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!

Separation goes away!

Untouched by any happening or event is the eternal 'I amness' that underlies all the manifestations. You can look at the manifestations and recognize yourself, the one in every manifestation. You recognize the beingness, not through words but through stillness. And in that moment you recognize yourself in the other and the sense of separation goes away that was created by excessive thinking. And there is love.
BY ECKHART TOLLE

Trevlig Midsommar!

This coming weekend Sweden celebrates the wonders of nature and life, where everything in nature thrives, the time of the year with the most daylight hours.

Midsommar refers to the period of time centered around the day of summer solstice and in Sweden it is considered the greatest festival of the year.

Families and friends often gather in community centers/ houses or private places.

Here is a small excerpt from Wikipedia on "midsommar":

In modern Sweden, Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day (Midsommarafton and Midsommardagen) were formerly celebrated on 23 June and 24 June, but since 1953 the celebration has been moved to the Friday and Saturday between 19 June and 26 June. It is one of the most important holidays of the year in Sweden, and probably the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated. The main celebrations take place on the Friday, and the traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole.

Raising and dancing around a maypole (majstång or midsommarstång) is an activity that attracts families and many others. People dancing around the pole listen to traditional music and some even wear traditional folk costumes. In addition, many wear crowns made of wild springs and wildflowers on their heads. The year's first potatoes, pickled herring, Chives, sour cream, and possibly the first strawberries of the season are on the menu. Drinking songs are also important at this feast, and many drink heavily...

***

Personally I think it is a fun way of celebrating the most lively time of the year.
How will we celebrate?
We'll be enjoying the nice weather, chill in our huge, nice garden and maybe check out some of the activities in or around Åhus. But only if we feel like it! *lol*

HASI worked hard the last few days and managed to get the rest of the firewood stacked and under cover. ♥
Now it's just a question of doing grocery shopping and mowing the lawn before midsommar weekend starts...

I went on a walk with Cleo yesterday evening and IT WAS SO NICE!
I love walking through the woods nearby where the birds make music.
CLEO sniffs her way along the trail, left, right, back and forth...
Sometimes we meet runners, horses and their riders, hikers and dogs.

We ran into a woman in a bright blue shirt and walking shoes. I am sure her goal was to get some fresh air, exercise and relaxation. I mean, I don't really know if she succeeded with all three cause she was wearing headphones...
I don't know what she was listening to, maybe some soft music or a meditation - and maybe it worked for her, but I just wondered.

A lot of people, young and old, walk through life with headphones on her ears.
I see them running, walking, biking, driving cars, sitting on the bus, they listen to music (or something else) sometimes even at work.
Why is everyone trying to escape?
What's wrong with listening to what is really around us?
That woman last night in the woods, she doesn't even know what she missed out on. The birds were singing so beautifully and the wind made his own music by flowing through the tree tops.

Listening to music is a fun thing, of course! I do it too. I have some on my iPhone and iPod.
But I like to sit still when I listen. At certain moments and times it can be a wonderful thing to do.
But not in the woods...
It would be a pity to miss
NATURE - LIVE IN CONCERT!

:)

This past week we were trained in first aid and firefighting.
We were given lots of important information about safety equipment and on how to use it.
We got to practice CPR on dolls and safe their lives with the defibrillator.

I just hope I'll never have to use this knowledge on real persons.
And IF I have to do so, I hope I'll be able to keep a cool head and help.




TREVLIG MIDSOMMAR!


♥

Most of it is stacked!

Remember this pile of firewood?
It got delivered friday evening and we thought it would sit there all week...

and now, Sunday evening, almost everything is stacked. 

This is the first part of the stack, we got it done yesterday...

And this morning we started the second part, just the two of us - with a little help of Aaron.

The only problem was that he thought he would help us by digging holes in the ground and carry firewood out of the shed instead of into it... *lol*

But luckily we got unexpected additional help after lunch... REAL HELP! :)

Little Edith and her parents came by and within one hour most of the pile was gone.

Look at this wonderful stack of firewood! 

My grandfather would be very happy to see that, he loved that kind of work. 

But I am sure he would have done it even nicer, he was very fussy when it comes to stacking firewood! 

:)

We couldn't have done it without the help of our friends, thanks guys!

I've mesured the stack and calculated how much it really is.
I couldn't believe that this is a little more then 10 cubic meters. Yeeha! Winter can come! :)

In the next couple of days we'll deal with the second, smaller pile right in front of the garage doors...
maybe we'll get help again! *lol*

Have a great week everyone!

♥

A thousand thanks!

About 10 days ago I got an award from Lois at "From Lois' Hands".
Obviously I was just too busy to post the good news...

Here it is!

Ta Ta!!

Thank you so much Lois for thinking of me and my blog, I am glad you enjoy your visits here and I am not only thanking you for awarding "hillybillyfarmgirl" with this BEAUTIFUL award, thank you also for leaving comments every time you drop by! ♥

So, here are 10 things you might not know about me...

1. My favorite time of the year is spring.

2. I don't like large crowds of people.

3. My favorite drink is and always has been cold milk.

4. In the winter I love to wear socks in bed. 

5. I never wear skirts or dresses, the last dress/gown I ever wore (many many years ago was long and dark blue).

6. My favorite brand of jeans is Wrangler.

7. I love the smell of grass.

8. I also love the smell of horse poop ;-)

9. I don't like beer and wine!

10. I love to cook, but I hardly ever use a cook book. I just look in the fridge to see what is there and then I create funny new meals! :)

So! That was that. 

Now I have to choose a couple of bloggers who I think deserve this award...

That is really the hardest part. 

And because I don't fell like making any decisions today (I wouldn't even know which one to pick or not...),

I'll just pass this award on to all of the bloggers on my personal blogger list!! 

Yes, to all of you! 

Congratulations to you all, every single blog is great and unique, any single one of you deserves this award! Enjoy!

:))

♥ Hillybillyfarmgirl

ROTW

For the first time in the 3 weeks that we are here in our new home it feels like we are finally organized.

We cleaned up the garden, adapted it to our and our animals needs, almost everything we need found it's place in the house and today we even managed to clean up the garage. 

It was a big mess! 

Boxes, tools, furniture, mattresses, all mixed up and in piles. 

There was absolutely no chance to fit a car in it! 

That has changed, the garage/shop is all organized and tidy. 

There is just one problem left, we still can't put the car in the garage because of this...

We bought some firewood, i would estimate it's 12 cubic meters.

There is one big pile sitting next to the garage and one smaller one in front of it and until we get it all moved into the shed the car will sit outside in sun and rain. 

We don't mind the rain but it's not nice to sit in a car that has been warmed up by the sun for hours. 

We are spoiled - I admit that. :)

Another big point on our daily agenda is the soccer world championship! 

4 weeks of soccer soccer soccer!

Ingrid loves to watch high class soccer games and the dutch team is luckily still in the race...

Tomorrow we'll go on stacking the firewood. 

Have a great ROTW (restoftheweekend) everyone! 

♥

PS: TODAY the swedish princess Viktoria got married -
with her fitness trainer who is now prince Daniel!
Congratulations! :)

Overnight Adventure

CATS are strange creatures!

Our MIKA is almost one year old now and we notice changes in his behavior. 

He met his first strange cat a couple of weeks ago - it must have been a very mean one because he ended up sitting in a tree... 

He did not even think about coming back down, even though it was already getting dark!

I had to climb up a ladder and "rescue" him.

But that is part of a cat's life, they have to learn that life is not only a vacation.

They want their freedom, make very clear that they need it and TAKE IT whenever they want. 

They only come when they are hungry or when they want to cuddle. 

The cat is the one who makes that decision and that is OK with me.

After our move here I had to rescue him a second time from a tree. We suspect the neighbors cat scared him and he was a bit in shock. Again. 

He took a TIMEOUT - the following 3 days we didn't see much of him downstairs. 

On the fourth day we encouraged him to go outside again, I mean there comes a point where you just think "get over it buddy! life goes on!"

He made a round trough the garden and seemed fearless again. 

We expected company that day and decided to take him inside for a while, and after our friends were gone we let him out again. 

He had a wild look in his eyes and was all enthusiastic spying on birds and climbing trees. 

I sat outside for awhile on the porch and enjoyed watching him, thinking that he was his old self again. 

It's so nice to watch a young cat exploring the world!

I called him but he didn't even have time for me and vanished into the bushes behind the cabin.

That was the last time I saw him...

WE went to look and call for him several times that evening but it seemed that he had vanished from the face of the earth!

Eventually we went to bed after sunset - worried. 

Our boy was on his first overnight adventure, all alone in the dark! 

We didn't sleep so deep that night, always kinda alert, listening...

I left the window open just in case.  

I woke up 5:45 am! That was when I heard a very loud and desperate MEOOOW!

I jumped out of the bed and looked out of the window and YES, there he was, our boy MIKA!

He was so excited to see me, I really think he was never happier before - AND HUNGRIER *lol* 

He ate and ate and ate... 

and we cuddled and cuddled and cuddled!

And now he's a very happy INSIDE CAT AGAIN. :(

I think he's had enough adventure for a while.

It's just so sad to know that he's upstairs all day long while we have such nice weather... 

He's taking another TIMEOUT. 

CATS are strange creatures!

♥

Aaron's second day in Kindergarden

The day after the move, our first day in the new house, we were just too tired to go to class with Aaron.
I remember the evening as it were yesterday.
We had moved most things on Monday with the help of Hilde and ML (Thank's ladies for working so hard with us!).
Tuesday we were on our own again, we went back to the house in Fjälkinge one last time to load one mort trailer and finish cleaning.
In the afternoon we came back...

This post...

...should have been posted a couple of days ago.
I was working on it for over 30 minutes and when I was ready to publish I got an error message from Blogger and EVERYTHING I HAD DONE was GONE!
GRRRRRRR!
So I dropped the whole thing and went to bed...

Today I am trying again. And please be prepared - it will be a long one and I hope you'll enjoy it!

The post would have contained many photos from and around the new house AND the animals.
I am of course adding those photos here again (if Blogger let's me publish this thing this time!) but first I'll give you the latest news on my bus-drivers license...

I really consider it a miracle that I actually...

We moved house :)

We have landed in our new home!

The last 4 days were tuff, we worked hard and our bodies were exhausted by monday evening (and we are still in the recovering-phase).
But everything went well and that is the most important thing.
We slept quite well those first two nights, we like the house and the animals seem to like it too.
This house is much smaller then the one...