Sunday, May 2, 2010

Yestredays evening sky. Looked quite dramatic and for a while I thought we might get thunder. But the sky cleared up and the night got cold instead.


It´s been a wonderful morning and it looks like it will continue like this for the rest of the day. Temperature is rising (afer a night withe frost) and the wind is weak.A great day to end my two months and one week long sick leave period. So for You that gotten used to read my blog in early mornings things will change. The blog will come later in the day and from now Wednesdays will be blog free.









But it´s only two months left until my vacation starts so I think I´ll survive working until then :-) :-) :-) Everyone working in Sweden have by law the right to five weeks vacation, totally payed when You´ve worked one year in a company. If You haven´t worked a whole year they count the days You have worked and get payed for so many days You are entitled to. We get a tiny bit more than two days payed vacation/month and the counting period goes from April first till March last.



Soldanella (alpina?, montana? I´m not sure what I´ve sown :-)  )

Soon they´ll open up.


We also work 40 hours a week even if the law says we only have (I think I´m right now) a 38 hour working week. That gives us compensation time to use when ever we want to. So normally we take some vacation during christmastime also. I usually have troubles with that because I always use my compensation hours to get home a bit early now and again :-) :-) :-) But we have very few national holidays in comparense to the rest of the world.


My new bleeding heart (might be the variety 'King of hearts')

Now they are opening up, the leafs on my yellow leafed Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius).
This one should really have been placed in a more shady place because the sun burns the leafs in the summer.


That is however not a problem for the read leafed one.



I went away to the supermarket early this morning. I realised that I only have a couple of socks left and those are really thick winter socks :-) I also needed more tea. Naturally I got some other things too :-) like the movie Avatar on DVD and I couldn´t pass the plant section without going out there and just take a look :-) :-) Today I came home with a Bleeding heart (Dicentra Formosa). We call this species for Second Lieutenants heart. I´ve now searched through the soil in the pot and there are no snail eggs in it. But it will stay in quarantine for a week or two just incase.


A Trillium bud opening up.


Omphalodes verna, Navelwort. We call it Snake eye but I can´t for my life understand why :-) :-) :-)


Now it´s time for a cup of tea on my kitchen stairs.It´s a wonderful day and I´m going to enjoy it as much as possible.

Have a great day now, I will!

19 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...great pics today! i love seeing all of your plants beginning to open! you sure get a lot of time off. my daughter does not get one vacation day from her job in her first year. i am waiting for a big storm...at least i hope it will be a big storm! we are still having summer weather. this oil leak in the gulf is looking horrible! joyce

Anonymous said...

After such a hard winter I bet a day in Sweden as you describe it is worth sitting on the deck or porch. A welcome to Summer! Lovely images today Christer. I like all of them and the first image of the storm is wonderful. It sounds like in your homeland people only have to work six months out of 12. hahaha just kidding. Enjoy your day!

SpinMeAYarn said...

Hej Christer!
Njut nu av din sista lediga dag, det är först när man går tillbaks till jobbet att man inser hur himla skönt det är att vara ledig..

it's not exactly May weather here either, cloudy and cold and I've hung out laundry more in hope than in the certainty that the clothes will dry, but the uniforms have to be dry for school, so I'll give it a try...
Luckily, we have one of our 9 public holidays tomorrow, so we have one more 'red day' tomorrow, so clothes have one more day to get dry.
I see from my Swedish calendar (sent to me by mother in law in Karlstad) that it's not a public holiday (red day) tomoro in Sweden. Synd, men ni kommer ändå att ha en röd dag nästa vecka, Kr Flygaren! Något att se fram emot.
Dåså
greetings from Ireland on a typical Irish day, showery, windy, cloudy and cool,
liz

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
That´s why I love spring so much, to see everything open up and to get that feeling of joy :-)

It´s we and the frech people that have most vacation days in Europe. But most countries over here does have at least 20 vacation days to use every year.

I hold my thumbs that You get that storm today! You really need it since it´s so warm already!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
I think we would get insane if we didn´t get these sunny days here after our winters :-) We love sun and warm weather! Unfortunally we don´t think of the consequenses of being to much in the sun. Sweden is the country in Europe with most cases of Malignant melanoma. I´ve had it but they took it so early that there never were any risk for me.

Well the french people have as much vacation as us, but they only work 35 hours a week :-) :-)So comapred to them we work real hard :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Liz!
Jag har redan insett hur skönt det är, trots sjukskrivning och vissa problem på grund av det :-) :-)

Nej vårvädret vill liksom inte riktigt komma igång i år. Vi har det en hel del kallare än normalt just nu. Fast det är ju enklare att sätta igång med jobbet då förstås :-)

Kristi flygare hade jag glömt av! Tack för påminnelsen :-)Måste kolla upp vilken dag det är nu :-)
Ha det gott trots vädret!
Christer.

Caryn said...

Hi, Christer,
When I started working, I got 13 days vacation after 1 year. I had to work 15 years for the same organization before I could have 5 weeks vacation each year. They did not encourage you to take it all at one time, either.

Glad you're having such a nice day to end your absence from work although beautiful weather might make you even more reluctant to go back. :-)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
15 years! that´s a long time. I´m glad I work over here :-) :-) At my company half of us starts the vacation one week earlier than the rest and starts one week earlier too. So the factory is closed for three weeks during that time. I usually takes the later vacation if possible and starts it the second week in July.

The weather is going to be colder again already on tuesday they say, so it´s not that hard after all :-)
have a great day now!
Christer.

Perovskia said...

lol.. compared to the French you work real hard. Heavens. Then we work harder than you! :P

Fantastic pictures. LOVE the Bleeding Hearts (it's one of my favourite plants).

Hmm.. that blue/purplish flower that hasn't opened yet.. I feel like I should know what that is, but my memory is failing me right now. If I think of it I'll let you know.

Hope your day was good :)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Perovskia!
yes, those lucky frencmen :-) :-)

Bleeding hearts are cottage flowers for me. Usually whe one comes to an old cottage one finds two different bleeding hearts. They are also some of the plants that stills stands when the cottage is long gone.

The Soldanella is one of the two anyway, but I can´t remember wich of them :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

NinaVästerplana said...

Så, dags o börja jobba igen..... hoppas det läkt färdigt ordentligt nu då. Lite synd o vara tvungen o vara inomhus hela dagarna nu!
Ha´t himla gôrgôtt
Nina

Kat said...

Christer,
I hope you have a pleasant return to work if that's at all possible.

Your pictures are, as always, beautiful.

Cindi Myers said...

WOW! 5 Weeks! I'd be in Heaven. I have worked 8 years now at my current job and I get 2 weeks. And that's topping it out. No more than 2 weeks for anybody, no matter how long you work there. And until recently I worked most Holidays because someone has to be there to take care of the animals. Luckily I like my job most of the time. But I'd rather be home creating or gardening.
Love your pics! Have fun at work! LOL! - Cindi

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Nina!
Ja livet är hårt :-) Men det gick bra idag. Det handlar ju mest om att lårmuskeln skall komma igång ordentligt nu. Det andra är som det skall.
Ha det gott!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kat!
I survived but I do have to find a way to become a multi millionare soon, I liked being hoe :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Oldblackcatboo!
Only two weeks even if You continue staying at that place!! and I that think we deserve even more vacation over here :-) :-)

But if one likes ones job it´s so much easier to work even at holidays, that is something I don´t think I ever do at my job :-) :-)
Have a great day now!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi tagskie and welcome to my blog!
I´m glad that You like it!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Sharlene T. said...

It's nice to see your neck of the woods plunging forward into spring! Planted my fern garden, this morning, and actually put in two Dicentra plants.Will be posting pix of my new fence, also. Have a great day. (Retirement means LOL you're always on a timer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi SHarlene!
Even the trees are getting green here now :-) Spring is slowly moving on over here.

I really liked Your fern bed and Dicentras goes perfect with them!

have a great day too!
Christer.