This weekend we plan on finishing painting the guesthouse. So I just thought I would post some ‘before’ and ‘work in progress’ pictures. We are using traditional ‘kalkfärg‘.
Let’s hope this rainy windy weather turns in to sunshine pretty quick! (the weather man has said it will 😉 ).
Hope you all have a good weekend.
After a long pause on the blog, I just have to share pictures from last nights music evening.
We hope this is the first of many to come. A fun night was had my many, great music, yummy food and happy people. A big thank you to you all, public, artists and all co workers!
Welcome back next time!
My aim with our chickens is to get as many different colours on their eggs as possible. I think it’ll be pretty cool to serve these to our guests in the morning, and sell them in the shop: white, brown, turquoise, mint, beige, olive. I’m much more excited about egg colour than chicken colour! So currently these eggs, bought at a ‘chicken swap’ market, are in our incubator. So fingers crossed that they are all fertile.
These little two chickies are living inside with us right now
Mega cute. These are from the three eggs that we had in the incubator before. The third one hatched, but his feet were deformed and he couldn’t walk, so we had to send him to chicky heaven 🙁 But these two are doing great 🙂 I have a little experiment going on with two eggs bought from the supermarket to see if they hatch, Bessie has them with her eggs. They seem to be fertile, but we’ll wait and see.
Have a great day everyone.
Even though it’s still to early for home grown veggies, you can still make use of other things in the garden. Tonight I added nettles, dandelion flowers and dandelion leaves to our pasta. Yummy, free and nutritious. Go on, have a go!
Little chicken update: all three chicks that were in the incubator have now hatched. One of them is a little weak though, and seems to be having alot of trouble getting his balance and walking. Maybe this is normal, but the first chick to hatch was so strong and walking and running about almost straight away, so I assumed they would all be like that. The three eggs under ‘Monster’ didn’t make it unfortunately. Looks as though they died around a week ago. Let’s hope Bessie is more successful with her 9 eggs.
I thought I’d give a little update on our chickens.
Most of our Brahma’s that we had over the winter have gone back to the in-laws, we have kept two hens and a rooster. The plan was of course to have more, but we lost so many due to various animal attacks (that we now think we have solved, mostly) that there weren’t enough left to keep here.
The day they went back ‘home’ though was not so bad, as our lovely friends in Uppsala came with a delivery of 10 little chickies – this time Orpington’s. They are between 7-9 weeks now and still fluffy and wild. They are currently in the other side of the chicken coop being kept separate from Plupp the rooster and Bessie and Monster the Brahma hens (named by our son). Monster is currently ferociously sitting and brooding on three eggs, so hopefully we’ll have some little chicks in a couple of weeks. We also have three other eggs in the kitchen in an incubator, so we are looking forwards to our first home grown chicks!
Right now I’m all about planning my kitchen garden. We have a huge garden here, with pretty much nothing in it! It’s too big of a project to transform it all at once, so I’m going to do it little by little. This year, seeing as we live here now, I’m going to do a small kitchen garden right outside the entrance to the appartments. We have a greenhouse and some other veggie patches further away, but I’m following the idea (used alot in permaculture) that we use what is closest to us more often. Think along the lines of picking your evening salad on the way from parking the car to going upstairs to make dinner. Maybe it sounds lazy, but I know there’s a lot of sense in the idea. I’m much more likely on a rainy evening to throw on my wellies and go a few meters for fresh veggies than trudge to the other side of the garden!
As well as searching inspiration pictures and ideas I have started an online gardening course, ‘gardening in the North’, based from Skattungbyn in Orsa. I know it is going to be a great help, give me some structure and support.
Anyhow, here’s some inspiration pictures. I’m thinking lots of small raised beds with mixed planting.
I highly recommend trying to grow your own veggies – even if it’s just a tomato plant. If you haven’t started yet, it’s high time to get tomato’s, chillies and paprika’s planted. It’s yummy, good for you and so much fun!
This is a very popular sport here in Sweden. For the past two years Mattias has been organising his own event for friends. This year was the third and best yet. It was held in a field next to the Guest House. Here’s some pictures from last weekend.
Fun was had by all.
When winter days are sunny with blue clear skies, they are glorious. But, I am starting to long for Spring – twittering birds, open windows and warm breezes. Today is gray, somehow that makes winter seem colder. But this evening I may curl up in front of the fire and plan my vegetable garden.
Have a good weekend.
Hmmmm. A little late aren’t I? Well not so late – it is still January, and the Chinese only celebrated their new year this week, year of the Black Water Dragon if I’m not mistaken, sounds exciting any way. 2012 sounds exciting too. I hope it will be a good year for all. I am convinced that it will be a great year for us at least.
So I trust that you have all had a good Christmas and New Year? I’m not so much for the whole commercialism myself, but I like the spirit in brings out in us. Most are at least willing to offer a smile if nothing else. I like to believe the world would be a better place if we could at least smile at those we meet daily. And I wonder what would happen if everyone participated in a random act of kindness each day? I’m pretty sure we would change the world. Happiness and kindness have a way of spreading to us all. I for one know that if a stranger offers a simple smile, greeting or kind word, it can totally change my day around. The greatness of human spirit is often underestimated.
Why am I babbling about this I hear you ask? Not sure really. I guess it is because I was thinking about new years resolutions, which is actually something I find kind of weird. I don’t really like the process of forcing a resolution onto one self just because of the time of year, only to let yourself or others down if you do not keep it. My advice, skip the new years resolution, and just try be positive about something that has been bothering you instead. If you want to make a ‘resolution’ or promise to yourself (or others), do it at any time of the year! But do it when you are ready for it, when the time is right.
2012 for me is about thinking more positively. Focus on my goals and dreams. And random acts of kindness – as many as I can, as often as possible.
And keep smiling – even when it’s tough!
Dagens bloggpost hänger ihop med vårt julerbjudande på Facebook. Om du vill ta del av det så gå in och “gilla” vår Facebooksida.
Idag erbjuder vi ett riktigt bra pris på en “chokladbollspåse”. Påsen innehåller allt du behöver för at göra nyttiga chokladbollar! Ja nyttiga!!
Ingredienserna består av raw kakaopulver, vilket betyder att alla näringsämnen och antioxidanter fortfarande är intakta, då kakaon aldrig blivit uppvärmd. Här är en länk för mer information.
Istället för socker så använder du Agavesirap. Det är en fantastisk produkt som kan ersätta socker i nästan alla dina recept.
Den kommer från en kaktus och är en helt naturlig produkt. Många studier visar även att den är säker för diabetiker.
Mer information om Agavesirap hittar du här.
Vi har också lagt med raw kokosolja. Denna produkt är hyllad för att vara en av de nyttigaste oljorna som du kan ha med i din diet. Du kan byta ut smöret i ditt favorit chokladbollsrecept mot kokosoljan, eller använda hälften olja/hälften smör. Själv använder jag hälften av varje när jag gör mina chokladbollar, så länge smöret är ekologiskt. Mer info om raw kokosolja här. Man kan också använda denna olja till alla möjliga andra saker; i din nyttiga morgonsmoothie, i matlagning och till och med till hudvård. Jag använder den till allt av det ovanstående! Alla dessa produkter kommer från Renée Voltaire, som bara tillverkar ekologiska produkter av högsta kvalitet.
Påsen innehåller också havregryn och kokosflingor från Saltå Kvarn, också ekologiska och av högsta kvalitet.
Använd ditt favoritrecept, men byt mot ingredienserna ovan. När det gäller Agavesirapen så använd ungefär 1/3 mindre än vad det ska vara socker, tex om receptet säger 300gram socker så använder du 200 gram Agvesirap.
Det här godiset är verkligen något som du inte behöver känna dig skyldig när du äter, tvärtom så kan du se det som en riktig hälsokur!
