Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

July night near the mountain lake

@brittarnhild

It is vacation time. No possibilities for travelling abroad this summer, which is perfectly fine. Norway is the best place to be anyway :-)

We have a seven days roadtrip ahead of us, with Marta, first stop up in the mountains where Terje´s brother and his wife have a cabin.

This will be mine and Terje´s log cabin the coming two nights.

Terje tried to fish but the mosquitoes were too bad, unfortunately.......

 

Under huge, old trees

@brittarnhild

As society here in Norway is slowly opening up, and we are now allowed to meet 20 people together, as long as we wash our hands, stay one meter apart, no handshakes, no hugs, my colleagues decided it was full time to arrange a feast to say thanks to me for my 20 years working for the diocese. I had my first work day there Mai 1st 2000, the last work day May 1st 2020.

We started just after work ended, with a two hours long walk around town to look at old trees and a few gardens. Sure, my old colleagues know me well and knew that this was something I would love.

A glorious day, glorious people, glorious trees. I let myself be filled and walked around with a smile on my face. Like in so many other cities, Trondheim has a huge amount of old and also some new trees. Many of them, well, I guess all of them, have a history, and yesterday afternoon we were told the history of many of them. And their names.

I am often wandering around in the city, looking at houses, birds, flowers, but never have I walked around focusing especially on trees. What an eye opener.

I knew the name of a few of the trees already, I learned a few more yesterday, but I still have a long way to go. And I will start walking that road right away :-)

The walk ended up in a restaurant downtown where we had dinner. My food was sprinkled with so many nice words, I could fly home on blessed wings.

 

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An updated the list of my active blogs:

Akeleiehagen - The Blue Garden (click on the picture)

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal (click on the picture)

  

maskerade - my knitting journal (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal (click on the picture)

Nederst i hagen - my greenhouse diary (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok - my nature journal (click on the picture)

Hytteliv på Rastarbo - cabin life (click on the picture)

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The joy of expectations

@brittarnhild

We are election a new little baby in the family, a new grandchild for me and Terje. Our son Øystein and his Silje will have a little girl. Leaner is 4 1/2 now, Milian is soon to be 1 1/2, I am thrilled to know that I will soon be able to cuddle a new little baby.

This time there are quite a few knitters around, so all I have made so far (it might be more) is this cute little cardigan, in stripes, the off white is final from Rauma, the pink is a caddied yarn for a local indigo dier.

Like everybody else I have always been told that being a grandparent was something very special and something completely different from being a parent. And I can sign this, sure it is. We are lucky to have our two grandsons living just a 10 minutes drive from us, and the new little girl will be even a bit closer. 

My old biskop, bishop Thor, once said: "Of course God is still here in the world, here among us. As long as he keeps the uteruses open, He is here." Yes, He is.

These shells, believe it or not, are made by glass. By my dear friend Mauro in Venezia. Wonderful pieces of art, aren't they :-)

 

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An updated the list of my active blogs:

Akeleiehagen - The Blue Garden (click on the picture)

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal (click on the picture)

  

maskerade - my knitting journal (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal (click on the picture)

Nederst i hagen - my greenhouse diary (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok - my nature journal (click on the picture)

Hytteliv på Rastarbo - cabin life (click on the picture)

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My friend, the woodpecker

@brittarnhild

I feed the garden birds almost all year round, which rewards us with quite a lot of different birds. Among our favourites are the great spotted woodpeckers. They are at our cabin also, and some times we even see European green woodpecker there, and even from time to time some of the other woodpeckers which you can find in Norway.

 

I had breakfast out in the garden this morning when this guy came and had his breakfast together with me. Yes, he is a male, something I can see from the red spot on his neck.

It is a lovely summer day here in my corner of the world today. I plan to spend it out in the garden, mostly weeding, sorting out a few plants, enjoying the beauty of it all. A privilege now when I am retired.

 

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The book in the above picture, A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, have you read it? I love it and will talk more about it another day. Now when I am back to blogging, I have so many plans.......

 

 

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An updated the list of my active blogs:

Akeleiehagen - The Blue Garden (click on the picture)

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal (click on the picture)

  

maskerade - my knitting journal (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal (click on the picture)

Nederst i hagen - my greenhouse diary (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok - my nature journal (click on the picture)

Hytteliv på Rastarbo - cabin life (click on the picture)

 

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Trondheim Houses

@brittarnhild

My dad had an appointment at the hospital last night. I drove him there, but because of the pandemic I was obviously not allowed to come with him indoors. I knew about that and had packed my knitting and a book, planning to sit in the car while waiting.

The day had been cold and wet, but just as I left my father at the entrance door, the rain stopped.

This weather is perfect for a walk, I told myself, and off I went. First around the hospital park, then further on, to an area with old, beautiful villas.

I bought myself a new cell phone last week, with a very good camera, and of course I could not stop myself photographing a few of the charming houses.

I used to come here from time to time when I was young, now I have not walked these streets in decades.

As I walked around, enjoying the charm, shooting photos, my mind wandered to my House in the Woods. It is such a long, long time since I have taken you somewhere at all around my lovely hometown, Trondheim. And I took some extra photos.

So here I am, with some great photos for you. What do you think?
I might even open my blog Trondheim Through All Seasons again :-)

For some years I have had an account on instagram called TrondheimTales. When I opened it I connected it with my work email. Now, with this new cell phone, I am unable to get access to it, so I don't know what will happen. Probably it will just stay out there just as it is, with no new photos. I know I will miss posting Trondheim images, but I can always open something new. What about @trondheimhouses :-)

 

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A few days ago I uploaded episode 18 in English on YouTube. I am so proud of it, my English is flowing better, the filming is so good with my new cell phone camera and the tales I tell are lovely to listen to (in my opinion, >blush>)

Here is it:

 

 

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An updated the list of my active blogs:

Akeleiehagen - The Blue Garden (click on the picture)

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal (click on the picture)

  

maskerade - my knitting journal (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal (click on the picture)

Nederst i hagen - my greenhouse diary (click on the picture)

Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok - my nature journal (click on the picture)

Hytteliv på Rastarbo - cabin life (click on the picture)

 

 

Under my local Tuscan Sun

@brittarnhild

Summer has finally arrived, and we spend many weekends at our cabin. In this week's video on YouTube I sit in our freshly started rhododendron garden at the cabin, dreaming back to my visit at Frances Mayes´ Bramasole, two years ago.

 

 

The birth of a rhododendron garden

@brittarnhild

Not far from the cabin is a rhododendron nursery which we visit every year. Slowly a dream of our own rhododendron garden has stated to grow inside me, and today it happened.

So far with only two plants, but everything has to start somewhere :-)

Now we cross our green fingers that the deer will not eat the new plants and that the sky will give enough sun, enough rain.

 

Birds seen through a cabin window

@brittarnhild

We have the most amazing view of fjord and mountains, but we also see birds. I was up in the wee hours this morning, made myself a mug of tea, picked up my knitting needles, and sat there, watching the birds.

A pure morning, serene, quiet.

Can you name these birds?
In Norwegian they are dompap, rødstrupe and svafrthvitfluesnapper :-)

 

By the way, I do all my YouTube videos bilingual now. First in Norwegian, then in English. Here is the most recent one: