When we bought The House in the Woods, in 2001 (actually on September 11th!, but how could we know.....) it was important for us to live close to the woods, the fields and paths of summer, the skitracks of winter. I could have prefered something closer to town, but my vote counted only as one against the rest. Øystein and Ingrid both did biathlon at that time, shooting and cross country skiing, Terje's love in life (well, except for his love for me and the kids ;-)) is cross country skiing. As soon as I saw The House in the Woods I had no doubt though, this was OUR home. A taxi driver drove me home from the airport a couple of weeks ago. When we finally arrived here he bursted out "oh, this must be the dream house" - and there is no way he said that because our house is huge, rich or sparkling. The House in the Woods has its own, simple charm, and people feel it.
Yesterday came up with the very positive side of living on the edge of the ski tracks. We can grab our skis and walk for 2-300meters and there are the tracks. The ski tracks used by Terje and his likes every day during the winter season, used by the ski elite for competitions and World Cups. This week-end there has been a World Cup in Nordic Skiing going on, and yesterday Terje, Marta and I packed our backpack, grabbed our skies and sunglasses and went out to watch Petter Northug and the others.
People of all ages were having fun outdoors. Close to where we sat down with our lunch, a group of students, a student's choir actually, had spent the night in a tent. They were busy preparing their breakfast, coffee, eggs and bacon, bread and orange juice, when we came, and when the skiers started to come they had a long singing reportoire for their cheering.
Terje made alot of noise with his bell, Marta and I cheered waving our flags.
It is another lovely day today, and I am tempted to go out for more skiing. But have decided to stay out in the snowfilled garden, with a book, my garden diary and my dreams of a coming spring.
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The Blue Garden blog opened for the season yesterday.
The Spaghetti Vongole recipe is now up in The Blue Café
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How do you spend your Sunday?
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Tonight I will give another speach about Lent and its traditions.
Information for Norwegian readers:
More Lent reflections at fasteblogg.no
Link to "40 dager - fra karneval til oppstandelse"
.....and English speaking readers can flip through the book here. (and enjoy the photos)
