Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Time to live again!

Finished my exam paper 10 minutes ago, now it is time to go home and LIVE. To do all the tings that I have not had time for lately. To plant flowers in all the empty pots, decorate with my quilts, smell the roses, enjoy a cup of Blaue Stunde tea using my favorite china, plan a new travel, read a book, write dozens of letters, listen to Die Zauberflöte, sit down doing nothing, finish the latest Harry Potter together with Marta......and tons of other things.

Pillars of the earth

Trees and cathedral - both growing towards the sky to give the Creator praise.

As I wrote in a previous blog - a poen can be created by you and me, only God can create a tree.

Humans have praised God through centuries building churches and cathedrals, through arts, through music, through living.

I love this combination of cathedral created by men, trees created by God. May we always excist and create in harmony.

Flower tourist!

Saturday I decided to be a flower tourist in my own town. I travel so much, sometimes I forget to really see what surrounds me daily. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and most of it I had to spend indoors, imprisoned in my small and dark office. The better was the joy then to come out in the sun for an hour - and look for flowers.

The last couple of weks have been cold up here, so the tulips which bloomed just in time for 17th of May (Norwegian Day), as they always do, still stand there erect and proud in all their beauty. This colour combination, which I found right outside the cathedral park, caught mtyeyes. Aren't they beautiful? I saw them just before I visited the statinary shop which I wrote about in my last shops, and seeing the photo now makes me realize that they inspired the colour choice in the notebooks I wrote.

It is still early in the season here, so at the outdoor flower market there is still only one stall. The flower ladies in still stall come every day, and I love to stop - to watch, and usually I buy a few plants from them. A garden can never get too many plants, well, at least mine can't. Terje has finished the "new spot" in our garden now, and next time I pass this flower stall I plan to buy a few lavendel plants to plants close to the stairs he made - ("lavindel stairs", that's the word, isn't it Gabi :-) And when I am there chatting with the ladies I guess I will not stop with just lavendels.

The parks in Trondheim are still brimming with tulips, in a couple of weeks now they will be changed with annuals. So I plan a new flower tourist walk then. But the flower shops are really having their time. And with my "third eye" (read camera) with me, I was taken by their decorations. I would love a corner like this in my garden. May be when I get my green house?

My love affair with note books.

I have a love affair going on, an affair I have had for years. My husband knows about it, he don't mind and even support it from time to time.

I love note books. In all coloours and sizes, old and new, spiral bound, hard covered and with all types of decorations - depending on my mood. For some reason the diaries I have used the past years are black, spiral bounds, but I have colourful books for alot of other purposes. I fill the books with writing, with inspirations, with photos, with quotations or I keep them blank. There is always at least one book tucked somewhere in my purse or backpack.

In town yesterday I visited my favorite stationary shop here in Trondheim, Ordning&Reda: http://www.ordning-reda.no/index.htm  Of course the inviting shelves firmly call out: buy me! And I respond. The result yesterday was two new books, one pink and one red. I will use them for inspiation clippings, like I found in Ulla's bookpages in her blog: http://ullam.typepad.com/ullabenulla/

In April I was in Rome. Italy is well known for it's paper industry, and specialising in marbelled paper. I have my favorite shops there, and this time I found a "new" shop to put on my favorites-list, Angy's Dreams: www.angysdreams.it Angy's Dreams is a family based store situated in Via Francesco Crispi, not far from the Spanish Steps. I came there in the morning and was going to walk around in Rome by myself all day and therefore didn't want to carry too much. But I bought a beautiful small notebook decorated with blue Raphael angels, and a stationary set  with a floral print - which I now use when I write those of you who responded to my question for new penpals :-). Enjoy your online visit to Angy's Dreams, the paper there can soon become your dream too.

Part of travelling fun is good memories.

I travel alot, and I love it. I love the planning, the booking of tickets, buying and reading guidebooks, travel diaries and novels from the area I am to visit. Love the packing and the travel itself, and love to get to know new places. Or get to better know places I have been before. But I also love my memories of past travels.

I visited Venice for the first time in 1972, then a girl of 14, with my parents and three smaller brothers. Memories from that summer will live in me forever. Last summer my dh and I celebrated our silver wedding, and we decided that we wanted to spend a week in Venice, the world's most romantic city. We went there in September, and I wrote several blog posts from the trip in September/October (see archives).

I am in love with Venice, and when we left the city after our silver honeymoon trip I knew I had to go back. And so I did in February this year - for the carnivals. My excuse to go so soon after the last trip, is a book I am writing in Norwegian about Lent and Lental traditions, and in this book I start with carnival celebrations.

I went with my Austrian friend Dagmar. I flew to Salzburg and together we took the train south to Venice. Arriving Venice by train is a perfect way to reach the city. You sit on the train and know that you are in Italy, first through the mountains, which were still snowy in February, then down to the flatlands where farmers were busy on their fields and in their gardens, and also through several cities, where we see mostly the grey parts of the city, back yards and industry. Trieste is no exception. Then, leaving Trieste, the train tracks leads you on a bridge/molo and you start to see glimpses of this dream city, images like Monet painted it. But it isn't untill you leave the train and leave the train station buildings that the adventure reveals. Suddenly you are right in the midst of the fairy tale. You can leave the rest of the world behind and fully live the water adventure.

Sitting in my gray office, working on my exam papers today, a small part of me is in Venice, walking the foundamentas and the calles, watching the beautiful colours of the houses, buying more Murano glass, anjoying a cappuccino or a prosecco, catching a Vaporetta which takes me to yet another church, and stopping at a restaurant for spaghetti vongole for lunch.

I've got mail!

I have written about my passion for letter writing before here in my blog. How I love to come home from work to find letters in my mailbox, letters from friends all over the world.

Two days ago I came home to find a letter from Yodith, a young deaf girl in Eritrea. Yodith has been a student at the deaf school in Keren in Eritrea, a friendship town of my hometown Trondheim, and is now a student in an ordinary school.

I have been to Eritrea and Keren twice, and have also been at the deaf school, but I met Yodith for the first time last year when she came to Trondheim for a short visit together with one of her teachers. Yodith is now struggling the hard life of being a disabled person in a poor country. She needs sign teachers to be able to learn, but  there are few, or almost none sign teachers in Eritrea. The job is so poorly paid, you are not able to survive on the salary. And Eritrea is a country with more than enough of other problems. War and droughts have been main problems for decades.But Yodith is strong and know what she wants with her life. Yodith will win her fight, and I feel blessed that she let me walk a few steps together with her.

It is so easy in everyday life to be content in your small and happy world. Letter writing has opened my horisont to other cultures, like e-mails and blogging also do. I love e-mails, I love blogging. But I will never leave "my first love" - writing letters........So, any potential penpals out there, I would love to hear from you.

Here are the snow photos I promised.

Two days ago I was up early as usual, and when I looked out the bedroom window I was met by a heavy snow shower.

Luckily there was no frost and no ice on the roads, but still.....snow in late May is not my favorite weather,

All the plants survived , and we are back to "just a tiny little bit" of better weather. At least no snow, but still way to cold for garden life.

Smell the roses.

Yesterday morning we woke up to snow in my Nordic garden. I opened the bedroom curtains and almost couldn't believe what I saw! When I came home from work/studies, quite late because of my exams preparations, all the snow had melted, and luckily, none of the plants were damaged.

There are no roses to smell in my garden yet, except from the miniature apricot potted rose which I bought last week. But there are so many other plants, flowers and colours to enjoy. And when dusk came last night, which is quite late in my Nordic garden, I took a photo safari through the whole garden, loving it all in the beginning darkness.

And here I sit again in my office at my crowded desk all day, I have all the colours and smells inside me, giving me the strength I need for my studies today.

Main exam starts tomorrow. Wish me good luck!

Sharing the work.

Love and marriage is about sharing, and for me and Mr. Charming it is alot about sharing work. These days I work from morning till night with my studies and exams, while he is busy in the garden -  at least in the afternoons when he has come home from his job.

The east side of our house has been neglected for years. We removed a few old bushes and trees when we moved here and I made a flower bed close to the house, (that's where I have my faries) but the rest of the area has been filled with old, deep root trees. Now Terje has cut down all the trees and he is busy digging the roots. This will be a perfect area for more flowers, both bulbs, annuals and perennials, and I look forward to start the planting.

In two years I will (hopefully) have finished my master degree, and there will be no more busy spring filled with studies and exams. Also in two years I will be 50, and I hope to have a combined garden party to celebrate both my birthday and my master degree. My main wish then is a green house. In my dreams the green house is made of glass combined with stones. I haven't seen anything like it anywhere, so if you have good web-addresses I will be very thankful.

Tree

A poem can be written by you and me. Only God can write a tree.

I love trees, aspecially at this time of the year when the spring colours are still fresh, in summer when they are "on top of their world", in autumn when the vibrant colours are bursting and fading, and in winter when the trees are deep in their sleep, with a promise to us that the marvel of life will come again....

I pass this tree in the cathedral park to and from work every day, and love to follow it growing. And in the park this tree is one among MNY, in the world the cathedral trees are just a few among milllions of signs of God's creation. Lift your eyes next time you pass a tree. and enjoy the beauty.

Corey in France has a similar love to roses, look what she writes in her blog today:

http://willows95988.typepad.com/tongue_cheek/