Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Emotions in the Blue Garden

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When my mind is busy, emotions moving around like pebbles,
I seek out in the garden.

My afternoon nap has become a "workinginthegarden-nap".

Planting out a few daisies
Weeding
Gathering stones for a dry river bed
Photographing a new Pelargonia with the funny name TexMex 
Chatting with the tulips
Sitting down in the greenhouse
Breathing colours

 

An hour in the garden resets my mind.

The emotions are still there. They feel right. I thank my Creator that I am born with this wide rainbow of feelings......

 ......and I put yet another stone into my emotion pot.

The first barbeque

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After a looooong, wet and cold spring so far, some warmer temperatures are finally here to cherish us. I have been able to leave work early two days now, on Monday to go to a friend´s garden for coffee, yesterday to go home for a barbeque.

We had not planned the barbeque, an outdoor dinner is not easy to actually plan in Norway in May, but when Ingrid and Marius called me at work saying "mamma, don´t you agree that today is a perfect day for a garden dinner", I did not hesitate. I finished what I was working on, drove home, stopped at the local grocery store and sat down with Victoria Finlay´s Jewels (Buried Treasures) and a glass of wine, while waiting for somebody to come and prepare the dinner.....

......which Marta, Ingrid and Marius did. Well, actually Marius shirked his duty, so he had to do the dishes afterwards ;-)

 Now I am crossing my finger for a long, sunny spring and summer.

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How is your spring so far?

Last photo is from coffee in my friend´s garden

Blue inspiration in the Blue Garden

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I took some time out....

....and inspiration came with the wind.

Now I am ready for another busy week.....

.....with at least one exciting adventure coming up

Are you ready for another travel?

 

Still some melancholy, but also pleasant surprises

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"You do not seem to have melancholy traces like last winter" Mrs Steglich commented in yesterday´s blog post. Can you remember last winter one of my goals was to gain a more positive attitude to this long, cold season.

Winter is still my less favorite time of the year. The cold. The icy, slippery roads. Nothing is growing.

I know that life is hidden somewhere deep under layers of snow and ice. I know that life will sprout. Eventually.

I also know that winter has its own beauty. Living with four seasons is a blessing. The constant change. The rythm of life.

With Mrs. Steglish´s words in my mind I walked out in the garden with my camera. My goal was to express the challenges of winter. What I found was beauty. Ice cold, challenging. Still beauty.

 

Back inside I started to prepare myself a left over simple dinner. Terje worked late, Marta had eaten at school as they are busy right now rehearsing a theatre performance.

I looked out the kitchen window and saw some fresh deer tracks. Ot had been snowing, so I knew the trachs had to be fresh, but I could see no deer.
Not untill I came back to the livingroom and looked out in The Blue Garden 

Photos through the window are never the best, still, that was all I could do.

The deep snow makes it hard for the long legged animals to walk, and hard for all animals to find enough food.
Hunger makes them search for something to eat close to where people live. 

For a blink of an eye our eyes met.

I have never been this close a deer before.

"I am hungry" the eyes told me, "I am no more lover of winter than you are"

Then he slowly turned around and walked back to the forest.

 

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March 8th, Women´s International Day.

I am celebfating it by reading Simone de Beauvoir

The new life of a cheese box

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For the lunch we had in connection with Marta´s confirmation last spring, I made most of the food myself. I was cooking frentically for days, and I loved every minute!

On the day before the lunch, I sent Terje downtown with a shopping list long as The Eiffel Tower. Somewhere on the list I had written: a brie, buy the whole cheese. 

 

A couple of hours after Terje had gone downtown, he phoned me: "Hi dear, I am in the cheese store, I have found the cheese you want. How much of it do you want me to buy"

"Menfolks", I said to myself. Into the phone I said: "The whole cheese"
"Are you sure about that? The cheese is big" Terje replied.
"Of course I know the cheese is big. And I want you to buy a whole one. When I have written a whole brie I mean a whole brie"

Terje knew there was no use protesting. 

 

When ha came home he gave me the cheese box: "I know you told me to buy a whole one, but it was too big. I bought half of it"

My chin dropped when I saw the box. A brie that size was big enough to feed an army!

 

We had briw for weeks after the confirmation!

 

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The cheese box is a treasured memory.
Now used for my flower seeds. 

Though the snow is still deep in The Blue Garden, the magpies have started to build their nests and I have planted the first flower seeds. 

Still the soil in the pots is black, bare,
But soon the first green will sprout,

and eventually tiny little plants will grow in the indoor greenhouse.

 

Then, if I am patient for a few more weeks, the Blue Garden Greenhouse will open. 

Aurora Borealis, Northern Light in The Blue Garden

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Years ago there used to be Northern Lights to see quite often. Now I hadn´t seen it in many years. Not until Sunday night. The sky was clear, the stars were shining and I told Terje we needed to go into the forst, away from the lihts of the city. I was going to see the northern lights again. Aurora Borealis. Magic fairy dust.

The nights was cold, so we wrapped ourselves in comfortable winter clothes, and walked out. The night was also dark and we had no flash light with us. Of course not. We were to see the northern light. We needed darkness. The snow was hard. I stumbled and hurt my leg. The sky was sparkling with stars. But no northern light. After a while we gave up and walked back home. Terje drove to pick up Marta from her cheerl leading practice. I went in to continue reading my book. But I couldn´t stop thinking about the sky. Why hadn´t I seen the magic?

After a while I wrapped myself in a shawl and walked out in the Blue Garden veranda.

And there it was.

The Northern Light.
Aurora Borealis
Magic Fairy Dust. 

The photos are taken with a handheld camera. No art shots.
But the magic is there! 

Seeds with a promise of another summer

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Seeds are dry now. I am making small envelopes to keep the tiny treasures through winter. In a few months they will be planted and another summer will be on its way.

Wonders of eternal life.

I have extra seeds to give away.

Let me know in a comment if you want one of my small envelopes filled with Blue Garden seeds.

 

A shared secret. It is all about love.

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Every night after the surgery we´ve been out walking in the neighbourhood. Short, just around the closest block the first night. Longer and longer every night.  "I´m taking the wife out for a walk" Terje tells his father on the phone. Making it sound like walking the dog. Looking at me, teasingly, a blink in his deep blue eyes, eager to see my reaction.

Every morning I´ve been out by myself, walking in the garden. As winter approaches there are less going on out there, still I am surprised to find new life, hidden secrets.

"Come, I have a secret to show you, to share" I told Terje the other night as we walked out the front door. "I tiny little sunflower growing under the huge spruce in the south western corner of our garden. The seed must have been planted by one of the squirrels. The plant is so small, but I am almost sure it will bloom before frost comes"

Terje squeezes my hand. "I know" he says. "I´ve already seen it. Last time i mowed the lawn I made sure to mow around it"

We stopped under the spruce. It was almost to dark to see the tiny plant. But we both knew about it.

A shared secret.

It is all about love.

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I have a challenge for you today:

Walk into your day. Find a tiny little hidden secret. Then share it with someone along your road, spouse, lover, daughter, son, mother, father, neighbour, dentist, bus driver. Write about it in your diary. Draw it. Photograph it. Tell a far away friend in a letter, keep it in your heart.

Can you share your secret here, or is it for you and your friend only?

The start of a new day

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From my sofa I watch it all. The sky. The trees. The Blue Garden. Birds and squirrels. People passing by up the road.

The change of light. Starting with the low sun in early morning which gives such long, amazing shadows.

This mornings light is all different from yesterday´s.

Yesterday´s sky was all blue, the low sun made the trees look like they were on fire. Today´s sky is covered in clouds, which are just now painted in all shadows of pink. A greeting from the rising sun.

"Oh no, Britt-Arnhild. Not another garden post. Your readers must know your garden by heart by now!"

They might. And I believe that the more they know it the more they love it. The more they see the more there is to see. I have a German friend who took a photo every single day through a whole year from the same spot in her garden, following a spesific tree. After the year she made it into a video and shared it with a group of friends. It is amazing.

I think I will watch that video again today. And again I will have my daily garden walk. With or without my camera.

Again I will be amazed by what I see. The change. The eternity.

 

Yesterday you told me about the view from your window. Trees, mountains, a duck pond, a neighbour´s greetings, a tree house view, changing colours, a stormy ocean, morning glory and japanese maple, a Parisian courtyard.........I´ve gathered a virtual album of images, seeing myself there with you. Drinking tea, scolding hot coffee, watching together. Without words. With words.

I am back with you today.

To see how the view is the same. Eternal. How the view is changing. All the time.

 Terje has left for work, on his bicycle. A friend of Marta is waiting for her to finish brushing her teeth. Then the two girls will be on their way to school, after a week of autumn break. I have slept on and off through the night, bothered by my clogged nose. Still I feel refreshed. Ready for a new day. Soon I will make myself breakfast, two pieces of homemade bread with father in law´s homemade leverpostei, a glass of juice, a mug of hot, hot tea. While eating I´ll flip through the newspaper. Then I will have a shower, get dressed and sit down in the black leather armchair, the one which gives me the best view of the blue garden.

Before I pick up the book I started last night, Across Many Mountains, Three Daughters of Tibet, by Yangzom Brauen, I will have a moment of silence, prayers, words from The Holy Book.

My day has begun.

How was the start of your day today?

The Long Shadows. The low Sun

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The morning sun makes shadows in the blue garden.

The nights are cold, almost frost, and the sun needs hours to warm up the garden. I wrap myself in a warm coat and run out to play with the shadows.

The cold, dark, icy winter is approacing. I am gathering as much as I can of the light, of the sun, of the growing life.

Mysterious patterns on the wall. I look around, is there a robin here with a Secret Garden Key. A key to open the door to the faitytales, the eventyr

A little sparrow has been following me for a few days. She has something to tell. Deep in her brown and grey feathers  she has a colour hidden. Here is the colour you are seeking, she is saying. Take it. Use it.

I am in the middle of eventyret

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From the deepest of my heart I want to THANK YOU for your comments on yesterday´s post. Yes, I have a mailbox fillwd with world wide friends. And I also have a blog, my tiny little corner of the blog world, where people come to share beauty.

I appreciate it deeply.

I have written each one of you back (Dawn, I got the email I tried to send you back with a message saying that your address doesn´t excist), but also want to share my THANK YOU here.