Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Among apples and pears

@brittarnhild

The Refugium where we stay these days, south in Denmark, has a lovely garden filled with fruit trees, apples and pears.

All the fruits are ripe now, looking lovely where they hang.

Tempting, isn't it :-)

So far I have not seen anyone picking the fruits, but birds and critters seem to love them.

My friend Terri, from Oklahoma tagged me on facebook yesterday, showing a picture of bags of ripe apples having on  a fence and a text saying " In Norway people harvested their apples and hanged them in their respective fences so that the poor, the hungry, and the homeless avail fruits for free instead of letting apples to vaste. SHARING IS CARING."

I have not seen this done in Norway, neither is it done here, but Torgeir, our oldest son, who lives in Stockholm, Sweden, called me the other day asking for an apple pie recipe. "Are you going to bake?" I asked. "Yes, you see mamma, there are so many apple trees here where I live and now when the start to ripe, the owners of the trees pick apples, fill boxes and leave them on the pavements for everybody to take what they want and need."

 

The Conference in Denmark

@brittarnhild

Yesterday in Copenhagen. Today I took the metro out to the airport and from there a four hours bus drive to Løgumkloster, far south on the biggest Danish island, Jylland.

I am here for the conference; "Nordic Network Conference on Church and People with Disabilities"

We have a variety of talks, workshops, groups and more, and before dinner tonight we had a service in the beautiful Løgum Monastery Church. The monastery is not an active one today, actually it has not been since the reformation in 1536-1537. Before that cistercienser munks lived here. Today the church is a Lutheran church and the refectories is run as a center for education, connected to the church of Denmark

Just outside my window is a bell tower with 49 bells. It plays at set times during the day, luckily not through the night. I have my window open and love it!

 

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Updates in my blog world:

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader, my online journal

Akeleiehagen, The Blue Garden

Britt Arnhilds naturdagxbok, my nature notes

 

 

In Copenhagen, short stop :-)

@brittarnhild

I flew from Trondheim this morning, one hour and 30 minutes later I landed in Copenhagen, Denmark. I am on my way to a church conference over at Jylland, further west in Denmark, another island, but had to fly here, and decided to give myself som extra hours to me a one day tourist.

Temperatures had dropped in Trondheim when I woke up this morning, no doubt autumn is in the air. Not so here, still summer, well, at least what I call summer. When I had lunch, outdoors, at Nyhavn, a couple from Israel sat at the table next to me. They complained about the cold, I was sweating :-)

Shopping and crowds streets are not my cup of tea, instead I look for parks and gardens, and in Copenhagen they are easy to find. There I could sit down with a book, my knitting, enjoying the sun, watching people :-)

Tomorrow I continue to Løgumkloster and Løgum Refugium, by bus.......which makes me able to see quite a lot of Denmark.

 

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Updates in my blog world:

Britt Arnhilds dagboksbladet, my online journal

 

The tiniest miracles

@brittarnhild

Have you opened your eyes today.

To see something extraordinary?

A tiny smile, a fancy shaped cloud, a raindrop on a yellow sunflower petal, a spider.......

 

.......like this amazing cross spider outside my window.

 

The Blue Dress took me down Memory Lane

@brittarnhild

Terje was out in the garden, in a little red house we have there, a house where we keep things. A shed? I don't know the English word for it, the Norwegian is bod. I was busy weeding when I heard Terje call my name: "Britt-Arnhild, come and have a look!" He was standing with a black bag in his arms, the bag was open and I knew at once what it was - old baby clothes, the special ones which I had missed for years.

My fingers were almost trembling when I started to look through the bag. A few dresses from when I was a baby, more than 60 years ago. Baby clothes from when our kids were babies as well, but they had to wait, I wanted to see, touch, feel the dresses I have been wearing. When I was a baby.

One yellow, two blues. No pink ones, which kind of made me happy, made me smile. The dark salmon red one is a dress I knitted for Ingrid, almost 30 years ago. The yellow and the two blue ones were made for me, two knitted, one crochet, more than 60 years ago.

I still remember knitting the salmon red one. For Ingrid. Summer. We were driving Norway from North Cape to Lindesnes, which is far, very far. We drove all the way with three children. My older brother and his family lived in Hammerfest at that time. The summer was warm and sunny, the kids played out in the vicarage garden and Ingrid wore her salmon red hand knitted dress. I can't understand today how brave and courageous we were, driving thousands and thousands of kilometers with three kids. Marta was not born yet. Ingrid was 2, Øystein 7 and Torgeir 9. The year was 1991.

Isn't it wonderful how a handmade outfit can bring out a storm of memories.
Now I will have to ask my mother what memories she has with my old dresses.

 

The blue dress in the first picture is my favourite.

 

Grandma´s superpower

@brittarnhild

Some weeks ago Leander, my oldest grandson, almost 4, came to me; " Bestemor, can you knit me a sweater?" "Of course I can, is there a special kun of sweater you want?" "Yes, I want a batman sweater. Can you do that? And bestemor, can you knit a similar one for Victor, my best friend, as well?"

I, grandma, bestemor, beamed for many hours. Then I went downtown to buy yarn, started to knit, knit, knit and knit and here you see the first one ready. The next one is almost down as well.

Leander came on a visit the other day and I showed him the sweater. I will never forget his happy face :-) We both agreed though that I will keep the sweater till both are done and he and Victor can get that at the same time.

 

The design is my own, the logo I found on Ravelry though, a free pattern by Elizabeth Thomas.

 

I talk about the batman sweater, and some more projects in my most recent YouTube-video:

 

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My active blogs just now:

The Blue Garden

Santa Maria a Ferrano

Maskerade

.......and a few more, from time to time.

 

 

 

Preparing for a knitting retreat

@brittarnhild

If you are a long time reader of Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods, you already know about Santa Maria a Ferrano. Santa Maria is an ecumenical retreat center, affiliated with the Episcopal Church in Europe, cultivating the intersection between spirituality and art.

I have been to Santa Maria several times, and twice I've been in charge of a Norwegian retreat together with Thomas Müller, who run the center together with his wife Paola.

Next spring, from April 26th till May 2nd, I will be back, this time to be in charge of a Swedish-Norwegian retreat for knitters.

We opened the registration today, and I am crossing my fingers (praying) that there will be enough people interested to come.

This time the retreat will be in Norwegian/Swedish only, but I know that quite a few English speaking people are interested, so we might do another retreat in the autumn, in English.

You can read more about the retreat here:
Santa Maria a Ferrano, strikkeretreat.

 

First day at work, and a new lens

@brittarnhild

First day of work after a long vacation is always a hard day. Back to routines. Early mornings (though I always have early mornings), bus downtown (we got a new bus system in Trondheim this summer, metro buses, so today was actually an adventure), find my office and chair which has not been used in more than 4 weeks, remembering the different passwords (that's the really tricky part).......but then, there you are, coffee with colleagues, catching up, finding the pace my mind and body know so well.......

At some point my head (and heart) needed a break and I walked downtown to the photo store where I had ordered a new lens weeks ago. Finally it had arrived and I could start playing for real with my beloved Nikon again.

Coming back to the cathedral and there Archbiskop´s Palace (where I work), I had to stop to shoot a few photos.

A new lens is a true eye opener.

I can't remember having seen this gargoyle before,

or this!

Pictures from Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim