Sunday, July 4, 2010



First of all I want to say Happy 4th of July! to all my american readers. I actually think that it is all You in the USA that visits my blog the most!






They said that a cold front would have passed by now, but it is much the same temperatures this morning as it was yesterday morning. I refuse to complain about the heat, but I´m not sure I would be that happy if this continues too long :-) :-) But if it starts again on Friday the 16th I wouldn´t say anything. I´ve taken that day of from work to vaccinate all my pets and then my four weeks vacation starts :-)


Do You see the little spider? It´s rather well camouflaged.




It looks like my little black walnut is dying and I don´t know why. Several potted plants is actually dying at the moment so I suspect that something might eat their roots. I was so looking forward to have this little tree in the future, but I´ll just have to buy some more nuts and start again I´m afraid. Perhaps I´ll try the Manchurian walnut too. Hickory would be fun too, but I don´t think it will make it here, our climate is to tough on them.




This property is for sale now. The sun made it almost impossible to take a photo of it I´m afraid. But it is made of red bricks and perhaps not especially charming when it comes to how it looks :-)


This barn is placed just yards from the main house. They used to have milking cows there before. But it can easily be transfered to a stable. There´s no place in this country where ther are so many horses as it is in this area called Skaraborg (it was a big county of its own before but has now been swalloed by a bigger one, we don´t like that!)


Some of You may think that Your winters might be as cold as ours and You are so true. Many of You on the american continent has much colder winters than we have up here in the north. But it´s not the cold that kills Your trees in it self, it is our short summers that kills them. There are many factors why trees from the north america doesn´t make it here. Your trees needs long and ho´t summers to get the strength to cope with winter and our summers are usually short and rather cool in comparence.


This charming building is also included. Perhaps it can be turned in to a guest house for guest the owner doesn´t like :-) :-) :-)


The neighbourhood is quiet and calm too :-)

I have for instance a Catalpa biogonides in my garden. As soon as the sun started to shine here in early spring it broke out its leafs. Those got destroyed as soon as we got frosty nights and those we have plenty of until a week or two into june. After seven years it has finally learned that it should start later, making it so late that it never gets the chance to grow. It´s still only 30cm (12 inches) high after nine years of age! Much the same happens in autumn. Here it comes ratherv fast with a frost night around late august early september. Trees that hasn´t stopped growing by then will get damaged. Trees from northern america usually hasn´t stopped by then.


The Arrow head (Sagittaria sagittifolia) flowers in the pond. It has almost the same name in swedish, we call it arrow leaf.


No matter how beautiful this flower is, it does not belong in the garden. Once thete and You are stuck with it. It´s Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium. I´m allowing it to grow in one corner of my garden but noweher else.


They do stand a better chance by the southern coastline, but they will always be smaller than they are on the other side of the ocean. A redwood or Sequoia barly makes it and will most likley never become higher than 20m (65 feet) high.




Home again :-)

I made this high quality and very educational video for You all so You will know the swedish alphabet :-) It´s much the same as Yours, but most of You don´t have the three last letters that we have. In the english language You call W for double U, we call it double V. V can also be said like F while W always is said like V. E and Ä is usually the letters we spell wrong. Many words sounds as if they had an E in it, but it might as well be an Ä and the opposite too :-) I, Å and Ö is also words. I would be translated to inside. Å is something between a creek and a river and Ö is an island.




I´ve heard that swedish is extremely hard to learn, strange I think it´s quite easy :-) :-) Now it´s time for a cup of tea on my kitchen stairs. The sky is somewhat cloudy and there´s a nice breeze blowing away all flies :-)
Have a great day now!

23 comments:

NinaVästerplana said...

I åa ä e ö......
Här är mulet idag o svalare men nån väta ovanifrån har jag inte sett till.... tyvärr! Men nere i Lidköping lär de ha fått lite....
Åker du till prästgården o kikar på rosor idag?
Ha´t himla gôrgôtt
Nina

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hejsan Nina!
Halvmulet just nu men inget regn har passerat vare sig i natt eller nu. Får väl starta vattningen igen då.

Tänkte möjligtvis dra i åa ä e ö, men det skulle bli lite väl komplicerat tror jag :-) :-) :-)

Nej jisses, dit åker jag inte. Hur mycket folk som helst i denna värmen. Finns roligare sätt att ta livet av sig på :-) :-)

Ha det gott!
Christer.

Nydia said...

Morning, Christen!

Firs, thanks for your lovely words on my paganposts! We should all deal with other people's religion with respect, that's what I teach my little witch! Things would be much easier this way...

Second, sorry if your comment went kapoot, it happened to me here too some time ago, I don't know why Blogger is so temperamental sometimes, sigh.

Oh I complain about my winters (we're inthe begining of it right now), but can't compare to your ans U.S.'s! Poor trees, your logic is right, they must suffer a lot with a short Summer having to face a long Winter afterwards.

Oh you're selling your house, moving from this awesome place? I hope it's for the best for you!
Arght, I culdn't look at the spider, sorry... just can't stand it!

Hope you have a beautiful (and cooler) Sunday, thanks for stopping by! :o)

Kisses from Nydia.

PS: Later I'll listen to the alphabet video, I'm curious!

Anonymous said...

Great post today Christer and what a lesson on the trees. I was absorbed. Never knew the short summers were to blame. So how much do they want for the farm next to your cottage? And forgive me but that alphabet is a hoot. Very funny sounding out what we don't sound them like over here. hahaha!

caryn said...

Hi, Christer
Listened to your alphabet. That explains why our exchange student's name was spelled "Age" (with the dotted "A") but pronounced "o-ah".
It's funny that you think Swedish is easy to learn. I think English is easy to learn. We grew up speaking our native tongues so of course we would each think ours is easy. Children absorb language like sponges absorb water. When we learn language as adults, we keep asking silly questions about grammar and making comparisons.

I'm sorry to hear your black walnut is dying. Could you do a large bonsai of black walnut? That way you could keep it inside in a cold place but give it extra light hours to help it grow.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Nydia!
First I start with that property. It´s not mine, I´ll never move from this place if I have anything to say about it (even if the fles sometimes drive me crazy :-) :-) ). This propertry is owned by the castle owners and they see no need to own it any more. They have to many properties as it is.

Your winters are hotter than our summers :-) :-) But it doesn´t rain if I learned things right? I really would like to see Your country! It´s one of my goals in life.

Especially we christians has troubles respect people with other religions (and lots of other things too I´m afraid) and I´m sorry about that!

Not much cooler today I´m afraid, but it will turn to cooler weather soon. I love warm weather but here it´s cold one day and the next hot hot hot. It´s hard to get used to it then.

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
Your trees needs a long summer to get the strength to cope with a cold winter. Our trees wouldn´t survive long down south either. You have to short days in the summer and to short winters. Our trees need long winters to rest. If they had to grow as long as they can down south they would get so stressed that they would die soon.

I´m not sure how much they want, but I heard the sum around two million swedish kronor. That would be something around 263158 US dollars. It has some land but I don´t know how much. If this property were closer to a big city like Gothenburg the price would probably be at least ten times higher.

I can imagine how our alphabet sounds in Your ears :-) :-) :-)
Happy 4th of July!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
:-) So his name was Åge? Must have been from southern Sweden then or Denmark. Otherwise it´s usually Åke.

Yes those silly questions about grammar! I think I would have learned french so much easier if they didn´t always throw grammar in our faces.

I´ve read that children in Denmark has big troubles spelling. They don´t say all letters in the word so it´s hard to guess how it can be spelled. We sweeds say that they talk with porrige in their mouths :-)

I think black walnuts would do great as bonsai. But this one is already dying I´m afraid. But I won´t give up hope quite yet. I´ll just put the pot in the shade and let it stand there all summer and late into autumn.

I think You´re from the US, so Happy 4th of July! Well, You can have that anyway :-) :-)
Christer.

Cindi Myers said...

Beautiful photos as always! Sorry about your tree. I had a peach tree dying under my Weeping Willow in the backyard so I moved it and ended up killing it quicker! sigh...I have now purchased another peach tree and planted that across the driveway from my apple tree that has lots of fruit but also little black spots on them!?
I love your gate, I'm still working on my fence to block out the neighbors weeds...
Love the photo of your dogs!
Oh, your video made me smile, you almost sounded Irish when you said "R".
Today is supposed to be HOT so I need to get outside and finish my planting!
The rest of the neighborhood will probably be out grilling for the celebration of the 4th!
Take care - Cindi

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Cindi!
Peach trees can be vry fzzy about getting moved I´m afraid and it seemes walnuts are fuzzy anyway :-)

Is it the leafs or apples that has blck spots? It´s usually some kind of fungus disease that gives black spots on apples and can make the storage time shorter after they are picked. Thin out some apples and the problem usually dissaperes.

I hope You´ll be able to fence out Your neighbours weeds. Many of the weeds does spread via roots too I´m afraid.

Finally the temperature has dropped to normal here, so it almost feels cold :-) :-)

Happy 4th of July!
Christer.

Susie på Stjärnarve... said...

I och för sig så har du kanske rätt när det gäller det här med LÅNGA somrar, men absolut inte när det gäller att dom ska vara varma. Titta på trädgårdslandet England!
Där har du visserligen långa somrar men absolut inte heta. Tidiga vårar, sena fuktiga höstar och så förhållandevis milda och fuktiga vintrar ovanpå det - ocjh där växer det minsann!

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer....so is that the farm you want me to buy so i can be your neighbor? i could make it look very cute! i love the alphabet! i speak german and their alphabet is really different too. i can't wait for this day to be over. it is going to be very hot, noisy, crowded and the fireworks....ugh!!! not my favorite holiday at all! joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Susie!
Kanske valde jag fel ord där i engelskan, varma somrar har de allt i England. Dessutom ligger det betydligt mycket mer söder ut än vad Sverige trots allt gör. De har ju dessutom fördelen av att havet jämnar ut temperatursvängningar rejält.

Men i huvudsak har jag rätt, våra somrar är för korta och svala för de amerikanska träden.
Ha det gott!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Yes that´s one of them :-). I think there´s one more for sale now, or it will be later. I think it is because it doesn´t look like most houses here that makes me feel it isn´t especially pretty. But I´m certain You would manage to make it so :-)


Yes the german alphabet does sound very different and still it is rather close to swedish in many ways. We have loads of german words in our language.

I can understand that You don´t like this holiday since You are an autumn person and since it is so hot over at Yours! I do like fireworks and thankfully my dogs doesn´t get bothered by it.
But I do wish You a Happy 4th of July!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Susie!
Eftersom vintrarna inte blir speciellt kalla i England behövs det heller inte så heta somrar, där är ju den stora skillnade mot oss. Våpra vintrar är, liksom på många ställen i nordamerika, kalla. Därför behövs varma och långa somrar.
Ha det gott!
Christer.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Oh my goodness! That highly educational film was ...interesting. I don't think I would be good at learning foreign languages...
I now have someone writing to me in emails and I have no clue what they are saying. There is no way of changing the language on their blog..so I don't visit as I cannot understand them.
This was great...I had no idea our alphabets were so close!
Thank you for wishing me a happy 4th of July. I enlarged your photo of the "spider" but it looked more like a tick to me. :)
Your photo's of flowers are always lovely..
Mona

Anjas Hill said...

Hejsan Christer!

Amerikanare å så en finnj-vel!

Förresten, har du kollat att i jorden runt plantan att det inte finns gråa, feta harkrankslarver. En rätt vanlig
marodör och ett karaktäriskt drag är att plantan "klipps av".
Ha det gott i sommarvärmenoch klaga inte;))))! Jag tål själv dåligt med värme men kämpar tappert mot både värmen och klagandet;))!/Anja

Christina said...

Ännu en varm dag tillända! Här är det lite mulet ikväll, men något regnfår vi säkert inte, så det blir att gå ut och vattna åtminstone krukorna. Jag har en Catalpa i kruka. Har ditt träd blommat? Jag sådde mitt för två år sedan, sedan var jag på en föreläsning av Gunnel Carlsson. Hon visade bild på sitt träd. Hon sa så här: Jag köpte ett stort träd, jag vill inte vänta 50 år på att det ska blomma! Då tänkte jag på mitt nysådda träd och min ålder, det kommer inte att blomma förrän jag är 113 år. Vilken optimist man är som sår ett träd!
Ha det bra!
Christina

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
You never know, perhaps You were born to speak swedish :-) :-) :-)

If You know what country they come from, You could use Google translation. So You at least know what they might say to You. Really annoying when they sort of takes for granted that You should have to do so though.

The ltttle spider do have a big back :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hejsan Anja!

Har också funderat på harkrankarna, de åt sönder en hel del fuchsior för mig när jag hade det. Mycket irriterande!

Nu på måndagsmorgonen är det tillbaka till det mer normala :-) Nio grader och sköööönt :-)

Ha det riktigt gott!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Christina!

Nu på Måndags morgon har det blivit mer normalt igen. Nio plus och det känns så skönt :-) Regn blev det inget, så det första jag får göra när jag kommer hem är att vattna. Men gräset håller sig ju lugnt också :-) :-)

Nej mitt katalpaträd hinner inte blomma här. Men inte tar det några femtio år inte :-) :-) Ditt bör blomma senast vid tioårs åldern om du har bättre klimat än jag. Katalpor blommar nämligen tidigt :-)

Ha det riktigt gott nu!
Christer.

ana_didi said...

Hello, gorgeous find your video. Surprisingly to me the letters a, b, c, d and e are exactly the same in Portuguese:)
Your blog is delightful to read and your cat likes to accompany you on your walks is great fun. I'll come back here more often.
a hug from Brazil

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi ana_didi and welcome to my part of the world!
Yes it is a bit funny:-) Otherwise our languages doesn´t even come close to sound the same :-) :-)

You are always welcome here!
Have a great day now!
Christer.