Tuesday, March 30, 2010



Since they for almost a week had predicted that it would be cold and rainy today, I wasn´t the least surprised that it became one of the most pleasant spring days so far :-) :-) It started out with a light frost, but the sun shined and the wind was abscent. Bertil followed us like always on our walk and today he cought a meadow vole. It´s what he is supposed to do around the house, so it was nothing special really. But he had no intention of killing this little creature, he just played with it.


The little vole just sat there but there were no blood. So if the chock wasn´t to strong it would most probably run away after some minutes.




Well I couldn´t have that could I. If I see it I can also prevent it. So i just told him to leave the little animal alone and to my surprise he did :-) The little vole didn´t seeme to be especially wounded, but he was clearly in chock. So I picked lots of grass and sheltered him (or her, who knows :-) ) with it. I know voles are real pests and they can spread diseases to us humans, but I just can´t see a small animal slowly get tortured to death. We´ll walk that way later on today so I can check if it´s gone.


The water is a bit to close to the small café now.
The old railway is gone, but the bridge is still here.



Before I went away to my accountant, wich showed to be something I could have skipped (but it felt good to know that I didn´t do anything wrong anyway), I planted my tomatoe seedlings in bigger pots. I now have 24 tomatoe plants! What on earth shall I do with that many :-) :-) I still have at least eight tomatillo sedlings to put in bigger pots too :-) :-) Well there´s always someone that wants a plant or two i think :-)


People tends to through out half eaten apples when going by train. Just down this path there grows eleven apple trees that gives good apples and one of them is the tastiest I´ve ever eaten. The problem is that I don´t know what other tree pollinates it so It´s no use to take grafts. It might not even be one of these trees that does it.

 



On my way home from my accountant I stopped by the little village Tråvad (the village I had my gardencenter/nurcery in). Or I stopped by the river and the place where one can take a bath during summer. I hope we´ve reached the peak in snowmelting now, otherwise the little café there will get big troubles. Now it´s time for a walk and then I think it´ll be a pot of tea and some bisquits with blue cheese mmmmmmm

Have a great day now!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds delicious! Lovely walk through Swedish country today Christer. It's soooo nice to see your surroundings. Love the little mousie, a vole? I can't stop laughing. We call them "moles" over here. Just saw that the Gestopo through Kat's Coffee off the air. Bummer! I love that blog. She's putting it up on Wordpress. Can't wait. Send me those tomatoes! I'm jealous!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
So You already got the message about Coffee! I did send You a mail with the new adress just in case :-) I was about to comment on her writings when suddenly it was just gone!

Moles are other digging animals over here. I´ll steel a phooto till tomorrows blog if I remember it :-) But I am a softy when it comes to this :-) I have no problems as long as I don´t see it though :-) :-) But I can happily tell You that the vole did survive :-)

I think it would be even greater with those bisquites with blue cheese and slices of home grown tomatoes :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

HelenJ said...

Jag känner som du - det är ok att katterna tar möss, bara man själv slipper se på. Snacka om att vara ögontjänare.... =)
Härligt att våren tycks ha kommit till dig också nu. Nu gäller det verkligen att fånga dagen, för den här tiden går så fort!
/Helen

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Helen!
Ögontjänare? Jajjamensan :-) :-) :-) Gillade inte heller hur den lille stackaren skrek högt. Men jag kan med glädje berätta att den vandrat iväg från stället. Gräset låg kvar men sorken var borta :-)

Ja äntligen har den kommit hit också! Är ute så mycket det går just nu. Men vågar snart inte kika på väderprognoserna :-) Nu visade de hela morgonen att det skulle regna hela dagen imorgon. Men kikar jag nu kommer det kanske en skvätt på kvällen :-) :-)

Ja, ja. Det blir som det blir.
Ha det gott!
Christer.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Hi Christer! I am playing "catch up" once again. Time slips by me and I find I am behind on my blog visits. I usually visit yours first because it is easy to remember. With the others, I get somewhat confused. And besides, it's my daily adventure! :)

Glad you like my little tea set. It is my favorite and means a lot to me.
It is rain along the east coast of the U.S. and lots of really serious flooding is happening. Your little Cafe' is really close to the water!
We are expecting thunder storms and rain here on Wed. and/or Thursday. That would surprise me if it really happens. We usually get passed over.
Hot tea does sound good.
Mona

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

p.s. I don't really know who "Keep the Coffee Coming" is...we haven't met. :)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
Times just fles sometimes :-) Now when I´m home all day I often have no idea what day it is :-) :-)

They are warning about flooding in the southern parts of this country now, as You can see i live in the southern parts :-) :-) I´m glad I don´t live to close to a river right now. Not long away from that little café is a house that soon will get big problems if the water level doesn´t sink soon.

Yes, it is a very special tea set. Who can´t like those figures :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

SpinMeAYarn said...

Hej Christer!
Jag har precis hittat din blogg, vilka fina bilder du har i den. Vad roligt att kunna följa ditt liv.
Jag är glad att det gick bra med operationen.
Jag antar att du bor i närheten av Hornborgarsjön, jag var där en gång innan jag flyttade hem till Irland. Helt underbart med dessa fåglar, jag gillar att observera naturen och alla förändringar som sker med säsongerna.
Hälsningar härifrån,
liz

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hej Liz!
Välkommen hit! Roligt att du gillar min blog :-)

Ja, jag bor kanske två kilometer från Hornborgarsjön (fågelvägen) och nu börjar det bli riktigt fullt med tranor där :-)

Så du bor på Irland! Ja då lär du ju få se mycket flyttfåglar nu kan jag tänka. Jag kan inte annat än hålla med om att även jag älskar att se hur omgivningarna förändras med tiden, det är inta alltid jag gillar förändringarna dock :-)
Ha det gott och välkommen tillbaka!
Christer.

Sharon Lovejoy said...

Hi Christer,

The walk looks lovely. I love the photo of the wide path of water flowing under the old bridge.

If you have one great apple tree in an orchard you can graft it can't you? Then your apple would be true to the parent tree and you'd have other great apples.

All joys to you,

Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island

P.S. We are returning from the first leg of book tour and passing through Oregon and snow, snow, snow. No spring here yet much except a few tulips and narcissus. Yes, the CHICKEN TRACTOR is an awesome concept. Keeps the chicks out of the lettuce beds and flowers.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sharon!
Tråvad is a wonderful place and down by the river is even better, but with less water :-) :-)

Yes that is correct when it comes to grafting. The big problem is that one needs to know what other tree is pollinating the good one.

Not all apples varieties pollinates each other You see.If one is lucky enough to have the crab apple tree M. sylvestris around the orchard that most probably then will pollinate most apple sorts. But today it´s very hard to find one of those M. sylvestris.

I have been thinking oabout that chicken tractor all day :-) It would be fun to have chickens :-)

Have a great time on Your book tour!
Christer.

Sharlene T. said...

Maybe you should stay up at night to see which tree is visiting which other tree??? Or, set up a tent to watch the birds and bees to see who's visiting whom??? I say, just enjoy the bounty and make lots of delicious pies! Love your pix and am totally and completely envious. Sorry, but that's the way it is...Have a great day.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sharlene!
The problem is that it can be any other apple tree within(I think) 200 yards :-) :-) So I think I´ll just do as You say, make lots of pies in the autumn :-) :-)

Tråvad is such a beautiful place. Next time I´ll take some photo´s from the village too!
Have a great day now!
Christer.