Only 8C (46F) early this morning and the sun shined from a clear blue sky. I had to put a sweater on when we walked away for our morning walk. Most flies were still hiding in the bushes but some had placed themselves on the leafs (that was dry from the morning dew) to get some warmth from the sun.

I could hear some cranes from a distance, but otherwise it was totally quiet. It still is quiet because it´s vacation time here in Sweden. Back when I was a kid all industries closed down at the same time, usually on the second week of July if I remember correctly. So this period got the name Industry vacation time. I think most of the owners thought it was useless to stay open when all other companies were closed.

Unfortunally the camera didn´t catch the bronze color the morning dew gave it.

Nowdays it´s a bit different. Some, like in the company I work, close the factory for four weeks in a row. Others give half the crew vacation one week before the other half so they only have closed for three weeks and others doesn´t close at all and sort of works at lower speed for a longer period during the summer.

You can actually see my head reflected in the shell of this beetle :-) All photo´s gets bigger and better if You click on them.

Yesterday I could for the first time in a long period stay in my garden without being pestered by all flies out there. We might have come to a turning point actually. Flies doesn´t live that long and now they have done what they were supposed to do, secure the species survival. I do hope that´s the case. In the forest however this wasn´t the case at all :-) :-) But I have my mosquitoe hat to keep them away from my nose and ears:-) :-)

This is a Six-spot burnet, Allmän bastardsvärmare in swedish.

So I could do some use out there for once :-) I removed most of the leafs on my tomatoe plants. The leafs doesn´t do that much use actually and they keep the sun from reaching the comming tomatoes. So I kept just a few in the top of the plants. I also accidentally cut of two vines from a couple of clematises. But no worry, this is the perfect time to take cuttings and I´ll show You photo´s of how I do that in the bottom of todays blog. I also stumbeled over my gardenis that I put out in the beginning of this summer. It looked as it said "come help me and die" to be honest :-) :-) It had been attacked by different pests already in my kitchen and now it looked as some more had found it. So I just cut it down (even if it was flowering at the moment). I´ll show You photo´s of that later because I had over 125 photo´s to choose from today so I´ll have no space for them here today :-)

A Cabbage butterfly, it has the same name in swedish. Its larvaes eats all cabbage plants and also Garden nasturtiums.

Today I´ll go to the village Tråvad again. The girl I helped with herv french homework these last years will move away to another city to start gymnasiet (that´s highschool) and she can´t have her aquarium with her. So all fish she has will move to my home instead. Her parents can´t take care of them either since this is their busiest time of the year. They sell spices at markets all over southern Sweden. Well, my aquarium looks a bit empty to be honest so that´ll be perfect.

The Himalayan Balsam gets easily over two meters high (6,6 feet). It comes as the names says from the Himalyans and is a nice weed. Well it has a tendency to push away even as strong plants as nettles. But it´s an annual and easy to remove.

The flowers can have all colors, from pure white to almost maroon. I´ve even seen spotted ones.

One of my tomatoe plants stripped of almost all its leafs. It´s enough with those in the top of the bush.

My first tomatoe! It´s from the sort "Japanese fir tree". Gives really tasty tomatoes but it isn´t a plant that gives loads of tomatoes though.

It´s time for another cup of tea I think. It´ll be a warm day they say, perhaps the last really warm day before a longer period with cold weather. I hope the colder weather makes it perfect to paint my cottage.

Have a great day now, I will!

One of the vines from my clematis that has deep red leafs all spring. The other vine might be from the clematis growing beside that one.

Now is the perfect time for taking cuttings of those clematises that flowers in early spring. They have just started to become lignified.Just cut benieth a pair of leafs in the bottom of the cutting and just above on the top of it.

Gently pull of the bottom leafs. Don´t damage the stem, because this is where the new roots will come. Reduce the top leafs to half the ammount, they will only draw energy from the rooting otherwise.

Put the cuttings in sandy soil (I didn´t have that at home so I´ll have to do with common pot plant soil. The soil should be moist, not wet!! This is very important! Wet soil and they will root!

Put a plastic see through bag over it (or if You don´t have that it must at least be white). You can make som small holes in the bag with a needle if You want to. Now put the pot on a place where the sun can´t rech it. There should be new roots within a couple of weeks. You can normally see that it´s been a success when the cutting starts to grow new vines.