Sunday, September 27, 2009

It wasn´t the brightest of mornings today, not the warmest either but perfect for a morning walk with my dogs and Bertil the cat.


I woke up at five am this morning. I refused to get up even if it was impossible to fall asleep again. It´s kind of nice just lie there listening to the sounds around me. Old Erna slightly snoring, Hector sighing, because he knew I was awake and he really wanted to start the day :-) Orvar calmly breathing and the wind howling outside.




The natural pond still has some water so there might be some dragonflies next year.


A group of ravens (six, probably two parents and four yopunglings) flew over my head on the way home. Naturally the camera took its time to get started so I only cought on of them with my camera.

The forest hindered most of the wind, so it was quite pleasant to take our morning walk. I heard cranes shouting for a short time and saw them up in the air to far away to get a picture of them. Most of them has left us now, but there will surly come some late arrivals yet for some time. I also saw a family of ravens flying over me. They had a great time playing in the wind and for once no smaller birds tried to attack them :-)

I think this is as close that I get to the sun today :-)


The comming pictures comes from our afternoon walk yesterday. We walked to an island in the bog to where I know the safe way. Bogs can be a dangerous place to walk on if not knowing the safe ways.





We´ve had a rather pleasant autumn this far, but now temperatures will drop rather much. In a couple of days it´ll be only eleven degrees here ( fiftytwo F) so I bought rather a lot of fire logs to my stove at the same time I bought my rubber boots. So I wount have to start my electric radiators for yet a month I think. If I have a fire in the stove for a couple of hours my little cottage will be warm enough for twenty four hours :-)

The ferns really don´t get autumn colors, they sort of just looses all colors at once.


I wonder what lives down here. Two holes leads down into the ground. Perhaps a forest mouse family or a bank vole family lives here?


All the small birches on the bog has gotten yellow.



Well it´s time to vacuuming the floors again. I can´t for my life understand how much sand those dog of mine gets inside every day. Not to forget that old Erna sheds her fur again!! I don´t know how many times they have done that this year, but I´ve heard many dogowners saying the same thing, so I´m not allone with this at least :-) After that there will be a fire in the stove :-9
Have a great day now!




Bertil, the cat that behaves like a dog :-) He never misses to follow us on our walks.


10 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

bertil is a very handsome cat. he looks almost blue in the pictures. we are going to be almost as cold as you this week. i have to get my pool closed fast because it is filling with leaves and it takes a lot of cleaning each day to get them all out. your pictures are great as usual. i wonder what lives down in that hole. i sure would not stick my hand in there!!! joyce

Anonymous said...

Bertil loves the outdoors. Most outdoor cats get a case of the wildies and love to roam. I love that image of the single, lonely, flower. You can find a poem to go with a photo like that. I love to see the colors of the forrest change and I guess the yellow leaves on the tree in the one photo are telling you that Autumn is almost over. So when do you think you will see snow? Great post today Christer, thanks.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Yes, Bertil is very handsome and it´s just luck that he lives by me :-)
Originally I should only have Teodore, the ginger cat. Bertil, his brother, was ment to go elsewhere. But they changed their minds and so he came to me :-)
It´s the light playing a trick with our eyes making him look blue, he´s almost as close to pure grey as can be in ordinary daylight.

I can imagine how much work there is to clean Your pool! I can see how much leafs that falls into my pond every day and I think it´s so much more important to get leafs out of a pool compared to a pond. I can wait till the leafs stop falling to get them out of my pond.

I too wonder. Perhaps snakes use it to be over winter? But most likly it´s a vole family.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
It´s a bit funny with Bertil, he only wants to go out into the forest with me and my dogs, never alone. His brotrher Teodor is just the opposite, we can meet him on our way out when he´s going back home again :-)

Autumn can be very long here. So I don´t expect the first snow until early November. But I´m hoping for a long autumn, so long that it actully streches until spring :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Valerie said...

Hi Christer.

Your pictures today really do look like Fall, especially the morning sky heavy with clouds.

Dangerous bogs... I thought so! So how do you know where to walk that it's safe? I saw an interesting program on the Discovery Channel (something about how to stay alive in adverse conditions) and the narrator showed what could happen if you fell into a bog...it was filmed in Ireland.

I love that Bertil thinks like a dog...but I bet he loves that he has 9 lives should he ever need them!!!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Valrie!
Yes, autumn is here for real now. But I hope winter don´t come to fast, I want autumn until next spring :-)

Yes bog is dangerous in many ways. Firstly we have the deep holes, that might be several meters deep and another thing most people doesn´t think of is that one looses the sence of direction on a bog. Everything looks much the same wherever You look.

The best thing is to ask neighbours that nows the way out there and to follow trails made by the animals that lives out there. If one sees moose droppings one can be sure that it´s quite safe there :-)


I almost only goes out on the bog when it´s so cold that water has frozen. As long as the ice is thick one can walk everywhere out there. But bogs are a bit mysterious. I walked there a lot last winter and even if there were snow out there, my tracks dissapered after a while.Even if there wasn´t much of a wind that day!

But despite the dangers I love to walk around out there. It´s the most peace ful place on earth.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Even thought I miss a day or two now and then..I always catch up and fret at what I missed! I DO love this blog!
I will be gone for awhile...(my surgery) but I will return soon...so don't think I am not visiting for any other reason.
I will miss you...take good care and for pete's sake ..I wish you wouldn't wander around in those bogs!! Makes me nervous!!
I hope you don't mind if I send you a hug...take good care..see you soon.
Mona

womanwisdom said...

it is truly a refreshing treat to visit your blog, especially now that weather here was unbelievable!

i don't know where to start...400,000 people affected, 25 provinces ravaged, including Metro Manila, 420mm of rainfall in 9 hours! (normally the same amount in 2 months!)close to 100 dead and rising, close to 100 more missing...miraculously, our tiny apartment was spared! the volume of rainfall was terribly great...the hardest hit is a valley called Marikina (which is the next city after Quezon City where i live) with other 3 cities within its vicinity called Pasig, Cainta and San Mateo. geologically, this area forms like a bowl and when the 3 river systems overflow because of rain, it should be expected that
floods will follow!

i personally feel this ravaging waters are symbolic of purifying the spirit...a message is sent...humans have caused so much devastation and indifference is the culprit.

i grieve for nature and humanity...

thanks Christer for being with us in spirit...for your concern...we need your positive thoughts...bless your beautiful heart!

w.w.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
I know that you´ll visit here when You can :-) So it´s time for Your surgery now! You´ll be in my thoughts during that time!

I only wonder around in the bog on places I know is safe, I would never risk my life out there! I promise :-)

I send a hug back and good luck with the surgery!
Take care now and see You when You are back!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi W.W!
I got so worried when I heard how bad that typhoon was! Great to hear that You got through it alright!

But my thoughts goes to those so badly affected by it!

Yes the storms are getting worse and worse and it´s our fault. It will be worse they say.

I´m so glad that You´re ok!
Take care now!
Christer.