It all pays off!

The lawn is turning green again.
It's amazing how fast nature is re-awakening after just a few rainy days.
We re-freshed the water in Aarons pool today.
We do that every couple of days of course to make sure the water doesn't get toxic.
It surely turns green very quickly with those high temperatures AND all the sand that Aaron carries into the pool every time he jumps in and out. :)

Aaron is having a great time. He get's lot of playtime everyday and if he get's bored, his mommy always comes up with a new ideas to keep him entertained.
But he's also able to entertain himself. He plays with branches, plastic bottles and his soccer balls of course. Sometimes he manages to "find" something he isn't supposed to have, like a dustpan he "stole" from the deck the other day. He get's really funny with things like that, starts running through the garden like a maniac, jumps up and down, throws stuff in the air and carries it in and out of the water.
The only thing is that we have to take it away from him as soon as he starts to work on it with his new big teeth. *lol*
But, honestly, he never really destroyed anything. Seriously.
He's not that kind of dog I guess. And we did't give him much chances to bit anything in pieces. I mean, every young dog loves to chew on shoes, don't they.
We just recently talked about how much work it is to train a young dog.
Especially the first year is tuff. It's a full time job. Ask HASI!
She'll tell you how tuff it is. But she'll also tell you that it is all worth it. The time and effort, love and patience, everything you invest the first year, it all pays off.
And the reward is a pleasant and loyal dog on your side for another 10 years - at least!

FUN FUN FUN

DISCUSSIONS WITH MOMMY

Guess who has the last word in this family? Always! ;-)
*lol*

Tell me to jump mommy, and I'll ask HOW HIGH...

♥

Harbor and beachside

We had a nice time with our dutch family, Hasi's sister and brother in law...
They stayed here for two nights and right now they are enjoying a stay in a very nice  B&B in Småland, another province of Sweden which is just north of Skåne.

The other day we (me and Cleo) went for a walk in Åhus with them. We checked out Köpmannagatan (downtown Åhus - the newer part, there is also an older part with a cute square that I would call "historic downtown") and went down to the harbor where all the nice power- and sailboats are "parked".

It was quite cloudy that day and at first we thought we'd go for some ice cream on the "glassbåt" (a platform on the water that looks a bit like a boat) but in the end the urge for coffee was stronger.
So we had coffee... (the next photo took my brother-in-law)

On the way back home we drove a little u-turn to see what was going on at the beach hotel and couldn't resist getting out of the car again to walk a bit more...
The pier took us out "onto" the water, the temperatures were nice, the wind not too strong... so we sat down on a bench to enjoy the moment.

 Can you see little Cleo walking with auntie Hilde..?

 Hundreds of names are carved into the planks all the way down to the end of the pier.

I pepped this photo up a bit in iPhoto - as I said it was pretty cloudy that day.

The weather is already changing, we had a fantastic (for our taste a little too hot and dry) summer and now we are looking forward to a pleasant fall.
The cherries on the tree in the front yard are long gone (we didn't even get to taste them so quick were the birds) and the number of tourists in the area is slowly but surely decreasing which means that the people who live here (and don't make a living off the tourism) get "their" town back.
And it won't be long until the dogs will be allowed back on the beach as well.
:)

It's a bit windy and cloudy today, so - perfect weather for a car trip with the dogs... to where? Don't know yet... ;-)


Ha det bra allihopa!

♥

Red kites and squirrels don't go together very well...

Another week comes to it's end.
We live through one circle after the other, are on the move - all the time.
And we have still temperatures around the 30 °C !!!
But the weather forecasters predict a change to lower temperatures and more frequent rain showers beginning this weekend.
I have to say I don't mind. :)

We live in a great area (if you are able to ignore all the tourists and the constant farm work that is going on, meaning noisy tractors driving by our house all the time), we have nice forests around us to walk in, the coast isn't far (swamped by tourists and beach - hand ballers right now!) and we get to watch fantastic wildlife.
There is deer and wild pigs (we never see those though), hares and rabbits, pheasants and geese, insects and bats, swans and birds of prey like red kite and buzzard (the latter fly over our house every day).
I think they ate "our" front yard squirrels, haven't seen them in over a week...
Two buzzards sat down on the dead tree we have out in front of the garage and just sat there for a while, watching us.

I tried to get a shot of the pheasant that is living right outside our garden, but he's just too smart (and fast) for me.
I could have killed him the other day, not because he wouldn't let me photograph him, no, he woke us up VERY early and just couldn't shut up for ONE entire hour...
If I would keep a gun in my bedroom (or anywhere in our home - and I don't) I would have used it. Just to chase him away, of course. ;-)

That is by the way what they (the vegetable farmers) are doing with the geese this time of the year. They use gas cannons to keep the geese from eating all the lettuce - so basically what they do is, they "shoot" all day long, starting before 6am and ending way after sunset.
But hey! A human can get used to almost anything, can't he. ;-)

This past week we cleaned our guest cabin, planted flowers, mowed the lawn, played with the dogs, super-cleaned our car, walked the dogs and celebrated little Edith's 2nd birthday.

It was a good week and tomorrow we are expecting family visitors from Holland :))
They will start driving very early in the morning and we wish them a fantastic and safe trip! :)

The bedroom window is open and I hear that it just started to rain a bit...

A nice sound that will help me fall asleep in no time :)

Good night every one!

♥

But I still don't have to like it, right!

HI!

My name is Aaron!

Some of you already know me from photos and stories my 2nd mom posted on this blog. 

My 1st mom doesn't blog, but that's good because that means that she has more time for me! :))

I came to my new family when I was very little, I don't really remember that day though. 

I do remember that I lived in a different house before with my other human parents.

I had a little brother and 4 sisters and my real mommy of course. 

I felt very safe in that house because not only my mommy was there to protect me and my siblings, I know that my real daddy was also there and he is a very tuff guy. 

He protects everyone! 

One day my brother and I, and our sisters got to meet all the other dogs out in the yard, my real dad and some other big ones, but I don't remember much about them anymore. 

I haven't seen my first family in a while now, but that is okay. It would be fun though to meet them again because I really liked them all a lot. But I think that some of my siblings are living far away and I heard my moms talk about my real mommy, they said that she will have puppies again which means that I will have more brothers and sisters... Cool! 

Here you see me in my pool, cooling off my paws in the cold water. That is so nice! 

And the little, white doggy, that is my auntie Cleo. 

I just turned 6 months recently and my moms sang a funny song for me that day. :) I liked that. They made me feel very special! 

Life is good now, even though it was not always

Broccoli harvest

It's been incredibly warm those past days but fortunately it's cooling off well during the nights so we can at least sleep better.

We live in an area where the farmers grow tons of potatoes and other vegetables. Right behind our house are fields with broccoli. Lots of broccoli!

I love to eat broccoli. I wonder though if it is really that healthy (unless you grow it in your own garden without any chemical stuff etc).
The thing is that they planted the broccoli seedings just little over a month ago, about 6 weeks or so.
And now most of them look like this!

It's beautiful to see a plant growing like that.  So fast!
BUT
When I think back on the time at home on our family farm, back at the time that we planted only about 15 to 20 little seedings every year...
We watered them, made sure that they wouldn't be eaten by bugs and gave them time to grow...
And it took definitely more then just one and a half months for them to grow to that size...

I really wonder what those farmers are spraying on the plants, besides water, that makes them grow so fast.
Healthy vegetables right!

Well, another thing that amazes me is how fast the hard working people (workers from poland i believe) are when harvesting the crop.
AND they work all day with only a few brakes, even at days like that when it is incredible hot.
I have to admit, I couldn't do it. Really. Respect!

And after the fields are harvested completely they will be re-planted with other vegetables within a few days...

Grow baby grow!!!

Healthy vegetables! All around us...

;-)

OMG!

Heatwave!
It's a long time ago that we had to deal with weather like that.
You try to stay out of the sun, you make sure to drink enough (you even forget to eat, what normally never happens to me *lol*), you hold siesta when the temperatures peak but nothing seems to help. Even when you sit still, you sweat!
The last time I remember sweating so much was when we lived in Texas!
(Boy those were good times :))
But this is Sweden! What are they thinking! I like summer but this heat takes a lot of energy.

We did have some thunderstorms last night and today which brought us some cool air though.
I also managed to find a store that sells those mosquito screens that you simply cut to the windows size and then apply with the help of those self stick hook tapes.
The mosquitos are REALLY BIG here in Sweden. Gigantic! Well...
At least bigger then those in Austria... I hope those screens are keeping them out.

MIKA is outside during most nights. He did have some problems adjusting to the new environment and I guess it's normal too for a young cat to be afraid of this and that, but now he seems to be in a very brave stage right now. He sleeps almost all day long and goes out around sunset. Before we go to bed he usually comes in for a little snack and then goes back out again.
I have to admit that the first night (or the first few) were hard for me too, I was laying in bed sleeping with one ear and awake with the other, always alert and listening.
It's tuff when you know you have to let the baby boy go so he can grow up! So that he can be a big boy.
And he is! :)
MISSY is still the inside cat. She loves to look out of the window, that is enough for her. :)


Oh yes, we do have our normal internet connection back, we received the replacement modem yesterday! After two weeks of waiting and calling customer service repeatedly...
So! Surfing is fun again!
It's just that there are so many other things to do right now that are fun too.

I wish you all a great time doing whatever it is you are doing right now!

Bedtime here in Skåne!

Nighty nighty! :))

Finally Vacation!

It's HOT!
We've had temperatures around 30 〫C and above for several days in a row and I believe it will stay like that for some more.
And no RAIN - the lawn is already brown instead of green and the birds appreciate the water buckets we have out around the house.

AARON turned 6 months yesterday!

He had a great day! Thank you "mama" Lotte, "papa" Per and brother Arcos for the 0,5 - birthday messages! ;-)
 The heat is of course a bit hard on him but we are lucky that he loves water VERY MUCH... he takes EVERY possible chance to COOL OFF in HIS POOL or under the SPRINKLER!

CLEO preferes to bath in the sun or the sand and shade - depending on the temperature and her mood...
And in between she likes to check out the gofer/mouse holes in the back of the garden...

I had my final exam past friday. AND I PASSED!
Yeeeeeha! :))
I am now done with my course and looking for a job, pretty exciting times are laying ahead of me. I've applied at several companies so now it is "just" a matter of waiting what will happen next and when.
In the mean time I will NOT get bored! I enjoy a little vacation and summer in our new home.
The last two or three weeks were really tuff! I had to force myself to sit down with the books to study, really! My motivation wasn't the best anymore and there was a considerable lack of self discipline as well!
No wonder after 6 months of going to one course after the other...
But I am glad that I did it and proud of myself that I was able to pass every test at the first attempt. :)
VACATION!!!

...meaning...

Time to relax and just BE.

I don't know if we go anywhere, we thought about renting a mobile home and drive north a couple of days but that is really no fun when it is so warm. AND Aaron is still not a 100% over the getting car sick stage. It's much better but still not completely over. He can be just fine for weeks and then he's not...
But as I said, he's almost there. I think most dogs outgrow that problem sooner or later. It's just a matter of time. :)

We can't complain, we have a nice big garden, wonderful trails in the woods "right in front of our nose" and the beach isn't far either. Even though it's not much fun right now to go there with all the tourists!
Let me tell you that Åhus is a very crowded place this time of the year.
Just good that we live a bit away from the main road, there's a lot of traffic going on every day.

The area where we live in is very agricultural. On the huge fields around us grow grains and vegetables, potatoes and strawberries. The area has kind of a gigantic underground water reservoir which enables the farmers to grow that stuff even when the summer is so dry, like right now. The sprinklers are running practically day and night.

There's lots of wild flowers out there too and in our front yard we have squirrels visiting every day. Isn't that a cute little fella?!! :)

Little Edith (who turns 2 pretty soon) came to visit the other day with her sister and mum and they brought Joey along to play with Aaron... You cannot imagine how dirty little Joey was after a while!
*lol*

 And when we unpacked the crocket golf set Edith got very possessive! She explained to us several times that ALL THE BALLS where "mina" (mine)!!
We tried to play a round but with a (almost) two year old you can forget that. She was too serious about "owning" all the balls and how to use them.
Her body language tells it all, doesn't it.  *lol*

Well, it's time to go downstairs and get a glass of VERY COLD water.
Surfing the net isn't really fun right now because we don't have access to our "usual" broadband internet provider - our modem "died" and we are waiting for a new one for two weeks now. In the mean time we are using one of those "dial up" mobile sticks and the speed is really ridiculous. But we are ONLINE at least and that's what's counts at the end of the day!
:)

*sweating*

NEED TO COOL OFF NOW. I AM SURE THAT AARON WON'T MIND IF I COOL OFF MY FEET IN HIS POOL ♥

...to be continued!