Saturday, July 17, 2010



So far this morning the weather has been fantastic. The sun has been shining, there´s no wind and it is fairly warm. But soon Armageddon (or Ragnarök as the old Vikings called the end of the world) will come close according to the weather forecast :-) :-) :-) We will get heavy thunderstorms all day and lots and lots of rain. Both the Norwegian and the Swedish weather forecast stations say the same. But I´ll try to get out into cyberspace and read Your blogs during the day.


Fishy, froggy where are You?
Perhaps a birdie would be easier?

Oh, on the other side!

We went to the vet yesterday and when we were there we also got an appointment to x-ray Orvars leg. He still limps now and again so I think it´s best to check it out. After that we went to a friend in Tråvad, a lady who helped me with food when my economy was as it worst point when I had to close down my garden centre/nursery. She lives just next door to my old place but I usually never look that way. She told me that it had gotten a new owner again and that he wanted to meet me.


I thought I saw something here.
What are You doing in the middle of the pond? Come fishy, come!

Now they´re back on the other side again!! I give up!

So just before leaving I met him outside the garden centre, it shows he just lives across the street there and works as a lorry driver. He had seen the place fall apart and since he soon will retire he thought he might be able to do something with it. He had repeatedly told the last owner that all snow this last winter had to be shuffled away or the glass roofs of the greenhouse would break down. He prepared me for how it would look inside before we went in.


Bertil doesn´t care about fishes, he comes with us on our walks instead.



My dogs felt at home as soon as we got to the backside of the house :-) :-) It was their home (sort of anyway) for some years. It wasn´t bad at all to walk in to the old place, all the familiar smells sort of made me feel calm and happy. That was until we went in to the green house that is. More than half the glass roof was gone and could be found on the floor. The old grape vine, that gave me so many  sweet and wonderful grapes had died down (it covered over 200 square meters, almost the same in yards), but new vines were coming up from the roots again :-)






He said that he would repair it as good as he could. He will take all glass windows on the roof that still were there and put all of them in the sales green house. On the rest he will put plastic roofs instead. It might be that when he retires and wants to have something to do he will start to sell annuals there every spring :-) :-) So I promised that I´ll give him all my knowledge about how to grow them when that day comes.




This redberried eldreberry bush from Ussuria (somwhere in southern Sibiria) is said to not have poisounes berries, but I woun´t try them just in case :-)





We also took a look at the back garden where I had my cold frames growing different perennials, bushes and artichokes. There were still a lot of them left, especially the artichokes. It´s a chine’s sort and it really is a terrible weed :-) :-) :-) Thankfully most of the artichokes had died this last cold winter, but I could see how they had spread all over the place before that. But I have to say that they tasted delicious and got really big. My small mulberry tree was now enormous and had so many berries that I got surprised! The new owner had no idea what that was, but he does now :-) If he knows how to make jam he will have jam for a couple of years I think :-) :-) :-)



Oregano.
Clematis integrifolia, a non climbing clematis.

Meeting this man and walking around on the place sort of made me free from it. I felt sort of relieved when driving away hoping I might not be the last gardener in Tråvad after all.

Have a great day now!

 
 
 

16 comments:

Alen Trädgård said...

Förstår att det måste ha känts underligt först att se sin "dröm" förfallet. Men det var ju tur att du konfronterades med platsen ändå för nu kan du lägga det bakom dig på ett annat sätt. Vem vet du kanske kan extraknäcka som konsult hos mannen sedan:) Du får gärna ta med dig hundarna om du kommer och hälsar på men tyvärr kan du inte ta in dem för vi har tre innekatter:) Men de kanske kan vara i din bil med fönstren nervevade och med bilen i skuggan:)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Monne!
Ja det var bra att jag fick komma in där. Jag vet ju att jag lämnade stället i mycket bättre skick dessutom. "Mitt" ställe finns inte kvar längre som det såg ut nu och hur det kommer att se ut senare.

Jo jag har allt lovat att hjälpa till med det jag kan om han skulle börja sälja sommarblommor. Dessutom kan han ju sälja av perennerna i kallbänkarna. Det fanns en del godsaker kvar där :-)

I bilen tror jag vi undviker, men bredvid den eller på skuggigt ställe i trädgården blir ju bra om jag kommer.
Ha det gott!
Christer.

caryn said...

Hi Christer
Sounds like the new man will have a great retirement project ahead of him. I would have been sad to see how the last owner cared for the place. It's good that you can see it and feel free of it.
I always thought that elderberries were edible. When I read your blog today, I had to google elderberry. Now I read that ONLY the berries are edible and the rest of the plant is poisonous.
Have a great day now.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
He will :-) And he lives just a couple of yards away too, so he can always keep an eye on the place :-)

What I know of there´s only one of the elderberry trres that has edible flowers and berries. All the othet is said to be totally poisouness. But the red berried I have is also said to have edible berries. I´ve read that the locals in Ussuria uses it to make lemonade and wine from them. But I don´t trust that at all :-) :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Cindi Myers said...

What a bitterweet post.
I'm so glad you got to meet the new owner and that you feel better about it now. It has to be comforting to know that there's someone there who cares.
Love the photo's of your little "fishercat"! so sweet!
I sprayed my apple tree and my hosta plants and roses this morning with something my sister recommended. There is some sort of insect eating holes in the leaves and also making brown spots on the apples....my sister thinks I should have sprayed before this and it might be too late now for the apples. I did it first thing today and it was already getting VERY hot outside. I'm staying inside I think for the rest of the day!

Vittran said...

Hej!
Det var nog bra att du fick gjort upp med ditt förflutna. Även om det måste ha kännts trist med förfallet.
Vem vet vad som händer i framtiden.
Vad glad att kissen inte fiskar. Jag har en kompis som bor i Croydon, hon tog med två katter från Sverige. En av dom kom hem med en guldfisk.
Jag tycker att vädret har varit konstigt idag. Det började med regn och sedan stekande sol för att nu bli mulet. Kanske behövs en urladdning med åska.
Ha det gott!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Cindi!
Yes I´m glad that the place will be taken care of now! And I do hope he´ll remove all those chinese artichokes :-) :-)

I don´t think that it´s insects making those brown spots on the apples. That´s most probably some fungus attacking the apples. The trees were most probably attacked already last autumn, so the best time to spray is early spring.
I hope the apples doesn´t get bad now!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Vittran!
Ja att se förfallet var bara sorgligt, men det känns bra att det kommer att renoveras till ett bättre skick i alla fall.

Hade Teodor varit skickligare hade han saäkerligen tömt dammen på fisk :-) :-) Men på det hela taget är han en klantig jägare :-) :-)

Det har regnat en hel del här, men åskan höll sig på avstånd. I alla fall än. Sol har vi inte ens varit i närheten av, men det känns faktiskt bara skönt :-)
Ha det gott!
Christer.

Anjas Hill said...

Hejsan Christer!

Underbart stämningsfulla bilder! Så roligt att din damm ser färdig ut?!

Tack för dina lyckoönskningar!/Kram själv! Anja

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Anja!
Själva pölen är ju klar, men ytan runt har jag ju knappast ens börjat med. Får vänta med det tills nästa år. Får inte gräva egentligen efter operationen.

Ha det gott!
Christer.

Caddie said...

Is it the photographer or camera? You take absolutely wonderful pictures. Some bring tears to my eyes. One here today is a 'misty' painting.

Elderberry poisonous? Are those ripe? I made/have elderberry jelly and jam lining the shelves. Elderberry wine years ago and now have elderberry tincture. Poisonous? Surely not. Hope not. Not here. The tincture helps my arthritic stiffness and pain. Wine got high praise.

I love your site. More picture captions, please? And I am wishing again you would identify all the beautiful blooms.

Anonymous said...

What a nice story. I love going back to my old haunts. Even though some neighborhoods never change the memories come back and it's always pleasant, I find. Lovely photos today Christer. Did the kitty ever catch the froggy?

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sissy!
I have a cheap compact digital camera, but it´s very good.

The fruit and flowers on the Elderberry tree (Sambucus nigra) are edible and is great to lemaonade, jam and wine (but the tree and leafs are poisouness though). But all the rest, as far as I know are poisouness. So If You´ve done things with the berries and flowers and still are healthy You´ve used the right one :-) :-)

The berries on this one isn´t ripe yet, they will become much more red.

Sometimes I feel the photo´s says more than any text, so that will depend on how tired I am when writing my blog :-) But I will be better on namiming the flowers :-)

have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
It felt great leaving the place now when I know that it will be repaired again. Lots of memories came back when walking in the building and greenhouses :-) Even though there hasn´t been any plants there for over three years all scents stiil were there :-)

No that cat is rather useless in hunting I´m happy to say :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Christer, Your post was beautiful to read and it's better that you did not post photos of the business, but instead of the woods, trees, flowers and fishing cat. The words themselves told the story and it was very well done. Often it's best to leave things to the imagination of the readers.
And, yes it IS the photographer because a "cheap" digital camera or a costly one are ONLY as good as the person using them. It's what the photographer sees and how - not the equipment he/she uses.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Beatrice!
I had my camera in my pocket, but it was just to sad how it looked there. So I felt that it was no way to show You how the place looked right now. I´d rather shown You some photo´s from when I had the place filled with flowers.

I thank You! I do the best I can when taking my photo´s :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.