The best Christmas present I’ve ever bought myself!
A new warmish storm is passing us and the wind is roaring outside and howling in my chimney. The oh so common rain is also falling but mostly as horizontal drizzle that hurts when hitting the face. This morning however was totally different. Just below freezing temperature and foggy to later turn to sunny and warm. I would have been happy with either of those two for the rest of the day.
It was a good fog, You know that thick that it was hard to guess what it really was what one saw but still thin enough to actually allow You to know where one was 🙂 It was actually thick in the forest too but we were out too late so most of it vanished before it was bright enough to get some cool photos. Well one can’t have it all for some reason 🙂
I went out in the dark yesterday to get some packages of fire logs and if I hadn’t known what a fox sounds like I would have believed some beings being out walking in the forest 🙂 It has this strange barking-howling sound that could scare the crap out of someone who doesn’t know what it is 🙂 It kept on for quite some time and didn’t care at all that I was out there too. Well mating season is on its way so I guess it felt that was more important 🙂 Foxes get quite big here since they aren’t hunted, almost as high as Nova but so thin that they weigh less than Sune 🙂 It would have been cool if it had started to bark while we were out by the bog walking in the fog 🙂
Tiny has been coming to the food by herself for some days now so I’m afraid Lotta isn’t with us any longer. I can’t be 100% sure since I had to turn off the light chains since rain came in to the electrics somewhere and my fuses popped again. But I think no other deers than Lotta and Tiny comes every night, there are still plenty of food out there and why risk coming close to humans if it isn’t really necessary? I’ll keep my eyes open just in case I’m wrong because I thought I saw both of them on our walk the other day.
The water is flowing in high speed even though the ground is almost flat here. There’s so much water in the bog right now that if the ditches would clogg up we would have a lake within a day or so 🙂
The fire is burning in the stove and I’m making a big bowl of rice porridge. I’ll also put the kettle on so I can have some tea. Channel Six will show StarTreck 5 later tonight but besides that there’s nothing seeworthy on any channel, so I might just watch a few episodes of Big Bang Theory. So far I’ve been laughing out loud every episode I’ve seen 🙂 That was one of the best Christmas presents I’ve ever given myself and I’ve given myself some pretty good ones 🙂
Have a great continuing of Yule!
The cottage by the Crane lake part two 
Hej Christer!
God fortsättning till dig med!
Fina bilder, man får verkligen känslan av att vistas i skogen.
Big Bang Theory är jättebra, den kom oxå till detta hus som julklapp till en av döttrarna mina.
Thanks for wonderful misty photos again today, mind that storm, we had it here in Ireland on Thursday evening and Friday morning, our very large trampoline was blown out into the next field, straight over the hedge. Now to figure out to get it back into our own yard.
Enjoy the rest of the Christmas!
Hejsan Liz!
Tack destasmma 🙂
Jag är så glad att jag köpte de sex säsongerna och de visar väl den sjunde nu i USA 🙂
We have that storm here now and it sounds nasty, thankfully most of the wind get stuck in the forest and the rest hits my neighbors cottage 🙂
I hope You’ll be able to get that trampoline back without too many problems.
Have a great day!
Christer.
Your pictures of the fog are so hauntingly beautiful! Good that you like your present to yourself… who knows you better? I really like Big Bang Theory also, just watched it last night! Stay warm!
Hi Wendy!
I just wish it would have stayed longer, I love the fog in the forest and by the bog.
Yes I got tired of us all buying things no one liked 🙂 🙂 It’s better this way 🙂
I guess it’s the seventh season they show over at Yours now, I’m on the second right now 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
gosh I hope Lotta is OK, some beautiful photos today!!!! I agree Big Bang Theory is very funny, we have been watching a British comedy series called Mrs,Browns Boys, its a bit racey (bad language but soooo funny), besides my husband can swear with the best of them when angry, the air gets blue, but I laugh so hard I almost died, they have a few on youtube I think, so funny, we really like the Big Bang Theory though, our grand daughter I think will be another Sheldon Cooper, lol!
Hi Laurie!
I hope so too! It would be sad if she would be gone. I hope I’ll know better later on.
Yes it is soo fun 🙂 I must check that British series You write about, haven’t heard about it. We always saw British series here when I grew up but now days they arelyu show them here, at least not on those free channels I have.
Your grand daughter might just be a fe,male Sheldon, lets hope she will get that good friends too. After all they do treat him very nicely despite him being a bit difficult 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
Hi Christer,
I hope Lotta is just feeding out in the forest somewhere. You’ve not seen Rune or Long Horn around either?
The fog is lovely. You need to be careful walking around in it. That road disappears off into nothingness. You could get lost in the mists of time. 🙂
Today was cold. It started out clear but then clouded up. The snow that fell late yesterday is still hanging around. I didn’t spend much time out there. Fortunately Rocky didn’t want to either.
Your National Geographic picture sent me off to that site where I found that a bunch of people had favorited some of my stuff. I went looking at their stuff and before I knew it a couple of hours had passed me by. But they were filled with lovely pictures so not a problem. 🙂 Did you figure out how to fix that photo?
Enjoy the evening.
Hi Caryn!
I hope so too, perhaps she’s preparing for the new one to come and leave Tiny every now and again?
No I haven’t seen either of them since summer.
It’s hard to get lost on that little road, the ditches actually force me and my dogs to go back to the starting point because they are impossible to jump over later on and leads to where we walk down to the bog 🙂
One storm has just passed and from the sound of it another one is coming right now 🙂
No I couldn’t figure out how to tuen my photo but I’ve sent them a message. Hopefuklly I’ll get an answer before next summer 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s so easy to get lost in that world of great photos!
Have a great day!
Christer.
Hi Christer-
When I first went to look at your post today, the first photo was on a large field of white backgroung and there was no scrolling. Glad to see it is OK now. I don’t know if it was an issue on my computer or what.
Your photos are plenty spooky even though the fog was thicker earlier in the morning. The noises of the foxes must be creepy even when you know what is causing it. I’m surprised the fox get so big there. Once in a while I will see a red fox run across the road from the wildlife sanctuary to go in to the forest behind my condo. He is the about the size of a terrier only longer. Do you know what kind of fox live around you?
I very much liked the photo of the fir branch with the drops of rain – very pretty.
Glad to hear that you are still seeing Tiny, but I will not give up hopes that Lotta is OK. I agree that the others still have enough food than they do not need to rely on your source yet, Tiny may come because she has always come to eat at your place since her she was very young, so maybe she is more trusting of the contact with you & eats the food now out of habit rather than need. I am not surprised that she & Lotta are not always together since Tiny must be almost 2 yrs, old now.
I just had a delicious toasted slice of Panettone with a cup of coffee. I put a slice of candied orange peel in with the coffee and lots of vanilla creamer and it gave the coffee a nice scent of orange. I will have to try it tomorrow with a bit of cinnamon. I have been buying a type of cinnamon called Saigon this year & I really like it so much more than regular cinnamom. It has more flavor & is just a tiny bit spicier than normal. I think it really improved the flavor of everything I have cooked using it, especially baked goods like bread & rolls. I made a loaf of cardomon bread and it had a nice mild taste, The recipe called for cardomon pods to be ground, but I could not find those antwhere, so I just used the ground cardomon and it was fine. It is great to get recipes from all over the World on the internet, but unless you plan ahead & order special ingredients you just have to improvise.
So happy you are getting so much fun out of the DVDs you bought. I don’t know how many commercials you have to watch in Sweden, but I love the DVD’s because you don’t have to watch 5 minutes or more for every 3 minutes of show you watch. At least Sweden has better commercials the we have in the US. I always see Swedish commercials on shows this week that are the best commercials from around the World for 2013. Commercials from other Countries seem to be more creative, funnier & a bit more naughty than the ones we see here, BBT has been having a marathon all week and I really enjoyed seeing Seasons 1-2 that were before I started watching the show, You can really see how the characters evolve from the beginning to the present. Those DVDs will always give you something to make you laugh.
Sounds like your vacation is going great. Hope your stomach is recovering from all the holiday feasting.
Beware the growling foxes!!!
Hi Ellen!
How odd! Well WP has been behaving slightly odd lately and I guess they are working on somethng that really doesn’t work 🙂 One day Joyce only could see tiny photographs while others couldn’t see any difference at all. Even where I write this behaves very odd now so I have to check everything before I’m posting. So I’m hoping what ever they are doing will be over soon.
They look so big here until they lose their winter fur 🙂 🙂 🙂 But they never hunt foxes here unless they have fox scabies so they really get the chance to become as big as they can. High but weighs very little compared to a dog in the same size. They do sound scary 🙂 We only have the red fox here.
So Yu’ve had Italian fruit cake, never had that myself though. For some reason fruit cakes aren’t poipukar at all here. I personally think they are quite tasty and I can imagine putting candid orange peal with the coffee made it taste rather nice 🙂
There are two different trees used to make cinnamon and one is suoperior to the other and I guess that’s the one You have now. The other one works fine too but there is a big difference to be honest.
We love cardamom in anything here 🙂 Any coffee bread has cardamom in it but we rarely have it in any other kind of food. We might if we make Asian food though. Crdamom pods aren’t that common here to be honest, they are usually slightly grinded or powdered here.
I’ve understood that You have way many more commercials than we do in the shows. They break for commercials twice and show around 5 minutes of commercials. The biggest network is the PBS though and they don’t show commercials at all. I really dislike most commercials so guess what channels I look at, yes the ones showed by Swedish Television, our PBS channels. But I have to admit that we have fun commercials here and I think the Danes make the best oes 🙂 A commercial that isn’t fun or very interesting doesn’t work here at all. I hate those ones that assumes that I’m an idiot. I never buy products from those companies ever again. I have for instance never eaten a Snickers bar in my entire life because they had such a bad commercial that assumed I was an idiot. There are lots of products I don’t buy now days because of that reasoning 🙂 🙂 🙂
My stomach is slowly coming back 🙂 I actually felt hungry this morning 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
All the photos are great as always but #2 is amazing. Love it!
I love Big Bang too! I especially like Amy Farrah Fowler. She’s so funny that she makes me cry sometimes.
Just hysterically funny.
I’ve bought myself a great gift too! It was a lot of money but OH WELL!
I got 72 Inktense pencils from Amazon and they should be here on Tuesday.
(I already had bought 24 last year but I wanted ALL the colors. I’m so excited!)
Very interesting about how large the foxes are in Sweden.
But not surprised that they are so loud, I mean
you do know what the fox says….:D 😀 😀
Hi Cindi!
Yes number two is rather nice 🙂 Took me some time to get in the right angle so it would show itself properly.
She hasn’t turned up yet, I’m only looking at the second season yet but I have heard about her 🙂
Nice gift to Yourself! and I can understand that You wanted as many colors as possible. Sometimes one can have that almost right color but almost right isn’t enough sometimes. I think I have some somewhere in my cxottage too, only though 🙂
Since the foxes here never get hunted they get the chance to grow as big as they can. But I have absolutely no idea what the fox says 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
All today’s photos are hauntingly beautiful, Christer, especially the last few with sun breaking through. I also enjoyed the rain drops on the tree branch,,,snow would have been more seasonal. BBT is fast becoming one of Grenville’s favorite shows. It’s great to treat ourselves occasionally!
Hi Beatrice!
I love fog and all photos always look good when it’s foggy 🙂
I’m so glad these photos aren’t seasonal 🙂 🙂 🙂
I just love thyat show and that’s something I rarely say 🙂 I still have four and 1/4 season left to watch 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
Jag tycker du lyckades väldigt bra med att få till vackra bilder med dimma! 🙂 Mer dimma och det hade inte blivit något annat än grått töcken på bilderna!!
Hoppas Lotta bara hållit sig undan och fortfarande är i livet! Försvinner dom vilda djuren så undrar man ju vad som hänt dom.
Santos och jag hörde en räv “skälla” i förrgår natt när vi var ute på sista kissrundan och gissa om han – och jag – blev rädda. Santos är ju väldans mörkrädd, speciellt när han är ute med mig. Han märker förmodligen att jag är lite mörkrädd också, även om det är mycket bättre här på landet. Fast jag går inte in i kohagen i mörkret på kvällarna, då får det bli på tomten och på vägen utanför. Så fånig är jag….. *fniss*
Susie
Hejsan Susie!
Alla bilder blir bra i dimma 🙂 Fast lite mer ute vid mossen hade varit perfekt, men det blir sällan så tjockt i skogen tyvärr.
Jag hoppas bara att Lotta lär Lillan att klara sig själv mera för det är ju dags att så småningom få en ny unge.
Visst är det ett skrämmande ljud 🙂 Tänk förr när folk kanske inte visste att det var räven som lät så 🙂
Jag är inte mörkrädd men jag har ingen lust att vandra in i en älg hur som helst, så jag håller mig på vägarna vid fälten 🙂
Ha det gott!
Christer.
Hi Christer! Those are some lovely pictures you have on your blog!! What a beauitful place you live in. I wish we were having rain and fog. We are having blowing snow, nasty winds and the temperature will fall to about -39 celcius this afternoon. Have a lovely day!
Hi Dianna!
-39!!! That’s makes me love this warm winter we’re having even mor 🙂 I have neve experienced anything that cold ever, -32 is the codest we’ve had here so I had to have the engine heater on all night because I didn’t know hiow much anti freeze I had in my car 🙂 🙂
Have a great day despite that awful cold weather!
Christer.
Christer,
I love fog and do see it often because of the ocean. It is still warmer than the air even at this time of the year. We were warm today but the really cold air is coming in the next couple of days.
I just watched The Big Bang Theory and also laughed out loud. I don’t even mind watching reruns of it. I’m so glad you’re enjoying it.
I see foxes but don’t remember hearing them.
Have a wonderful evening!
Hi Kat!
Unfortunately we have it mostly when I drive to work in the dark 🙂 I’m not that fond of fog those times 🙂
Winter sort of invites to watch lots of tv or dvd’s so the timning to watch BBt is really perfect 🙂
They have lots of sounds but the barking actually sounds creepy and I’ve only heard it when it’s dark or late in the evening just before.
Have a great day!
Christer.
It’s good that you enjoyed the gift from yourself! Anything that makes you smile is good, right?
Loved the pictures of the woods, as always!
Hi Jim!
Yes it would have been sad if I hadn’t liked it 🙂 What if I had gotten tired of it after just a few episodes 🙂 I have done things like that before and it’s so annoying. Like buying a new cd and only like one song! Did that shortly before Christmas 🙂 🙂
Too bad the fog wasn’t that thick in the forest though.
Have a great day!
Christer.
Hi sir,
I and my friends from a post-rock band hurtovyna are assembling music album. We were crawling the web for misty and haunted pictures of woods and totally liked yours! They are really magical. May we ask your permission to use some of your images for the disc cover? If so, we would also like to know your name for a credit on the cover.
Kindest regards,
Sergiy
Hi Sergiy!
I would be honored if You would like to use my photos! I hope the quality is good enough though because I don’t have the original photos left.
My name is Christer Olofsson.
Hasve a great day!
Hi Christer!
It will be a honor for us to use such great photos as cover arts, they are incredible. I’m reading through your diary and feel a little bit jealous for such an amount of stunning beauty in your life. It’s so nice that you share it with us.
Generally the resolution is high enough but for one of the photos that we liked it is too small. Is it somehow possible to get this one in an original resolution? https://thecottagebythecranelaketwo.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/dsc_001110.jpg
It is from this set: https://thecottagebythecranelaketwo.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/ive-already-done-the-laundry/
Thank you anyways! Have a great day!
Hi!
I’ve mailed the photo to You and I hope it works. If not just mail me again and I’ll see what I can do.
Christer.
Sir, it worked perfectly! Many thanks to you!
Shall we send you a disc with our album and your art when we create it?
Yes thank You! I’ll mail You!