Cloudberries

Today I decided to go out and take some pictures of cloudberries, the stuff that makes almost every man, woman (and some children) go bent over day in and day out during late July. They are indeed delicious – but since I have about 15 kgs in the freezer from previous years, I decided that this year I would do other things. Like, take pictures of them.
Join me!

First, I went to see how the cabin belonging to our neighbour looks these days. You cross a little bridge…

where the water has a blue, oily film this time of year. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s refinable…
The cabin looks freshly painted, the potatoe patch is fenced because of grazing reindeer. Behind it you can also see the chicken wire around a flower bed.
On the way back from there, I spotted this. Please enlarge the picture and enjoy the same view as one of the hunters in the team around here will see this fall. Let’s hope for good weather.Right! I was going to take photos of cloudberries…. Ooops – out of focus…
Now here’s a stand that requires a special person. For one you need to be feather-weight, secondly not made of sugar – but there IS a good chance you’ll spot a moose from here. (Come to think of it – how many hunters do you know that weigh less than 90 kgs?)

Here we need someone that is no more than 50 kgs and maybe 150 cm (for those of you not used to the metric system, do the math!) What’s even stranger – this is the view across the road. Must be a very, very old stand. But the firewood looked so fresh, don’t you think?
What about the cloudberries? Yes, yes – they’re coming! Had to show you this – no one above 45 kgs need apply for this stand!
Also found this beautiful pattern in moss on a rock…
Now, I told you – there would be pictures of what we call “The Yellow Gold of the Marshland”
This burl would make a nice fruitbowl – if someone was willing to cut down the tree, let it dry for some time and then spend countless hours wittling away at the wood.
More woody pictures. This from a pine where my crazy dog Tjorro went Ape Cakes one day last winter.
Don’t. Ask. Me. Why.
He gets regular exercise, food at regular intervals and a LOT of loving, but sometimes he attacks trees!
Oh, and while we’re at it. Welcome to our community hall – Moulin Rouge (Röda Kvarn) but more about that some other time.Does anyone remember my post about Trolls? Well, since then they have changed quite a bit and I’ve had my fingers slapped by one of the elders in the village. The grass growing in these was indeed much liked by cows, horses and other animals. Back in those days, the grass was cut every year so these “heads” never had a chance to grow like this. It’s quite course and sharp but apparently very tasty and nutritious.
Animals know these things…
Cows don’t eat Buttercups, dogs don’t drink fetid water…
How come people don’t know enough to avoid things that aren’t good for them?

This is one of the old crofts that was wrested out of the land by the people who were only two, or maybe three, generations before me. It just saddens me seeing areas like this being taken over again by trees and bushes.Right!
I went out to photograph cloudberries! Still a bit out of focus – which tells me it’s time to change the strength on my prescription glasses. Sigh!
I might also add that this was a serious effort to try and keep my sanity. Ranting and raving will be saved for another time.

Hope you enjoyed this little excursion.

Let’s Celebrate!

Today it’s half a year since I started this here blog. My standing prescription for Valium hasn’t been filled since.
Just kidding – but never did I think that an older, not very with-it teacher would get so totally hooked on blogging!
I enjoy publishing my sometimes incoherent thoughts and musings.
It helps me keep my English current. Lately it’s definitely helped me keep my sanity as well.
The most fantastic is all the people I’ve met through blogging . People I’ve come to think of as friends, that I worry about sometimes and laugh with at others.

Thank You!

If All Else Fails….

I spent the better part of last evening taking pictures – downloading – working with them, but not getting the results I wanted.
For one thing, the pictures took f o r e v e r to upload to the blog – and when I clicked on the one of the tree myself, it took up the whole screen. That’s the type of pictures I don’t like others to have on their blogs, because our connection to the net can be somewhat sketchy at times and I don’t have the patience to wait for files that large.
No problem! I have a program that can take care of that! Don’t I???
That’s about where I gave up last night… This morning I arranged all of the rag rugs (13 all in all) to snap pictures of them – outside, in the sunshine. I felt very productive, very accomlished and I don’t know what all.
Until I tried putting one of them in a blogpost.
No go.
Yes, I had been sort of whipping through the manual yesterday – but I have a thing about 164-page documents on a CD – I much prefer the paper variety I can flip back and forth in. You know the ones? They become dog-eared, stained with coffee and most often they aren’t handy when you need them. Which is usually 3 days after the warranty has expired, anyhow.
So tonight I decided that I had to read up on this…
Guess how embarrassing it is to find the page where they explain Quality Settings and how you can change that from 10M to 0.3M??? That’s the difference between pics that are 2,5 MB as opposed to 650 KB – for those of you who didn’t get that knowledge along with the mother’s milk.

So another batch of test pictures were taken tonight. The one below here took no time to upload and your PC or MAC won’t have kittens while loading this page.

Like I always say to Richard:

Read the blasted manual first!

A Change In Plans…

… and I could get the camera today already. Now, this is going to take some learning! I’ve already made a couple of the typical beginner’s mistakes – but it sure beats the old cameras with film in them. When the pictures came 2 weeks, a month or even longer after you had taken them you didn’t even know what might have caused the bad pictures.
Well, aside from that finger you always managed to stick in front of the lense. Or the camera strap. Oh, and those heads you cut off on people….
This tree must be well over 100 years. Grandma says it “was as big” when she first came here in the 30’s and also that it always has looked like this, almost half dead.

Oh, and I’m going for X-Rays and to see the oncologist next Wednesday – after they have done a blood work-up on Monday.

Appointments

Funny how a letter can bring everything back like a giant punch in the stomach.
Today I received a letter from the Lung Clinic with an appointment for chest X-rays and to see the oncologist. I’ve been saying all summer that if I hadn’t heard from them by the beginning of August, I’d put in a call myself. Sitting here with the letter tacked on the bulletin board, I’m not so sure I would have put in that call – not right now at least.

In other news: I can pick up my camera tomorrow when I go to town. Along with a huge apology from the company that promised delivery within 14 days when in fact it took more than twice the time. They claim certain items became so popular this summer that they were unable to meet demand. I had all kinds of snarky come-backs to that, but refrained from saying anything. I’ll at least wait until I see what it is they’re sending me as way of apology!

Anniversary

Today it’s a year since I quit smoking.
Had our relationship gone for a nose dive then, I would’ve gone through a pack or two every day – maybe more…. Now I can barely stand it when someone else is smoking near me, even outside!
Thankfully, very few people smoke in their houses these days, but I don’t think I could spend any amount of time where smoking was allowed inside.

Great Book!

I’m reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book – and I can hardly put it down even to eat!
I’ll write more of a review later!

Sometimes Things Break

Back at the beginning of May, Angie of Are We There Yet? confessed that she wasn’t at all thrilled to bits about being back home after having been away for a course.
My comment was:
I love my SO dearly, but sometimes I can’t WAIT for him to go away for a few days so I can be by myself at home… Or, I look forward to 3-day conferences like a small child to Christmas… Just so I can be me without being the provider of all nourishment for my SO, dogs and cats.

That sounds cute enough, doesn’t it?
Yesterday Richard left for a week to 10 days, and “cute” doesn’t cut it this time because obviously there is more underlying this comment than what I was willing to admit at the time.
We have problems.
Things that have been festering and never really dealt with over a number of years. Important matters that we’ve never talked about – because we are both of a generation that don’t do heart-to-heart talking very well. Or, at least the two of us, with our particular baggage, have a hard time baring it all even to the one closest to us.
A thorough break-down of all of the components in this would become too complicated to untangle here, although… I am sorely tempted to bend your collective ear,

what, with no one being able to interrupt me.

I will, however, not fall for the temptation.

Does it help you to understand some of the forces involved if I tell you:
We are just about finished with the extension on the house. After 6 years.
The next logical step would be to renovate the kitchen. The house was built 16 years ago.
I’ve had both breast cancer and lung cancer during the time we’ve added to the house. I also had a hysterectomy in 2000.

Richard has allergies and diabetes (manageable without injections) and an old back injury that renders him nigh on immobile at times. Despite that, he can perform wonders with engines, anything mechanical, given the right tools and sometimes the help of someone else. He can build, do wiring, plumbing and I don’t know what. He is also caring, funny, animal-loving and the person I have spent the last 12 years with.

The solution to all this is – of course – that we talk to each other. Or get counselling. Or both.

Now, why haven’t I thought of that before?

I guess in the midst of it all it’s a good thing to not have lost one’s sense of humour…

But mostly I cry. Which makes the dogs worried, so they spend a lot of time in the pen. Otherwise they’d be all over me, trying to make things better.

Comments are always open, but if you wish to contribute with a post, please send me your e-mail address and I’ll fix it!

Oh, I forgot to mention how scared I am, and how early I wake up in the morning.

I Have To Take A Break

But I’ll be back.

Wow!

Sorry for being such an easy mark – but I’m just thrilled over the numbers on my counter. Are there really these many people interested in what I write ( the ones coming back on day three, that is…) or are you looking for a way in to someone else’s writing…

Nah, don’t tell me!