Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Moving.

Back in 1930 my maternal grandparents bought a house. And it has been in the family since then. Untill now. My parents have sold the house and are these days moving into a top modern flat with the most wonderful view. We have been helping them alot these past days, and enjoy the changes we see every time we come there. After dinner and Marta's handball practice Marta and I went there today. There were also my brother and his wife and kids, and all of us spend a busy afternoon moving furniture around untill we found the bast solution. 4 years old Benjamin was busy measuring everything, marta and Mathilde put books in the bookcases, so the kids were busy too. We are not going back in a few days now, so alot of changes will have taken place next time we come.

Coffee and my mother's "fyrstekake" is a must when we are there of course.

Marta, the baker.....

It is dark, windy and rainy outdoors. Not at all the kind of winter weather we love. So indoor activities is the thing right now. I am again home between travels, and enjoy quiet nights at home.

This afternoon Marta (with a little help from Ingrid) made a chocolate cake. And we enjoyed it with coffee while watching a televisikon series Ingrid follows. Doesn't it look inviting :-) And the four of us who are home this week ate only half of the cake - so there is more for tomorrow.......

No use waiting for spring yet....

Living in Norway means that there is winter many months of the year. It is not like in Narnia as it was the first time Lucy and her siblings came there, with winter all year, and no Christmas. Can you imagine! As readers of my blog know, in our house we celebrate Christmas in the big and wonderful way. But now Christmas is only a fading memory, the days are getting longer and my mind is turing against spring. Though spring is still a long time away... I couldn't resist a photo of a few of my empty flowerpots today. They are on the veranda right outside the kitchen. When summer comes they will all be filled with bright and colourful flowers. I plan a rainbow garden this year. Will plant seeds which will give flowers in all colours during the period of lent, and it will be a reminder of the rainbow God set in the sky. The rainbow which is God's sign of hope. The world needs hope today.

I am looking through my poembooks to find a winter poem. But as almost all my poembooks are in Norwegian I haven't found a suitable English one to put here. I will be very thankfull if any of my readers have good winter poems to share. Ha, the only one I found was a nursery rhyme: Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush. On a cold a frost morning. In Norway this rhyme is a dance for the Christmas tree, and not at all what I am thinking of for a winter poem.

I am more in a Keats or Shelley mood if you understand what I mean........ Or more like this snowflake poem which I found just now searching a bit more (thanks again Pam for the snowflaketheme packet I got for Christmas):

Suddenly the sky turned gray.

The day, which had been bitter and chill,

grew soft and still. Quietly

from some invisible blossoming tree

Millions of petals cool and white

Drifted and blew, lifted and flew, fell with the falling night. (Melville Cane)

Carpaccio.

The Venetian painter Carpaccio, active by 1490 and dead in 1525\26 is "my" artist of January. I try to concentrate on one artist every month, as well as one writer.

I made a Carpaccio page in my scrap book today and here it is.

I first "came over" Carpaccio in Venice in September, and look forward to visit the Academia and also other museums exhibiting his paintings, in February.

Chest of creativity.

It is finally Friday and time for other things than working. I am very fond of my job and don't mind long work hours, but of course, nothing is like week-ends, holidays, free time :-) I always have a long list of things I want to do when I have some time off.

I have written about my old, inherited chest before. And here it is again. I gave it a new name today - my "chest of creativity". I have not started to fill it's inside, though I have alot of ideas of things to fill it with. But the top has become a perfect extra space in our livingroom where I can put books, knitting, stationary, letters, books, books and more books. I have my artbook collection upstairs in my office - which used to be Torgeir's room, and which he is using now when he is home from Australia on vacation. Now I have found a couple of my Monet books and brought them down to the top of the chest. Monet and artist with gardens is the upcoming theme on Armchairtravelling group on yahoo, a group I moderate. Monet has always been one of my favorite artists, and I will never forget the day, some years ago, we spent at Monet's garden in Giverny together with our French friends.

I got a letter from my French friend today. She has been in the Museé Marmottan in Paris where there are now many of Monet's paintings on display. She sent me a long letter telling me about her museum visit, and enclosed two postcards of Monet's paintings influenced by the Norwegian landscape. What a lovely letter! Thanks alot dear MN. Your letter is now placed on top of my chest of creativity, waiting for my reply.

I don't mind the outdoor snowstorm. It gives my wonderful time for indoor creativity.

Too busy for blogging...

I've been too busy for blogging lately. With travels through work the three first days of the week, then houseguests (which was great) and a huge conference at work today where I was in charge of it all, the energy I have left now is just enough to sit down and do nothing :-) Which is of course sometimes a very good thing.

The weather here is Norway is bad for the moment, with huge storms, icy cold and snowing, so "sitting in doing nothing" is not the worst thing one can do anyway.  And of course "doing nothing" doesn't mean that I can't read or enjoy a cup of tea. It is soon bedtime for Marta. I will read her a chapter of Harry Potter, and then the evening is free for my Virginia Woolf reading. I just started Jacob's Room, and enjoy it, though it is not an easy read. I must also soon start some Venecia reading - I'm leaving in less than a month now.

In lack of another photo to show you I am sharing with you the church of Aure. Terje and I took this grey winterphoto last week-end when walking from our cabin down to the local village.

Home between travels.

Terje and I have been at the cabin for the week-end, just the two of us. Had a most relaxing and nice time. Did a long walk on Saturday. Not a hike, but a walk along the road down to the village where we did some grocery shopping, had coffee and "svele" (a kind of local pancake eaten cold with butter and sugar mixed to a sweet cream, and visited a local craft store. I did ALOT of reading, writing and knitting :-) Finished a pair of green socks (see photo) and we both enjoyed the beautiful sunrises, the light and nice food.......

Decorate with quilts

I love to decorate with quilts, both big, small and miniatures.

This one is machine pieced by myself, and handquilted by the Amish in USA. It hangs in our livingroom. I made the quilt on a workshop the American Nancy Martin gave here in Norway many years ago.

Vegetable soup!

I have no time for blogging today. Instead I will invite you over to share some vegetable soup with us:-)

Morning has broken.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and , behold, it was very good.

The photos was taken this morning from our entrance. Can a morning be more beautiful than this!

I love to sit at the huge table in our diningroom in the mornings watching the day come to life. Today it was especially beautiful, and before preparing Sunday morning breakfast for me, Terje and the girls I had to take the camera with me outdoors to shoot a few images. The world was beautiful.