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.

I wish...

that the terrible looking tower the moose hunters have erected right in the opening I made to have a better view of The Field will be moved! As you know, The Field is very special to me and the area where I see the most animals but those having the hunting rights have also discovered this and erected a tower right in the middle of my line of sight. I have talked to one of them and he promised that they will move it but I do not know when.

This is what it looks like through a wide angle lens.



And this is what it looks like through a tele lens.



Secondly, I wish that these tall trees are cut down or I am afraid that they all come down on my shed a day when the winter storm is blowing from the north. They are all dead due to an attack by European spruce bark beetle (http://www.invasive.org/species/subject.cfm?sub=888)

F R O S T !

It has been minus 1.6 C tonight. It is not unusual that we have this kind of temperatures mid October but it is still nothing I look forward to. It means that the wonderful foliage we have had is soon over and will in a few months be replaced by naked trees covered in snow. Time to move on !

Autumn

The wet weather has made our "garden" a heaven for mushrooms of all sorts. Some you can eat, some you cannot. I wish I know but I do not and stick to the very safe, yellow ones :)





I am a great fan of lichen and admire their ability to live on the hardest of surfaces with hardly anything to survive of.



As I have reported earlier, most of the apples were attacked by various insects and the few that have survived are now taken take care of by the birds.

Keeping warm

It is getting cold in Sweden and Svångemåla. To be able to keep the little house warm I have installed two different kind of heaters. The first one is run purely by solar power. A panel generates electricity for a fan that forces hot air from the panel into the house. The panel manages to increase the temperature of the air to about 25 degrees C above the general air temperature when the sun is shining. Perfect to keep the house ventilated without using any energy from the grid but useless when it is cloudy or the sun is down. (www.solarventi.com)

Solarventi



The second heater is much more efficient but uses some electricity. It works, more or less, like a freezer but backwards, i.e. it takes warmth out of the surrounding air, increases it and transfers the heat to a heater inside the house. It is very efficient and one unit can easily keep the whole house warm and comfortable without too much noise.

So far, so good but the real test will be in the winter when the temperature is far below 0 C.

Air to air heat-pump

Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix)

All big birds in the forest are not birds of prey. In a few, relatively remote and unpopulated forests like the one around Svångemåla, you can still be lucky and spot a Black grouse or a Capercaillie although they are not very common. I was therefore very happy when I today came across a young Blackcock and managed to get picture of him.

September

It is the time of the year when drizzle is more common than sunshine, the temperature is falling by the week and we all start to prepare for the winter. Many birds have or are preparing to leave for warmer regions. The hunters are getting their weapons ready for one of the biggest events of the year in Sweden, the moose hunt and I wonder if these two will live to see next spring? The couple showed up some hundred meters away from my cottage and I wonder if it is the same couple I once met eye to eye?

http://svangemalanews.blogspot.com/2008/06/absolutely-amazing-meeting.html

Two is just perfect!

Two is just perfect. Lots of space but still someone to warm you!



Four is possible but it is getting a bit crowded.




Five is just one too many! Please find some other friends!