Twiggy 2011

As you might remember, I have taken a picture of a particular twig on my linden tree every spring to show how it develops. I am surprised how slowly it develops over the years but it is at the same time amazing how fast it changes after a long winter! If you would like to see what Twiggy looked like last year, use the search function to the right!

Twiggy 2 May



Twiggy 13 May

Yes, she is pregnant

Many Swedes are concerned that a member of the royal family is showing no signs of being pregnant. I am not but I was very happy to see that Mrs Deer is! Her stomach is getting really huge and if we are lucky she might even give birth to twins!

Spring flowers

Not only the birds made me happy in Svångemåla. The spring flowers brought a smile to my face and colour to the otherwise colourless lawn.

Rheum rhabarbarum Maybe not a flower but one of my favourites as you know.




Primula veris



Scilla siberian (?)



Anemone hepatica



Daphne mezereum

Birds, birds and more birds !

I have just been to Svångemåla and sensed the energy and excitement that the many birds feel right now. They sing like crazy, swirl through the air like daredevil pilots and do everything they can to look as attactive as possible in the eyes of the opposit sex. A truly faschinating circus. The Wagtails (Motacilla alba) met me when I arrived and not long after the Cranes (Gruidae) showed off. To my great surprise and joy a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ( Dendrocopos minor) came close to my entrance door and not far away a Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) hammered away on an old, dead tree. All in all it was a wonderful symphony and Iwill try to record it since the sounds are just as interesting as the pictures this time of the year.

Mr.Wagtail looks really proud and ready to make a good impression on the ladies!



The Crane couple seems to get along well and I hope it stays like that.

The larger of the two kinds of woodpeckers that can be seen in the area can make a lot of noise when they are building a new nest or just looking for food....

while the smaller one most often just pecks a little on the surface of the trees and is therefore more difficult to spot. It is also not so common and some even thought it had left our region for good.

Even some butterflies came out to enjoy the sun and the springflowers.

Winter

I have been told that I am too negative when it comes to winters. Looking at my postings I feel that those who are telling me that are right so I started to look for something positive about winters and found this picture from my latest visit to Svångemåla. The snow is dirty since it is the last remains of this years thick layer of snow but it really cooled down our beer very fast!

Spring in Svångemåla!

It has been a very hard and long winter but the snow is slowly melting away and I can see what kind of damages it has caused. Two very small, round bushes (Buxus sempervirens)were totally flattened and I wondered if they would ever recover but within a couple of days of sunshine, they started to look OK again. Amazing!





The wild pigs had not entered into my garden but their search for food made the forests look like a battle ground for a small army. I wonder how this will affect the plants and trees? It might air the ground a bit and actually be good for them or it might harm the roots so much that they die. Something to keep track of!



The hunters' efforts to reduce the moose population had left at least some alive. I saw the back of one and droppings were everywhere.



The March moon was wonderful and looked almost unreal when it slowly made it's way over and among the trees. Maybe it was because it was unusually close to earth, only 356.578 k away.

Still winter in Svångemåla!

It is still very cold in Sweden and I have a feeling that it will take at least one more month before we can feel that "spring is in the air". The few signs I saw some time ago have once again been covered with snow.

Svångemåla January 2011

A lonely bird (Great Tit) tried its best to give us a bit of spring feelings but without great success. The sun hardly managed to send some rays to the tree tops but still, it is getting a bit lighter and even some kids are getting a bit tired of the snow so spring cannot be far away.

Winter in Svångemåla

This is a really hard and difficult winter although it is only December. Hate is a strong word but not far from what I felt yesterday when I had to walk forth and back several times from the car to the house, remove snow from the cellar door and in general fight hard to find out the status of the small cottage.

Overwhelmed

I am a bit overwhelmed today. It is full winter in Sweden and I have not been to Svångemåla for a while but readers from all over the world continue to log on to this blog. The last week it has had readers from Russia, Serbia, Taiwan, Israel and Sweden. During the last year surfers from 56 countries have visited Svångemåla News which must make Svångemåla one of the most internationally known small villages in the world :) I got a very nice comment from Taiwan (?) written in Chinese but thanks to Google Translate I could read it without any problems.

The last time I traveled to Svångemåla a rainbow arched over the road like a bridge. An amazing sight.



The red poles are put along the roads to guide the snow plows when the roads are completely covered by snow like they have been this early and unusually cold winter.