Crash?

 It's been a while. I've been away on work trips, several nights away fron home. Don't like it, and 'Suma is suffering. Poor puppy.

During me being away ys got apparently a seizure. I wasn't told about it that clearly ("He fell but is ok now"). Last saturday, a week ago, he got another one while I WAS here to see it, and called immediately to 112. They sent an ambulance, it took less than 15 minutes to get here!
So, long story cut in short: Spent three days in hospital, got several eeg's, ecg's and a mri scan. Gave a ton of blood. Loud and clear: YS has epilepsy, at this point it's considered a nice type, which should be controlled with medication. So far he's had no more episodes and has no immediate adverse reactions to medication. So far so good.

So as per usual, autunumn is once more a disaster.

Autunm overnight

A week ago we had a very hot weekend, Saturday evening was warm and calm. We spent it outside celebrating the end of summer (and my 50th birthday, which was few days earlier). A lots of bubbly, barbeque and cake!

Sunday was more windy but warm, I went to my plot and picked beans and zucchinis.

And then came Monday, rain and all. It was clearly autumnal feeling. I was away on a work trip for three days and managed to get home by Wednesday - just in time to cover all my delicate plants with fleece and sheets and everything I managed to find because instead of 18C night like we had on weekend we had frost. And ever since there's been frost during nights. So, we surely noticed the change of seasons!

So I'm not going to get corn cobs this year, they would have needed maybe three more weeks of warm (or at least not frosty) nights. And maybe more rain. Well, there might be a summer for corn one day.

Next week I'm off again for three days. I just hope kids will be nice and cover my plants when I'm away, I fear fleece will not stay in it's place because we have very windy days, again. Cold, straight from the North Pole I heard.

We still have some firewood to stack, it was too hot to do it earlier (it's been under cover and it's dry, so no worries). Teenagers are not very keen on doing such domestic tasks, who would have guessed 😆

I might have told at some point I do have Russian relatives. We are a bit worried about them, they are aging and times are difficult. No-one can visit them, because yes, you will get visa to cross the border - but if you are known to oppose Putin's war and politics, you will not be able to get back again, no matter of your nationality. And to be honest, no-one wants to get stuck in Russia now (or ever). My brother is on hiatus from Airb'n'b because he didn't want to accomodate Russian visitor... We are not very good in diplomacy - we love our Russian relatives and we fight for them to keep them feeded and able to live but we don't want to support Russian tourists. They (relatives, not tourists) have rabbits, and have been able to harvest enough hay for the winter to feed them - rabbits are not only food for them, they are valuable for bartering, too. My "aunt" has spent her summer preserving her garden products, we have received regular updates with lots of photos of jars filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, berries, fruits...

No matter where you live, you're one of my family - in so many ways.

And Russian tourists will not get visas any longer (but I would like to give visas to people who are trying to take care of their family, like visiting their old parents).

My Ukraine field has sunflowers blooming! First opened in 24th August, just in time for Ukraine's Independence day! I was a bit worried I will not get flowers in time. I know no-one else will see my sunflowers, and no-one (except for you) will know about it. But I know it's there. (and yes, I've been donating money and food and other stuff so it's nor just my mental support I give to Ukraine).

So. Life is not as easy as it was a year ago. It is what it is. I'm off to stack some firewood. Winter IS coming and it's going to be a long, cold one.

Tourists

A friend of mine, a mother of my god son, had a birthday on Saturday. Our community assosiation (a grand term, a small group) was planning a trip to Stockholm, so we decided to go full tourists. We attended to city tour with a guide - I've been in Stockholm before, but for me it's always been a huge spidery lump - I just haven't got a grasp of it. We had a four hour bus tour around the old town and some of islands, as well as short walks aroud sights.

It was very interesting, and educational. Poor guide tried to tell the unfortunate story of Wasa ship for two hours... Our bus driver was VERY professional driver - we didn't hit any cyclists OR cars (the city was basically one huge road construction area which is why I will never ever drive myself in there apart the suburbs).

Of course two nights away (with buffet breakfast!!!) wasn't so easy with a dog who's got serious separation anxiety (but she is safe and happy now that I'm back) - and I haven't been berry picking (bilberries) OR in my garden or in my plot, so it all waits me tomorrow - after a (train)trip to the capital, again... Oh dear. At least forecast promises some water later on. We'll see.

I did however pick a handful of runner beans while I waited for 'Suma's business. I thought I will not get any beans this year because of late planting, but they are loving this hot weather. I need to check my pickling cucumbers asap!

Savings - even if in tiny fragments

This has been an abysmal year so far - not only for us, but for most people who pays their own electricity, gas, gasoline, food... whatever. And we don't have a war here! At least not yet. Pessimist will not be disapointed?

Well. My car broke down, I lost half of brakes in winter but half of them were working fine. Then something else broke, because we have huge potholes in all of roads. I hit few of them few too many times.

Ok, I bought a car that is working. It's manual, so it took me two days to re-learn how to drive it. And then it took me a week to re-re-learn how to drive an automatic gears. But my car is just what I wanted it to be, low mileage, modest, roomy - I can fit a bicycle inside it. I can tow a trailer with it.

The hb's car broke down. So he's been driving os's small car without aircon and it's been killing him. He works in a freezer (there's quite often days he spends hours in -30C) so anything warmer than +10C is way too much for him. So it's literally been killing him these few weeks driving that small oven.

I found him a car he didn't want even to look at. I persuated him to go and see it, and I he bought it right away after a test drive. It has a moderate mileage, it's roomy and it's four wheel drive so he might get through thick snow banks during the winters to come. He works shifts, he often leaves house before 5am rcomes back home after midnight and roads are not neccessarily ploughed at those times - or they are plouhged but wind has blown another half a meter or more of snow across roads half an hour later. And it's got airconditioning!!!

Because of the low mileage we are about even with car payments/gas! But now we have two wrecks at our yard... Eventually someone will buy them, but for the foreseeable future I have now five vehicles in premises 😒

On happier news, potatoes are here! Last week I made a salmon soup out of the very last few potatoes from root cellar, and from now on we'll eat only freshly digged new potatoes. They are very good, you really don't need anything else but a bit of butter to eat with them. Or pickled herring (ask Swedes about Abba... it's not just a pop band).

And zucchinis. First one didn't grow, they just rotted  from the flower end, but now we have a plenty of zucchinis. I've made fritters, roasted veggies, fried zucchini, grilled zucchini... But it's ok, it's nice to know there's something more than enough!

And chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms. For today's dinner we had boiled new potatoes, butter fried mushrooms, chicken nuggets and pickled herring - and sourdough rye bread, but that't what we have every day. My mother brings us bread and there's always rye bread - which is a good thing, because our kids like it.

It's been week since I made any food shopping. So far I'm not out of anything else than pickled herring😆  No, that's not true, there should be at least one jar left in the fridge!

Foor prices have gone up. My stable buy, cheap spaghetti, was 0,39€/kg last summer. The price got up to 0,49€ in autunm, then by Christmas it was 0,69€. In February it was already 0,89€ and now it is 1,09€. I went to Lidl and bought 10 kilos of spaghetti for 0,89€/kg. I know it sounds stupid, but with three teenager/young adult boys in the house I can easily cook a kilo of that stringy carbohydrate thingy and all will be devoured in 24 hrs. Thank goodness for new potaoes...

Cheap cheese was 3,95€/kg last summer. Now its 5,65€/kg, at some supermarkets it's 5,99€. Carton of 15 eggs were 1,79€, now they are 2,69€. It's not just 10 cents here and there, it's an euro or two everywhere!

And don't get me started on electricity... I might need to ask for instalment-free period for mortage for maybe six months, because I don't know how I'm going to be able to pay my electricity bills otherwise! I hate to do that, because I have only five more years on mortage and it will be totally paid off. But not if I need that money to pay electricity.

Yes, we have fireplaces in our house, yes, I will cook more on my log burner stove, yes, we will live in colder house, yes, we will use less hot water... but still.

Oh well. At least we have water for free.

Bilberries and rain and fulfilling dreams

As most Europeans are suffering extreme heat, we have had a cold week. Last night it was 8C, and during the day it's from 14C to 17C. I think this is way too cold. Hb is content, because he's suffering anytime temperatures rise above 18C - he works in a freezer (literally). I'm suffering now.

But we had our bout of warmth earlier this summer, and for most berries and fruits it was a perfect timing, no frost nights during the time they were blooming, a lot of pollinators buzzing around and dry weather fot those buzzers to fly. And once the blooming was over, there was rain - plants can't make fruits/berries if it's too dry.

I've baked two bilberry pies so far - we call bilberries blueberries (They are original blueberries). D don't eat them, because bilberries make her sick. As do oat, milk, pasta, chicken, too much eggs, most fruits (but not raspberries, which make me  sick), potatoes, rice (but not rice milk), bread, cheese if not cooked, meat in most forms... But anyway, os and ys LOVE bilberry pie.

I told them they will have just as many bilberry pies during the winter as there is berries in the freezer. So far os has been twice picking bilberries with me!!!

Because of the heat wave and this rain, our firewood project is behind our normal schedule. We started cutting and splitting last weekend, and if it's not raining today, we might get more done tonight. Yesterday it was rain on and off whole afternoon.

A bit boring.

Old man decided to build a log cabin/retirement house. He has dreamt of three things in his life: learning to fly (got his license in early twenties), owning a forest (bought first forest in his fifties) and building a log house. Now it's time for him to fulfill his last dream, groundwork is done, just waiting for last signatures for the permit. Yesterday they were digging an old well, it was filled with roots and concrete rings were a bit loose. So all is now nicely clean and sealed, and after a while that water is drinkable. My cousin's digger on the other hand is not ok, it stopped working several times. Oh well, just like it always is, something happens and you just have to fix it.

And as for my mother, she has had her dreams fulfilled: a house of their own in the countryside, work from home, a nice garden.

Heatwave

After really really cold sprin we now have a heatwave. +32C is way too much to my opinion.

I can work outside for maybe an hour in the morning after I have took 'Suma for a walk, with cats, of course. Today it was way too hot by 10am, even though my polytunnel is in the shadow until that.

I have still some salad plants unplanted to their final pots/places.

This year I have a plot, I might have mentioned it before. It's only 1 km walk, in my parents' field, nice smooth sandy soil, which keeps moisture but doesn't get soaked even in constant rain. It's unbelieveable how different it is to grow anything in soil that is so wonderful! The other option is of course my dense clay...

But my corn looks nice, pumpkins and zuccinis are looking proper and beans are ready to climb - they just need the poles! Broad beans and peas for some reason didn't germinate very well. Well, broad beans were old seeds, more than five years, so there's that, but peas on the other hand were new AND expensive seeds! Aaaargh. I sow some carrots, and they badly need weeding - but in this weather I just can't do it - 'Suma keeps following me everywhere and if I'm on the field weeding, she'll sit right next to me and because she's a black dog that's basically lethal.

I got a pay rise (because of my EU tasks). Not much good because I've been on (good) fixed salary since our major organisation shake ten years ago, and that theoritical pay rise is still less than my current salary. I'm not complaining. I've never refused any work task and I've tried to do more than asked just because of that. I've taken tasks no-one else wants to even poke with a ten feet pole. It has it's good side but also not so good side. It's quite common to get a call from my boss (or ever from her boss) "We have no-one who knows about this, but I know you'll manage to find out everything and can do this... Please?" I wish my kids and hb would think I'm that smart and capable, too.

Too many accounts

 I have several user accounts on my phone - it's my work phone, but I'm allowed to use it in personal use also. That requires me to have another accounts.

And I just can't remember passwords. Few days ago I had to change my "main" which I use to log in my work system. And because of that, my ALL work passwords had to changed, too. And by now I have no idea what my new passwords are (each are different, one needs to be at least 20 characters, numbers, capitals etc. One cannot have numbers or any special character and must not be longer than eight characters. I wrote them down, and I can't find the bloody paper anymore. So I need to change each of them again. And none of them cannot be the same than 25 previous ones. My imagination is drained completely by now. (it was our IT security that told everyone just to keep passowrds written in a paper, because no-one can't figure out which password goes where...)

But at least I got my Teams working (my supervisor couldn't do that) and I still have my email working. And my calendar.

If that isn't too much to my long term memory, I have three credit cards which each of course have different pin codes. My vpn needs a pin code. My phone has, not one but two different pin codes, and my net bank has one, too. Adn hb is wondering why I don't want to use out front door, which has an electronic lock which has a pin code.

I hate passwords. I hate pin codes.

Sprouts

I know it's spring everywhere but here. A nice winter storm - I've lost count. We have maybe a two square meters free from snow  otherwise it's snow and ice. And maybe a bit more ice, perhaps?

I've few seeds germinating, I need to check on them tomorrow. I have some peas and sunflower seeds germinating, kids love pea shoots. Maybe I'll need to stop calling them kids, they're all teens. But yes  they'll eat pea shoots, sun flower shoots and corn shoots (grown from popcorn kernels!!!)

I found boxes on mung beans reduced, of course I bought several. I had no idea what to make of them, until I read mung beans are easiest to make sprouts. Ok. First batch is almost eaten, os eats them as they are, but I really like them as a sandwich filler, like cucumbers. But a lot cheaper! Cucumbers are about 5,50€/kg now, that makes one cucumber something like 1,30€, which is way too much I'm happy with.

War on Ukraina has made me even more worried, if I was worried about living costs before, now I'm horrified, of  everything. And I need to worry about what will our crazy neighbour do, if there's going to be another "special operation"? My colleague from Portugal kindly offered to have us as guests if need ever occurrs. Well, I'm not leaving, but I have been poundering what should I do with d... My worries are quite irrelevant now, compared to the sorrow of others.

For now we are safe and as far as I know there's no imminent danger of any military action near this country.  We have briefings only once every fortnight, which is a lot less than it was in the beginning of the pandemic. So, I'm doing what V.P. doesn't want us to be doing - living a normal life. I've donated money and my freetime, money to Ukraine and my freetime for my community. If there's a need, we can house a family of refugees. There's not much else I can do.

Last remains of my family in Russia are not willing to move here.  They could do that, because their children already live here,  but they have their home they built themselves, their life, their friends... They shortly considered moving to Georgia where the husband is from, but it's not safe, either. I know it's hard to see the difference between a country and it's people, or individuals.

And sometimes the people are the country, like now in Ukraine. I don't think President Zelensky ever dreamt (or rather had nightmares) of to be a great military leader to his people, but he has been better leader to his people than any other present day head of state.

It's winter

 If anyone have missed, we all have winter.  Last weekend we got a foot of snow, and next weekend there will be as much. So it looks like a proper winter, but it surely doesn't feel like one. We'be had a one really cold day, -25C or something. You could think this is a real winter.

The truth is we are having abnormally warm winter once more. We used to have long stretches of real frost, like -33C for two weeks and then -27C felt like a three-week heatwave.

I've been busy, or I've been making myself busy. This is second week hb was able to go to work, he's not fully recovered yet, but at least he's able to sit. He's not the only fallen one. F fell down the stairs, but weighing less than half of what hb weighs she got only huge bruises but nothing as bad as hb. Then our electrician slippes on a snow covered piece of plastic and twisted his ankle. He was using crutches only for two weeks...

Hb has excelled himself lately. He got tax return, a nice sum of money, on August, and we agreed he'd use them on a new suit (needed for a wedding and FIL's funeral) and shoes. The rest went to d's school books. And just before new year I found out that this thickhead has used his credit card very freely, because he thought he was using his tax returns now. I mean... I can't even... And he's used twice or trice the money he had in first place.

For two years I've been telling him we need to watch our money because I don't get any extra now while I'm working from home and he's been spending more than ever. I'm considering confiscating his card and give him a lump sum to use, because nothing I say or do has any impact.

Yes, I will sort this out like everything else, but I'm so mad and tired right now.

Work, on the other hand, has been nice. I feel I know what I'm doing and I feel my work has a meaning. It might not be as important as some other jobs, but who cares? We can't all be Elon Musks, nurses, teachers or rocket scientists.