winter

Feb

2019

Blackbirds

blackbird, koltrast — Blackbird on the bow surveing the neighborhood. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2019

Across the road in the tree I see from my outside place and the livingroom the blackbirds sit daytime. I feed them during winter and have done so for several years. They always come back. They are fun to look at. I recently stopped feeding them as a mice had discovered their feed and I want to get rid of that. But the below are the visitors this winter. They normally were 6 in numbers but occasionally they were 13 at the same time.

In the tree across the road

Waiting for the bus?

In the feeder

Blackbird on the bow surveing the neighborhood

In the feeder

In the tree across the road

Resting in the cold

Today 2 of them were back again since I stopped feeding them. They have to find food elsewhere from now on. The blackbird restaurant is now closed for the season.

Nov

2018

Winter is coming

Winter is coming. Frozen birdbath. Photo: ©nini-tjader.2018

Wintergarden

Winter is coming, There is no denying it. It IS coming. We have already had a couple of frostnights. We have seen the very first few snowflakes the other day. They werenät many and immediately disappeared, but they were there…

The garden through the kitchen-window, 2018-10-29. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

It has also been rainy, dark, windy… No fun at all. The darkness is the worse. Having to turn on the light indoors already in the morning and for the rest of the day is… well, depressing.

Move of plantbox

The old plantbox. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

I have moved the content of the old box in the backgarden to a new, smaller box along the fence. I didn’t want to have it here, just in the wind from the radon fan, any longer. Especially since a second tub to draw out the radon from the ground was installed there on October 31st so even more of the radon would get blown onto that area before dissolving into the air. The blueberry-bushes beside it will stay though.

New plantbox

Plants waiting for new plantbox

Old plantbox getting emptied

Where the old plantbox was

The old plantbox

Where the old box was, I have sown grass. The parsley has been harvested and is now in the freezer. I didn’t harvest the chives, but I hope it will come up again next year. The old plantbox was all rotten, which I didn’t see until I wanted to move it. So a new box was necessary. The new box turned out to be smaller than the old one so the lemon balm had to be planted outside of the box. I also had to put a smallish “fence” around the plants in the new box so the cats would go there. Alice the cat tried to before I put the small “fence” there…

Withering plants

But winter is coming and the plants are withering. November, as it is now, is a month when the garden is at its ugliest.

Autumn garden. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

But there is still some life here and there. As long as it is, there are colors.

Frozen orpine. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

There has been frost some nights. The frost changes the plants. Now it is relatively warm again and no frost.

The backgarden. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Autumn colors are beautiful, but…

Hosta/funkia, 2018-10-06. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Since I shot the above picture, the funkia/hosta has all withered down and is totally gone. See you in the spring next year.

Lavender and aronia. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The lavender was in bloom for its second time late in the autumn and after I replanted this one just behind the aronia. The aronia gets bright red leaves (gone now) and black berries that neither I nor the birds like… But they are decorative…

Helenium Moreheim Beauty. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The helenium Moreheim Beauty lasted longer into the autumn this year than earlier years. It still has a flower here and there… but most is gone now. The above birdbath has now been taken indoors as I don’t think the ceramics would manage the winter-cold and temperatures below zero.

Mint and peppermint. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Something that never give up is the mint and the peppermint in the backgarden. Blooming again, And growing. I have harvested and dried a lot of it, but since it has grown again. I will not harvest more now befor winter is coming.

Behind the patio. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

On the backside of the patio-fence I have a climbing hortensia growing. In the spring when we were supposed to re-oil the planks with black-pigmented oil, I didn’t do the backside as the eaves and flowers of the climbing hortensia had just come out then. I waited for the leaves to fall off in the autumn. When they did and the weather was unusually watm, I finally oiled also the backside of the plank. Went all well.

Plants moved indoors

Plants moved indoors. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

With the winter coming, plants have moved indoors to avoid the frost and the coming snow. It is MUCH too crowded. After a few weeks indoors by now, some of the plants are already thrown out as they didn’t like the indoor life.

Plectranthus scutellarioides

Pelargonia bontrosai

Red basil

Pelargonia Attar of roses

Pelargonia bontrosai

The two pelargonia bontrosai now live in the kitchen-windows as does the red basil (which re-started itself and started to bloom again in October and get new leaves). The pelargonia Attar of Roses lives in the bedroom and is HUGE. Have given away parts of it to some ladies in my gym-group. The Plectranthus scutellarioides got so tired and messy so it ended up in the waste and is no more.

livingroomwindow, livingroom, plants, indoorplants

Livingroomwindow. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Bedroomwindow, Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The pelargonias have finally stopped blooming. The leaves on the figtrees in the livingroom are falling off.

I keep throwing out plants that look just too awful after some time indoors. More will be thrown out. As for the pelargonias I take cuttings of them before they get thrown into the waste. I normally do not take cuttings in the autumn, but this year I do. They take up far too much space and look just too awful… Cannot stand looking at them all the winter.

Winter IS coming.

Apr

2018

Icy walk in the woods

Icy walk in the woods. Photo:©nini.tjader.2018

An icy walk in the woods

Day before yesterday, neighbour and I took an icy walk in the woods. The intention was to walk around the two dams we have here in Tumba, the big one and the smaller one. This path is popular for skiers in the winter when it is snow-covered, for walkers and runners when snow-free.

Pinetrees. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Snow was more or less gone among the trees.

Icy road. Photo:©nini.tjader.2018

The roads were covered with ice… You had to be very careful and keep to the sides of the road so you wouldn’t slip and fall and slide down the slope.

By the big dam. Neighbour Gullis on the other side. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

We finally made it down to the big dam by small steps and carefully moving in order not to slip. By the dam and the road there, there is a fence you could hold on to. The fall from the big dam was all ice too.

The Big Dam in Tumba. Photo: ©ninoi.tjader.2018

The big dam was still ice-covered.

Waterfall from the Big Dam. Photo:©nini.tjader.2018

The above is the waterfall from the Big Dam. All icy but water still streamed strongly there. A couple of weeks more and ice will probably be gone.

Ice on the Big Dam. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2018

The ice is now melting and dangerous if somebody would risk to try to walk in it. There were signs of walking on the ice. I would never… Some years ago an elk drowned here when it went through the ice. But the ice is melting close to the shore and where the waterfall is under the tree-bridge.

The Big dam with ice. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Unreliable ice on the Big Dam. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

When we passed here there was a cyclist from the other direction with very thick wheels on his bike. He somehow managed to pass and get up the slope with his bike.

Resting place by the Big Dam. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

This corner of the Big Dam later in spring is a mating place for frogs and the water then is full of frogs, the path also full of frogs passing from the below the waterfall up to the dam. And the dam itself for a while is filled with frogs and baby-frogs. Just now the path is slippery with ice, then it will be frogs instead…

We made it all the way to the smaller dam too. At this time of the year you can actually see it as the trees and bushes have no leaves. Later on it disappears behind the greenery.

The ice looked thicker at the small dam. And its’ waterfall for transport of the water further down the slope was blocked by tree-branches.

The waterfall from the small dam was more icy and less water than the one from the big dam. It is unnerving to take photos from above at these spots. You don’t want to drop your mobile here…

Not far from here there is a way out of the woods, down to the main road. We opted to leave the woods here as the remaining path we usually take is in shadier parts of the woods and therefore probably even more icy and slippery. We were pretty fed up of the slipping on ice by this time.

By the roadside there were ice-falls from the slope above. That’s what happens when the snow melts and then freezes again. Reasonably warm daytime, freezing at nights.

The icy roadside is pretty interesting and beautiful I think. Last years growth still stand up through the ice.

I’ve always been fascinated by the icefalls you see by the roadside at this time of year.

When we were home again after approximately 10500 steps, we saw the first tussilago by the lawn in our garden. Despite all the ice out there, it now must be spring… right?

Jan

2016

It is cold outside

It is cold outside.

After a very warm autumn and what was supposed to be winter, winter finally came the other day. With severe cold and some snow. Not much snow though.

The above is my busstation, just outside where I live. One on this side when going down to Tumba, one on the other side where I get off. I live on the ground floor in the 2 story house just behind the red fence against road noise.

This morning we hade -17°C where I live (Tumba, Stockholm-area). It is a few degrees “warmer ” now (-8°C) after a couple of hours where a pale winter sun has been seen.

I am no fan of winter and snow. Snow is nicest in pictures and not in real life.

Snow can be beautiful though and quite fascinating. Particularly when it is really cold outside.

The small christmas tree outside looks nice with snow on it. The cold plays badly with the lighting though. Last night it was lit the whole night, and blinking… the whole night. Either it is the cold causing it, or the batteries are about to quit. That would be about the right time for them to run out of power.

Some of the flowers still stand in the flower beds. All withered and brown, but still stand as there has not been so much snow. Yet.

The grass where Gustav (my neighbors male cat) loves to sleep during the warmer season) is still standing. It looks nice in the snow with frost in it and the sunshine coming through it.

I am also fascinated by the trees south of the road. When the sun shines through them on a really cold winters day like today, they are particularly beautiful.

Above is the tree just across the road, straight out from my patio. A very pale blue winter sky.

It is winter also on the patio. The the black chairs (one above) can manage snow and cold quite well (of you don’t try to sit on them). They have been kept outside for all years that I’ve had them. The table I normally take off the legs of and lean it toward the wall but this year I didn’t. It can also stand the winter and the snow.

Did I go outside in the cold to take these pictures? No. Most of them are shot through the kitchen windows and the door to the patio. It is too cold outside.

Gustav´s path in the snow is still there, or there again. He is not outside much when it is this cold but I can see that he has been here. There is bird-feed in various places, but almost no birds except for the blackbirds. Wonder where to they disappeared …

winter

Blackbirds

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Winter is coming

Wintergarden

Move of plantbox

Withering plants

Plants moved indoors

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Icy walk in the woods

An icy walk in the woods

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It is cold outside

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