Peas, peas, everywhere I look peas!

Mum was kind and picked the peas that was ready yesterday and today I have been shelling them. When you think about it its not very much you end up with when you have discarded all the shells. But never mind that, they taste delicious and are together with the broccoli James took home yesterday going to be part of our dinner. How does pork file roast in honey marinade and fresh vegetables sound to you? Yummie if you ask me! We might get our first tomatoes soon as well if this warm and nice weather holds for a couple of days more. We have 2 right now that are slightly orange looking. It seems to be a crap year for flowers though, the marigolds are barely scraping to flower a few heads and the sweet peas are tiny still. And of all the flowers I sowed this spring only a handfuls of poppies and marigolds have come up. Thankfully the hollyhocks did come as well and will be lovely next year (crosses fingers AND toes for not too hard frost)

I went for a little walk around the lake across the road after lunch and I found this cute little landing stage. I took some other pictures as well but this one turned out the best

The auction on Sunday was interesting and I came away with a postcard album with 140+ cards in it for 520 kronor. I thought it was quite good since it makes out as roughly 4 kronas a card, besides I have already sold off 2 of them for 60 kr. Wheeler dealer eyh?
I also spotted a nice glass jar with a silverplated top but it was put into a bargain box that went a bit too high plus I didn't want all the other crap that went in there. But I went over and asked the lady who bought them if she would sell me the jar since that was all I was interested in. She said she was going to think about it since she hadn't had time to have a look yet what was in the box! I decided to wait a while before asking again and in the mean time I saw how she very carefully looked at the jar wondering is she had made a bargain and why I wanted to buy it off her. So just before we left in the afternoon I went over and asked if she had thought about it, which she had. She wanted to keep it but then I made her an offer of 80 kronas for it and she hesitated and caved. So I got it!
isn't it cute?

We also have been up at the allotment and it is growing much better now when it finally started to be a bit warmer. We have a truck load of peas to pick, onions are really growing well, tomatoes are slowly turning bright red, sweet corn is struggling but growing taller, potatoes flowering and we already have picked some of the broccoli heads, they made a lovely chicken pie with some cauliflower and leak. Also the runner beans are flowering like mad but I'm not so sure we will be able to have those in peace. We have deer! Pesky little deer nibbling at our pea flowers last week and they also found their way to the beanstalks cutting the buds off! Shoot the buggers!

We went around looking at cars yesterday. Both me and James have agreed on that our tank drinks too much petrol and it would be cheaper in insurance as well with a smaller new car. Not to mention easier to drive, James still takes wide corners like he's driving a lorry. Makes for interesting comments from me when I'm thinking he missed the turning! Cars seem to be very expensive though if you buy them from a car dealer, naturally off course but still you cant get any decent cars for under 60 000 kronor! I've also had a look online for people selling privately and you can get them cheaper but anyone want to help us out in buying? Haven't got a clue what to look for more then the obvious, rust and tires. Plus any tips on what make of car is a good buy is gratefully accepted.

VACATION!!!

Can you see I'm excited about it??

Sorry for the lack of posts but its been hectic and I've not really been in the blogging mood. But I thought I try to write something now when I don't have work to do, well unless you count all the housework, gardening and stuff like that. Housework cant wait either really, hmmm why is there only 24 hours a day? Never mind I have a set list of priorities, auctions first and then whatever needs tending to. Yes, you guessed right we are off to an auction today. Poor James is working but I'm going with Lotta and my mum to an auction in Nyhammar. It is a bit to go so we are going to set of soon. Lotta is picking me up in 10 minutes and I'm all set for whatever weather there will be. They promised scattered showers so umbrella is in the handbag but also I have sunblock just in case the sun does come out. I don't want to end up red as a lobster as I did once last year. I also have applied amply of mosquito repellent since we are going to be outdoors in the sticks. It sounded as a good auction so book is with me and I'm going to have really good look around. Better go now or I will be late!

So we went to have a look at the house yesterday. It was as i thought, lovely garden, wild grown of course but lots of surviving plants in the weeds but the house needs too much doing to it. The layout wasnt the best i thought. You'd step in from the nice front porch bit and was greeted by the wall of the hall since it spread like a T, livingroom to your right. A strange semi room with an open fire to your left, from there you had the small bedroom to your left facing towards the front next to it the bathroom with a huge ugly boiler on view. To your right in the semiroom you'd go into the kitchen which had a view to the back, overlooking a huge mound which contains an oldfashion larder down under ground, from the kitchen you also would access the bigger bedroom (bigger ha! would hardly get your double bed in there) and from the bedroom you have a door out onto the patio.

 
If we would have bought it we would have redone the layout completly and the  kitchen totaly ripped out plus the foundation needs a ventilation put in since it was getting damp. But we knew this. We quite quickly agreed the house wasnt for us, but we both loved the garden and extra sheds.

Yes, yes i know. Another silly test but i like these!
Found via Belle


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The estate agent phoned today and wondered if thursday suited us since he was showing the house to a family as well. I said yes thank you it suits us fine. He informed me a bit about the house, what needs doing and how big the acres are. There is aparently a plot or two of land going wih it but its not next to the house and yard itself which was disappointing. Mind you, we are NOT seriously thinking about this house, just looking. Im curious to how it looks like inside because from the pictures on their site it looks just about the right size and such for us as a first house. Mum made sure of that we werent going to look and buy it on a whim, as if we would. But thats my mum for you :o)

Weekend rushed by as usual. We went to IKEA on saturday with mum, Lotta and ?sa. It was a bit of a disappointment though. Not at all up to its usual standard it felt like a let down. The sales werent no good in the shopping center next door either. At least we had a day out. We didnt do anything in particular on the evening, i made a bit of bread and lounged in the sofa and James went for a run. On sunday there were lots of auctions going on but James was to tired and i couldnt bother to go to the local one seeing as the weather was a bit unsteady mind you it never rained. We had a look online at houses for sale instead. I do believe that James has now got the housebug as well. We biked out to have a look at one in Falun, it was dark and dank and definatly not worth the asking price of 990 000 kronor and we decided to take a trip to Borlänge to have a look at another house for 550 000 kronor. It needs doing up a bit inside and the garden bit is quite grown wild. I made a note and posted off a mail saying we wanted to have a peek inside it to the house agency. Will see when they phone back.

Some good news and some bad (well, yes)

So I've had my first treatment of acupuncture this last Wednesday. It was, interesting, to put it mildly for someone who hates needles! Anyway good news is that whatever he does with them it seems to be working, elbow seems to be on the mend even though I never would have thought so after the first session. Talk about sore and groggy! I knew that you would get whoozy headed and tired but nothing had prepared me for that. I don't know if I did the sane thing but instead of going home and getting in bed I went shopping! Well it worked for me, after half an hour of slowly walking around town I felt much better and called James to see if he wanted to meet me in town after work. But he had left his mobile at home so he didn't get the msg before then. But lovely as he is he came into town anyway to go and have a look at some baskets I had seen and was wondering if I should get for our mini recycle station under the kitchen sofa. I thought they were nice but a bit hefty on the price so we decided to wait until we've been to IKEA they usually have nice wicker baskets and other sorts.
The bad news being I have to go back for another treatment next Wednesday. But hopefully it will get better for each time, will just have to see how many treatments I will need before it being acceptable again. He is not cheap either, every session costs my boss 350 kronor ca ?27 instead of me going to the company healthcare center for ?6... But I've totally lost confidence in them so they can go jump in the lake and my boss can pay up for my treatment at this chiropractor/acupuncture center.

Between working, looking after the allotment, bbq-ing, cleaning, restoring a kitchen table, shopping, picnicking, biking, getting a poorly elbow and sleeping there has not been much time to do any blogging at all. Still my to-do list is huge and haven't gone down at all. Because every time you knock one of the things off it 2 more are added so it just goes round and round and never ever ends! I want vacation!!! No, wrong, I NEED vacation, NOW!

Working in a supermarket as I do you do tend to get your aches and pains from time to time. So it has come to my elbows attention that it had had enough and is right now throwing a major ache tantrum. It was giving me some serious trouble before midsummer last week so I stayed at home on Thursday thinking a day or two with rest would help. Of course it helps, for that space of time. But as soon as you get back into doing stuff with it it just laughs you straight in the face and hurts even worse. This being the case I went to the company doctor on Wednesday this week to see what it could be and if I could get any help for it. The doctor (being a total git) sat there explaining what I had and what he didn't believe in would help, nothing about what WOULD help more then maybe some acupuncture but he didn't issue any orders for such. So I left quite disappointed with a sicknote for when I had been home but with instruction to go back to work and see' how it works out' and a vague order about getting some acupunture done by someone.. Well said and done that is what I did yesterday and now it has worked out so that I cant stretch my arm fully because of the pain in the elbow area. Thing is I got work over the weekend, do I go to work today and the weekend and strain it even more and just 'see how things work out' or do I tell my boss today that its no use for a while and stay home until I get to Monday when I can call the doctor and say 'it didn't work out at all give me a new elbow now that you've ruined the one I had'? Well one thing it has taught me, never go to a doctor that looks like a toad peering underneath too big a glasses. He'll just send you home to 'see how things work out'!