Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

With only one wheelbarrow

@brittarnhild

"Before we start we need wheelbarrows. Those objects that can rend gardening compatibility apart. Marriages may founder as each person tries to be the first to find the empty one." I have borrowed these words from Mirabel Osler in her book The Rain Tree, a Memoir. I have already read Oysler´s book about the garden she end her husband created, this is the memoir she wrote after her husbands death.

After what feels like weeks of rain, the weather is beautiful today. Mild and sunny and the autumn colours are sparkling. Terje and I plan to have a day working in the garden, with a long list of things to do to prepare the garden for winter, and a coming spring. We have only one wheelbarrow. After being married for 40 years, running a garden together for 35 of these, we still have never gone around to buy a second one (which I think we should have,Terje is completely satisfied with the single one). I know there will be times today, more than once, when one of us will start walking around in the garden, hunting for The One. "Hi, have you seen the wheelbarrow? Oh, there it is? When will you be finished?"

Ha, we are still married, with our solo wheelbarrow between us, and now it looks like we have got a competitor. The little red robin :-) It is time for some coffee, and while I sit down I think I will read some pages from The Secret Garden and the red robin which showed Mary the key.

 

 

Can you own a view?

@brittarnhild

I asked that question once, on Facebook; "can you own a view" adding a picture of our amazing cabin view. One friend gave this very wise answer: "You can own the moment!"

Yes, you can.
you can own the moment!

Tonight's moment was mine!

 

.......you see, I am so busy.......

@brittarnhild

Terje and I are spending the weekend at the cabin. Just the two of us, with time to do whatever we want. So, well, the title of this post is just an excuse, and not a very good one either. Or, may be it is.......

You see, I have bought myself a domain on internet. The place called brittarnhild.no is now mine and mine alone :-) This has been a dream for many years, but I have always told myself that I couldn't do it, that I do not have time and anyway do not know enough to run the place! Ha, I am disproving this now. I have moved in and slowly, slowly I am putting up one piece of furniture at a time. A chair here, a curtain there, a mug for tea, needles ands yarn for knitting.......and you name it.

My hope is that brittarnhild.no will help me to blog more often. If you go over to the new place you will see a row of images to the left of the page. Each and every image has a link, click on it and you will be taken to the blog behind. I want my new place open, filled with laughter, food, people.......and to make it so, I must keep up with blogging. Logical, isn't it :-)

So, don't hesitate. Welcome over. I am looking forward to see you there.

brittarnhild.no

 

In Norway we call the chiffchaff a singer :-)

@brittarnhild

He, or is it a she, is a migrant bird, and every year when autumn comes he/she spend some time in our garden.

Because he is so small, much smaller than the other songbirds, it is actually quite easy to spot it.

And since my camera is always ready and Terje had washed the windows the day before.......well, I got some great photos, didn't I? :-)

A common chiffchaff, or gransanger as we say in Norwegian.

Hunting for lakes, a new video

@brittarnhild

I am out in the woods hunting for new lakes these days. I plan to write a proper post about it one of these days, but here is my lates video where I share some beautiful footage :-)

 

 

Collecting memories for the coming seasons

@brittarnhild

I wonder if today is the last day of summer. From tomorrow rain and lower temperatures are predicted. In a few days the sun will be back, but not the warmth of summer. I woke early this morning, my pillow wet with the nights sweat. Still in my night dress I walked out in the garden, feeding the birds, opening the greenhouse, checking the growth of the spinach which I sown just a few days ago.

I will spend today in the garden. I will walk around, watering some pots, deadheading roses, enjoying colours, fragrances and beauty, taking photos, but most of all, collecting memories for the coming seasons.

 

The old blue dress, and the new

@brittarnhild

A blue, hand knitted dress was made for me when I was a baby, 62 years ago. My mother took care of the dress and gave it to me when our first daughter was born. Both our daughters, Ingrid now 31 and Marta now 24, have used the old dress and I kept taking care of it. Now our first granddaughter, little Vida, is born, after two grandsons. The old dress is becoming too fragile to wear and I descried to see if I could make a new one, figuring out the pattern just by studying the old one.

I found the perfect yarn, I found needles, I started to count stitches and many, many hours later....... a new dress was born.

The dress has got its own name, "skrukjlets blåkjole/blue dress". And when skrukjlet means? Well, I tell the whole story in my podcast :-)

 

 

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My active blogs this week:

Britt Arnhilds Blue garden

maskerade (my knitting journal)

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader (my journal)

 

Travel memories, dreaming

@brittarnhild

I have breakfast in the green house. On the table in front of me is a bougainvillea, a lovely reminder of warm summer days in Italy with a burning sun.

I turn my eyes to admire the blue agapanthus, and think of the amazing agapanthus park Terje and I visited in Portugal years ago.

Graps, still not ripe, hang over my head and I am taken right back to Tuscany and the house we rented for us, the kids and their families two years ago when we celebrated my 60th birthday.

 

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We do not travel abroad these days, some borders are open, but with the pandemic we choose to stay at home. I have my memories, strong, vivid, sweet memories, I keep my world wide friends close at heart and I pray our world.