Yet Another Find

While driving to the vet and then home again, I was keeping an eye out for possible motifs along the road. I did see a few, but always too late to stop and get back to it. That’s no big deal – I drive this road often enough that I can probably capture the same thing or something similar another time. Didn’t see a single bird or other animal I wanted to photograph, so I have no reason to feel upset. When I got home, Loki needed to get out for a quick one…

… and this is what I have 15 meters from my patio. Who needs to plant a garden when Mother Nature takes care of everything this way? I’ll do the potted plants inside, but I couldn’t possibly surpass what happens outside almost with no interference from humans.

Another Find

Yesterday’s trip went along some logging roads I’ve been meaning to explore for some time. I sort of knew what I’d find at road’s end – but this was a surprise:

The yellow variety is quite common around the lakes here, but I’ve never seen white  water lilies before in this area! Now I have to go back there in a few days when they are i full bloom.

Today Loki is going to make a new acquaintance which I sincerely hope will work out well. We’re on our way to the vet for shots, chipping and a general check-up for insurance purposes. Wish us luck!

Like Candy

Just a few shots from yesterday evening around 11 PM our time.

Unfortunately my camera can’t capture the exact shades of the sky. I’ll try and tweak this one later, but I just had to get this up before I go on an excursion today.

This will be something to look at when the dark of winter settles over us.

On the Beach

My neighbours asked me to take care of one of their dogs for the day – what better opportunity to take off for the beach for some doggy education?

This was a good day for Loki. So far, he’s only met dogs that were very gentle and forgiving with his antics… Now he got to spend some time with a dog that wasn’t quite as meek.

That didn’t stop him from being quite the tough little guy!

A Rare Find

A friend of mine found this in her garden. It’s not supposed to grow around here – but someone obviously forgot to tell that to the plant!

Valerian is quite common along the coast some 200 km from here and it’s possible these plants came here as seeds in some bird’s stomach, alternately in some topsoil.

An Off Day and Day Off

The weather Gods didn’t seem to be able to make up their minds today – showers, sunshine and high winds, at one point I couldn’t see the mountains across the lake and the temperature dropped down to single digits.

What better way to spend a day like this, than to watch a couple of programs from season 2 of Sopranos? I have been totally lazy, slept and eaten cookies… Which I think I will continue doing (eating cookies).

For Jenn

Recently my blogger friend Jenn commented about the fact that she felt totally spent after having been partying with 20-yearolds for 5 days… I’ll have you know that it took only 2 days of partying with the 45+ crew (and older) for me to feel as if a Mac truck has hit me…

Loki got some fantastic social training with Tessie. They were at it for a solid three hours, running and playing all around the community hall. She put him in his place a couple of times which is great – he is often a bit too big for his britches.

Family

The rain is pouring down, the temperature is closer to what is normal for September and I’m trying to get everything together to go back to my cousin’s cottage for the weekend. Considering the weather it would definitely make sense to NOT go, but tomorrow we’re celebrating somebody’s 50th birthday and a large portion of my family will be there to do so. Back to regular posting after the weekend.

A Day In The Life Of Loki

Loki is growing very fast and today I realised that I’d better get busy and take some pictures of him.

It took less than an hour to massacre a paperbag from the Coop.

The neighbour’s dog is a good role model and very gentle with him…

… but he can be a real tease, what with his superior height.

Tug o’ war with a little guy is always fun.

Guess who called it a day around 8PM this evening?

Fireweed In A Different Shape

If you haven’t already visited  a blog called Hearty Halfbreeds, please do so. She’s the one that gave me the idea to do this.

I plucked the fresh flowers off fireweed and made…

…jelly! I would never in a lifetime come up with the idea myself, but I’m really pleased there is a way to capture and use the essence of one of my favourite flowers. It still is termed a weed – but what do I care!

Finnskimo has a recipe on her blog so I won’t repeat that, but here’s a few hints.

To get 8 cups of flowers, you need almost half an IKEA paper-bag full of flower stems cut off just below the flowers.

Use the fresh ones – the ones bumblebees go for – I think they give the best colour to the finished product.

If you can’t find pectin in envelopes, a bottle containing 180 ml (do the math!) should do the trick. (Says she who is worriedly looking at her 6 beautiful jars of jelly, hoping it’ll set over-night… That’s the trouble with translating recipes from one set of measures to another, it turns into a guessing game at times.)

Update.

I ended up having to bring it to a boil again and add another bottle of pectin…. and then one more. The second one may have been overkill, but I didn’t want to have another repeat.