Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A night walk in the garden

It is almost 9.30pm, and I just came in from a night walk in the garden. The Nordic summer nights are light, so there were no problems shooting photos without a flash. I love the light summer nights, though I must confess the dark night with lit candles we experience when we travel further south in Europe during our summer vacation is also lovely. But also our summer nights are usually quite cold, and it is no exception tonight. I have been working out in the garden for hours today, and it gets hot enough when you work, but a warm jacket was still good to have.

Terje is still busy digging in the herbgarden. Almost finished now though, and this back garden is so much nicer this year than what it was last year. I drem of a garden house in glass and stone to have here, may be in a couple of years the dream can come through.

Marta and I have bought plants for her special garden now, outside her playhouse, but have not had time to do much of the planting yet. If it is not raining too  much tomorrow we'll do some planting then, and also put some sunflower seeds in pots. Marta usually loves to garden, but she hasn't had much time for it yet this summer, so this might be some extra work for me. I love to do it for her though.

I didn't see any trolls tonight either, but I know they are very happy now when the blue pearl flowers are in bloom . These blue pearl flowers are among my spring favorites, and I have then several places in the garden.

I have finished planting my pots now, and love the bright red and pink colours everywhere in the garden. 

Handball.

Marta has grown up watching Ingrid play handball. But this week-end she was the one to take part in a tournament. She loves handball and had a perfect time playing four matches. I don't have much time for writing tonight, have instead spent time writing snail mail letters. But want to show you two photos. One of Marta with her diploma and medal, and one of the  team, Kolstad girls aged 9. Marta is to the left in front in the team photo.

Reading.

I love summer season. When the weather is too bad for gardening I enjoy reading. Every night all year round, as long as I am home, Marta and I read in the evening. We have the same routine every night. First she reads aloud for the two of us, then I read aloud. Marta prefers my reading, she has loved it since she was a baby and crawled over the floor to find her picture books. But I also encourage her to read as much as possible herself. And every day her school home work include reading. The book Marta is reading right now is Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood (in a Norwegian translation)

I have collected children's books since I was a little girls myself, so we have a huge collection to chose from when we read. And we are also diligent users of the public library. The book I am reading for Marta right now is a Norwegian book, from last year, won Ark's Children's Book Award. Very funny in a Roald Dahl-ish way, about a crazy old grandmother and a small boy.

Now when I don't need to read for studies anymore, at least not untill the autumn, I can happily romp around in my book collection for my own pleasure. Will write a special book blog another night. Now I'm going up in the living room to make myself confortable with a book :-)

Happy reading!

A morning walk in old Trondheim

Today was the last day of writing my exams paper. Yes, I am finished, and the paper is in the mail on it's way to the University :-). Writing for five days is alot of work, and I felt empty and exhausted this morning. So when I had parked my car I decided to take a walk in old Trondheim before headin g for the office. I have to cross the river then, "Gamle Bybro" - the old city bridge, and I always stop on the bridge to enjoy the view of all the old pack houses along the river Nidelven. Most of these houses have been restored and are used today as offices, flats, restaurants and so on.

Over at the other side of the bridge I found myself at "Bakklandet". When I was a girl there were plans to destroy the houses in this area and build "modern" buildings. Luckily alot of people knew to fight for the area  and today it is the most beautiful part of Trondheim with small wooden buildings, cafés, galleries, restaurants and alot of people.

I haven't actually been walking here with open eyes in a long time, and found new charming houses and gardens perfect for photos all the time. Took tons of photos and can only show you a few. If you want to see more you'll have to come to Trondheim and I'll take you on a guided tour :-)

I fell for this flower box outside one of the houses. On the wall was also a sign telling that you could have a guided tour in the back garden, and the owner could teach you about gar den design. One day, when I have more time, I'll do the garden walk.

The last photo today is of a Christmas House which is open all your round. I have never been inside it, but when I get time I will go for a visit, both to this house and several of the other most charming shops and galleries.

Busy nights in the garden

I am working on my exams paper all days now. It must go in the mail tomorrow, but I am already almost finished. The weather is very nice these days, and finally time for gardening. So as soon as I am home and have eaten dinner I change into my work habit and go out in the garden. I have not had time to visit any garden centers to buy plants yet, but on my way home from work I take a small detour down to the outdoor flowermarket and buy as many plants as I am able to carry.

Yesterday I also brought out my collection of clay pots. I realised last year that I have so many, and though I use them for plans from time to time thr rest are too beautiful to store away in the garage.

Our back garden has been a mess ever since we moved here, almost four years ago. But this year I am determined to do something about it. I can look out here from my kitchen window , and want something beautiful to look at. So tonight both Terje and I did some very good work out here. I did some seeding, cornflowers and calendula, and planted iris bulbs, but will still buy and collect more herb plants for this garden. And a dream is to one day buy or build a garden house for this part of the garden.

Will show you more photos during the summer as things are growing.

I love the colour of this rhododendron, though this year it is not at it's best. It is blooming much earlier than out other rhododendrons though, and brings alot of joy.

Knitting.

I'm having a break in my exams working and spend a quiet night watching the European Song Contest. And with one of my favorite hobbies, knitting. I am working on a pair of pulsewarmers right now using bigger beads than I have used before. I am not sure if I am satisfied with the result, but at least it is something different and worth trying. Though when these are finished I will go back to the very small beads again. They are more difficult to work with, but the effect and the result is so beautiful.

  The photo to the right show the first pair I made , several years ago, the next photo shows my latest ones, with black beads on black yarn. Not easy to see on the small photo (you can see a bigger photo if you double click on it), but the result is great.

Sock knitting has been a favourite for a long time, and my girls love to wear the socks I knit for them - which means that the socks are always well  worn before I manage to take a photo of them. Those in this photo I made for Marta a few weeks ago, and she started to use them right away - you can see that the heel is not quite clean any more.

Knitting necklaces is also something I have started to do lately. Have tried different designs (all of them my own) but have not found the perfect one yet. Still trying though, and one day I will show some of them here.

Exams are here!

Finally, after a long period of preparations the end of my first year studying for a Master degree in Leadership is coming close to an end. I started to write my exam at noon today, and have been working for 5 hours now. I am writing an essay about organisations as systems and what this means for leadership during organisational changes. Puh, sounds dull written like this, but believe me, it is really quite interesting. I have every day untill Wednesday afternoon to finish my 10 pages and know that I will make it - somehow.

Meanwhile I have my small windows where I can see that the sun is shining outdoors. And I have is a photo of my tulips. from my garden.

By the way. I just spoke with Ingrid on her cell phone, and she sounded quite pleased after her first exam.

Hard work or hardly working.

I am playing with words today. I have had me head deep in books for so long now, and having a break from studies today it made me think about ho much we use words and how much they mean to us. Also Ingrid's exams preparations are part of these thoughts. She will have her final exam in Norwegian tomorrow, and has a text books for preparations. And most of the texts there have "the language" as a main theme.

Take the title of my blog today, hard work or hardly working. Quite different meanings though you use the same words. Made me think of the Panda story from Lynne Truss' book Eats Shoots & Leaves:

A Panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. "I'm a panda" he says at the door. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry, and sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

A written text can be so many things. Some years ago it was feared that the death of the books were near, today more books are sold than ever before. And the written language develops in a speed never before seen. Kids and their use of text messages and instant messages can explain alot of this. Many people are afraid this will give us a poorer language. I am not afraid of that. It is our responsibility to teach children (and grown-ups) the richness of our written words and I truly believe that it will survive and enrichen our lives for generations to come. Written words in litterature. Written words in what we write ourselves. It is also feared that the art of letter writing is about to die, and I think that's a real fear. Well, letter writing will have to be a theme for my blog another day.

The written language has excisted for thousands of years:

"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, and work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is a man, that thou art mindful to hi`? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

So I go back to my books and am thankfull for the blessing each one of them give me. Who said: I can live without food, but never without books?

17th of May, Norway's birthday.

Yesterday was Norway's Constitutional Day, or the birthday of Norway as we love to call it. In Norway this is a very special day with celebrations from early morning.

We were up early as usual, hanging out the flag and also decoration with spring green birch and small flags. After breakfast there was some busy time dressing up in our "bunad"er, regional costumes. In the picture you see me with a bunad from Trøndelag, the area where we live, and Ingrid with a Rogalandsbunad, where terje's family live. Men's bunader are becoming more and more popular, but unfortunately Terje don't have one - yet.

17th of May is a holiday in Norway, but a very busy holiday. We went down to Marta's school for the big parade there. All school children take part in the parade, and there is always bands playing.

Yesterday was terrible cold. When we wake up it was actually snowing. But when we came down to the school the clouds broke and the sun came to celebrate with us. Most children take part in the huge parade downtown, but as we live a little outside the city we have our own parade in the morning. Children from two schools take part in the parade, and it all starts with speaches and music outside one of the school. This year it was the "other" school which was in charge of this.

After this first children's parade there were games and food at Marta's school, and we spent some time there before going downtown to the main town parade.

Gosh it was cold. Though fortunately the snowing totally stopped, and the sun shone whilde we were watcing - for TWO hours.

The mayor of Trondheim is always in front of the parade, together with the speaker of the day and other important people. The main speaker in Trondheim this year was the actress Liv Ulmann. She was born in Trondheim and grew up here, and will always be "ours".

Children, and grownups, shall always eat as many icecreams as they manage this day, and the recent years other kinds of  sweets haave also become more popular. Marta loves "sukkerspinn", and never minds the sticky fingers she gets after having one melting away on her tongue.

The day for us ended with a big family dinner with my parents. The traditional menue here in Trøndelag is "Trønder - sodd". Sodd is a soup with meat, meatballs and carrots, served with potatos and "flatbrød".

Whitsun at cabin

Whitsun week-end was a cold pleasure at Aure and our cabin this year. When we came on Friday we saw alot of fresh snow on the mountains, and when we were there we had snow showers every day. So our outdoor life was limited to Terje chopping woods in the forest, and the girls jumping with their ropes on the terracce. I must confess I spent almost all of the week-end indoors.

The view in this first photo is the view we have from our huge panorama windows. I love this view, and always place my chair so I can have the best of it.

Well, not ALL time were spent indoors, the cabin is very primitive with no water, no electricity and no indoor toilet. So to go to the toilet we have to find this very small house behind the cabin. Very charming, though also very cold if you must use it during the night :-) We are used to this primitive cabin life though, and will not share it with anything!

My exams starts Friday so I spent alot of the week-end with my books. But Saturd ay I took a break to visit the annual Whitsun Art Exhibition. It is held every year in this house, the old rectory. This house is situated close to Aure church, a beautiful, white painted wooden church from the 19th century (I believe)

But wet and cold weather doesn't ruin a week-end for us. There is always so much to do at the cabin. I have a big part of my book collection there, and never feel that I find enough time for reading. This week-end I put my three Tasha Tudor books on display on a special shelf. This shelf used to display shells and wooden plates, but will now be used for books and some special china with Norwegian nature photos taken by Jon Østeng Hov. All three Tasha Tudor books have been given to me by a German friend, and I love to have them displayed like this. And love to look through them and get inspiration from them from time to time.

Marta and her cousin Mathilde are never bored. They can play and laugh day and night, we never understand from where they get the energy. The most popular activity thie week-end, when the weather was too bad for rope jumping, was writing and drawing books, creating some very fantastic stories.

We have busy week-ends ahead of us and don't know when we'll find time for a cabin week-end again. Meanwhile we are enjoying photos and good memories.