Thursday, April 15, 2010



It´s been yet another cold night over here, only -5C (23F), and yet again everything was covered with frost. But the sun is shining from an almost clear blue sky so the temperature will rise fast now. The kitchen door is open and all animals exept for old Erna sleeps in the shadow outside now.






The house sparrows have nests under the tiles on my roof now so I had to remove the ladder this morning. My cats thinks it is a bit to interesting with birds and I like to have those small youngling birds here later on this summer. The house sparrows will have at least two broods of young birds, perhaps three with a bit of luck. Most peole call these birds for flying rats :-) :-) but I do like them :-) I´ll try to take a photo of them if possible.

Here Bertil sits and waits for us all to go on our morning walk.



Tomorrow it´s forbidden to drive with studded tires so I had to do something about it. I could of course have asked a friend to change tires for me, but I couldn´t force anyone here on a week day, they have their families to think of too. So I decided to do it myself. It´s a bit of a challange to do that with a recently fixed hip :-) :-) But I took it easy since I´m in no hurry anywhere. There´s no risk of breaking anything in the hip, it is however a risk that my hip will pop out if I move the leg in the wrong way. But the pain before it would pop out would make anyone stop in time :-) So now I can drive legally, well almost anyway it is time to buy new summer tires too. But now I have a couple of weeks to get a time at the tire firm.


Here he sits under the Dog rose he just tried to climb licking his wounds. Even he should understand that there´s no use trying to catch birds in that bush :-)
It´s much better to sit in the old plum tree instead.


Or by the pond like his brother does.

 
I also did some work in my garden. I have had four Japanese climbingroses (Rosa multiflora) in my garden (well they are really bushes but one can use them as climbing roses too) and three of them were totally dead, at least above ground. So I got a small saw and started to cut them down (the fourth seemes to have some life so it´ll stay a couple of weeks until I know better). I can understand why some states in the US wants to eradicate them from the nature. It spreads not only by seeds, every single branch that touches the ground gets roots too. So in a warmer climate these roses will very fast build hughs rose fortress sufficating all other vegetation. One good thing however is that they have almost no thorns :-) To my delight I found out that both my goosberry and black currant bushes still were alive under the roses :-) :-)


I haven´t seen this blck current bush in years. It looks a bit flat but otherwise it´s quite ok :-)




I got awarded an award, the Sunshine award, yesterday by Sharlene T. from “Solar cooking for mainstream cooks”! Can one be anything but happy when people likes what one writes? I´m honored and glad to get awarded. But as usual there are these rules You have to follow :-) This time I have to 12 fellow bloggers and here comes my problems :-) I can never decide to whom I will award the awards. I read so many blogs (especially now when I´m home all day) and I like them all, otherwise I wouldn´t read them. So to choose twelve is to hard for me, I always find twenty more that were right for the award. So I´ll have to think a lot about that. Either there will come a list within a week or there will come none at all, I hope You can forgive me if it´s the latter. But thanks once again Sharlene!


On cold nights the liver wort closes up and bows. When the sun comes it opens up again. The flowers never gets damaged by frost.

I cleaned the filter to my pond yesterday. I was hoping to continue with the rest of the area around the pond this year, but I´m not allowed to dig at all. Well I´m not sure I´m allowed to change tires either, but it said nothing about that on the informatin paper I got befor the surgery :-) I was hoping for some frogs in the pond this spring, but so far there are no in there. I´ve seen frogs in my garden so perhaps they just wait for warmer weather? My pond isn´t for fishes really, but I´ll have three goldfishes in it just so they eat all mosquito larvaes. I also hope I´ll have more dragon flies here this summer. I had only three last summer.



You can see the goos berry bush beside the cut down rose. I haven´t seen that for a long time either :-) :-)


Well now it´s time for a pot of tea and then I´ll get out into my garden again.
Have a great day, I will!

16 comments:

caryn said...

Hi Christer!

Thanks for identifying the roses that are all over my yard. They're very pretty and smell nice when they flower but they don't flower very long. After that they are just a painful nuisance. I suspect that they have the ability to reach out and grab people since they seem to snag me no matter how carefully I avoid them.
In the back swamp there's a plant war going on between the roses and the wild grape vines. I'm not sure which is going to win. The grapes are ahead at the moment. They actually pulled over a 50 foot tall Tamarack tree.
Be careful doing things that you aren't supposed to do with a hip operation.

Vittran said...

Hej!
Skönt att läsa att du är bättre.
Sonen fick byta till sommardäck här eftersom sambon har haft vänsterhanden gipsad till idag, en liten kattolycka.
Katterna jagar gärna fågel här också men Cleo jagar mest humlor.
Natten har inte varit så kall som hos dig men det var rimfrost i morse.
Njut av vädret och var försiktig.
Ha det gott!

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...congrats on the award! it is always nice to get them but i never know what to do to with them either. i noticed my gooseberries coming back. i hope i get berries this year. i planted them in n area where they don't get quite enough sun and they have never done much! i was cleaning my pond yesterday when a giant lochness fish darted out from behind a rock. i almost fell in the pond! i screamed so loud i think i scared the neighbors.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

HI Caryn!
If the roses has small white and/or pink flowers it´s most certanly the Japanese climbing rose. I´m so happy that they have almost no thorns :-) :-) One or two of them is ok, but when they starts to spread !!!

I actully thinks the grape wines will win this war :-) They grow so strong when they get the chance. I have an american wild grape growing in my garden and I do hope it has survived the winter, I´m hoping for grapes for the first time this year:-)

I´ll try to be careful :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Vittran!
Jo här går det framåt varje dag :-) Katt olyckor kan gå riktigt illa om man har otur! Skönt att han blev av med gipset nu!

Jag måste väl erkänna att de inte har någon chans att ta fåglarna, klumpigare får man leta efter :-) Men de kan dock få in en tass i boet uppe på taket och det vill jag inte.

Jag njuter för fullt :-)
Ha det gott!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Congratulations to You too :-)
Yes it´s really nice getting them, but I always has big troubles passing them on. There are so many great blogs that all deserve an award. I´ll have to think about this a lot.

I love goosberries. But I´ve had some troubles with something eating all leafs on them these last years. I´m thinking of take cuttings of my bushes and dig up the old ones next spring if this happens again.

I would have loved seeing You when that fish surprised you :-) :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

Pretty pictures today Christer. I think the cats love the outdoors. They've been waiting for Spring. How did your pond survive winter? Do you plan to take some photos of it. I remember you had some fish in it the last time you posted an update with the new pump. Enjoy your tea!

Sharlene T. said...

I once had a vineyard with over 20 varieties of grapes, plus two varieties of muscadines! My grape jellies and jams won awards at the Fair because I only picked the ripest of ALL the grapes and had a blend no one could compete with! The muscadines made the best wine, full body with a beautiful amber color that would cling to the sides of the glass. Still have one bottle left (1967) that I'm saving for...what?...I don't know. Just hate to part with the past, I guess. My neighbor has grapes, so we share her vines. Will ultimately put in my own when I finish with the front yard. THEN, I'm going to need your knowledge, Christer! Have a nice tea.

Oh, I agree. The awards are very difficult -- nice to get, VERY hard to give. Soooo, if you got one this time, it won't happen if I get another one. Just gonna go through my list!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
Yes they have waited all winter to get out again. Now comes the time when I only get to see them when food is comming :-) :-)

The pond survived the winter quite well, but since I really didn´t have anything in it it couldn´t happen that much :-) :-) But the plants are starting to grow in it now. I´ll have three fishes in it this year too. Hopefully they don´t eat all dragon fly younglings if they are so few.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sharlene!
So many different grapes!! Fantastic!

The climate is a bit to tough for most grapes here. But Estonian sorts works usually fine here. They have names like ´Spulga´, ´Zilga' and ´Zukribe´. But they grow in the same soila as rhododendrons in contrary to normal grapes. I have one of the hardiest american grapes in my garden (but as usual the name is totally gone from my head :-) ). It should make it here without problems but I´m afraid it was a bit to wet on the ground this autumn and late winter. If it survived I´m hoping for grapes this year :-)

I would also save that bottle, save it for a very special day or at least until You´ve gotten new grapes :-)

I love getting awards, but I do have problems to decide to whom I will pass them on to :-) :-9 It´s actully much easier if it´s only one blog I have to give it to :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Kat said...

Christer,
I bet your surgeons didn't add changing tires because they didn't think they'd need to! They figured most people would just take it a bit easier.

Great pictures as always!

Berit said...

oppsss!! ska man byta däck igen, tyckte det var nyss vi gjorde det...eller inte jag iallafall.Ja då får jag nog köra olagligt nu ..innan någon kan hjälpa mig.Höööruu ta det liite lungt med din höft:)
ha det gott /Berit

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kat!
Nah, do You think so :-) :-) :-) But I really had to change tires, the fines are so high that I would have had troubles paying it at the moment (well if I got cought by the police that is). The only troubles I had after was that my neck was a bit stiff :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Berit!
Eftersom du bor såpass långt norr ut har du på dig till sista April, det är bara vi här söderöver som måste byta nu. Knepig lag men så är det.

Men jag tar det ju lite lugnt :-) :-)
Ha det gott!
Christer.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Congratulations on your award..and yes it is nice but like you I am at a loss with all the things you must do. So..I finally posted on my blog that I am not accepting awards anymore. At first I felt bad..but it was such a relief to not worry about them...that I no longer feel bad.
I just put out a note saying that "here is the award and please help yourself to it as I love you all.." and that was that. Everyone means kindly when they give it to you. :)
Wish I had a few berry bushes. Maybe I will clear out then end of the house and plant some there. :)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
Thanks :-) Perhaps I should do like You. Because one sort of dissapoints those giving it too by not sending it to others. But I always have big troubles to choose when I like all blogs I read.


I think it´s great to have some berry bushes. One doesn´t have to make jam or lemonade or those things, one can just enjoy the berries when they are there. It´s so nice to get out in the morning and just grab some berries to breakfast :-) I can imagine that Yopu have so many more sorts to choose from than I have.
Have a great day now!
Christer.