The traditional Stollen just came out of the oven. Looks and smells good as last year, and I am sure the taste of it won’t disappoint either. We only have to wait for it at least one week, cos that’s the minimum time it has to rest after baking, at a cool and dry place. Ah yes, patience…
It does not really seem to stop. According to the forecast there will be more snow during the following days. With any luck we will test drive a car on Saturday. So it’ll show instantly if it can cope with this kind of weather or not…
…is approaching
Two in fact, and very old ones. Norwegian Maples. We had to cut them down almost entirely, since they were dead due to some incompetent cut-back about six years ago. Both trees got severely shortened then before midsummer, which is the worst time period to cut any tree, but especially this species since they just bleed and then dry out beyond rescue.
During the last two years big pieces of bark fell onto the road and we got worried about people potentially getting hurt. However, this time we wanted to cut them down the proper way and seeked advice. That we found with Curtis Bellows, an Arborist in Nora, not far away from Grythyttan.
He offered to come round and take a look at the trees, and then we agreed that he would do the job. Curtis is by the way a Canadian, and isn’t it ironic that he had to take down two maples, thinking of the maple leaf being part of the Canadian flag? On the other hand, as one could read in the Wikipedia article I linked to, this type of maples is kind of invasive in Northern America, so maybe doing this job contained also a bit of satisfaction…
It took Curtis the entire day, he started at 9am and he was still helping with cutting the wood into smaller pieces at 4.30pm, when it was almost dark…
We did help by securing the roads, so that no car got one of the big chunks of wood on top. When these huge chunks fell it made the ground vibrate, one could also feel that in the house even…
The following day we continued making a nice little pile of the still huge chunks of wood. We were definitely the attraction of these two days, with people sometimes passing several times that way, with or without dog as an excuse, looking at the work and the result in awe.
Nobody was really sad to see these trees go, and we learnt that they had been discussed for quite some time in the village because of their condition and the falling bark. Everyone was like “That’ll be a lot of wood for the fireplace”.
We were also extremely glad to get this job done, and thanks to the family within two full days of “Garden Gym” as we called it, due to the physical workout it involved. It felt really like one stone fell off with every chunk that came down.
Both trees were left at still a decent height to keep them as a part of the ecosystem. We had for example two bird couples breeding on the shorter one of them. So we kept their summer homes and hope that they will return next springtime!
Here some impressions of the job done.
We would also like to recommend Curtis to anyone who needs a job like this done. He is not only highly knowledgeable with an experience of over 10 years in this business, but also real fun to work with. Over the day it seemed he almost became a family member and it was almost sad to see him rolling home to his own family after a whole day of hard work.
Thanks Curt! 🙂
This is a picture of Clas Ohlson on Reading Highstreet in the UK. These were the old premises of Woolworth, by the way, the old established low price retailer that went bankrupt due to the events of the last economic crisis.
Clas Ohlson is Sweden’s biggest low price retailer for all kinds of goods in the range of Home & Garden including hobbies.
As much of an unusual sight as it is, the shop front of our familiar Swedish retailer on a UK highstreet, it will also be fascinating to follow how they will compete with the numerous Poundlands and not to forget the bigger Asdas and Tescos outside the town centres.
Will have to do some more detailed research regarding their concept and positioning whilst wishing them best of luck for their business on the British Isles!
ain’t over yet it seems. Four Vuvuzelas, two South African ones, two English ones this guy carried around. Surely perfectly usable for any Rugby match as well…
Tonight when having arrived at Norrköping train station there they were – the much discussed and awaited new commuter trains of Östgötatrafiken. Let’s see when they will be taken into service!
Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night! You know, the chap who tried but failed to blow up Houses of Parliament in London on 5th of November in 1605.
Guy Fawkes fought on the side of the Catholics who were suppressed even under the current King James I, despite him having a Catholic mother. However, the planned Gunpowder Plot came to the ears of the government and Guy got caught in the cellar of the House of Lords sitting on the explosives.
Until today the Bonfire night serves to commemorate his failure to destroy the Houses of Parliament and thus to a degree also the victory of the Protestants over the Catholics.
Some people, though, think it might also be commemorating Guy’s courage to try to get rid of the current government… That’s by the way also the story I learnt first when I came to England.
Anyway, I’d say the fireworks on Guy Fawkes day all over England are actually bigger and more important than the fireworks at New Years. At least that’s what I experienced, having my roots in Germany where the biggest fireworks take place to welcome the New Year.
This is what I used to be able to watch when still living in London. We lived around the corner of Alexandra Palace in North London. On some days you have a view from Ally Pally all the way down to the City of London, you can even make out the London Eye and St. Paul’s Cathedral….
Last weekend we finally managed to do some isolation in our summer house where we had some nice frozen tube during last winter when it was minus 25 Celsius and more at times.
While I was stuffing in the isolation material I already saw some kind of brown leaves flying past me onto the ground but I did not care and continued working.
When hoovering away all the dust later, that part was a bit too big for the hoover – and whaaa’!! (first reaction) what was it? A skeleton of a mouse! It must have been in there since ages. I picked it up after the first initial shock when realising what it actually was. First time ever I saw something like that and it was really interesting to feel how light it was, to see how thin the bones were.
Unfortunately I took no photo, but Lord V ‘s looks quite similar to the one we had.
Well, I understand now that for cats a mouse must be some kind of a tasty, crispy snack. I watched the cat of my sister having one of these (sound of cracking bones included) and now with this experience I fully understand his preference for mice. Although he does not reject birdies either, unfortunately….
Lucky Luke contre Pinkerton is the title, and I bought it last weekend during our trip to Paris at FNAC. It is also the first Lucky Luke I read! Usually I just watched the cartoons on TV.
The only thing I’d like to say is that this book is brilliant – if you are in the slightest interested in a good parody of our modern security and anti-terrorism society, then buy it and read it. Regardless which language, you’ll love it.
And if you then want to read more about the real Allan Pinkerton, the father of all these modern detective techniques, you can get a taste here. Impressive really how one Scotsman’s inventions still influence our lives today – and he is not the only one as you might know.
Right. I found this on Flowtown (posted by Dan Martell) . It is a great overview of the Evolution of the Geek, but wouldn’t you agree that one could add a few more here?
How about Geek Girls (and Girl Geeks), Formula 1 Geeks, MC-Geeks (and all the subcategories like HD-Geek, Ducati-Geek, Triumph-Geek, Moto Guzzi-Geek, Honda-Geek…. ) …
Or Wine-Geeks, and Beer-Geeks (definitely different to Food-Geeks) …
What else would you add?
A Google-Doodle reminds us of the probably most important event today – the Flintstones turn 50!
And this is one of the many reasons why one just has to love them.
In Norrköping every year a mosaic of cacti gets created, and every year it commemorates an anniversary or another special happening.
This year it is the city hall’s 100th anniversary! So this is the outcome of the 2010 cacti art.
The assembly usually gets built during May, and it does take a couple of weeks until it is ready. Early October the plants will be moved again to their winter quarter. The cacti bed is situated on the lower part of Drottninggatan, to the right hand side. If you come by train, just walk up the main road leading to the town centre for less than 5 minutes, and there you are.
Since I am a fan of cacti in general, these pieces of art impress me over and over again, year for year.
Could this even be some inspiration for Kew Gardens? 😉
Sometimes preparing a nice dinner is so easy. During lunch time one buys some nice chanterelles and some salad. Note: By no means take iceberg salad. Any other salad with more taste will be perfect. Just the tasteless, watery iceberg salad seems like an insult to all other fine ingredients.
Back home in the evening one takes a few fresh spices from the own balcony selection. In this case marjoram, thyme, basil and some parsley.
One starts with putting some olive oil into a pan and heats it. Once hot enough that it almost starts sizzling, one adds the chanterelles. Let them fry a bit, sometimes gently stir them till you see they are shrinking. Then towards the end add all spices and some ground black pepper.
When all is looking well enough to be served, take the pan off the fire. Only now add some salt, but not much.
The reason for not adding salt immediately is as you might know that all mushrooms suffer during the frying process. Salt destroys their cells and makes them loose all the water inside. And your pan with all that water becomes a flat pot with boiling mushrooms rather than frying ones.
The salad one already prepared in a bowl or on a large plate. Now one can simply place the chanterelles on top.
There are loads of variations of this one can try. The same recipe works with other types of mushrooms. One can also add some fresh tomatoes, fresh basil leaves and some greek feta. Do not take the one made from cow milk, I am talking proper feta made from sheep milk. Using cow milk feta is like using iceberg salad… .
Be creative and enjoy!
Ah yes. If you think this is not enough for a meal, then add some nice oven fresh garlic baguette.
That’s how it titles right now at central station Linköping.
As you might have figured out, it used to be “Ersättningsbussar” – replacement busses – until a creative person came along and dared to change this 😉 .
Wha'ever! 