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Smalltalk for friends
Dear friends,18 November 2008. Late autumn againIt's been a very long time since I wrote on this page. The reason is quite simple, we were quite busy during 2008. Especially, as we spent a lot of time to build a new Greenhouse for all the orchids. And remove the old greenhouse. That took us all available time for half a year. Apart from that I was quite busy as well on our other website www.orkidebilleder.dk It has taken a lot of time to construct that site which is mainly in Danish. You can, however, choose the English version and see more than thousand photos of beutiful Orchids or Orchid Stamps. 23 December 2007 Merry ChristmasMerry Christmas
and a Happy New Year to all our readers.
25 October 2007 First frost nightsNow we have encountered the first frost nights. Just touching the red lnie, but is was enough to accelerate the leaves dropping from trees. Delicate flowers got scorched.The Prime Minister used his position to call for a general election yesterday. That means capaigning and election nonsense in the media for some time - but as he called with the shortest possible notice (3 weeks) it will eventually come to an end. 29 September 2007 Rainy days - rain of daysWell, what a lousy summer. We don't have rainy seasons in Denmark, otherwise I would call this summer one long rainy season. Autumn has just begun and tree leaves turn yellow. Most fields have been harvested and lay there dark brown after the plowing.Most leisure time is spent in front of the computer. I have been very busy re-arranging a new website. I now try out a Content Mangaement System (CMS) in order to streamline the pages more. There are both advantages and disadvantages with that kind of system. There is a lot to learn and zillions of photos to re-arrange. 1 August 2007 Summer almost goneWow, a strange summer. We had a lovely fine summer until about 12 June, with really high temperatures. Then a sudden drop of 10 degrees C and rain and rain and rain. We don't usually have a rainy season in DK, but this year it has rained the last six weeks. It seems to clear up now- but who can replace a missing summer?Anyway, we also enjoyed a few hours sunshine now and then. We went on lovely tours to mainland Jutland and around on our own pretty island. Island sounds quite isolated, but we enjoy two bridges at one end and a bridge plus a tunnel at the other end, so we can quickly escape from the island. And our island, Funen (Fyn), is so large that you don't get the island blues anyway. 25 May 2007I have been busy looking for butterflies and moths. We were on a lovely tour to Jutland last Sunday and took a good stroll looking for butterflies over the vast moor there.At home I was worked on a new computer program, downloading, installing, reinstalling etc. - it sure eats your time. It is a pleasant time of the year, the first strawberries are ready together with delicacies such as asparagus. Country life sure has its advantages also. 1 May 2007 - MaydayToday is a most lovely spring day. It is half a day off for all the labourers - Mayday - while white collar staff have another day off. Well, there isn't much solidarity or anything else left to demonstrate for in our society. During my childhood this was an important day to demonstrate for higher wages, sick leave, social benefits, etc.Nowadays in our affluent Denmark, every worker has at least one car - maybe two - and owns his house and an extra summer cottage. And he goes on winter leave on the Balearic Islands. So everyone looks after himself.1 April 2007 - Easter days comingEaster starting and April Fool's Day - on the very same day. Lovely spring weather with sunshine all day. This can't go wrong. Many Danes have taken extra days off and thereby extended the Easter Public holidays into an complete week off. Campers and camping equipment was cleaned a few days ago and many set off to their favourite sites during this weekend. Most allotment gardens are officially opened on 1 April. - gardening is really the big deal in Denmark. So all garden centers have cultivated spring and summer flowers and are ready for the big sale during Easter. Sale of seeds, seedlings, garden tools, fertilizers and whatever. When people are in the spring mood anything goes.We bought a new barbeque grill, assembled it on the terrace and began using it during the nice spring days we have had recently. 5 March 2007 slow springSpring is slowly approaching. Daylight is returning and temperatures increasing. It is still early and we may get setbacks of course, but still we enjoy just getting rid of the dark winter. After an abnormal warm winter and strange observations of spring signs during winter, I think we are back to normal now. Most flowers and other species begin to follow nature's normal calendar.30 January 2007It is a very quiet time of the year. Winter is of course a cold dark time, where most Danes hide indoors. That is why we have so many hobbies and winter meetings, where we meet people who share the same interest. There is a saying that whereever three Danes meet they will immediately start a new society - complete with Chairiman, Secretary and Treasurer. Well, it is a joke, but there is something about it. My twin brother and I are thus members of one Orchid society, and four Entomologist societies.We just had a short period of real winter with snow and frost but got over it quite fast. 14 January 2007 - strange winter this yearThere wan't much activity to report since New Year. January should be a winter month, a time of snow and frost, but temperatures have been unusually mild, so nature can't figure out which time of year it is. Spring flowers have begun emerging and birds sing the spring tunes. Late autumn moths still fly together with spring species that are not supposed to hatch for another 3 months! Strange. Life is usually inert in Denmark in January.The last few days we have had our share of storms. Last night it was particularly bad. Wind speeds of up to 38 metres/second - mainly in Jutland our main peninsula. That is the same as hurricane winds! Luckily we only lost a few roofs (plural rooves??) here and there and many trees dropped across roads and made traffic impossible. Many ferries were stranded in harbour due to bad weather. The two major bridges were closed for all traffic for several hours. They were too dangerous to pass at these wind speeds. We did not have casualties in Denmark, but neighbouring Sweden lost two people to dropping trees. All this means that life mainly happens indoors for Danes. Luckily, we have passed the shortest day (22 December) and notice a few minutes longer daylight every day. A few mintues. You may not appreciate that, but I tell you it means a lot of encouragement to light-deprived Danes. 29 December 2006 Happy New YearLife is idling on these quiet days between Christmas and New Year. Many Danes use the opportunity to take a few days extra leave, so roads aren't so crowded. Weather is still mild and more important, we have just passet the shortest day of the year (22 december) - so now the daylength increases every day again. Just a few minutes per day in the beginning - but light will inevitably return to us. LovelyI was told, that the Christmas trade has been good this year, about 7 Billion Danish Kroner - as far as I can remember it is also the size of our annual spending on foreign aid to developing countries ! Just to keep things in the right perspective. Surprisingly enough, I heard that every second Christmas gift is changed during the few working days between Christmas and New Year. Every second gift! There must be a lot of lousy gift lists around somewhere. Or Santa Claus has been particularly sloppy this year. 21 December 2006 - Best wishes for the SeasonWeather is still very mild and unusual for the season. We continue to look for moths and butterflies. Twin brother Bent noticed a butterfly flying today while packing Christmas Trees at the job.We wish you
all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
29 November 2006 - mildest Autumn everAutumn here covers the 3 months September, October and November. The average temperatures for these months have all been quite high - November will thus reach an All Time High. The highest November average measured since temperature records began in 1874.25 days to Christmas, but all merchants seem to be overexited about the prospects for more sale. Alle the ads and pamphlets begin to clog up our mailbox. Most families have the tradition to decorate the homes during December with spruce, candles and other X-mas peripherals. Christmas dinners are held in most companies - and have already begun. There are held so many that the catering companies and participants can't possibly find enough time for the activity during just one weekend. 11 November 2006 - true AutumnIt is true Autumn now. Cold and rainy with few sunny days. Most outdoors activities have ceased. We stopped the moth collecting season on 7 November after a terrific year. Yesterday was St. Martin's Day and the evening before, most Danes usually have roast Duck for diner - a bit like Thanksgiving, although the bird is smaller.The diet generally changes towards more sturdy meals - goodbye green salads and veggies - now we need heavier foods for the winter. Roast pork and heavy gravvy. Or a steaming soup. 16 October 2006 Autumn slowly beginningMy goddness, we are already in mid-October and Autumn hasn't really taken over yet. We haven't had a single frost night yet, so trees only slowly fade and haven't dropped their leaves yet. It may become a problem soon, as especially Christmas trees need a few says with frost before they can be cut, otherwise they will drop the needles prematurely. So the sellers are waiting keenly for light frost! Denmark exports so many Christmas trees that it is big business. Millions of trees need to be cut every year, and that takes its time.The mild autumn also means that the moth season continues. Of course, the number of species drops as we get nearer winter, but there are usually a few moths active until around December. Some of these are popularly known as frost-moths because they can still fly at temperatures around zero. It has been a most lucrative moth season this year, so we don't mind saying goodbye to this hobby. We feel the dropping temperatures and notice the very short days. Soon it will be time for enjoying more indoor activities and forget about life outdoors. This week is the traditional Autumn School Holiday. Most pupils and their parents have the week off, traffic is light during working hours, most traffic is just going to and from holiday sites. All playgrounds (leisure parks, museums, etc) have arranged special activities this week to accomodate all those with a sudden surplus of time. In old days, this week had a much more practical purpose. It was called 'Potato Holiday' and kids were supposed to return home and help with the harvest of potatoes (our staple food). The workforce was needed at home. Nowadays it isn't necessary, the few farmers handle that aspect and all we others can just enjoy a weeks leave. Roadstalls and supermarkets are full of huge, orange pumpkins as a preparation for Halloween. But it isn't really a big thing here in Dk. So there are many more pumpkins than they can sell. Just like the Valentine Day, this Halloween idea hasn't really caught on in Denmark yet. 13 September 2006 - lovely late summerAugust simply disappeared in a frenzy of moth collection. We discovered a lot of rare day-flying moths on a nearby peninsula and spent most of our sparetime there trying to collect the moths. We managed to catch and record 5 new species for our collection - on our own island - that hasn't happened for many years.When you focus on something it means you look away from all other things. So we haven't dealt much with orchids during that month and also neglected gardening and other duties. Now we hold one week leave and try to catch up wiith all the other tasks. September is the first autumn month, and it is high time for harvesting all fruits and berries, vinter will soon be approaching. But weather is still unusually good with sunshine galore and high temperatures.
15 July 2006 Summer leaveIt is a lovely summer period in DK now. Most action is within butterflies and moths and is being updated on the Danish pages only. Actually it is difficult to update ANY page just now when all is gardening, summer and braai (bar-be-que). The coming 3 weeks we hold annual leave ourselves.My best friends from Namibia visited Denmark on leave this month and last week we managed to meet in the local fun park for an afternoon. Very nice to meet old friends. 13 June 2006 Lovely summer weatherThe last two weeks have been rather lovely with warm to hot summer days. All the cold periods are forgotten and nature recovered rapidly from the cold spell. Just today we reach the maximum of 30 degrees C, hopefully we will have a colder spell again tomorrow. With such a heat wave it is hard to get proper sleep at night. All people have gone into leave mode. It is still a bit early for summer leave but some have taken leave while the World Championship in Football is on.29 May 2006 Friend from Namibia visiting
Weather has been rather lousy during most of May.
With rain and cold weather all the time. The gardens and gardening
has therefore been negleted during this period, where so much usually
happens. People stay indoors too much while nature is awakening
around them. |
18 April A lovely Easter leaveA cold Easter holiday ended with a few lovely spring days. Sunny with temperatures above 10 degrees C. We slowly began the first serious gardening but still spent most of the time sun tanning and also held a nice Braai (Barbeque) on the terrace It is so lovely when the long winter ends and we can get outdoors again.Recently the greenhouse has reached max temperatures above 30 deg. C without difficulty, so it is time to insert the automatic window openers again. Most orchids (and all other plants) don't like temperatures that high. The openers are solar- and temperature powered so they open more and more as soon as the temperature increases. A very practical tool. |
Spring flowers (bulbs)
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| The butterfly and
moth season has just begun. April is certainly too cold for most
species, but a few species are very early fliers and have their main
activity now. Later on, more and more species will join - until the
number of species peaks during summer. The butterflies that fly just now are all overwintering species, but within a few days the first permanent butterfly (=cardamines) will hatch and fill the area with glimses of bright orange colours. The moths are now mainly from the group we called Monima in good old days, now they have changed to Orthosia. The moths are attracted to the flowering willows (Salix) at night but also come eagerly to sugar bait and lights. |
Overwintering butterfly (urticae) |
11 April 2006 Happy Easter
This week is dominated by Easter activities. It is stille very cold for gardening, but you see a few people out gardening anyway. In polar coats of course, but gardening anyway.Those who own a caravan (and they are many) have dragged it out of winter storage and are busy spring-cleaning it.
3 April 2006 Spring is slowly approaching
Frost har ceased for some time and weather is relatively mild again. There are lots of rainy and grey days but with some promise of yet another spring. Gardeners come out of their houses and dream of spring again. There haven't been many good gardening days yet, but everyone is looking forward to Easter which is the traditional gardening event. Daylength has increased a lot, we are only waiting for higher temperatures.19 March 2006
Not much to report these days. We are so quiet in the cold. The winter continues uninterrupted although we had a lovely sunny day yesterday - where the first overwintering butterflies came out of hibernation and flew around in the garden. Nigths are full of frost still and it seems to go on for another week.7 March 2006
We have a slack time, as we have just returned from one week's sunny leave on Madeira Island. Lovely to get around in milder temperatures around 20 deg C and above while Denmark still suffered with temperatures down to 10-15 belove zero.
26 February Snowdrops are floweringMy goodness, winter feels so long this year. Temperatures are dropping again and seem to have stabilised well below zero. Still, the very early bulb flowers struggle to emerge through snow and ice. They stop at nothing and are adapted to these low temperatures. Some of the earliest flowers in Denmark are the famous 'Snowdrops'. They develop through January and February as the first sign that winter will eventually come to an end.Another hardy bulb that flowers now is the lively yellow Winter Aconite (Erantis) |
"Snowdrops" (Vintergæk) are flowering |
18 February 2006 February blues
It is still a cold period but at least the daylenght is increasing. February is the most useless of all months - the hardest winter month in Dk. Despite what people believe, the average temperature in February is the lowest of all - just slightly above zero degrees C. It is no longer Christmas or other fun, the cheap January sales are over and there are no Public Holidays of any value. Valentine Day is insignificant in DK and Shrove Monday (Carneval time) is just for kids and not even recognised as a Public Holiday. OK, next week is school holiday (winter leave) but it only lasts one week and we who have no kids don't get any compensation. And it will take AGES before we reach the beautiful spring and better weather. Februarys should be omitted from the Calendar. Cancelled due to lack of interest.1 February 2006 Harddisk crash.
It has been a difficult time, because my computer harddisk collapsed in mid-January. It took two weeks to get going again, with installation of a new harddisk and set-up of all stuff again - from operating system to software and utility programs. Most data were recovered.Please note that all emails from 11 August 2005 to 16 January 2006 were lost. If you had any contact with me during that period, please forward our email correspondance again. Thanks.
12 January 2006
It has been a quiet start of the year. It was very cold weather with permanent snow for more than a week - and the snow and ice has just disappeeared by now. The daylenght has been increasing since 22 December but due to a lot of foggy days, we hardly notice that the day is half an hour longer.1 January 2006
| Happy New Year We held a lovely New Years Eve with old friends. 6 ollies and 3 teenagers. First we agree on the evenings dinner and compile a list of stuff needed for food and drinks. Two guys then do the shopping and bring it to the party place. We meet at 5 o'clock on New Years Eve and begin the cooking together. My friends are great cooks, so it is quite a lucullic dinner and it is nice to do the cooking together. At midnight we do the fireworks. This year the fog came in so most of the fireworks was hardly visible, modern fireworks go up high above the low lying clouds and we couldn't see much. The party stops around one or two in the morning and we walk home through the dark town, accompanied by a few firecrackers that the kids use all night. We usually have to check especially the greenhouse in case a rocket from fireworks should have smashed a glass pane or two, but there were no damages this year. There is still a thick layer of snow but it is melting rapidly. We might be snow free in a few days time - sorry for the lost skiing and sleighing opportunities. |
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Arne
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