Thursday, August 12, 2010



It´s a calm morning and not much is moving around in the village. I heard a bird in my apple tree some minutes ago that sounded just like a parrot. I´m sure it wasn’t, it most likely was a starling. We had a starling here for many years that sounded just like a Cuckoo clock :-) It didn´t come this year but I guess ten years is rather a high age for a starling in the wild.



Kvänum is filled with small factories like this one. Kvänums Kök (Kvänums Kitchen I guess it´s called in english) makes rather expensive kitchens and is rathet known out in the world I´ve heard.

This was the home for another company known outside Sweden, Madame Chic. I think the main products are cosmetics. Nowdays they reside almost where I work in Kvänum.

Even though the village is rathjer small they do have a couple of parks there. This one with a statue that I have no idea what it is supposed to be. Appendicitis perhaps :-) :-)


Here´s another one and it has a small stage. I don´t know if it ever has been used though.

They say it won´t rain today, or tomorrow! I think that we’ve gotten quite enough as it is, especially yesterday. I had driven to friends for a cup of coffee when the light gray sky suddenly turned very dark grey, almost black. Then rain started pouring down and when we thought it couldn´t be worse it increased some more :-) :-)

Kvänums ån. If You remember we had a word for a stream that meant it wa bigger than a creek, but smaller than a river? Otherwise the best name for it would be Kvänums river.
I noticed that lots of dogs and their owners were walking on the road beside the å, I would too if I lived here.
Unfortunally this beautiful plant grows there, the Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) and lots of it too. Children loves to hide benieth the giant leafs and when they get out in to the sunshine they get third degree burns on their skin. The sap in the plant does that and those burns are really nasty! It´s now decided it must be eradicated here in Sweden. Well they will try anyway. I could see that they had cut them down earler this summer. But they grow back fast.


Another weed thrived there too, the Larger Bindweed (Calystegia sepium (Snårvinda)). I do like it and wouldn´t mind it in my garden. But it has a tendency to suffocate all other plants close to it, spread like crazy and its roots goes down as much as ten meters (about ten yards) down into the ground. Very har to get ri off if one wants to. Like the morningglory the flower is open just one day.

It had calmed down some when I drove home again, just to get worse the closer I came to my cottage. Lightning’s flew all around in the sky and for a minute or two the rain fall was so heavy that I couldn´t see the road at all. With me in the car I had a mobile phone that my friends didn´t want any more. Not all people in the world likes these new touch screens but I do. I also never really liked the mobile phone I´ve had for a year or so. The buttons are so small and so close together that I have troubles pushing down one without pushing down a couple others too :-) :-)


The silo can be seen all over the village. here You can see the grocerystore to the left too.
The farms is placed just beside the village limits, well the one with this little cottage is just on the inside of the village limits.



I think this was the forge where the blacksmith worked. The owner tries to keep it in shape but kids has an idea that it is fun to break all the windows on it.

The thunder went away as I came home but the rains stayed. It must have been raining all night, I never sleep so well as when I can hear the sound of rain all night.
Now it´s time for a cup of tea and then a nap I think.
Have a great day now!

 
The Boletales has started to grow, it is autumn. Did You know that funguses aren´t neither plants nor animals? They are a group of their own.
 

21 comments:

Alen Trädgård said...

Kul att se bilder från Madam Chic's lokaler en gång i världen var jag återförsäljare:)) Björnlokan har blivit ett gissel sägs det och det hjälper nog knappast att hugga ner den. I Danmark är den ÖVERALLT längs vägarna. Christer jag tror INTE att du vill ha in snårvinda i din trädgård, den kallas inte "Djävulens tarmar" för intet:)) Den är rent ut sagt för djävlig:)) Ha det gott/Monne

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Monne!
Så du har varit återförsäljare åt Madame Chic! Numera har de en riktigt snygg byggnad alldeles intil där jag jobbar. Men jag undrar om de kanske använder de gamla lokalerna för det finns inget nytt där.

Jättelokan skall ju vara tvåråig, så kapar man ned den innan den går i frö borde den ju försvinna ganska snart. Fast det kan ju ligga kvar fröer i marken länge som bara väntar på rätt tillfälle. Round up är nog det enda som hjälper långsiktigt är jag rädd.

Hellre snårvinda äm hundrova säger jag bara. Har kämpat mot hunrovan i flera år nu. När man tror att man äntligen har övertaget visar det sig bara att ett nytt kraftigt bestånd vuxit upp i nåfon syren där det är svårt att få tag i den. Snårvindan är ju i alla fall vacker :-) :-)

Ha det gott!
Christer.

ana_didi said...

Hello Christer,,
I'm laughing with the monument appendicitis:)
This plant is beautiful, sorry to be toxic.
Mushrooms are very interesting creatures in its multiplicity of forms and colors.
I was amazed to see that they were born in the square in front of my building, which is face the sea. I thought they liked the darker corners with no wind.
Curiously it is in a place where the dogs make their needs ... or do mushrooms like this type of fertilizer? Aff ...
kisses and a good day
Didi

Anonymous said...

Lovely tour again today Christer. I want you to go to Paris and shoot some pictures there and maybe on to London or some of the Villages in England. I guess I'm dreaming. But hey, you take great pictures. One of the ferral kittens came up to me while I was pouring the milk into the bowl this morning. I think he/she likes me. Made my day!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Didi!
I think that is how appendicitis must look like :-)

Mushrooms are very interesting! The thing we see is just the fruit or what ever we should call it. The fungus itself grows under ground and can cover enormous areas. But for some reason "Your" fungus thinks this is a good place to spread its spores.

Yes that plant is really beautiful and can become up to three meters high, so that´s why children likes to hide benieth the leafs. It doesn´t belong here in this country so I think it is a good idea to eradicate it.

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
It would be fun to visit Paris once again, my oldest brother lived there once so I have walked around the entire city :-)

But it would be even funnier to visit London. I´ve never been there so a visit to London is one of my goals to fulfill before I die. But it doesn´t seeme to happen soon though :-)

So exiting that they trust You so much now! It sure means that it likes You!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

caryn said...

Hi Christer,
Love the appendicitis sculpture but I'm pretty sure that is not it's true title. :-)

The heat has broken here for a while. I can have the windows open again and hear the birds singing. And the neighborhood kids playing basketball. I'd rather have the windows open any day than listen to the air conditioner groaning away.

Your boletales are very fairy tale looking toad stools. We have field mushrooms around but my favorites are the puffballs. When my nephew was little, I used to take him to see the puffballs and check out whether they were ready to explode. He liked to step on them and make the dusty spores come out.

Do you think the English word "brook" is equivalent to "å"?

Have a great day.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
No that sculputre most probably have a fancy name. I´ll check if I can find a saign by it one day.

We finally has some heat over here, but it will only last for a couple of days I´m afraid. Well as long as it doesn´t come any more rain I should be happy :-)

They do look a bit like toad stools, but I took soem photos of toad stools also yesterday and I think they´ll appere in tomorrows blog :-) This mushroom on the photo is quite tasty :-)

I also got some photos of puff balls :-) They are also quite tasty as long as they stay white. I too have always loved to step on them :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

I forgot! Yes I think brook is a good word! I´ll remember that!
Thanks!
Christer.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...we still have no rain! it is just awful. but the first pre-season football game is on saturday so i will build a fire and settle in to watch. the rest of the family goes to the games but i stay home with teddy. that village sure is cute! joyce

Valerie said...

Hi Christer.

Have just a few minutes to myself to visit some old blog friends while baby boy naps!

Loved today's post...especially the pictures of parks and rivers...i.e. ANYTHING GREEN!!!

We are experiencing such a horrible heatwave here in the middle of the country. Here in Kansas City we've actually been hotter (with heat index) than Death Valley, California! Now, I remember why I don't like living in Kansas so much! We've been spoiled with several summers of not reaching the 100 degree mark and now we've reached 100 degrees (F) (actual temperature) several times! That put's heat index readings often above 115 degrees (F).

Can't let the little one's out to play and certainly can't take the baby out in this type of heat as he just wouldn't be able to regulate body temperature! *sigh*

Again, thanks for the refreshing pics.

Val

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
The weather sure is strange over at Yours! We have plenty to share :-)

I´ve never really understood American football, but I guess it has to do a lot with the rules. I don´t know them therefore I don´t understand the game.

Yes it is a cute village :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Valerie!
I can understand how much there is to do with the little one and the two older if they can´t stay outside! It seemes that the only place on earth that has had normal weather this summer is here in Scandinavia.

We had our heat wave as we usually have and then the rains came as usual. But I can´t understand How You can survive in that heat. I know most have AC, but if You have to go outside ??? And even hotter than Death Valley!!

I wish I could send some of our rains and cooler weather over to You!
Take care in the heat now!
Christer.

DianeLynn said...

Thank you Christer for taking us along on your "trip." You should think about being a tour guide eh?
Loved everything. Thank you!

decareis said...

hehehehhe the appendix was great!
and photos, as well as the city is very beautiful.
as the recipe, I think the translator took blame to no avail, I imaginie that:
"Lard sausage" should be sausage with pork fat.
I think this error in the translation of the book
but do not know if this will help you in understanding the translation of "translator crazy! heheheheh

Chris in the Emerald City said...

That Giant Hogweed sounds like nasty stuff, indeed. Sort of like the poison ivy we have here, on a bigger scale.

Did you ever break any windows out as a child? I'm guilty.

Do you have any wild, edible mushrooms growing in your area?

Have a groovy day,
Chris.........

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Diane!
Me as a tourist guide? Nah, I would talk to much :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Andrea!
Now I think I know what kind of sausage You mean. Medisterkorv! If You translate that directly it would be "with lard sausage" :-) :-) :-)
I honestly can´t say I know the difference between those two sausages, they taste much the same :-)

Have a grerat day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Chris!
I never thought of that, but You are right. It is much like Your poison Ivy. But this one only gives burns if one gets in to sunlight. If it is a cloudy day You might not even notice anything. But that is a bit hard to learn small children. So we really must get rid of it.

No I never broke any window as a child. I did lots of stupid things but not that :-) :-)

We have quite a lot edible mushrooms around here. The one I show today is one of them. I´ll try to show more as I find some.

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Kat said...

Thank you for the tour, always a favorite among your postings. I found the signs especially interesting, and I'm still laughing at your description of the sculpture!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kat!
It´s funny how different signs can be all over the world. I always think signs abroad looks funny :-)

It is hard to describe that sculpture in other words I´m afraid :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.