Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Booktalk on a Sunday 3

Today is the Sunday of Fastelavn, or Shrovetide which is the word my English dictionary gave me for translation. It is time for carnivals and celebrations before the 40 days of Lent. I have spent more than a year now working on my book about Lent, and this year, through it's seven weeks, I plan to follow the special lent calendar I am creating. My blog, and my reading, will be influenced by this.

Every year during Lent I read Joanne Harris's book Chocolat I started it again today, and loved arriving in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with Vianne and her daughter Anouk. How I wish I could visit her Chocolaterie for a few pieces of her home made chocolate, and may be even make friends with Vianne. I hope I am not too narrow minded to welcome outsiders like Vianne and Anouk.

Joanne Harris has written a piece of art, just listen to the first sentence;

We came on the wind of the carnival. A warm wind for February, laden with the hot greasy scents of frying pancakes and sausages and powdery-sweet waffles cooked on thehot plate right there by the roadside.

I have got so many great comments and e-mails after I started writing my booktalks here in my House in the Woods. And several of you have given me ideas for books I want to read. Two weeks ago Caroline mentioned A Perfect Red, and after reading Victoria Finlay's Colour, I knew this would be a book after my heart. I went over to amazon right away and ordered the book, and two days ago it was dropped in my mailbox. The first week of Lent will be my red week, the first colour in the rainbow, and A Perfect Red will be my read, together with Tracy Chevalier's The Lady and the Unicorn - another book, this time a novel, by one of my favorite writers, which tells alot about the dying of colours. I met Tracy Chevalier in Oslo when she was working on this book and she told me about The Cluny Museum in Paris and the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. I had a visit to Paris planned already, and went to the museum to see The Lady and the Unicorn. The tapestries are great! And so is the book!

Venice.

I have finished Jan Morris' book about Venice, and now picked from my collection a book set in Venice which I have not read yet. Many of the books I have, I have already read several times, but this one will be a new experience. And a great way to build up my Venice mood in preparations for the upcoming trip. The book is The Floating Bookby Michelle Lovric. Isn't that a fitting name for a Venice book :-) The story is set in Venice in 1468, and is among other things about the first printing press in the city. Photo shows a floating Venice in September 2005.

I've had a very busy week at work, so hopefully this coming week will be a bit more quiet, giving me some of all the reading time I will need for these great books. Wish me good luck......and I always love more book recommandations.

A Gardener's Year - February

In the kitchen I have two small bowls with seeds from last summer's flowers. It is mid-February and still deep winter in Trøndelag, but the days are longer and the calendar tells me it is time to start preparing the summer garden.

For a couple of months now the kitchen dresser will be transformed into a greenhouse, with terracotta pots filled with brown, rich soil with tiny little dreams of colours hidden deep inside. How I love this time of the year, with all its dreams.

The funniest book is following me all through my gardening year; Karel Capek's The Gardener's Year. Capek became a passionate gardener late in his life, and after several years working eagerly year round in his own garden, he wrote this book and illustrated it with his own funny ink drawings. If you are a gardener, or want to be a gardener, or just love a good read this book is a must. (And if you buy it through this link it will help me buy books from amazon.....)

The snow blanket is still thick in my garden, and I am tempted to quote Capek:

"The devil only knows why in leap years one day is added to precisely this ficle, catarrhal, crafty runt of a month. In a leap year, a day ought to be added to the beautiful month of May so that there would be thirty-two of them, and that would be fine. What have we gardeners done to deserve this?"

My King of the books.

Three months of summer vacation in winter Norway is over. The last year of economical studies in Australia is waiting.

How can motherhood be described? It can't! It must be lived, felt. It is joy, it is worries, it is sorrows. A thread of life though it all, the thread of love.

We'll miss you Torgeir!

Inside the wardrobe?

The week is busy with representations and meetings at work. I opened my wardrobe this morning, wondering which clothes to dig out. The impulse to run out to buy something new was strong. The wardrobe was filled with "nothing to wear!"

The more we have the more needs do we get. Where does it come from this need to always buy more, something new, something greener like the neighbour's grass?

I refused to listen to my impulse, took my morning shower and explored my wardrobe once more. And had a great day, wearing my old seagreen blouse.

I have shown this photo before, but wanted to share it once more - partly because this is the blouse I am wearing today, partly because of the strong memories it gives.

For God so loved.....

The most important aspect of love is what we pay forward. Give because we are given. Love because we are loved.

Since the celebration of Valentine's Day is something new here in Norway, every single card I get feels like a fantastic treat. This one came in the mail yesterday from a dear penpal through more than 10 years. It was tucked in an envelope together with a home made weaving and a long and loving letter. All inside a stuffed envelope decorated with beautiful quilt stamps.

For God so loved the world , he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

Haute Couture in Trondheim

Already in 1890 the National Museum of Modern Art here in Trondheim started it's collection of Haute Couture. Most of the collection consists of costumes made by seamstresses from this area, but also Haute Couture bought by the upper class women on travels to Copenhagen, London, Paris and New York are represented.

Today the museum owns one of the biggest collection of Haute Couture in the Nordic countries, and for several months this year part of the collection is on display.

I visited the museum last week-end, on the opening of the exhibition, and was amazed by the diversity and artistry of what I saw. The photo shows part of the catalog from the exhibition, and the February page of a calendar made by the museum, a costume made by Mariano Fortuny, Paris/Venice, design ca 1912-1920.

Mother's Day in Norway

Yesterday was Mother's Day in Norway. Australian son has still not left to go down under for his last year there, so we celebrated Saturday night with all four kids at home. I felt incredible rich and blessed having them all around.

The kids showered me with tulips, a special mother's day cake, a cute little miniature book about Women and a beautiful mug with a huge red heart and the words "Verdens Beste Mamma" (the world's best mom). And from my dh I got a new cell phone. YEAH!

The first photo is from the breakfast dh and I had Sunday morning.

The Mother's Day cake is a speciality which have been there always! One year, when I was a girl, my father took us four kids to the grocery store to buy a cake for my mother. "Til Mor" means "To Mother", and the cake we bought 40 years ago had the same words written on the icing. My little brother looked at the cake, then at my father, and asked in surprise: "How do they know in this shop that my mother's name is Marta?"

Booktalk on a Sunday 2

  This week I have been travelling around the world in search of colours. I mentioned Victoria Finlay's books "Colour, Travels through the Paintbox" also last week. This book has followed me several years already, and I know I will keep on reading bits and pieces, or whole chapters from it from time to time. Let me quote a few lines from the back cover of the book:

Colour tells the remarkable story of Victoria Finlay's quest to uncover the many secrets hidden inside the paintbox.....From mascara to violin vanish, from nomadic carpets to stained glass to pillar boxes to crayons, the story of colour is the story of the efforts of artisans to reproduce the rainbow - and the impact their work has had on the world.

Shakespeare is another of my writers from this week. Terje and I went to the theatre the other night, to see King Lear, (you can see part of the performance here). A tragedy written back in 1605, though still with no less relevance today - about power, greed, betrayal, love and death. A mighty story, filled with the richness of Shakespearian words, and a story which again managed to mesmerize me. The Fool has alot to tell the world today, 400 years after the story was written:

Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest, ride more than thou goest, learn more than thou trowest, set less than thou throwest; leave thy drink and thy whore, and keep in-a-door, and thou shallt have nore than two tens a score....... Heard it before? :-) Know what he is talking about?

Our house is filling up with books. Sometimes I say to myself that I must stop buy and borrow more from the public library, but how can I resist? Do you like browsing bookstores? I love them, the stores and antiquarians we have in Trondheim, amazon and other online stores, bookshops around the world on travels. Their smells and colours seem to call out my name. Yesterday I had alot of fun reading Vanessa's blog entry, A Wonderful Visit Through the Rabbit Hole. If you are in for great book photos - this is the place for you. And give Vanessa a hug from me when you meet her.

Venice.

Never a booktalk from my pen without a section from Venice. My collection of Venice books is constantly growing, and every new book seems like a new jewel. This week, just like last week, I have been enjoying Jan Morris' classic Venice. In less than two months, on Easter Eve, Marta, Terje and I fly down to Venice for a week in Nati House. This city which I visited for the first time with my parents and three younger brothers when I was 14, back in 1972, and which I visited again on our silver honeymoon in September 2005, and for the carneval last February. This time we will show Marta the city. Victoria Finlay mentions Venice as one of the cities where she travels in search of colours, and one of the things Marta and I willl be doing is to walk around in search of colours and paints, just like Paris Breakfast has done in Paris.

Jan Morris has a very good knowledge of the city, and shares generosly with her readers. I just read her chapter about the women of Venice, which she describes as very handsome and very vain. They are tall, they walk beautifully, and they are often fair........oh, I think my Marta will suit in perfectly well, at least in this part....... :-). The women of Venice were flirtarious, and a wry husband pointed to a little stone figure carved on a wall above a bridge one day saying: "This is the only honest woman in Venice". Venice took the point and the stone figure, which is standing near Frari church,kept the name and the bridge is today called The Bridge of the Honest Woman.

Untill next Sunday - Happy Reading. (.....the photo is from a colourful spot in Venice)

Young creativity.

A few days ago we got a written invitation to a "Pix-party". My little artist and her friend have planned this party for weeks. Pix is the name they have given their own little "artshop".

In the invitation we  (Terje and I, and her parents)were invited to dinner and coffee and a sale from the Pix Art collection.

They had written a long grocery shopping list, so before I went to work this morning I had to leave Marta some money. And when I came home the two girls were busy hoovering, dusting, ironing a table cloth, cutting fruit, melting chocolate and whiping cream for a salad, doing the table, tidying the hallway, warming hot dogs......you name it.

The Pix party was a great success. i would love to repeat this every Friday - to come home to dinner made by two happy, red cheeked ten/eleven year old girls, being served by them and then taken down to the workshop in our basement where they had a table with art for sale. Soaps, candles, sewings, cartoons and written stories. and the money we payed for what we bought will be used to buy art supplies for more craft. Beads are on top of their list, and I have promised a visit downtown tomorrow to browse a few favorite art and craft stores.

My favorite find was the cartoon by Marta. I bought it, and will frame it as a memory of this day. (you can click on the photos to get a better view, and look here to see what we did after the Pix party.)

An orange little angel.

An orange little angel came passing by,

stopped at the dresser and wondered why,

the vegetables danced

a colour dance per chance,

and ended in a bowl painted blue from the sky.

I laughed when I found this angel in the orange :-) The bowl with the angelic salad can be found here.