Wednesday, August 4, 2010




Clematis integrifolia, a non climbing clematis.

It was cold outside this morning, only 8C (46F) and the sun was already a bit up on the sky when we went out for our morning walk. I didn´t bring my mosquito hat today because the strangest thing happened when we were out walking in the forest yesterday evening. The sun shined and it was quite warm then, but only two flies tried to annoy me?!





I´ve never seen any hymenopteras looking like this one sitting on a Aralia flower.
The wings are torn and it´s close to th end for this butterfly. It didn´t even care that I came close. Otherwise this one is really hard to get a photo with its wings open like this.

I walked on those places I knew there would be lots of flies, but no not a single one. I had forgotten how it felt walking around without the mosquito hat on in the forest :-) :-) They all come at the same time, so perhaps they go out of this life together too? I can´t remember this happening during these soon eleven years I´ve been living here. But I talked with my neighbor and she said it happened from time till time. I so hope they have all died :-) :-) :-) If so there´s only the awful Moose fly left, but they won´t start for yet a couple of weeks (I tell You more about them when they arrive).


The European Peacock. We call it Peacock eye here in sweden.



All potatoes I planted has managed to survive all the rain we´ve had these last weeks. They grow fast and need to do so if I´m going to get any potatoes :-)



But there were a lot of dragon flies and butterflies flying around instead. I must say that they weren´t especially cooperative when it came to take photos of them, but I did manage to take photos of two of them anyway and some other insects I found both in the forest and in my garden. I have also taken a photograph of one of our most poisoness spiders (we call it Cross spider because it has a cross on its back) but I post that photo last today so that You who have troubles looking at spiders knows where it is.









If I put together all the different weather forecasts I can find we will have partly cloudy with risk for showers here today and reasonable warm. With a very few flies around it might even be nice to mow the lawn :-) I should have done that days ago but I can wait another couple of days until it´s too late :-)




Hawthorn.



But before anything else I will have a cup of tea and then it´s off to the grocery store in Gudhem. It´s time to fill up my fridge again.

Have a great day now!

 
 
 
The Cross spider. This must be a male since it´s rather small and brown. The female is three times as big and more towards greyish black in her colors. I like them a lot since I lost my fear of spiders :-)
 

19 comments:

decareis said...

Thank you my friend Christer.
Thanks for visiting
My birthday is only on the 14th,
But the medieval festival runs from July 31 to August 8.
Marco works, it's just off today.
We anticipate the celebration
I'm afraid of spiders, even small
Good morning!

decareis said...

A festa fica a 70 Km daqui temos de ir cedo.
Espero não ver muita queimada nas florestas, já sentimos no ar o cheiro de queimado.
Fico triste
Aí tem muita queimada na epoca do verão?
Tchau

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Andrea!
I just heard about the big forestfire! So it is so close to You! Take care and don´t hesitate to get away if the fire comes closer!

We had some big fires here too before the rain started, so now there´s no danger at all here.


So then I can gratulate You once again the 14:th :-) Have a great day at the festival!

Take care now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

And Tomatoes, I see a green Tomatoe! They be coming in when you are about to enter the Fall season there. Christer, you seem so happy the flies and Mosquitos are dead for this season. I can't stop laughing. Have a great day and drink more tea!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
Yes the tomatoes are comming great now. I do hope it will stay warm long enough to get some of them to ripe :-)

I´m so happy that the flies are dying that I can´t even describe it :-) :-) The mosquitoes will however continue for yet some time, but I can handle them as long as the flies are gone :-) :-)

Have a great day You too!
Christer.

ana_didi said...

Hello,
Great shots... Bertil looks beautiful posing on the rock, it is lovely to see butterflies and insects eating invisible food from flowers, but ... what really caught my attention today is that the mosquitoes are gone! Wonderful!
Your rides will be much nicer now.
kiss
Didi

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Spiders are not my favorite insect - none are really, but I do like to take photos of insects because their small world is often so intricate and shows such detail, like the web in the photo. Glad the flies have gone; not sure if I prefer mosquitoes - none is best. And we are envious of your cool temps as we will be hot again and it is already 75 degrees F at 7 a.m.

splendid said...

love the photos as always
the spider web is extra special
thank you Christer

caryn said...

Hi Christer,
I share your frustration at taking photos of dragonflies and darters. They sit nicely until I get the camera ready and then they dart away. I suspect if my hearing were dog-like, I could hear tiny dragonfly laughter.
Love the spider photo. Spiders are fascinating.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Didi!
I do hope all flies has died now :-) It was so nice being able to walk around without having a cloud of flies around my head and all over my dogs :-)Life will be so much nicer now :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Beatrice!
I suffered hard from arachnafobia when I was yonger, but nowdays i like them a lot. I think it might have to do with the fact that they eat flies :-)

It´s way to hot over at Yours. They have a strong heat wave in Russia too now. But it seemes we up here in Scandinavia misses the most of it :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Splendid!
Thank You!
The dew just made the webb so visible this morning and the spider in the middle is just a bonus for all of us that likes them :-)
have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
These dragonflies wouldn´t even sit still for a second :-) They just cirkled around my head all the time :-) :-)

I´m sure they are laughing like mad all the time when they see us try :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...that pic of bertyl is the best. it would make wonderful cards! so your flies and mosquitoes are gone? hmmm...i wonder what this means? we are loaded with spiderwebs everywhere. that usually means a harsh winter. but the old farmers almanac says we will have fall weather through february. all i know is we are stuck in the endless summer. today the humidity is 93 %. you can hardly walk outside. it feels like you are stepping onto a sauna. these are good days to stay inside in the air conditioning. i love the pic of your spider. i am fascinated with them. the kids and i go to our first fall festival this saturday and we are very excited! i will take lots of pics! joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
I like that one too, but it came out a bit too dark i feel. He wouldn´t stay for another try either the little bandit :-) :-)

The mosquito´s are still here but not very many, big though. I hit one with my hand yesterday evening and it sounded as if I hit a really big fly :-) :-) I too wonder why they all dissapared at the same time. I don´t want to find them again when going in to the forest in a while :-) :-)

What I can´t understand is how You can have that heat still! You´ve had it since April, isn´t it so? and with that high humidity it must be totally awful!

We have very few spider webbs this year. I think our hard winter and long cold spring when there were nothing to eat for them, killed of lots of them. But if that means a warm winter, so be it :-) :-)

I think it´s still a long time until they have an autumn festival in Falköping. They usually have a harvest festival in late August. It´s impossible to find a place to park so usually I stay home :-)

Take care in the heat now!
Christer.

Sharlene T. said...

I'm glad the flies have gone, too... maybe it was the spiders?... they sure do love the mosquitos... and, the insect pictures are beautiful... I love dragonflies because God has put every color in their wings -- and, in the wings of flies, too!... now, let's get some of those shots, ok?...

Twitter: SolarChief

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sharlene!
I did find flies when we went out to the bog an hour ago, but they were of a different kind. Lots of them but they just sort of hovered in front of me looking as if I was the strangest thing they´ve ever seen :-) :-) Easy to scare away too :-)

Perhaps it is the dragonflies that has eaten them all, they eat flies. I did try to capture them today too, but no luck. I wonder why they don´t come to my pond?? I made it just for them!

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Alen Trädgård said...

Skulle ha blivit fullständigt tokig om jag varit tvungen att gå omkring i myggnätshatt i våra omgivningar:) Tur att det verkar ha upphört nu då. Flytta tillbaka till västkusten Christer så slipper du eländena:)))) Ha det gott/Monne

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hejsan Monne!
Det har varit ovanligt mycket skogsflugor i år, vädret har passat dem perfekt tyvärr.

Förutom det att jag trivs otroligt bra här, så finns det vissa saker som hindrar flytt till västkusten hur gärna jag än skulle viljat det. Ett bra hus, ett jobb så jag kan betala räkningar och en snuskigt massa pengar så jag kan köpa huset eller få ett lån till det :-) :-) :-)

Ha det gott!
Christer.