Mother’s Day

The last Sunday in May is Mother’s Day in Sweden. This is the first Mother’s Day when I do not have my mother here to celebrate.

I am a mother myself. Last year, my daughter Gerstuhl still lived here and celebrated me. Now she has got a family elsewhere. My other pups also have got their own families.

Be this as it may. I have celebrated Paula, our human ”mum”. She always deserves to be celebrated.

Mowing the Lawn

This time of the year, the lawn is growing at a high speed. Daniel mowed it today. Fortunately, it was dry, so it was easy to mow it.

The main reason for keeping a well mowed lawn, is that it makes it harder for ticks to reach us. ticks climb the grass, then jumps from the grass to the coat of a dog. We hate ticks, so we love well mowed lawns.

A well mowed lawn also looks better than when it is growing wild.

It is good to have a well mowed lawn now.

Summer Is Coming

Summer is definitely on its way. It is warm outside, especially in the sun. Daniel is pulling out dandelions from the lawn, something which he only has to do in late spring. The lawn is growing. Insects are flying around here and there. I like this weather, it is nice to be outside in the warm sun. Itis warm inside too, even though the central heating is turned off. While I like all seasons of the year, there are times when I would like to live in the summer all the time. Perhaps it would bore you, but I do not think so. Life is good right now.

European Contribution to Moon Mission

The European Space Agency (where Sweden is a member) has agreed with the US Space Agency Nasa, that the ESA will provide hardware for the project Artemis, which will send astronauts back to the Moon. ESA’s contribution will be a Service Module for the missions. It will be built by Airbusin Bremen.

I wonder if this might also facilitate a possibility for astronauts from ESA countries to go to the Moon. This would be great.

Old Chocolate

Daniel held a presentation at work today. It went well and he got some chocolate as a token of appreciation. When he got home, he realised the best before date for one of the chocolate bars had passed. This was a setback.

Archaeology Dogs

There is no end to the help dogs can bring humans, with our sensitive sense of smell. Dogs can be archaeologists, identifying the smellofhuman remains thousands of years old.

This is not surprising to me. I know what I can detect with my nose. All I would have to learn, is what smell the human remains have, and tell my humans when I would detect it. With the much less fine tuned sense of smellof humans, though, I can understand how they would think this is amazing.

I rather use my nose to detect candy, however.

Working from Home

Daniel is often working from home these days. He is allowed to do this, now that the pandemic needs to be contained. He was at home all day today. Paula was also athome, because she did not work today. This feels good for us dogs. When both Paula and Daniel are at home, we do not need to watch the house as thoroughly as we do otherwise. It was a nice, calm day. I wish more working days were like this.

Yesterday’s Cake

Daniel bought a little cake yesterday, for his birthday. Even though it was small, all of it was not eaten yesterday.

Both Daniel and I had hoped to get a little cake this morning. Paula beat all of us to it, however. When we got out of bed, there were just a couple of crumbles left. We were disappointed, but I guess Paula had been happy. Good for her.

Birthday!

We celebrate Daniel’s birthday every 23 May. He is well worth celebrating.

Happy birthday, Daniel!

Late Night Sausage

Late at night, just before our final time outside, Paula gave us pieces of sausage. This was a great evening snack.

You always sleep better, when you get a little sausage just before you go to sleep. There is something special about sausages. You can say a lot about many human inventions, but I believe the sausage is one of the best. There should often be sausage late at night.

Chicken

Paula and Daniel had chicken for dinner tonight. I got to taste some. It was really tasty. This is the kind of food I like, with a lot of meat in it.

Did you know that in Swedish, food is called ”mat”? This is derived from the same Germanic word as the English ”meat” (if I am correctly informed). Thus, meat and food may be said to be the same thing, and real food is meat. This is nice to think about, isn’t it? Chicken is good meat.

Covid-19 Detection Dogs

In the UK, dogs have been trained to detect covid-19. This is far from the first human disease that dogs can detect, we are known to be able to detect cancer and other diseases. Dogs can detect the diseases with our well developed sense of smell. We can make more detections in a much faster pace than any clinical tests, if we only learn what to smell for. This is positive news in the gloomy times of the pandemic.

The Fight Against Dandelions

Daniel is a sworn enemy of the yellow flowers called dandelions. We used to have a lotof them in our garden at this time of the year, but Daniel has been stubbornly pulling them out of the ground. He pulled a few more out today, but there are mich fewer now than there were before.

According to Daniel, his late father taught him not to accept any dandelions in the garden, and to pull them out with their roots. This is good. I like the lawn better, when it is green.

Recession

The world economy isin a recesssion due to the virus pandemic and all the efforts to counter it. For example, Japan is facing a recession for the first time since 2015.

The society and economy in Japan is strong. There are many Shibas living there, who will help. I am certain Japan will manage to get out of the recession. It is still worrying that a kind of virus can have such a huge impact on the world. I wish we could get out of the pandemic soon.

Norwegian National Holiday

My maternal grnadfather was from Norway. Mommy has told me he was a Norwegian patriot. He would have celebrated today, when it is the national holiday of Norway.

I guess that I can also celebrate a little today, to commemorate my grandfather. There are more positive aspects of having Norwegian roots. When we watch cross country ski competitions on TV, I can always be happy for the numerous Norwegian victories, because I have got Norwegian roots.

Cheers for Norway, today!

No Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest would have been aired tonight. It was not. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the contest was cancelled. There was a different show aired from the Netherlands, last year’s winner, instead. It was nice, but not the same as the contest. We hope for contests in the years to come.

A Little Candy

Paula went grocery shopping today. One of the things she bought was candy. A little later in the evening, she took some candy and sat down to eat it. I came by and asked her if I could have some. She refused to give me, or any other of the dogs, any candy. She had just taken a few pieces of candy, she said, and needed to have these herself. Ina way, I can understand Paula. Candy is very tasty. If I had just a few pieces of candy, I would not give any pieces to anybody else, either. I am still a little disappointed. I would have liked to have at least one piece of candy.

One Year Old

Peanut turns one year old today. He does not throw a party today. We will have a big party in the weekend instead, bigger than we canhave in an ordinary weekday. This is a wise strategy. It is better to wait for a bigger party, than just having a little party right now. Peanut was a little doubtful at first, but the older ones of us convinced him. The party will be great. Now all Peanut can do is looking forward to it.

Snow

We woke up to a white landscape this morning. The ground was covered in newly fallen snow, in the middle of May. This would be special any year. This year, when we have had a record mild winter, it feels even more special to get snow now.

The anow was already thawing when we went out for the morning walk. In the middle of the day, it was gone again. This is not strange for May. I guess we will not have any more snow this side of the summer.

Clouds

It is raining on and off today. Clouds cover ghe sky. The last two nights have hardly had any clouds in the sky, and the morning temperature has been just below the freezing point. This is cold for the time of the year. If we have an overcast sky tonight, chances are the temperature will not sink so low until tomorrow morning. We will have to see what happens.

Forgetful

There are days when I forget to write blog entries. It has happened twice this month already. My dear late mother would not be pleased with the way I run the daily blog that she created and ran for so long. I must make sure I get better at this.

The Penguin

There is a little statue of a penguin in the centre of our town. Itatand sjust at the corner of the town hall and the main street, Drottninggatan. This weekend, kt disappeared. This was a disaster for most inhabitants of our town, losing this lovely little statue. Fortunately, the penguin was found today. We all hope it will be returned to its ordinary spot in town soon, and can stay there. This penguin is great, even though it is small.

Pop

Paula likes to drink pop. Sometimes, she brings a glass of pop when she goes to bed.

Peanut also likes to drink pops. When Paula puts a glass of pop on her night stand, he is usually very observat. Whenever he gets an opportunity, he goes there and starts to drink from the glass.

There are times when Paula stops Peanut. On other nights, Paula does not notice or does not really care. Tonight, she even poured the pop into a wider glass, to make it easier for Peanut to drink it. I guess Peanut likes to drink pop better than Paula does. We are lucky to have such a nice human as Paula.

Europe Day

It is the Europe Day today. This is a day to commemorate the European unity, after a declaration on such a unity by Frenchman Robert Schuman on the 9 May 1950. This was just five years after the devastating Second World War. Europe desperately needed peace and unity.

While peace was mostly preserved in Europe until around 1989 due to the terror balance between the super powers the Soviet Union and the USA, there is no doubt that peace and prosperity has also been benefited by the cooperation between European countries. I think the Europe Day is worth celebrating.

Name Day

My daughter Gertrud has a name dayin the Swedish calendar. She is quite proud of it. Paula and Danielhave three name days each, however. This is as it should be, name days are a human thing. Daniel’s third name is Åke, so one of his name days are today. We congratulated him for it, as soon as it dawned upon us that it was today. It was just another Friday, if you do not count this.

Ninety Years

Daniel’s mother turns ninety years old today. This is awesome. Not many humans reach this age, let alone with mind and body intact, as Daniel’s mother has.

Under normal circumstances, there would be birthday celebrations at Daniel’s mother’s home. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, this cannot happen. Daniel spoke to his mother over the telephone at length, at least.

Congratulations from all of us goes to Daniel’s mother today!

Explosions

Once in a while, we hear rumbles. It is the sound of explosions nearby. The explosions are done in the rocky ground not far away from here, where a new water tower for our town is being built.

Daniel says that when the water tower is finished, the communal water distribution system will probably be expanded to our neighbourhood. We have a privare water well, but communal systems are often safer sources of water. The water tower is supposed to open in two years or so, then this neighbourhood has to be developed with more houses, and the water distribution system may be expanded. I doubt I will live to see it. My grandpups maybe will.

A Microbe That Stops Malaria

It is interesting to read that just as humans are affected by the worst new disease in a century, covid-19, there seems to have come a breakthrough in the fight against the old disease malaria. A microbe found in some malaria mosquitos seem to give them full protection against malaria. This would alsoprevent the mosquitos from spreading the disease to humans. It seems like the microbe does not affect mosquitos negatively and it is found naturally in a fair amount of them in Kenya. Now the only question seems to be how to spread the microbe to more mosquitoes. It is promising.

Evening Walk

We took an extra walk late in the evening, because Paula wanted to. I liked her initiative. Taking walks out of your ordinary schedules are very nice. We had a nice, albeit fairly short, late night walk. It was Paula, Daniel, Javier, Peanut, and I. This is something I could do more often.

Run Away Cat

Paula purchased two kittens earlier this year. They have grown bigger over time and are outdoors quite a lot these days, especially in the afternoons. Today, when Daniel wanted them to go in, only Malin was there and came in. Totte was nowhere to be seen.

I wondered whether Totte was gone forever. He was not. About half an hour later, Daniel spotted Totte oitside of the fenced in yard and went out and fetched him. Daniel was happy to have found Totte again. I guess it is nice that he came back so quickly.