Down by the lake

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Originally uploaded by pcgxk.

Here's my by another one of the local lakes that i was at yesterday. We'd just done a 10K walk round the local nature reserve, and this is just by a picnic site at the end. I'm not overly sure what the duckboards are for cos they don't seem to lead anywhere and it would seem unlikely that you could launch a boat from the end due to the vastness of the all the reeds (or whatever they're called) - but then maybe in other times of the year they're not there and you could launch......

according to one of my work colleagues this is predicted to be the last good weekend of summer and from here on in, autumn and winter come, whether this is true or not we'll have to see, but I have one more week of work before 4 weeks away from my desk, with a micture of holiday and training courses.....nice!

Its also harvest weekend at the moment, there are loads of people out working all the farms and combine harvesters all over the place. At the nature reserve this afternoon there a demonstration of traditional methods of farming and harvesting, because the 2 farms they run there focus on preserving old techniques and the like.

yesterday we met a volunteer group who work there who were working on a new project to restore some old farms and tracks around the area, because the nature reserve itself exists because in the past 2-300 years it was a major farming area outside of stockholm. So they're going down there today to demo their skills. Its quite cool stuff cos in a way its a bit like the old ray mears bush craft stuff, because there's lots of things like, making your own fencing and various craft type things like that.

At least somebody is eating the cherries

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Originally uploaded by pcgxk.

There are a number of fruit trees in the garden, 3 apples, 1 plum, one immature pear and a huge 20 metre cherry tree. In truth I've tried a few apples but most have just fallen and gone on the compost heap. The cherry tree is dropping its fruit everywhere and currently the insects are having a field day, especially the wasps and the butterflies, as you can see here.

Whilst taking the photo I had waps crawling all over me, because unfortunately there are about 20 wasps to every butterfly.

Thanks to Steve for showing me how to take photos like this. When you see his dragonfly shots then you can see what can really be done.

Where did I leave the car?

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Originally uploaded by pcgxk.

So here we all on Sunday night well into the 3rd leg of a 3 day drinking event to celebrate Steve's imminnent departure to Spain, Tom and Karen wedding and just general party feelings. Its was a fine time indeed.

We played some cool board games, Tom , Karen and Sarah cooked some great food on, we got to meet Steve's (ex) work colleagues and see how much they loved him :-) and for me, best of all, I just got to spend 3 days with all my old friends, its doesn't get much better than that.

James pushed the boat out and made some fantastic roast lamb for Sunday night and here we all are in the garden enjoying the rest of the evening.

But anyway , on to the point in hand. After 3 days of drinking and not much sleep, I made a brief visit to my old colleagues in the city and then jumped on the SAS flight out of city.

I got back to Stockholm about 10pm and basically was completely shagged. I'd parked the car at the airport but I was buggered if I could find it. I ended up wandering round the back arse end of nowhere airport car parks blindly wondering whether I was a tired idiot with no memory, or whether the car had been stolen (answers on a postcard which is most likely)

anyway - 30 minutes later - I did find it and managed to drive slowly and carefully home.

Great weekend though. Roll on september

Other stuff that has happened this week...

A big deer with antlers appeared in the garden 2 mornings in a row

The cat got more ticks and I had to remove them (try catching a cat, holding it between your logs, grabbed its head and tilting it backwards with one hand, while brandishing your tick removal device with the other - here's a tip, its bloody difficult and the cat can probably be relied upon to struggle intensly and make wierd noises)

I went to the swedish GP and had my ear syringed, after speaking a whole load of crap Swedish to the receptionist and the nurse. Good fun though in the end - and by god I can hear in my right ear again now!

I went go-karting again on Wednesday, but didn't win this time. I spun twice and came 3rd.

Things I'm reading - SQL Server development team intranet site - its full of interesting things.

I tried the new QOOP photo printing service which is tied into flickr. I've used their photo book service before, but haven't tried prints - we'll see how it goes - dead cheap and easy though - their interface was fairly impressive - as it was when I had my book printing previously. I can't recommend it enough.

I changed my blog template slightly.

I went to Croydon for the weekend and partied hard.

Here's the local lake

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Originally uploaded by pcgxk.

These are the rocks next to Edsviken (the local lake) upon which I like to laze after a tough day at work. I can be here within about 5 / 10 minutes from home, and this was taken last week at about 6.30pm after work, when I went for a quick swim. There's some more on flickr, but basically I live on the other side of this lake - just over a hill. Nice! In the background you can see a guy contemplating jumping in - there's a mini sheer cliff face of about 6 to 10 feet high depending on how brave you are, where you can jump in from.

Alternatively you can go to the opposite side of the lake, where there's a nice grassy park to sit on, from where you can also take a swim.

Why don't my toenails grow anymore?

a good question or what? ever since I've moved to Sweden they just don't grow. Does anyone have an explanation for this? Frankly I find it very strange.