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!