Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Kolstad kirke 20 år

Kolstad church in Trondheim was built in 1986. We lived in another part of the city then and belonged to another church, but when we moved here almost 5 years ago Kolstad became "our" church.

The church is big, modern and light and built on top of a hill which makes it easy to be seen from huge parts of the town. A church well suited for the lot of people living in this area of Trondheim.

The celebrations of the 20th anniversary have been going on all week. It started last Sunday with thc children's celebration, then there have been meetings, open house, concerts and so on every day. And today we have had the main celebration with mass and a party afterwards. The mastercake in the photo was just one of an uncountable number of homemade, delicious cakes.

I am proud of my church, and I am thankful to be part of the congregation here.

I know that I have promised...

Yes, I know that I have promised you photos and images from all my travels the last months. And now, with my digital camera out of work it can be a good idea to go back to my travel photos. This first photo is from the entrance of San Girolami, the Palazzi where I and Dagmar stayed during our week in Venice. This is a common entrance for all the flats in the house, and I love it. It took me right back to the Venice I have read about in several books (I have a quite big library of books set in Venice and am still collecting more) and the Venice I am reading about right now from Sarah Dunant's In the Company of the Courtesan.

We rented our flat from Paolo, you can book it yourself from here: http://www.archirent.it/SanGirolamo/S.anGirolamo_n/Sito_ENG_SanGirolamo/index_n.html#Anchor

Dagmar and I made many meals in the flat - I love staying in flats rather than hotels when I travel, and here is a photo from one of our light suppers, or rather a photo from the table made for supper. The ravioli and the tortelini are still in the kitchen.

Walking is a favourite way of spending my travels, and when I am in Venice I walk for hours every day. Last September, when I was there with Terje, he was the master of the and I followed him wherever he said we should go. This time I walked mostly alone, both Dagmar and I enjoy our own company. I used the map the first day, but then decided to just walk and see where my feet took me. And amazingly it didn't take long before I had a quite clear map of Venice in my head. I loved the feeling of knowing the city, and if I from time to time took a wrong turn, Venice is so small that it never takes long before you are back to a place where you have been before. The biggest problems are the blind turns, when a road sudedenly stop when you reach the canal, or a bridge takes you to a closed door.  

Well, while you read this I am going to keep on dreaming about you dream city, accompanied by Giuliano Carmignola and his Concerto Veneziano.

Red tulips

I have started the garden season, though I must admit that this photo is from last summer. No tulips are blooming yet, but there are lots of snowdrops, crocuses and primulas.

The garden is crying for my attention, but this spring is already filled up for me with, on top of my job, exams and also a deadline for my books. So as soon as I am home from work and have finished dinner and the dishes, the diningroom table fills up with books, laptop and papers. The only break I give myself is reading for Marta before she goes to bed.  I really love this creative process, but must from time to time tell myself that a break is needed. And the best break I can have is of course garden work.

"Spring for breakfast"

It is Sunday morning and I have just had my first spring walk in the garden. Had to walk very carefully not to disturb the squirrel who was busy on the birds feeder. Almost all the snow is melted, and bulbs and herbs are coming up everywhere. My absolutely favourite season of the year. I picked the first chives and had them with my breakfast egg - and ate the first taste of spring.

My digital camera is not working very well, and I can't afdford a new one in a couple of months still, so I will have to do with "old" photos. The one you see here I took at Monte Ciceo right north of Terracina during Easter. These beautiful small cyclames were everywhere in the forrest around Terracina. They don't grow wild in Norway, so I loved their bright and vivid pink colour everywhere.

For the first time in I don't know how long I am enjoying a quiet Sunday at home. Long breakfast ending with a small piece of chocolate with my tea, opera on the cd player (Così Fan Tutte is Gabi and mine opera for April), Sarah Dunant's In the Company of the Courtesan, enough time for blogging, e-mails and letters. I love quiet days like this. It won't last too long though. In a few hours I am on my way to watch Ingrid play handball, tonight I will take the night train down to Oslo for more meetings. But right now I am here, and have a few Terracina night photos to share with you. Enjoy!

Two Italian weeks.

It is already five days since I came back home from two wonderful weeks in Terracina (I stayed in the flat with the open green windows). I had a lovely time, and it is heaven to be back home with my family. Though I love travelling alone I missed them every minute.

The reason while I went to Italy and terracina was to get time and inspiration to work on my book, the Norwegian book I am writing about Lent and lental traditions. The writing is far from finished, but I did get alot of work done. And also alot of new inspiration. My digital camera is not working properly, so I have very few photos from this trip. The once I am showing you today are from last summer. But my good friend and the owner of the flat, took alot of photos. As soon as she is back home in Norway and has sent me her photos I have some new ones to show you.

For the coming weeks I am going to be very busy with my exams comiung up - end of May and beginning of June. So my blog time might be somewhat limited I am afraid.

Greetings from Terracine

No photos, but a short note to let you know that I am having wonderful Italian days. Terracina is friendly and beautiful as always. I am working hard on my book, but I am also finding time to walk in the nearby mountains, and in the city of Terracina. Took part in a funeral yesterday. Sadly one of the neighbours, and owner of one of the restaurant we frequented during our summer stays, died of cancer the day I came. A blessing to be able to take part in the funeral. Tomorrow I am planning to spend the whole day in Roma.

Reading Virginia Woolf

One of my new year's resolutions this year was to read one female author every month. I started fresh in January with Virginia Woolf and managed 3 of her books, To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway and Jacob's Room. Still had alot more in my shelves though, so I was very happy when Woolf became the artist of the months in the armchairtravelling yahoo grou now in April.

I had a hard time after breakfast this morning to decide which book to bring with me on my two weeks trip to Italy. In the end I ended up with The Voyage Out - because it is Virginia Woolf's first novel, and because the title felt perfect.

You can find the Armchairtravelling group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Armchairtravelling/

Austrian socks.

For the time being I am knitting my way afround the world. Monday morning I am flying down to Italy for two weeks, and yesterday I bought yarn for two pairs of Italian socks which I will work on during my stay. You have already seen my Venice socks, and today I have a photo of a apir I knitted while I stayed with friends at a farm in Austria. In their hall they had a huge window where you had a wonderful view of steep, snowy mountains. The colours of the socks and the black hearts remind me of the view through these windows at night, especially during the blue hour when the darkness fell.