Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Silver wedding

The 28th of June is our silver wedding day. We are on vacation then, and celebrated yesterday with a garden party for friends and family. The westher has been cold and wet for a long time, and we said to ourselves many times during the last weeks that - better weather must come one day. But unfortunately, it has not come yet, so eysterday was just as cold and wet as every other day lately.

It didn't prevent us from celebrating though, and with a thick and warm wool sweather Terje could welcome the guests.

I had prepared food for a barbeque all day, and out in the carport the grills were ready. Though it was cold we think and hope the guests enjoyed themselves. And of course they were also able to enjoy the food inside the house.

After the grilling we had coffee indoors. Marta had decoated one of the cakes. Isn't she a real artists?

She loves any craft, and I always enjoy her results.  I  made most of the other cakes, but also got a couple from friends, and Terje made one of the chocolate cakes.

We had planned alot of garden games for the party. The adults wanted to stay indoors enjoying themselves, but the kids never mind the weather and had alot of fun. Terje had mowed the grass the day before, so after the party there were grass everywhere. Terje is busy vacuming the whole house today.

One of the wonderful bonuses of celebrating a silver wedding is the gifts. Our guests really were the best. and as the silver bride I had a perfect time opening the gifts. Terje and I had planned not to give gifts to each other right now. OUr BIG gift will be a week in Venedig in September. Still he had bought me the most perfect gold necklace with two hearts. I love it.

Well, our vacation has started. Tomorrow we are driving south. First we'll stay a week in Norway, then we'll fly down to Malta for another week. So it might be some time untill I'm back here. Will bring a laptop, but don't know if there will be much time to use it.

Annie at Munkholmen island

Right outside Trondheim, in the Trondheim Fjord, there is a very small island called Munkholmen, the Munk Island. The island used to be both a monastery and a fortress, though nowadays tourists and Trondheimers are the only visitors. Every year in June there is a theatre performance out there with amateur both children and grown ups acting. I and at least one of the kids are always there to watch.

This year's performance is the musical Annie, and Marta and I went out there to watch it today. Tonight is the night we celebrate Midsummer in Norway, the day of St.Hans (John the Baptist) but as you can see from the first photo the sky doesn't really look like a midsummer night's sky. Beautiful to look at thoughand a charming boat trip both back and forth.

At the island alot of people were waiting outside the old fortress tower where the performance is played. We had some time for photos before the musical started, Marta can be seen outside the house which is today a popular restaurant.  It was not easy to take photos during the play, but at least I have one for you to see.

Both Marta and I so much loved it all. This is really a tradition which means alot to us. These amateurs are really good.

I especially love to boat trip back to Trondheim again. It was mild, and no rain, so we were out on deck enjoying the skyline of Trondheim, with the Nidaros Cathedral easy to be seen.

Back in town we took a walk through one of the small parks before driving back home. The park is called Stiftsgårdsparken, and the huge yellow building is where the royal family stay when they are in Trondheim. It is a quiet park, perfect for a cup of coffee and reading a few page from a "cannot put down-book" during lunch break.

Back garden is growing.

Terje and I have been woring in the garden all day. The silver anniversary is not far away now, and we want the garden to loook it's best. And also we both love garden work, especially when we do the work together. I have mostly been fighting the dandelions. I crawls around on the lawn, cutting them by the hundreds :-) There are sooo many of them, I think I have picked up about 1000 today, and there are stil ALOT left.

The back garden is really taking form now. We have bought some new furniture in wwok and wrought iron which we put up there today. From my kitchen window I can see right out to the back garden, and I love it now with all we have done the past weeks. On the second photo you see me using the new furniture from the first time - sitting down to write a page in my garden diary.

A squirrel has been busy at our bird feeder for hours today. The birds didn't like it and made alot of angry noises, and also a couple of the sparrow s tried to chase the squirrel, but without luck. Marta tries to feed it from her hand, but the squirrel is still very shy. Both I and Marta tried to photograph it, without too much luck. I took the first photo, Marta followd it when it was finished eating and got another photo.

Rain predicted for tomorrow, so the dandelions can keep on growing for a few days.

Sun was defeated by rain...

.....and much colder temperatures. And instead of outdoor life we had to dreep indoors again. Did ALOT of housefun both yesterday and today, and as a treat for Marta last night, after hours of tidying, we played a few board games. Here she and dad is in deep concentration over Rummy. This is one of our favorite games, but we have not had much time for playing lately. Hopefully now when summer vacation starts in a week there will be more time for playing. And a few games will go with us to Malta the first week of July where we will gather the whole family (almost) My parents have invited us all, me and my three brothers and our family. And we'll be 18 people going.

The housefun these past two days have consisted of gaining control over our first floor, where we have the girls'  bedrooms, a small bathroom, a landing and a huge combined office, livingroom and playroom. This room was Torgeir's untill he moved to Australia in January. One corner is now made into a special corner for a few of our dolls and teddy bears. Ha, I wish I was a girl again!

So now there are only two floors and a garden left for our cleaning and tidying frensie. And one week left to the huge silver wedding party, 9 days left till we leave for vacation - and our house fills up with family and their friends who will stay here for some time while we are away.

Summernight in garden

Finally some perfect summer weather here, and we almost live out in the garden. Had a barbeque after work, and then terje and I spent hours gardening and enjoying smalls and colours. It is now 10pm and the sun is about to go to sleep. I sat out on our west veranda, outside the kitchen enjoying the last warm sunrays untill just a few minutes ago.

Before going in I took a photo safari in the garden, and hereby I invite you to walk along with me.

Let's start with the few herbs I have in pots near where we eat. I have herbs several places in the garden, these are perfect to use directly on the food when we are grilling.

Peter Rabbit is curious to know what I am doing with my camera. He always looks up when there is a change to be taken a photo of :-) Here he stands beside a miniature rose. I g ot it is a gift from garden visitors a few years ago, and when it finished blooming I planted it in one of the beds, where it survives well.

We say goodbye to Peter Rabbit and turn around to one of many favorite spots. I love the reds and blues here . The Japaneese Maple was here when we bought the house. It doesn't like our snowy winters, but has survived so far.

I love a mix of blue colours in my garden. In the walled front garden I totally avoid yellow, and have a wonderful mix of blues, reds, purples and pinks. This blue one (I don't know it's name) started to bloom today.

Here comes a couple of other photos showing other blue colors. The blu is so relaxing and calming, make this walled garden a perfect place for long afternoons with tea and books.......and friends.

During the winter months my favorite part of the day is what we in Norway call "The Blue Hour", when it starts to get dark and you enjoy it without turning any lamps on. In summer we never have this blue hour, it is always light. So may be the blue flowers remind me of the winter hours, when early dinner is just finished and I can sit down with an opera on the cd player, a book in my lap but not reading much, thoughts wandering.....

But there is more I want to show you. During our first years as owner of this garden we concentrated on the walled garden. But now we have moved on finding new great places to garden almost every day. Last summer I planted two rose bushes  on the western side of the wall, and it seems like they have managed the winter well. Still early for flowers, but the both looks fit and healthy. I bought just these two roses because of their manes; Astrid Lindgren and Hans Christian Andersen :-) Next to the roses there are three quite old rhododendrons. I have never had rhododendrons before, but love the ones I have here. The buds are growing day by day, and the first flower will be out in a few days now. They will be perfact to have floating in glass bowls next week-end when we are going to celebrate our silver anniversary with a garden party.

I love watching the vegetable and herb garden as it grows. Still alot of growing to be done, but since this is our first summer with this garden it is quite exciting. I used to have  a varied herb garden where we lived before, so I have really missed one here.

These polkadots are called Petunias in Norway, but I think the name polkadotes is much more perfect. They are Marta's and g row outside her playhouse.

The orange violas are also Marta's. I have never had them in exactly this colour before. Aren't they great!

Thank you for walking my garden with me. Welcome back another day.

My kitchen

After months too busy to do much house work (read: homefun) I have spent hours in the kitchen today to tidy and clean it. And now I am taking you on a kitchen tour with me :-)

I usually love to spend time in the kitchen, cooking, baking and chatting, or just having a nice mug of tea. And of course a clean and tidy kitchen like my kitchen is today is a perfect place for all this. And the kitchen is big enough for anybody to come over and join me.

We can have a cup of tea and share some fresh sweet rolls, we can chat and we can look through my recipe books. We can look at my espresso cup collection and I can tell you about my travels and where I bought the different cups . I can make you fresh "vafler". And as soon as the rain stops we can take a garden walk; just to walk around, enjoy the smells and the birds singing, pick flowers to bring in to the clean kitchen and also pick fresh herbs for today's cooking.

Well, actually I have decided not to cook at home today though, the kitchen is too clean for that. So we will go to the Tyholt Tower for dinner later on.

More from Lofoten

I have promised to post more photos from our trip to Lofoten, and here are a few.

We started from Trondheim after lunch on Thursday. To reach the Lofoten islands we have to drive about 850 kilometers, and then there is a two hours drive. So on Thursday we slept over at a hotel in Fauske. And then the next day we only had a couple of hours to drive to reach Hammarøy, the island where Knut Hamsund lived as a small boy, and the ferry.

The weather was quite nice. A little cold, but sunny and no wind, so the ferry trip was a pleasure. We spent alot of it out on the deck . Since Lofoten are islands you have to come there by sea, and therefore you also can see the beautiful Lofoten Wall as the mountains are called. It as an amazing sight when the weather is nice, though I find the ferry trip quite terrible when the wind is bad :-(

My brother and his family live in Lofoten, and this time we went there because of the confirmation of my niece Gunhild. She was confirmanted in Borge church, where my brother si the pastor.

The old Borge church burnt down in the 80ies and a new, modern church was built. Unfortunately the weather was grey on Sunday, the day of the confirmation, and therefore you cannot see how the church is build in the form of the mountain behind.

For important days, as confirmations, we often use "bunad" - regional outfits. Her e is Marta and Ingrid with their cousins Gunhild and Kamilla, all four in different bunader. Ingrid has one from Rogaland, south west in Norway, Marta has inherited a very old one from Nordfjord, west in Norway (it originally belonged to a late aunt of my father), Gunhild has inherited from her grandmother one from North-Norway, and Kamilla has one from Lofoten.

My mother and I also have bunader. My mother got hers, made by her sister, when she was 17, I got mine from Terje as a present the day (night) after our wedding, 25 years ago.

The last photo today is from inside Borge church, mu brother Frode and all the lovely young confirmants dressed in their best clothes.

Midnight Sun

I have finished my exams for this year, and we have been up to Lofoten Island for a family event - confirmation. Not much time for blogging right now, but at least I can give you a few photos of the midnight sun. And then come back sson with a more updated version of my last weeks. The two first photos are from Eggum in Vestvågøy in Lofoten.

I am standing near a statue called The Face.  

The third photo is taken from my brother's house the last night we were there, at around 00.30am.