance but it didn't. Now I only pay for nothing. I do enjoy the pictures of the farmland and the Swedes do love red and white trim.

It is interesting that the tests on those trees show such a long history. I think it's wonderful. Love the Pentecost Lilly. It looks brilliant and I bet has a soothing aroma. Have a good evening!

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

What a great picture of Bertil and Teodor! I loved it. I miss having cats but I am pretty certain I get to ever own one again and that makes me sad.
Soooo...now you have a couple of "rhubarb" plants at your little cottage. I 'm am wondering if they just jumped into your car..or if they ran down the road and followed you home??! Probably the latter. :) Well, they have found a wonderful home and someone to appreciate them. That's for sure!
I am off to find a cup of coffee. The home garden tour was awful. Only one garden was worth anything and I will post a few photo's of it on monday..or tomorrow if I have time. All of the homes were a disappointment. Someone certainly didn't put much time into finding homes. However, lunch was done beautifully. So..all was not lost. I do have a photo of a tree and I am wondering what in the world it is.
Have a nice weekend, Christer.
Mona

Anonymous said...

I enjoy your blog and the lovely photos of flowers. But I especially love the photos of your dogs and cats and your home. So interesting to learn about life in Sweden - in your little corner of the world.

Linda in Chapel Hill, NC

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Helen!
Yeah, there are a lot of red houses around :-)Out of twenty cottages and houses in my village I think that all but five are red :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hej Nina!
Mina rabarber dog av uttorkning tror jag. De blev lite mindre för varje år tills de bara försvann :-) Denna gången skall de få en bättre plats att leva på :-) Rabarber paj eller soppa eller kräm eller ..... Rabarber kan man aldrig få för mycket av :-)
Ha det gott nu!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
Strange that you wount get a lower bill on Your insurance when You have such a house. I know that people here in Sweden gets lower insurance kost if they do thing to reduce risk of damage if they live in an area where flooding is common, should be the same for You I think.

Yes we do love our red houses :-) :-)

They have shown pictures of these old trees and they do look like shabby bushes to be honest :-) But it is kind of cool that they are so old! It´s the branches that comes close to the ground that gets roots and makes the tree to go on living.

Most of the pentecost lillys doesn´t have any aroma at all, but this one smells delightful. If one have many it´s fantastic sitting outside warm evenings :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
They do run fast and jump high those little rhubarbs, straight in to my car :-) :-)

Such a shame that they didn´t get better gardens to show! One gets so dissapointed! Here the gardentours wount start until late in summer, even if there are many interesting gardens now too with all the early spring flowers. But I think the owners wants some time to make the gardens look at their best before letting strangers in. But usually anyone can come when ever they want as long as they ask some weeks ahead. I have a gardenfriend that get people from other countries to just look at his garden!

Why don´t You show You picture of that tree in Your blog? You´ll probably get loads of answers there!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Linda!
Thanks for reading my blog! I think the pictures of my dogs and cats are the most liked :-) and since they always are with me there will be a lot of them here :-)
Have a great day now and welcome back!
Christer.