Ministry Blog

“Impartialness is an illusion, everyone who can think have an opinion.”

Still sickness at the Ministry. First the personnel, now the President… *sigh*. The President stoically suffers a flue like cold with blinding head ache. The warm climate makes it an extra challenge to be sick. But the President doesn’t wine!

Warm and hot weather… Monday meant temperature over +30 Celsius (which meant around +40 out in the open). Tuesday meant only half that temperature with icy north winds. Maximum +20 and definitely much cooler air temp. Exceptional weather that can make swedes talk about this fact with other unknown swedish persons on the street. A very “un-swedish behavior that seldom otherwise will happen. Among unknown swedes the weather is one of the few “safe” topics.

In the course of the week it became warmer and warmer again and on Friday we celebrated the swedish national day (when in Rome…) with a BBQ in fabulous weather. And the weekend got even hotter! 30 degrees again on Saturday and Sunday was even hotter. It was a hot dry air, like a hair dryer - when it wasn’t entirely still. It was like a hot day in the Sahara. It is now 6 weeks without rain. We had one day of rain but that didn’t help much. Apparently we are lacking about 100 mm’s (about 4 inch) of rain now and the draught is really getting at the lawns. They are getting yellow and everything needs watering. The water level in the Ministry well is now about 4 meters under maximal level.

We have a baby crow (chicken?) that jumps around the Ministry farm houses. It is somewhat helpless as it can’t really take off from the ground. The parents are a bundle of nerves and are looking out for the toddler.

There is still amphibians being relocated to the pond. A (jumping) frog, a lizard and a toad has been rescued during the week and on Sunday evening 5 frogs were relocated from the stairs of the ministry cellar.

The Ministry “Canadian” (canoe with an assumed Canadian/Indian stock). Image credit: Ministry Archive, Leif Strid.

The dragonflies have also started to appear more frequently. They do a fantastic air ballet! The swallows are looking for nest location, while operation pond clean-out took place. The Ministry pond had got a thick rug of floating algae (or something) and started to look like the Sargasso Sea… The Ministry Canadian (canoe) was launched, and with the aid of a scythe, and a couple of rakes the pond was being cleaned out.

The air of the Ministry farm is now filled with a fantastic fragrance of Laburnum (swe. gullregn), Peony (swe. pion) and Cow Parsley (swe. hundkex). The Ministry air is a perfumed one.

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The latest numbers for the statistics at the Ministry Website has just come in and it’s as always interesting reading. The statistics is divided up in two since there is two different addresses leading to the Website. The statistics show a clear trend that the newer address (ministryofart.se) is being used much more frequently now. There is a obvious up going trend and there is also clear steps where the figures has gone up. For the last three months of 2007 the figures were up - probably due to the Biennale in Eslöv. In November 2007 there was a total of over 100.000 which is a new record!

The statistics show that in two years the numbers are definitely up for the Ministry Website. In 2006 the total was just under 81.000, in 2007 it was a total of stunning  550.000! In 2008 so far the total for 5 months is about 350.000. Since 2006 the figures is almost 10 times higher on the average. If we would guess we think that the Ministry News Blog is the probable cause for the up going trend. For 2007 and up till today the average per day has been between 2000 and 2500. The peak was in November 2007 when the Biennale in Eslöv was running, the highest number per day was 3399. And the trend is strong it seems.

“If you don’t shut your eyes, you are not allowed to watch that stuff.”

“Om du inte blundar, får du inte se på sånt.”

The heat is back at the Ministry and it’s getting very dry, it’s almost starting to look like a drought! The avenue of ashes (Fraxinus excelsior) at the Ministry is now finally fully clothed. It’s always late but the Ministry Gardener says it’s a sure sign of summer.

The outdoor spa with pool is being set up and almost the whole ministry personnel has taken the first outdoor dip of the year. Refreshingly cold! The Minister (and President) just took a quick evening dip! The outdoor bathing is cut short since the colds at the ministry are still going strong.

The Ministry gardener also reports a mole in the inner gardens lawn. Usually the ministry cats takes care of such problems, but hopefully it will disappear before it tears up the lawn too much. The Ministry carpenter has been busy finishing off the roof over the stable doors with a see-trough plastic part that will let the big farm lamp shine down through so it doesn’t get dark underneath. It has also got a clever hatch to open when the light bulb in the big farm lamp has to be changed… The roof will shelter the stable doors.

A mole at the ministry…

This week the Ministry also has gotten word that Google is giving out warnings for this particular blog, apparently some sort of virus alert… some shady posts has been cleared out, as well as a heap of weird newcomers among the users… Everything has been cleaned out, and some minor changes has been done to avoid future problems. It doesn’t seem to be any greater threat though. Checks have also been made with the web hotel. If your user account has been erased in error please report it to the Ministry and a new one will be set up for you immediately. We apologize for any inconvenient this may have caused you.