A four hour's drive north yesterday, would take me through the small town where I studied to become a teacher 30 years ago. I left home earlier than planned, to have time to stop and look at old, familiar places, to look at changes, to browse around. It felt sad to leave two sick girls, one with bronchitis the other with "only" a bad cough, but knowing that they had each other and their dad, there was no choice for me. I had to leave on a two day's work trip.
Levanger, the city where I studied, is a charming city, situated on the edge of the Trondheim Fjord, with its old wooden houses intact. The politicians in Levanger have had a strong intention to take care of their qualities and made Levanger Cittaslow (Slow City). They also built a shopping mall outside the town and then it didn't take long to make Levanger a sleeping beauty. One by one the shops closed down in the city and moved to the new shopping mall.
Coming to Levanger on a cold winter morning, it felt like coming to a dead place. All the beautiful, old wooden houses were still there, but the people to give life to the city had left. I walked around for almost an hour. Feeling sad. Feeling empty.
I did find a few shops open though, and the yarn shop brightened my mind several levels. Colours and textures do that. In a shelf I found a long searched for birthday present for Marta. "I have wanted to buy this for my youngest daughter for a long time" I told the woman behind the counter "but I have found it no where". The lady smiled. "I did some reorganisations in the shop yesterday evening" she said, "it was meant to be found my you" :-)
Surrounded by shelf after shelf of soft wool yarn, colours everywhere, my fingers cried out to me, one by one - we want to move, we want to dance, knit, purl, knit, purl.....I looked down at them, at their eagerness, I thought of the hours of driving ahead. I had been driving alone to Levanger, but from there on and three hours north a colleague was going to drive with me, and he had promised to be the one behind the wheel on the wintry roads.Three hours in the passenger seat that day, even more hours the next. Yes, I neeed yarn and needles.
There can never be enough handknitted wool socks. I am knitting, the driving hours pass quickly and my fingers are happy, happy.
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Do you have memories of old places, now changed?
---------------UPDATE----------------
I've had breakfast and I am ready for a morning walk to exploire the smallest city/town in Norway, Kolvereid. Google just taught me that Kolvereid has a Men's Choir :-)
--------SECOND UPDATE_______
A lovely morning walk in the tiny city, a drive, a ferry ride and more driving, and we have now arrived in the next town, Namsos. This one is bigger and shopping could be a possibility. My colleague is out walking, I am sitting in the basement of the main church, where our course will be tonight, warm and cosy with my knitting and a book. Life can be good in the middle of long work days.
Photo: Kolvereid after breakfast this morning
NOTE: the girls are feeling better. marta will go back to school tomorrow, Ingrid still needs some more time.
Tomorrow I'll show you photos from my morning photo safari. (I love to be a "tourist" in my own country)
