Sunday, July 12, 2009

The sky didn´t look healthy when the sun went down yesterday. It had this yellowish unhealthy color.



It´s a rather cool, windy and cloudy morning now. Still no rain though and there might be some thunder later today. I´m thinking of going out to continue with my pond. There is still a lot of rubber carpet left around the edges, so perhaps I widen the pond a little. I´m not sure if there´s enough with protection carpet to put undernieth though. But any old carpet will do, just so stones or other sharp things can hurt the rubbercarpet.



Scabiosa caucasia or Pincushion flower.

The rain has done wonders to my plants in the garden, but also disasters. Many of the high delphiniums have gotten so heavy filled with rain water that they have broken and fallen to the ground. That´s the problem with most high perennials, they need to be supported by something not to fall down when it rains or blows. But there´s worse problems than that one can get in life I think :-)



Codonopsis clematidea. In swedish it´s called Porseline bell, in english Asian bellflower.

It´s plain blueish white on the outside.

But it´s on its inside it has a small but beautiful color pattern. Smells awful though.



The Magpies in my neighbourhood has become a bit to brave and brazen now. Just some minutes ago they flew around in my kitchen and used droppings like little bombs. They have found out that they like catfood You see. I wondered when my cats were eating, because I never saw or heard them doing it, but still the cat food was gone. Today I heard them, the magpies I mean. I thought they sounded very close, but I never thought they actully dared to go inside! My big dog Orvar, sleeping on the floor didn´t do much to scare them away either :-) He loves the whole world that dog :-)

There´s finally some water in the creeks. But it wount take much sun to dry it out again.


We´ve never had Lornicea, honeysuckle, in our forest before. I´m not sure if this is the species that naturally grows in Sweden or if it´s a gardenrunner.




So now I have to find a new place to put the catfood when the kitchen door is open during summers. Still I can´t but admire the birds taking that risk. I could have been closer and I do have two cats that surly would have liked the magpies for dinner. But magpies are intelligent birds and probably had calculated the risk towards how much they like catfood :-) Magpies, Crows, Ravens and Jackdaws are at least as intelligent as the smartest parrots so they knows what they are up to.


My clematis Tove usually flowers now in summer too, not only in spring. But as You can see the petals has a strange form. They almost looks like ordinary leafs this time.


My white delphinium grows on a place it doesn´t like. Instead of being high it´s very low and struggles to survive. I have to move it this autumn.


I´m not sure what kind of Delphinium this is. I bought it ages ago, but this is the first time it flowers.






The sun is looking through the thick layer of clouds, so perhaps I will go out and start with the pond now. If thunder comes I´ll notice that on the flies getting more and more aggressive. That they fly around me in hundreds isn´t that bad. But they also always wants to see how it looks inside my ears and nose and that´s a big problem. I don´t panik as I used to do when I was Younger, but I still doesn´t like it. How can farmers get used to them? But better those flies that the horse flies anyway.
I will be a bit busy these comming days, so I wount write anything here until next thursday. So until then have a great week!
Christer.






Beautiful, isn´t it? It´s actully one of the worst weeds that can be found. Campanula rapunculoides or Creeping bellflower. The roots get so dense that it kills all other flowers that happens to live close to it. Dig it up and every single little piece that´s left creates a new plant. Every single flower also produce up to 2000 seeds. A nightmare for most gardeners. I have sandy soil so it´s easier for me to have a little bit control over it. Those that have clay soil, poor people. The roots are edible though and tastes like radishes.












We met Teodor on our morning walk.








Bertil was already with us, so the whole family took this morning walk together :-)






The wild Goos berries are ripe now and delicious. I read in Wikepidia that we call them Stickelbär when they grow in the wild. Had no idea about that.







There are loads of wild strawberries too. So much actully that I probably will pick them and perhaps make some jam :-)




The wild raspberries (we call them wild raspberries or forest raspberries here) is also starting to ripe now :-) They taste as good as they look :-) Especially on the east coast here they can find a blue sort of this too.



















10 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...i love gooseberries. i was growing them but the area got too shady and they died. your place looks wonderful. what a great place to walk. we never got our storms. they were all around us but raining right here. now i will spend the day watering. joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

I have two bushes with goosberries, but these last two years something is eating all leaves on them. I don´t think they´ll survive another year. But is there a tastier berry?

It is wonderful here, if we forget about all sorts of flies :-) It was the best thing I´ve ever done to move here :-)

We´ve had some rain and some sunshine too. I started with my pond, but the flies are to aggressive now, so thunder is close I feel. I´ve heard som from a distance but it´ll sure come some more!
Have a great week now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

You have a great week too Christer. I enjoyed your post this morning and love the cat photo. I think we need to see more photos of the pond. How's that coming along? The flowers are beautiful.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
I´ve been out working with the pond twice today, but the flies are too aggressive. Thunder is closing in I think. I´ve dug down a big part of the edges but realised some problems during doing so. I´ll explain more next thursday I think.
Have a great week now!
Christer.

NinaH said...

Great wild berries you´ve found!
Tihi. Brave Magpies! But what you do you have of your dogs?!...;-)
Lovely Delphiniums!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Nina!
Yes one can wonder about my dogs :-) :-)
have a great day now!
Christer.

Tara said...

I can't say I've ever had a gooseberry. Are they similar in taste to a raspberry?

The flowers are beautiful.

:)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Tara!
No nothing like raspberries. Goose berries are closly related to the blackcurrant and redcurrant berries and has a somewhat close taste. Very sweet when ripe. I don´t think they have a chanse to survuve in Your climat unfortynally, but on the other hand, You can have so many other things :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

splendid said...

christer,
i love how you turn a phrase sometimes:"My big dog Orvar, sleeping on the floor didn´t do much to scare them away either :-) He loves the whole world that dog :-)".
the photos of the johnny jump up flowers made me smile
i just want to hug that cat of yours teodor ~ i have never had a marmalade cat before,that colour has eluded me.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Splendid!
:-)
Cats colored like Teodor is a bit special in their minds. They don´t behave like other cats in many ways. They are a bit nutty to be honest :-) Most of them drools a lot too :-) But they are fantastic cats.

Orvar is very special in that way that he loves all other animals. He can wonder away to sort of have a chat with my neighbours horses, those horses don´t tolerate dogs otherwise.
One day he found a very sick deer. He sort of chatted with it for a while, licked the deer on its nose and went away. The day after we found the deer dead on the same spot they met.
Have a great day now!
Christer.