Friday, May 8, 2009

Even the really long pond, that I showed pictures of this winter, has started to dry up now.



Normally when I have my days off from work and the sun shines they pass so quickley. When it rains like yesterday and the time sort of slows down it feels like the days are so much longer and I feel like I´m getting so more relaxed at work the days after (but that doesn´t mean that i want it to rain all the time). They had promised sun and fairly warm weather until at least noon today, then the rain would come. Noon came very early today, just before nine am actully :-) The winds are strong and very cold now, I don´t think we will get it any warmer than the nine degrees (48F) we have right now.




It continues a long way behind the spruces. Now it looks like there´s only mud, but if I tried to walk there I would sink down to my knees.




The morning walk however was in sunny and warm weather. Once again we slept with an open window and got woken up by the garbage truck quite early. My dogs ran around following every track that all the animals had made last night and I looked after something to photograf. There were not much around that I not already have shown You, so mostly I just wandered along with my dogs. Suddenly we scared a big flock with forest and ringnecked doves from a newly sown field. There must have been over a hundered birds there. I was a bit slow with my camera, but for once it didn´t bleep :-)





Not even Bertil was light enough to walk there.


I later went to the store in Gudhem. It was freezing cold inside the store. One of their old freezers doesn´t work if they have the heat on, so until the new one arrives they have to shut all heaters. It was almost so cold in there that I thought it would be nicer to get out in the wind and rain again :-) Naturally I forgot half of everything that i should have bought, but I came home with a lot of stuff I really don´t need instead.



It looks as if we got a nesting couple of city doves. They usually don´t leave town. Easier to take pictures of because they aren´t that afraid of humans like the doves we have in the forest.





On my way home I noticed that they had raised the prise on gasoline again. Now it costs 12,09 swedish kronor/litre. That would be something like 5,7 dollars/US gallon. Nowdays I plan my shopping and driving carefully so I don´t have to drive to much. The gasbill would be to high outherwise. That is the only disadvantage to live on the countryside. We have no bus stops nearby and the busses usually don´t go when we need them too :-)


If You click to enlarge this picture You´ll actully see some of the doves we scared this morning. This time I can´t blame the camera even if I would like to :-)



Well with this weather I wount go anywere anyway. I´ll just stay indoors as much as possible, put a log in the fire now and again and then just enjoy the day as it comes.
Have a great day now!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

What? No fox picture this morning Christer? It must be the fox is reading your blog. But doves are fine. Love the city doves. You can go up close to get pictures of them. I couldn't really see the others very well even though I enlarged the photo. The snap of Berti looks like he is about to pounce on something. My cat Zoey caught a lizard yesterday. You have a great Christer weekend off in the middle of the week again!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
No that fox has a sixth sence I think :-) But one day I´ll surprise him :-)

I always liked doves, but these we have in the forest are rather shy. That´s why it´s difficult to see them in the picture, they lift as soon as they notice anything that might be a threat. To them everything is a threat I think :-)

We have just a few lizards here so I hope my and all other cats leave them alone. Bertil actully was jumping away from sinking in the mud :-)

I´ll have a great day, You too!
Christer.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer.....i enjoyed taking that walk with you! i envy your weather. soon we will be hot and steamy here. we get very humid in the summer in the ohio river valley. also, i live on a mountain overlooking the city so i get all the radiant heat from the tall buildings downtown. since i live in such an old house the air conditioning is less than stellar. i don't like the heat so summer is my least favorite time of year. too bad gardening can't be done in winter. today i am setting up a growing system in my garage so next winter i will be able to work in there starting my plants when it is still cold outside. have a great friday! joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi jaz!
The rain is pouring outside and the wind is quite strong so it´s a perfect day of doing nothing here :-)

Summers here usually don´t get warmer that 77F, but these last years we have come over 93F here by my cottage and that´s to much.

Great thing to use Your garage! Most of the things I sow needs a cold winter to get started, so I sow them in autumn and the pots stands outside all winter. It´s only my tomatoe plants and a few other vegetable or fruit plants that has to be sown indoors early in year, so I can handle them in my cottage.
Have a great day Yourself!
Christer.

Annika said...

Ja, visst är det skönt att bara vara under regniga dagar. Jag håller med dig, fullt ut!
Men som du säger så vill man ju inte ha regn vecka ut och vecka in. Nej tack!

Yes, the summers in Sweden, and in Scandinavia at large, are getting warmer and warmer. Not so fun, actually. I hope the up-coming summer will be warm, and nice, but not too hot. Temperatures in the 90's are a little much!

Ha en fin helg!!!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Annika!
Har njutit hela dagen :-) Men nu hör jag de första åskmullren en bit bort, så då är det dags att dra ur alla jacken här. Ligger bland de sista på telefonledningen och här slår blixten alltid ut genom uttagen.

Last summer were awful at times, so I´m hoping for a little cooler, but steady warm summer now. But comparing to the US it´s always cool here I think :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

NinaVästerplana said...

Så åskan mullrar hos dig! O då hoppas jag den håller sig hemifrån! För det är jag, hemifrån alltså! Om du nu skulle komma tillbaka ut i cybern så har jag en liten fråga.... Sôstera mi har en buskpion med tre meterhöga grenar. Den ena grönskar o har två stora fina knoppar... de två andra ser ut att ha torkat in i bladutspringet men det är fortfarande liv i topparna.
Frågan är nu, ska hon klippa ner de två `sena´ eller vänta o se?
Om du har tid o lust o svara kommer hon vara dig evigt tacksam....
Nina

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize your gas prices were so high here in Maine is average 2.05 to 2.10 us dollars per gallon.Good thing you go walking not driving.hope it stays cool for your return to work .

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hej Nina!
Man skall aldrig klippa i en buskpion förrän man vet till 100% att den är död. Man får vänta så länge tills den blommar igen då. Men de klarar klippning riktigt bra annars. Så vänta och se , det kan ju komma nya blad. Annars kapar man bara av det döda och hoppas att det inte tar allt för många år innan den grenen blommar igen.
Ha det gott nu!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Woody!
The gas prizes are really high here, but I don´t think that we have the most expensive gas in Europe. Most of the countries over here is somwhere around that prise. But yesterday it got even more expensive!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Somehow I missed this post..and it's a really nice one! Gas here is going back up again..and up..and up. Strange.
I loved the pictures of your Doves...so much wild life there that I never get to see here...
Mona

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
The reson gas is so expensive here is that the dollar is so expensive for us at the moment. But on the other hand expensive dollar makes our buisnesses going with profit, because most of them get paid with Dollars outside Sweden :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.