Some oak trees

A fellow member at Benno's wanted me to show some oak trees, maybe he thought I have model ones. Anyhow, living close to a little oakforest it's no problem taking some pics during a dog walk.

Luckily the sun is hiding some new buildings on the pic below. They are new and they are ugly and they are very light coloured! :-D

I have found an old map over this little forest from 1916. And on exactly this place it says Oak Hill House! I can very well understand the name, there are A LOT of oaks around it. These stones are all that's left of the house. My guess is that it was a normal house for the time, built early 20th century and gone mid 20th century. Nothing much, but a nice name.

Here we leave Oak Hill House to go home and have some breakfast.

Where there's smoke there's fire?

Hi again. A lot of smoke here right now. There is a forest fire about 50 km North of us and the smoke is drifting. As it is at the moment it's not very dangerous smoke since it is only wood and stuff that burns. No houses are burnt yet, but there are some towns and villages in the area that are evacuated. At the moment one dead and one badly burnt. It is very hot and dry in the area and they have lost control over the fire so this can be very bad. And there is another, smaller, forest fire a couple of miles to the West of the big fire so it doesn't look very good for the people in the area. Hopefully we'll get some rain, but this is the worst forest fire in Sweden in modern times. And some smoke. I was strange to go downtown and I heard that the shopping area West of town was best avoided, you couldn't breath there. And a pic of the church tower.

A little update :-D

But not with figures, this time. Well, some news. I've started on my Battle of Gata Forest 1365 again. Had a break for 4 years and doing other funny stuff. :-D Well, back to the update. It's da dawg! We saw the other vet! He found that our dog had hurt a toe, probably a couple of years ago. Well, he ran away and chased a roedeer with a pal about three years ago and he was limping when he returned. He didn't limp after that. But he protested some times. He hid that the toe hurt, but this summer (it was very hot and he is VERY heat sensitive, couldn't walk or run, but he could eat) he got too heavy to hide his toe anymore. Well, from a body full of tumours to a hurt toe in a couple of weeks was pretty chaotic. Now he gets the right medicine and we're trying to get him a little lighter. And he gets training in a water-tank so he doesn't have to press on his toe too much. And he gets treatment two times a week. So pretty positive. :-D

And spring is here so we started cleaning the balcony and making it ready for the flowers and tomatoes.

It is the season! :-D

What is the yellow stuff under the grass?

Can it be? Is it not too early and too cold? But it was! And a lot of them too. :-D

Chanterelles! So now I know what I'll do this Summer! :-D

Treebeard and more (not hobby-related)

As some of you know I have a little collection of Prince August's Mithril-figures. They weren't that expensive when I bought them and now they are stored in the cellar (5 shoeboxes of them and some GW-figures). Sometimes I look in those boxes for old times sake and bring out a figure or two. This time it was Treebeard with Pippin and Merry. Probably painted Pippin blonde to get some variety and the same for punkrocker Merry. Treebeard is painted with Humbrol's enamels 110 and 30 (or 80) is my guess and the hobbits are painted with Humbrol Acrylics. I won't repaint them, but let them sleep in their boxes and wake some up from time to time and show my little world of followers. This was painted 20-25 years ago.

A little continuation from the previous post. The view from our skislope:

And the back of the skislope. This is the way I use. Not long and not steep.

Sunday me and my brother (and Valter of course) kidnapped Valter's girlfriend Zelma. Her owners knew that we were going to take her so it was no problem with them. :-D We went south to an island to the East-South-East from here. The castle on that island is one of Sweden's most haunted places and also the church is said to be haunted. But we just walked in the forests there. They are only haunted by wild animals like boars and deer and hares, etc. We were lucky and didn't meet any boars so we just had a good time in the sunny weather. Even Zelma, when she realized that it WAS fun to be kidnapped by us. And she also enjoyed the pancake we had brought for her.

Here is Zelma at a holy tree. :-D Ah, yes, she's no boxer. She's a Staffordshire Bullterrier. Just like the one we had when I grew up.

Here is the haunted castle. It is called Ängsö, just like the island. If you see something strange (I don't) it is probably a ghost. :-D

And here is the church. Also haunted!

Hope to get back to the hobby-related stuff later, but right now this will have to do. Who knows, next post can be a fictionalized version of my life as a local, not very succesful, rock musician. Or some other Mithril-figure maybe. :-D

Just a little walk

Took some pics during the dog-walk. Sometimes we go something like this, sometimes we go differently. There are many alternatives, which is very good. But often when me and Valter are out it is dark so then we go a more lighted route. And if the missus joins us it must be another route (this forest is no good for a wheelchair, but we have a forest that works with a wheelchair too.

Upper part of our little creek. No fish in it, don't know why. But it is fresh water since wild animals drink from it. And dogs too. Noone has become sick (wouldn't try to drink it myself though).

Blurry pic. Sorry. Had my cell-phone in one hand and Valter in the other and he pulled when I took the pic.

Lower part of the creek. A trash-can someone thrown in the creek.

Valter on an icy part of the path.

A funny-looking tree. A little bit to the left some homeless people had built a hut. But they were not in when we passed. They usually go away when they hear someone approaching.

Another funny-looking tree. The strange thing on the tree you can carve a nice bowl from.

Valter on the top of our ski slope. We came from the backside and it is not as steep as the front.

Valter found a glove. My left hand felt a little cold. :-D

And home. 90 minutes walking in nice nature and nice weather. But no painting. :-(  Won't try. :-D By the way, our balcony is on the second floor on the left. It is Valter's favourite place and he gets quite upset if the door is closed, even when he is on the inside. Can be pretty cold after a while.

Report from X-mas and New Year (but no figures)

Shared the holidays with the missus mother and brother 2 hours north from my town. An area known for having a lot of snow (not very great with the missus' wheelchair). We took a pretty long walk with the dogs on the 23rd and this is how it looked then.

In the evening we put up some Christmas stuff (in Sweden, for some strange reason, we celebrate Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. Don't know why, it's just something that is).

And our first REAL christmas tree for years. Both the missus and me realised that we haven't had a real christmas tree since the early 80s. Our parents were practical and bought plastic ones, but now it is back to the real stuff!

White Christmas? This is how it looked on Christmas Eve!

We went shopping, but since I was the dog-walker I didn't enter any shop! :-D Instead I played tourist with the dogs! We found a little canyon. Pretty deep and with a creek at the bottom so I didn't try to go down and to the other side.

But it was very close to the local school so probably does the children play a lot there. I would have, I know!

On New Years Eve I took a walk in the forest with Valter (his friend, Dogge, was playing with another dog). This is the road. It was a little adventure to walk on it.

Full of ice! But it didn't get better when we left the road! I didn't get a bath in the little stream on the side of the path, but it was close.

Went home on New Years Day and just when we started it started to snow!

And home! Can't somebody play with Valter? No problem! I played with him. He met two friends yesterday, three friends this morning. Got a date this evening. And plan some more dates for him. :-D

Welcome to Suso-Frick Junction!

And a little more. At last finished the base for my little and very old "Out Shopping"-dio. Sorry, Peter, the ******* wagon isn't finished yet. Have the means, all I need now is time and courage. But in the mean-time I've finished A LOT of figures for this base. I put them on transparent plastic so I can change the scene if I want to.

I also put a little poll at Benno's just for fun. And I found these little gems (Preiser, so they are a little to small) in the collection. Totally forgot all about them, only add some wash and change base and they're ready to go.

What else did I do on my vacation? Picked chanterelles. Yes, everyday. The missus loves them and she can't get very far in the forest with her wheelchair so I pick them. And we eat them. First fry them with some onion and then add cream and make a sauce of it. Yummy!

And the guilty part! Oops!

Dog Blog

No 1/72 today either, but (now I'll probably misspell this, sorry. Can't see the followers) mekelnborg (fixed it) asked if the dogs got on well and a nice way to tell is to show. This is a little older video, but it ususally looks the same. Welcome to Colonel Shofer and Carlo Antonio (still can't see the followers but happened to see that you joined on another computer).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp90NO5TgwI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdLzxz3hkVE

And here Valter is playing with his friend Marley (a Jack Russell Terrier). A terrier never let go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gikk1MtHYm4

Walking

Yesterday I called a friend who's got two boxers and asked if he wanted to walk with me and Valter. Nah, it was an important meeting so Wednesday would be fine. Okay. The missus joined instead. We walked 90 minutes with a speed of about 6-7 km/h. Not possible to try to slow either Valter or the missus on her electric moped down. And when we were almost home my cellphone rang. It was that friend. It wasn't going to be a meeting and Valter heard who it was. So after I followed the missus homed and moved her to her ordinary wheelchair I went out for another 90 minutes. And cold it was too. But Valter was happy. Today it's only long day at work and just a 60 minutes walk when I come home at 1930. Well I get to see a lot of this part of town. :-D And fresh air!

Easter

Were away for Easter and therefore no painting done. Picked some nettles and made soup. Very good and healthy. And, yes, I wore gloves when I picked them.

No painting this weekend :-D

Well, couldn't stay in. Picnic at an island a couple of kilometers from home. Stayed out all day. The first real spring day here. It was just beautiful! So no 1/72-pics today. And the red mug is not Valter's, it's the missus'.

Time to hibernate!

Unfortunately it is not possible for me hibernate, but I would like to. Last winter was very close to break me and the missus, it started in December. Now it is NOVEMBER and looks like this! Can only hope that it will disappear before April. Blah! :-(