Well at least says one more or less fanatic royalist that today, a here in Sweden very well know reporter and historian. He also says that this might help those wanting a republic! So why does he say like this You may ask? Well the new princess names were according to him not royal enough, in fact he said her first name sounds like a nightclub queen

So what are these horrible m´names then You may ask They are as follows: Estelle, Silvia, Ewa and Mary. Horrible don’t You think There has only been one Estelle before, an american that was married to a relative. I can almost hear how contemptuous he must have sounded when he said american, You have never had any royalties and that is a huge minus Also he loves France above all so everything else is less good and I guess that includes Sweden since he prefers not to live here

Hector's foot print.

Ewa comes from her grandmother on her father’s side, that wasn’t to his liking either. Silvia is from her grandmother on her mother’s side, our queen. He didn’t dare say anything about that He didn’t like Mary either, he thought they should have used the swedish form Maria instead. So now he says the monarchy is dissolving and that these names only will help the republicans to become more?!

However, it seems that the swedish people likes the names very much. I think they are very nice and I’m glad they didn’t give her any of the old mouldy royal names he had expected them to give her. Those names would only mad her a victim of bullying. Royal fanatics (well it goes for any kind of fanaticism) only loves the royals as long as the royals do as the fanatics think is right. If they do anything else they will be sent to hell

It has been a very nice day here with sunshine most of the day. 6C (43F) but the wind is rather strong. I don’t mind it though, it helps drying up the ground and the roads I’ll watch the news later because they will most likely have an interview with this fanatic royalist and I really don’t want to miss when he’s making a fool of him self

Have a great day!

So early this morning a new princess was born. She’s not only a princess, she’s the coming regent of our country. Well first her mother of course but after her it’s this little princess. They saluted with 42 cannon shots from five cities around the country, it would have been “only” 21 if it wasn’t a coming regent. There are strange rituals when it comes to the birth of a regent, for instance must three people with special signet (one is the prime minister) see the child and seal a document that there is a new coming regent

Flying north.

Her name will be revealed tomorrow by the king and I’m afraid it will be one of the boring common names in the royal family.  Victoria as our crown princess is called isn’t especially common to be honest and this girl will most likely get a name no one ever would use otherwise This will most probably be the only news we’ll get this week even if the world would come to an end

I’m not a royalist and just the thought that someone actually can inherit a job from his or her father is strange. But I know that it gives much more PR if a Queen and King (or in this case a Prince when our crown princess becomes a queen) visits a country than if the President from Sweden her husband would come for a visit. Our royal house is also the cheapest of them all so why not keep them. They don’t have any power what so ever either and aren’t allowed to talk about political subjects. Well they do anyway sometimes and then the press gets crazy for a while

I think these are tracks from a young moose but at first I thought it might be from a red deer. But I did find much bigger later on. They must have passed there just minutes before we arrived because the prints were new.

They day has been sunny and warm, a nice change from yesterdays rain and strong winds. All snow is gone and the roads are almost dry again. We walked down to the creek today because I came home a bit early. It felt like spring but I know we’re still a long way from it, winter can keep on going here until late April if we’re unlucky. But I do hope we’ve seen the end of it already.

Have a great day!

The little pond behind my garage is growing, when is it big enough to be called a lake

It’s actually much harder to produce a lot of saliva than one might think, especially early in the morning I was thinking of every sour thing I knew about and finally I had enough in the test tube. So now it’s on its way to where ever the laboratory is placed. I have no idea why I didn’t check the address on that envelope before I sent it, so naturally every one at work asked where that laboratory is placed

The old ruin is falling appart rapidly now.

After spitting a lot in the test tube I realxed as much as I possibly could before the vehicle inspection. I knew it would be impossible because I’m always a nervous wreak when this day arrives. Doesn’t matter that I know there isn’t anything wrong with the car, I just can’t relax.

The inspection went very well though They just noted a couple of things I have to fix on my car before next years inspection. I was also informed that since I can remove the trailer hitch from the car I’m not allowed to have it on if I don’t have anything connected to it, like a trailer. That I didn’t know so now I’ll only have to find something to put around that connection so it doesn’t start to rust.

The sun shone most of the day and we actually reached 6C (43F) , so all in all I have to admit that it has been a rather good day Now the temperature is dropping fast and the night will be cold, so I have a fire burning in the stove and I’m about to make a pot of tea. Tonight I’ll sleep well

Have a great day!

It suddenly started to snow like crazy yesterday afternoon, before that the sun had started to shine for a while so I really wasn't prepared for this Most photographs were taken yesterday.

Isn’t it fun that the one thing I longed for most this weekend was to spit in a test tube It arrived today and I’ve already paid the bill so I can send it in the post tomorrow. The instruction says (and yes when it is about things like this I do read instructions, if not for any other reason than the cost of this ) that I must spit in the test tube in the morning before I do anything else.

The pond area was once again covered in snow and I do hope the goldfish in it sleeps nicely now.

Suddenly the sun started ti shine again and the two inches of it we just had gotten melted away.

So we walked to the Stone Circle Hill.

I’m not even allowed to drink a glass of water and if I had been a smoker That would be forbidden as well before spitting in to the tube. When I have done that I’ll pour in something else that came in another little tube and shake it well. This other thing will stabilize the dna so it can take any temperature and doesn’t get destroyed. After that I’ll only have to wait up to eight weeks for an answer. They’ll send a mail from where I can log in to their website and get my answer.

All trees were filled with small water drops that sparkled like diamonds in the sunshine.

But I’ll also do another thing tomorrow and I’m not looking forward to that at all even if I know it really is a good thing. I’ll take my car to the annual vehicle inspection and I know I’ll feel worried already when I wake up I really don’t think there is anything I have to worry about, at least nothing serious like the breaks but still. I’m like this every year when this day arrives I hate it but still I’m glad we have it because the worst cars will be taken off the roads and then it will be a bit safer out there.

It wasn't that nice to walk the same way today, sleet and strong winds sort of dampens the spirit some

The inspection isn’t until 9:30 am so I can sleep a bit longer tomorrow, doesn’t mean I will because I am a morning person and Nova do have a tendency to wake me up when she think it is time Now it’s time for a pot of tea and a sandwich or two.

Have a great day!

The snowdrops are ready to open up any day now.

Do You like me, like to watch the Antiques roadshow? Do You like me smile when the things they show isn’t worth even close to what the owner had expected It has happened that the owners tells the experts that they are wrong in the valuation But perhaps I like it even more when the owner get so surprised that they just don’t know what to do or belive. A couple of weeks ago a swedish lady came to our version of this program and showed some, I think it was lithographs. It seems she had rather many up on her attic and thought it mostly was crap.

I had planned on walking around the village today but with roads like this I went down to the creek instead. The roads weren't slippery at all where the cars hadn't been.

Small forest mice dig tunnels in the thick snow and when the snow melts this is what remains. Looks like a big worm has done it

Well it was no crap and for every new lithograph the amount got higher and higher and she just couldn’t understand it. I don’t think I laughed that much in a long time. Finally the amount was so high that she sort of just shut down her brain looking as if she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry That happens very rarely though.  One time there was this man who had bought a small porcelain duck for less than a cup of coffee and it turned out that it was from China, very old and very valuable If I bought a porcelain duck it most likely would be the other way around. Very expensive but worth nothing

We can at the moment see both the swedish version and the british one at the moment. It started in Brittain 1977 and they have visited both Denmark and Sweden quite early after they started making this show. Lots of countries now have their own roadshows and this seems to be an idea that will last for a long time. We’ve had it every year since 1989 and it never lose its popularity.

But we rarely have those extremely valuable antiques in our show, like they have in Britain. Not so strange perhaps since the British empire was huge and they brought home lots of things from all places on earth. Lots of people have also moved to Britain, it always seem like some thing they show on their show comes from a Russian great duchess or princess or something like that and then the things are worth several hundred thousand pounds. Very few grand duchesses moved to Sweden

The snow started to fall when we went out for our second walk today. But it melts as soon as it hits the ground and I hope it will continue like that because it will be rather cold tonight.

This and next one is photographed through an old window so they aren't as sharp as I would like to.

It’s time to make a pot of tea and after that I think I’ll take a nap. I don’t know why but I feel so tired today. I think it has to do with me having a fire burning in the stove all the time so it gets a bit to warm in my cottage But rather that than to cold

Have a great day!

Temperature is over 1C (34F), the wind is blowing and the rain is falling. It doesn’t fall all the time though, in between showers the sun shines also. If I didn’t know better I would say that spring is heading our way now because we’ll have these temperatures all next week they say. But then again, how often do they guess right withe their weather predictions

But winter can stay all April up here if we’re unlucky so I don’t even dare mentioning spring yet I’ve sown all the perennials that need cold temperatures to germinate, now I have a lot of seeds that needs a warm spring to do the same but I wont sow them until late Mars.

This is the foot print of a fox and so is the one below.

The claws has made these long marks so it's hard to think it is a fox This one reminds of that foot print I saw in the sand by the creek, but that one was 12cm (almost 5 inches) wide. So it might have been a wolf foot print in the sand. I'm still waiting for an answer on that photograph.

But do You remember the cuttings I took from my frost grapevine? I wrapped them in moist paper and then I placed them in a plastic bag and after that I put them in the fridge. Yesterday evening I brought the bag out of the fridge and planted most of the cuttings. A few didn’t look healthy so I tossed them in the garbage bin but the ones I did plant has already swelling buds.

The paper towles I had wrapped around the cuttings has started to mould some. But only a few cuttings was infected with it.

I've placed four cuttings in each flower pot. Since this is a window that gets lot of sunshine I'll place them in plastic bags later so they won't dry out and die. Something the azalea beside them almost did after the sunshine yesterday.

Grapevines are usually like weeds when it comes to survive and I have never had any problems getting cuttings to root. So if every thing goes as planned I’ll have at least 23 grapevines with me to the plant swapping day later this summer Otherwise I haven’t done much today. I’ve been out walking a couple of times with my dogs and in between we’ve napped. I guess this will be a day of either napping or looking at dvd’s. The three Back to the future movies will be a good choice today. But first I’ll make a pot of tea

Nova.

Orvar. The fur in his face has almost grown back totally now

Hector.

Have a great day!

I went to the vet during the day to get a new prescription for Hector’s osteoarthritis medicine and then go to the pharmacy to get it.  The first thing I noticed was that a door to one of the examining rooms was closed and that a receipt was placed beside it and that usually means someone have had to say good bye to a loved pet and that the owner still is in the room. Just before he was going to write out the prescription to me he walked in to another examining room.

A deer were walking towards my neighbors feeder when he saw us. At first he didn't know what to do.

He hesitated for a while but then he decided it was far more important to eat than to worry about us

A woman and her son had just walked in there with two smaller dogs. I heard how she said that she brought “the other” as support and suddenly I heard this heart breaking cry when he told her the sad news. It is days like these I’m glad that I’m not a vet. I guess they try to distance themselves when they have to do these things but I could see that he hadn’t managed to do so today.

So I drove back to work quite content being a painter. The sun was shining and it was just enough warm to melt the snow on the roofs. The sun was still shining when I came home and it was still warm and nice with no wind at all. My boys were running around like always and Nova tried to run with them even if she was wearing a leash as long as we walked in the forest

I let her out of the leash as soon as we came to open fields and I threw a stick that they all could chase. Today Nova was the fastest one and she had a hard struggle with Orvar that tried to take the stick away from her. No hard feelings between them today because I think my yelling to them yesterday made them realize there’s a bigger enemy looking at them and he’s the one giving them their food

Nova runs like crazy because she knows she doesn't stand a chance of running away from Orvar He might be 8,5 years old but he is so much bigger and faster than she is

But I just couldn’t get that heartbreaking cry out of my head and I never know when it is my turn to make that decision. But there’s no use in fearing that day until it comes, it’s just better to enjoy every second I have with my two big bears Orvar and Hector and the little fox Nova Now it’s time to make some cocoa and a sandwich or two. I bought a Småländsk cheese cake today (and I’ll have it with home-made black berry jam). It’s a bit different from the ones we call american cheese cakes over here, sort of less firm in the consistence.

Have a great day!

I managed to take three photographs today, this one early this morning. I love the color of the moon.

I have two dogs that was ordered by me to be ashamed about how they behaved earlier today. Orvar and Nova had a big fight in the kitchen over a small piece of liver I accidentally dropped on the floor and they both wanted. It didn’t last long because when I yell I can be heard through closed doors and windows in my neighbors cottage After a bit of yelling from me they now both are up sleeping in my bed next to each other Orvar is sort of curled around her as if he is protecting her

I don’t know if You remember but we have a story in the family that my Mormors mormor (that means grandmothers grandmother on my mother’s side, if it was on my father’s side it would be farmor) Most probably wasn’t swedish, in fact my mormor said she was a gypsy, something most people in the family keeps quiet about. Well not me and my brother I have checked back as far as I could but some priests handwriting is so bad its hard to understand what they actually has written

So before I try again I’ve ordered a DNA test that will show from where my ancestors really originate. The thing is that they can see that in the DNA. They can follow the woman line via the mitochondrial DNA. That sort of stick with the women from the beginning of time and it varies from region to region. They can also trace from where the men has come from via the Y chromosome and since my father’s origin is rather clouded I thought that would be interesting as well.

My father’s father is unknown to all of us, my farmor refused to tell us who he was. Back in 1936 it was a huge scandal to become pregnant if unmarried. She had worked as a maid on a big farm and came home with my father. The thing is that she had another son again just a year after that, still unmarried but he stayed with his father not far from where I live. We all just hope that my farmor was (for the morals of that time) a promiscuous slut that liked a bit of fun in the hay, the alternative is that she was raped and that would be terrible.

So now I’m waiting for a test tube to arrive via the mail so I can spit in it and send it back. After that I’ll have to wait for up to eight weeks before I get an answer. Since some of my relatives unfortunately are rather much on the racists side I truly and honestly hope we derives from something they just can’t take The worst would be if we only have swedish or Scandinavian ancestors  I’ll tell You from where my roots come as soon as I get an answer but it will take some time.

Have a great day!

I only managed to take three photographs today. This one I took through my bathroom window early this morning.

I’m not sure we can call this snow fall a blizzard, at least not here where I live, but up on the mountain where the wind blows hard it most certainly is. It started to snow already last night, I noticed that when Hector desperately needed to go out and I opened the door. A gentle snowfall was falling and I didn’t think any more of it to be honest. I did however when I got up at 4:45am.

The gentle snowfall had given us around 1dm (4 inches) of snow. I don’t remember why I walked out but while standing there I thought that this would be a great day to stay at home. Strange really because I really don’t like snow The roads to work was a mess and they were not much better on my way home when the snow had started to fall again and now with  help from the wind.

I found a file called Save for a rainy day and since it is water falling from the sky I thought I should use them today

There’s a man living in one of our bigger airports, Landvetter outside Gothenburg. He’s from Germany and says he wants to live and work in Sweden. But he has no money so he really can’t go anywhere and he doesn’t want to go back to germany he says. He has been living there for almost three months now (three months is the limit to live in Sweden without any kind of visa if You are from Europe).

The security personnel doesn’t mind him being there and perhaps they look the other way during nights when he sleep on places he really shouldn’t be sleeping in They also chats with him every now and again so he feels he has some company. Since he has no money other travellers helps him with food and some bring him things to read too. I think most people feels sorry for him, being so close to where he wants to live and work, but still so far away to make it come true.

It is time to make a pot of tea and a sandwich or two. If I only had some bread for my hotdogs I would eat that, but that was another thing I forgot to buy yesterday

Happy Valentines Day, or as we say here in Sweden: Have a nice All Hearts Day!

How many cats can You see? I can see five but I'm sure there were more when I lifted my camera.

I just can’t remember what it was I wanted to write about here today. I’ve been thinking of it almost all day and now its totally gone It wasn’t about the weather even if it has been rather nice today as well. Almost 0C (32F) and sunshine for a long part of the day.

It wasn’t about Whitney Houston even though I think its sad what has happned but it tends to go that way when using a lots of different narcotics. She was the girl who had it all and lost everything and then some. I’ve always wondered why people starts using narcotics, it isn’t as if we didn’t know its dangerous. Still they start using it and then their lives goes down hill so to speak.

The city pidgeons that lives in a barn close to here. The one in the middle is a male and he started to court the one to the left when we passed by. I do like all kinds of doves.

It wasn’t about food even though I had emptied my fridge totally yeaterday So I went by the grocery store in Kvänum so I could fill up the fridge again. But why is it that the thing one wants most always is the thing that is forgotten? Normally its toilet paper I forget, it isn’t until I’m totally desperate I actually might remember to but it Today I forgot to buy a blue cheese, nothing important really but still, I like blue cheese.

I still have the yule lights on in the garden at night and will continue to do so until late february. It still gets dark rather early here.

It wasn’t about the fact that I can think of a thing all day and then suddenly forget all about it either But it is strange isn’t it? I don’t have a clue about what it was and one would think that nothing should be that easy to erace from the brain Well, perhaps I’ll remeber it later and if I do I’ll write it down so I can tell You tomorrow instead.

Have a great day!