Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Hours in the light

@brittarnhild

An autumn is walking into winter here in my corner of the world. An autumn with a lot of rain, but with bright, shining days in between. Today was one of the bright, shiny ones, and as I had the day off work, I ended up doing one of my favourite hikes in the countryside which surrounds Trondheim. A couple of weeks ago the hills up here were covered in snow, but then mild weather came and melted it all. Still there can be frost during the night and the paths were slippery. I had studs under my shoes though, and would walk safely. Most of the leaves have fallen, a few stubborn ones still hanging on, eager to show their beauty as long as possible.

I had my binoculars with me, wanting to look for birds. The lake had a thin film of frost though, so all the ducks and other birds which usually swim on the lake, had gone. On my way over the little wooden bridge I frightened up a dipper, but that was the only bird I saw. 

Fresh air, exercise, fit feet, coffee, bread with brown cheese.......and I even brought my knitting. But that´s a tale for maskerade, my knitting blog :-)

 

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In my blog world today:

 

maskerade, my knitting blog, which is my most active blog for the moment

Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok, my nature journal

 

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On YouTube

 

 



 

 

November light in the garden

@brittarnhild

November light. When the sun is low, but shines with such a warm force, like it want to give us all her love before she disappears for some weeks. We live south of the Arctic Circle, so we have sun all winter, but as there is a small hill south of our house, part of December and part of January the sun does not make it over this hill, to reach The Columbine Garden.

Saturday morning was a morning for garden work for Terje and me. Garden work for the two of us means he working, me photographing :-) Well, not all the time. I do work as well, but with the sun playing hide and seek in between the logs and the falling leaves and the herbs, I simply had to shot photos.

On top of our working list was to prune the fruit trees, and here we really worked, both of us. I told Terje which branches to cut. He cut them :-)

We have three fruit trees only. One apple, one cherry and one plum. The apple tree is to be pruned in spring, and so we did, but the two others want to have some of their branches cut in winter. I took part in a workshop to learn this in spring this year, so I am the master :-)

But then the sun started to play again, and I had to sun.......

 

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In my blog world today:

Today my knitting blog, maskerade changed from English text into Norwegian. This is something I have been planning to do for some time now, I explain why in the blog. But don´t despair. There will be an English translation in the end of every post.

 I do not post in my squirrel blog any more, but on the squirrels´ facebookpage Familien Frø-Nøtt I post one squirrel picture every day.

 

Wrist warmers in November, from my knitting blog

@brittarnhild

I plan to do themes on my knitting account on instagram this winter, starting with wrist warmers in November. I use Norwegian, my mother tongue, on instagram. You should be able to translate with the help of google. The Norwegian word for wrist warmers is pulsvarmere, directly translated to pulse warmers. You see, Norwegian can be quite easy when you know English.......some times ;-)

For me the wrist warmer adventure actually started with socks. Long before the colourful, especially designed sock yarn came to Norway, I think it was the German company Regia which was first out, I discovered the Regia sock yarn through a friend in Germany, Gabi.

A Norwegian craft magazine, Norsk Husflid, heard about my socks and a great pair of shoes Gabi had given me, and wanted to make an article about me and my socks. I was busy working every day then, so the journalist came to see me in my office in the Archbishop´s Palace in Trondheim and took me out to make some great shots in the historical environments.

After the story was published in the magazine, I think it was in 2002, I got a little gift in the mail, a book about wrist warmers decorated with tiny little beads. I made my first pair, I started to use them, and I was hooked. 

Now I have a wrist warmer collection. And the collection is growing :-)

         

         

As I already said, wrist warmers will be my special theme on instagram in November. you find my instagram account here:

@brittarnhildsstrikkedagbok

Please visit and follow :-)

Casa Marta

@brittarnhild

Can you see the little house to the right in the picture? It is Casa Marta, a new little house at Santa Maria a Ferrano, the retreat center in Toscana where I have spent the past two Easters. Casa Marta (House Marta) is a new little house, open to rent, perfect for two, or for one wanting to write.......

One can always dream.......

 

Squirrels in my garden

@brittarnhild

Some of you might remember that I used to write a blog about the squirrel family in our garden. I don´t add to the blog anymore , at least not for the moment. But the blog is still online, and can be found here:
Familien Frø-Nøtt

The blog also had its own page on facebook, and since we still have squirrels in the garden, and I still photograph them, almost daily, another little squirrel, probably a great grandchild of the one who wrote the blog, has decided she wants to continue her great grandma´s work - to keep up, not the blog but the facebook page. With (almost) daily photos and tales.

Familien Frø Nøtt on facebook

 

 

From my knitting blog today

@brittarnhild

Some of you might follow my knitting blog maskerade. Here is today´s post:

 

The joy of starting a new project

 

A new baby is due in January, and I am busy knitting for this new little family member. I have had so many ideas in my head and my heart, for months the ideas have been flying around, but it was not until yesterday I finally sat down with paper and my coloured pencils, trying to transfer some of it into a pattern.

I bought the yarn many weeks ago. Not because I had a specific plan how to use it, but because I fell in love. With then colours, with the softness of the fibers.  Lille lerke (little lark) from Dale of Norway, 50% merino wool, 50% Egyptian cotton. I know it will be perfect for a winter baby.

Today I am doing the very first knit and purl. The start of a new project is always the best, and from there it only gets better.......

 

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In my blog world today:

 

dagens lille grønne - daily ideas for a green living

maskerade - my knitting blog

 

 

The birch

@brittarnhild

"On the road" again. This time two days with the priests in our diocese. We are staying in a hotel at Selbu, the land of Selbu knitting.

If I am lucky, I might find time tomorrow, during the lunch break, to visit the local yarn shop. Today though I did some thing just as important in the break. I went for a walk.

And on my walk I met this lovely old birch tree. A silver birch.

An old silver birch with stories to tell. A tale in every leaf and now she has sent all the leaves out in the world, with the wind, to spread her tale of creation, of good, of growth, of songs in the wind.

I asked her to send a tale or two your way, and guess what! She agreed.
So look out :-)

 

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In my blog world today:
(will be updated)

 

maskerade, my knitting blog

dagens lille grønne, daily ideas for a green living

Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok, my nature journal

 



Wet, wet, wet

@brittarnhild

Terje woke me up at 6.30 this morning. He had already had breakfast and was ready to bicycle to work. "It is wet outside" he said. "Not only wet, it is a thunderstorm and the first snowflakes are falling"

Wet, thunderstorm, snowflakes, biking to work!!!!! I was still almost asleep when he came over and kissed me goodbye.

An hour later I could see for myself. 
Well, the thunder had stopped, the snowflakes had melted and I did not bicycle but took the bus.

But it was wet, wet, wet.

 

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In my blogworld today:
(will be updated)