Herbs, Weeds and Antiques

We were working on weed controle on the pastures lately.

It's been too dry for the grass to grow, but the weeds are fine! GRRRRRR!

I don't care about weeds that have nice flowers, but the ones that have just millions of seeds for reproduction purpose are so USELESS!

USELESS like flees! Who needs them?!

AND if the weed is toxic, it's even worse.

We have two plants growing, which look very similar from the distance.

One is called

"Johanniskraut", called "Amber" or "Goat Weed" i think,

(Hypericum perforatum) - which is a great medicinal plant AND

which I call "the good guy",

the other one is called

"Jakobskreuzkraut" or Jakobs-Greiskraut in german, "Common Ragweed" in english (Senecio jacobaea),

which I call "the bad guy".

It's toxic and can kill a horse or other animal.

So Hasi has been out the last two days checking our fields and found a few plants.

The only really effective way to get rid of them is digging them out.

Same with Rumex (Ampfer) by the way, at least if you don't want to use chemical weed killers.

Here two photos that show the plant and it's blooms..

Johanniskraut on the right,

Jakobskreuzkraut on the left...:

Our "new" second hand furniture is still sitting in the garage/shop, waiting to be cleaned, except for one piece.

It's a serving trolly that we fell in love with the moment we saw it.

Isn't it gorgeaus?!

Have a great Friday everyone!

ALMOST WEEKEND!

Yeeeeeehaaaaa!

:))

Moa spending a day in Fjälkinge!

We had a special visitor today.

Yesterday evening we were in Olseröd, celebrating a good friends 50th birthday...

We got to play Cricket and had great food!

Moa came with us last night to spend the night in our home.

Because none of the upstairs rooms is furnished yet, she got to sleep on the sofa, we call it the "island" when it's pulled out.

After a good night sleep we had a fancy breakfast with hot chocolate for Moa, fresh rolls, Nutella and a perfect breakfast egg (boiled 3,5 min).

Then...! We got comfy on the "island" again and made a new blog for Moa. I helped her with the main layout and showed her to install a background script.

(moasfotos.blogspot.com).

She made it look pretty cool and we had a good time at the sofa.

Then we decided to go outside and play with the boys.

We brushed them, saddled Midas and took them to the arena.

Hasi worked a little with Indigo in the roundpen and I took Midas, with Moa on his back, on the longe.

Moa can ride a little, she has a good feeling for horses.

She just never rode Midas before and I gave her a couple of "tools" to convince Midas to follow her. I told her how to increase his speed in walk, how to trott him a little and slow down again and how to back him up 2 to 3 steps.

Then I just told her that she would be in charge and I let her decide where to go, I kept her on the longe but stayed behind Midas.

Moa decided to take him over a minimini- jump. At first Midas didn't pick up his feet and knocked the bar down, then he went not over it but escaped to the side...

After some coaching and a couple more runs we got very nice results.

Moa and Midas had a lot of fun, that's for sure! And us (me on the longe and Hasi "on" the camera) too!

:))

A carrot, a big hug and a kiss from Moa to her special friend Midas!

We were finished riding at 1 pm, time for Spagetti and some more Computer/Sofa time.

But not too long...

It was so nice outside, not too hot, not too cold and Cleo also needed some special quality time with Moa.

She got to play "doggie-soccer" with Moa...

We picked cherries and started a cherry-pit-spit contest! That was fun!!!!

AND Moa got to jump on the big trampoline for just a little while (Jumping on those trampolines seems to be very bad for a childs back...! ).

We mad a couple of fun "action" shots "Moa In The Air"!

We crowned the day with some yummie Ice Cream from "Otto" - the best in Sweden!

Moa is back home with her mum and little sister, our Sofa is folded back to normal.

It's quiet again in the house and Cleo waits for us to go to bed...

We had a fantastic day and enjoyed every minute.

But Cleo is right, time for bed!

:))

Cherry Monday

Today was a temperature-ok-day.

We even had some rain.

In the morning we were kept busy with the usual Monday chores, and we needed wood shavings for the stables.

So we hooked up our precious horse trailer and I went to "EKO-Hallen", a HUGE store (kinda like Wal Mart & Co) where you can buy just about anything...

I came back with 10 of these bales:

Those bales are pretty expensive, 70 SEK per piece!

We use mostly straw for the boxes/stalls but also a little sawdust underneath to keep them dry.

That works pretty good I have to say.

Later in the afternoon we went back to the Second Hand place, this time together with our friend Carola and her little girl Edith.

We looked at some stuff again, furniture mainly.

Carola helped us to get a good deal on a dining table, a couple of chairs, two cupboards, a special swedish kitchen bench and some other stuff...

We'll pick it all up tomorrow!

Photos will follow.

Thank you Carola for your help! ♥

:))

In the evening I wanted to pick some cherries but then it started raining and I had to hurry in order to get just enough for a Kirschenstrudel (cherrie strudel).

Ingredients for the dough...

Now it has to "rest" for half an hour...

Then it gets "pulled and stretched on a huge towel or bed linen, really thin...

Then cherries, sugar, butter, crumbs and some other (secret) ingredients get spread out on it...

Everything gets rolled up and baked for 40 min...

I love to serve it with vanilla ice cream... Mmmmmm!!! :))

And we had another Margarita! Now we are ready to get a good night sleep! :))

***

A week in pictures

This was one hell of a week!

Well, that is really ment kinda double...

Barry, our loyal friend is gone and he left a big void in our lives.

We loved him so dearly and he was just always there!

But we talk about him a lot, we still laugh and cry, but more often we smile when we think about him.

Here is one very special photograph that was taken by our friend MJ in 2005.

That's how he will always be rememberd!

♥ ♥ ♥

And those Roses are FOR HIM! ♥

We've had sad minutes this past week, but also nice and inspiring moments.

Our animals and the chores on the farm keep us busy and that is good.

Even though the heat has not been helping, we did get a couple of things done that week and that feels good.

Every evening we go and take Cleo for a nice, long walk. Well, I have to be honest, I don't always go, Ingrid does. I am not much of a walker, but I start to enjoy it more and more.

Sometimes I take my camera with me, and sometimes I leave it at home, deliberately.

Then I try to "print" the images in my own hard disk. ;-)

Here are some more photos I took this past week:

Nature is showing it's power and magic by "delivering" the first colorful and sweet (or sour) fruits...

Cherries and Red Currant

We bought some hay for the horses this past week...

And this (beautiful) plant should NEVER be in one of these hay bales... because it is VERY TOXIC to animals (as well to humans), even when it's been dried.

In German it's called "Jakobskreuzkraut", in english "common ragwort" I believe.

This is our friends Cattledog, isn't she gorgeaus?!!

And this picture doesn't need any explanation/words, does it. :))

Those two horses are best friends.

The bay mare is called "Fröken" and is a Nordsvensk (swedish coldblood), and

the brown horse is a gelding called "Sandino", he is also Nordsvensk, I believe...

aren't they a nice couple?!

Tomorrow starts a new week.

Somehow it's good to have "ups" and "downs".

It makes you realize that you are ALIVE, right?!

Have a good start into a new week everyone!

:))

Second Hand

We went to a Second Hand shop this afternoon.

SO MUCH STUFF!!!!!

I managed to leave my little camera in the car AGAIN,

so I took a couple of images with my Mobile Phone...:

We found some furniture that we would like to have, so we will go back there soon (it's in the middle of "nowhere" on a farm about 20 min. south of here) with our horse trailer and try to get a good price on them...

Those second hand places are really interesting to go to.

Especially when they keep everything, from real antiques to tons of junk. And believe me, this place is stuffed with junk!

We'll keep you up to date on weather we'll be able to make a bargain or two...

:))

Yummie!!

Celebrating (a too hot) Summer!

My very first self made Margarita, tasted pretty nice.

I will keep practicing and sure would be grateful for YOUR favorite personal recipe!

Good night and have a great WE everyone!

:))

Independence

HAPPY 4th OF JULY !!!

4th of July is the day that the US are celebrating independence.

Every human being on this planet wishes for independence, right?!

Every human being deserves to be independent, right?!

Many human beings have fought for their independence in the past,

as individuals or as a collective.

Many human beings fight for their independence right now.

Don't we all fight for independence every day of our lives?

From the day we are born?

Everyone needs independence, everyone deserves independence!

Independence from OTHERS, "their" opinions, boundaries, "their" social and political values, often "their" money.

BUT I don't want to speak of money, of materialistic independence.

I want to speak about SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE.

This kind of independence has always been feared the most, hasn't it.

...By political leaders, religious leaders,

everyone that wanted to be superior to another.

What IS spiritual independence?

What DOES spiritual independence MEAN

for us as an individual and to the collective?

Spiritual independence is the freedom to find out who you are and be who you are.

Spiritual independence for me as an individual means to have my own oppinions about life and everything else.

Spiritual independence means that I grant the same to everyone else on this planet, that I am free of the need to judge others.

Spiritual independence also means TO BE FREE OF (my) EGO.

And that to me is the biggest challenge in life.

That is what I am "not fighting for" but striving for every day.

SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE

for the COLLECTIVE

STARTS

in the individual.

It could mean peace,

freedom for everyone,

enough food for everyone

and a possibility to heal and preserve our beautiful planet

for those who will wander this world after us.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO

ALL OF YOU!!!

♥ ♥ ♥

Some relieve from the heat

Lucky me, I made a couple of random shots of the thunderstorm and YES, when I looked at them at the computer I found THIS..:

This afternoon was HOT again. All day was HOT!

This morning we made some additional fence to keep Cleo in the backyard if necessary.

We surrendered to the heat around 11am and "rescued" the horses from swarms of horseflies and pitiless temperatures.

Midas was sweating and tired, Indigo's breathing was heavy. They were very grateful to be able to hide in their stalls...

We went inside also and stayed there practically all day.

I started to fix supper at 5pm, around that time I heard Hasi holler from outside the kitchen window, I looked outside and she was standing with her arms up in the air welcoming the first raindrops!!!

Those last days we were longing for a little thunderstorm and rain SO MUCH, but it just didn't happen (for us)...

We took our supper and sat down on the porch, looking at the dark clouds and lightning, listening to the wind storming through the tree tops and we were wincing with every "boom".

It was wonderful to feel the temperatures drop and also witness one of natures most powerful ways to remind us what power really is.

I always loved to watch thunderstorms, I remember sitting on the windowsill of my room when I was little... my legs were hanging out (first floor) and I was counting the lightnings that were unloading purest energy...

:))

After the storm was over we turned the horses out again, they were so happy raced out onto the pasture.

Happy End!

:))

Cooling off - no matter how

Unfortunately we don't have pool...

But we do have an old bird bath in the backyard...

Cleo uses it to cool off her little feet and I thought why not cool off my big feet in it too..!!

:))

Wordless Evening Post

About layout and other questions

First of all, thank you all for your kind and funny comments!

I'm always looking forward to start up my lappy to see if one of you came by to see what's going on in our lives.

I would like to take the time to answer a few questions that came up recently in the comment section....

BLOGGER LAYOUT:

Changing the layout of the blogger template isn't too hard.

You don't have to be a webdesigner to do it and if you take some time and simply follow one of the good turorials available on the web, you'll be there in no-time.

I decided to widen the layout because I wanted to be able to post bigger photos.

The original blogger layouts allow only photos with max 400 pixels width.

And I always used the photo upload feature in blogger, which is not always working the way I wanted it.

So here is what you can do to change your layout easily, just follow the instructions on either one of the following links :

(Just don't forget to save your current layout to your computer first just in case something goes wrong...)

http://johndeeremom.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-widen-your-columns-on-blogger.html

or

http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/01/creating-three-column-or-wide-two.html

When your layout is wider, you are ready to post bigger photos.

UNFORTUNATELY it's not possible to do that with the photo upload feature in blogger as I said, (if there is, let me know - anyone?!),

it only allows 400px max width.

Here is what I do:

I signed up for a Picasa(google) web album account (you can also use Flickr or other services).

Then I choose the pictures I want to post, resize them to (in my case) 590 pixels width (depending on how wide your #main wrapper width is) and upload the photos to my picasa web album in their (now) actual size.

View the album and choose a picture. Click on it to view it in orig. size and right click, copy the image address and go to your blog post, click on adding a photo as usual, but now you don't choose "add image from your computer", this time you choose "add image from web", paste the image address you copied earlier into the empty field on the right.

You can also add some more photos at the same time, as before.

Hit the upload button and -

voila!

There are probably other ways to do it too, but it works for me, for now. ;-)

Any questions or need for help? Feel free to contact me again and I will see what I can do to assist...

:))

That's how I get the photos little bigger on my blog.

@Lori Ann:

A nice macro lense is on top of my wish list for birthdays and christmas (as well as a wide angle), but for now I play with my little Konica camera (she's perfect for macro shots, landscape and every day shots)

I just love that little thing!

And of course I also love to play with my Canon 400D with either kit lense or my darling, the Canon 70-200 (sometimes i wish 300 or 400mm) lens.

It's not easy to get "macro-kinda" shots with that lens, but sometimes I get very decent results too.

This lens is a dream!

@ lytha:

About Volvo's in Sweden...

YES, there are a lot of Volvo's running here in Sweden, I think at least every third car we see is a Volvo...

About IKEA, I have no clue how the Sweds pronounce it.. :) I think it sounds pretty much the same as in german...

:))

Have a happy summer day everyone!

*

Hay Day :))

The hay is in the barn.

10 of those round beauties, fresh, green hay.

They smell soooooo good!

Miserable

That's exactly what I would like to do right now!!!

Did I tell you that we moved to Sweden

(almost 1000 km further to the north - even though it's north on the planet earth this is still south sweden...)

because we wanted to enjoy cooler summers??!!

This is *ing insane!!!

30〫Cel. (that's 86 Fahrenheit) on the porch in the shade NOW.

It's not even noon!

We are hiding in the house again. Other people might love temeratures like that, we don't!

If we did, we would have moved to spain!

I start to think that we will move further up north next time... ;-)

:))

Loosing track of TIME

Is it a good thing to loose track of TIME, or not?

I mean loosing track of the "human made TIME".

All our precious hours, minutes, seconds. That kinda time...

If we didn't have some appointments to follow up on, if we wouldn't have a weekly TV schedule to follow ( kiddin!)...

I would really loose track of time.

I do, I did yesterday, and days before. I couldn't remember what day it was.

I really had to think to figure out what day it was...

I wonder how life was like before people had worked out calenders and framed that "thing", that "space", that " ", and called it "TIME".

I wonder how life was like when people lived by natures schedule only, when they lived from full moon to full moon, from sunrise to sunset.

I like the feeling of loosing track of "TIME" the way we know it today.

I like it when you are able to find your own rythm, your own inner "TIME".

It's within all of us, that inner "TIME", it's a rythm that we should be able to follow. Not a stupid clock that tells us when it's time to do certain things.

That rythm is different for everyone of us.

I suppose most of us are moving too fast.

I noticed it the other day when I was pushing Edith's buggy walking away from the farm.

I was not walking, I was running!

I wanted Edith to be able to fall asleep, she was very tired but it was just so much going on and she didn't want to miss anything, so we put her in the buggy and hoped for the best...

She didn't want to settle at first, not at all.

She was pulling herself up all the time to be able to look around.

She turned her head and look at me like "are you serious? I can't sleep now!

Put the thing that supports my back up, so that I can SIT!

GRRRRR! "

;-)

I wanted her to relax and thought it might help if I would lower my own energy level.

So I started to ask my body, started to listen to my inner rythm and realized that my own movements were too fast.

I had to slow down in order to get closer to my inner, natural rythm.

I had to repeat this listening several times and every time I got a little bit slower.

It took at least 15 minutes until I had found a rythm in my walking

that felt really comfortable, that felt like it was "MINE".

I checked on Edith and her eyes were closed, she was asleep. Finally.

I turned around and pushed the trolly back home, enjoying the wind touching my skin, the singing birds up in the sky and piece and quiet within me.

This kind of "TIME" is very precious to me.

The other kind of "TIME" is only "necessary".

IS IT?

What is TIME for you?

***

Here a shot I took about a week ago...

Is that one horse or two..? ;-)

Have a great day everyone!!!

*