November 2017

It always surprises me to find fresh flowers in November. All trees have, more or less, lost all their leaves and nature looks ready for the first snow and then... a beautiful clover flower! 

or a somewhat tired but still wonderful daisy...

and a very spring-like dandelion...

or a geranium bud that will hardly have time to blossom before it is taken away by the frost.

Our whole plot is surrounded by lesser periwinkle that stays green all year round. Flowers are,  however, not very common this time of the year.

As you might remember, parts of Svångemåla has been made into a form of protected biosphere which means that fallen trees are not cleared. It looks a bit untidy but the birds and the insects love it.

The hunting season for moose has just finished and a spoor of a running animal could clearly be seen on the gravel road leading to our house.  I hope it managed to flee and hide!

Sadly I discovered an old car wreck not far away from Svångemåla. Can you identify what make it is? Very common in Sweden some years back.

Örarevet November 2017

Not far from Svångemåla is a small nature reserve at the Baltic Sea called Örarevet. It is one of our absolute favorite places! In the summer one can see a lot of different birds and flowers and in the winter the landscape is just stunning. 

Early October

Svångemåla is a very quiet place all year round and particularly this time of the year. A few birds can be heard but not much else. A couple of deer came close to our house and enjoyed a bit of sunshine before they took off into the forest.

Not all apples have fallen off the trees and most of those that are left are damaged by various insects. They are still nice to look at and hopefully they can become food for the birds.

These berries look nice but I have been told that they are poisonous. Looking them up ( Berberis vulgaris ) it says that they  "can be used for culinary purposes in ways comparable to how citrus peel might be used". Not sure I want to try them out :)

This time of the year is also the time we look at fantastic pictures from Vermont and other places where nature is turning into a cascade of colors. Some leaves in Svångemåla are also displaying incredible colors, like this one but most look like the next photo..

Nice but not spectacular.

Rain

Large parts of Sweden are suffering from very low ground water levels. Svångemåla is no exception but thanks to a well that goes down about 20 meters, we have not had any problems. All in all we only got about 220 mm of rain this season. To make sure that we would collect as much as possible, I put a chain to guide it from the gutter down to a large drum.  Worked well and look good :)

Fall

The summer in Svångemåla and Sweden in general has been unusually cold. The highest temperature in the whole of Sweden was around 28 C and that has almost never happened before. The chilly temperatures made the trees stay green longer and even in late August only a few yellow leaves can be seen.

Probably the most hated, unwanted and dangerous animal i Svångemåla!

OK, I don't like the wild pigs that are all around our plot but thanks to an electric fence they do not cause any harm but these little creatures do!  Luckily the mosquito have not been too bad this year but the ticks have been. At least 20 times I or my wife have been bitten. Usually they are easy to remove but you can never be sure, until after a week or so, that the little bugger has not infected you with either TBE or the Lyme disease.  I cannot see any reason for them to even exist but if there is one, please let me know.

Just the look at them makes me cringe !

This one is still alive when I took the photo but has now gone to sleep for ever...

Mushrooms

This is the time of the year when mushrooms suddenly just appears in the most unlikely places. Some are poisonous while other are real delicatessen.
This one looks cute but I did not dare to pick it...

while this one is a very tasty and famous Parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) This example is a very young one but since we were about to leave Svångemåla I picked it and enjoyed it after a few seconds in a frying pan with some butter :) 

Rowan berries

It is an old belief in Sweden that a lot of rowan berries is an indication that we will have a cold and long winter with plenty of snow. If that is true, we can look forward to or be afraid of what is coming!

The lime / linden tree mid August.

Spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

This little fellow has been around for a few days. I think it is a Song Thrush but if I am wrong, please let me know. Some of my most trusted readers suggest that this is a Spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) and considering its size, I tend to agree. Even a very young Song Thrush would be larger.

Mallows

There are a couple of places in our wild garden where mallows (Malvaceae) grow. Wonderful, elegant flowers ranging in colour from white to pale purple.

The Field

Many people never get tired of looking at the sea. Depending on the light, the time of the day, the wind and many other factors, it is never the same and always interesting or pleasing to the eye. I feel the same looking at the meadow I call The Field. It changes color during the year, it is where so many animals live and depending of the time of the day, it can look very differently  from one hour to the next.

This picture is taken around 22.00 in July 2017.

To see all the nuances, click on the picture.

Rose

The wagtail chicks have left their nest !

It was a rainy day when the wagtail chicks were, more or less, forced to leave their nest. The parents were pushing hard for them to try their wings and eventually they could be seen all over...

This poor chap ended  up on the window sill..

While this one found her/him self down on the ground..

 One found a soft spot on stone covered with moss..

And a third one managed to land on the electrical wire where one of the parents very quickly found it and started to bring some much needed food. 

This feeding has now gone on for several days and I wonder how long the stressed out parents must do this? 

Hairy visitor

This fellow, a Woolly bear caterpillar, will eventually become a Garden Tiger Moth. Right now it looks more like some form of insect from the sixties with its long hair :) It was surprisingly fast when it crossed over the lawn and it was not easy to get a reasonably sharp picture of it.

Party !

A sudden and unplanned garden party took place on the lawn the other day. It all started when hundreds of small beetles (Phyllopertha horticola or the Garden Chafer) appeared from nowhere. Within a few minutes a number of various birds were feasting on the poor insects.

A Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) and our friendly Wagtail. Click on the picture and you will see the beetles flying around !

This Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) has its mouth full of beetles! 

Even a Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocoptes medius) started to walk around among the other birds to ge its share of the free meal! 

Last but not least, a Great Tit (Parus major) managed to catch a beetle and bring it home to its nest under our roof.