Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Life lived in the early morning

 

Because of a doctor appointment I was in town early. How different it all looked with no people around. Like a place I've never been before. A place ready to explore. To be a traveller seeking new land.

 

Trondheim's main pedestrian street was slowly opening up her eyes after a long night's sleep. Ready for yet another day to serve thousands of feet.

 

Vår Frue kirke (Our Lady's Church, Trondheim's Notre Dame) is having her morning bath in tulip water.

 

The antiquarian has not started his day yet.

 

Trondheim's old hero, Petter Wessel Tordenskjold, was decorated on May 17th, and has planned to keep his evergreen wreath for a long, long time.

 

The blog author sat down with a glass of water and a double cappuccino, writing words of love for life in her diary.

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Text and photos: Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland. Third photo inspired by Strikken

One week left. Time to make a list

 

• be sure to find my passport

• check that my passport has not expired

• check that Marta's passport has not expired
• check that Terje checks that his passport has not expired
• try my old swimsuit, it can't be too small, can it.......
• stack the books I plan to take with me
• put half of the books back to the travelbook cabinet
• make one stack of Roma/Terracina books, one of Venezia books, one of Austria books
• put more books back to the cabinet
• make sure that Terje choose the biggest suitcase (with space enough for my books)
• ask Merisi about Austrian litterature
• do NOT buy any more books, not even by Austrian writers.....there is no more room for books in my Terje's  suitcase
• start writing the travel diary. the planning is always half the fun

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In just one week we are travelling to Italy :-)

 

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All we have to do now is to wait.

 

Do you remember the fish dinner at the rectory a few weeks ago? With his gourmet fishdish, dean Inge Torset served us potatoes from his own garden. He could tell that he grows several types of potatoes, the one we got was an old type called "molt", not sold in the grocery stores. The next time dean Inge came to Trondheim, he left a cardboard box in my office, filled with potatoes ready for growing. Enthusiastically I came home to Terje and he soon realised that his duty was to go out in the garden to dig the potato land.

 

The soil in the potatoland is rich, perfect for the weeds, so Terje has digged through it several times....

 

......and last week it was finally time to dig holes for the potatoes. Now all we have to do is wait, and may be also weed a little.......

 

.......meanwhile I have my new potato recipe notebook, and I dream of all the potato dishes I will make.

 

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Potato stories:

The unexpected violet dinner.

Potato recipes. You MUST read the comments to this post.

Dean Inge Torset's special dinner.

Celebrations on May 17th

Yesterday was Norway's birthday. We celebrated all day, starting with a parade at Marta's school early in the morning, continuing with two more huge parades downtown later in the day, coffee, cakes and icecreams in Torgeir's downtown flat in between, ending with dinner at The House in the Woods in the night, 12 around the table, traditional "Innhered's Sodd" on the menue.

Here is a repost from last year's celebrations:

 

 

Art connected to life

 

I attended a meeting in Oslo where we focused on art and the role the church can pay to give art to people. There were 10 of us, 5 church leaders, 5 artists, and we met the topic with our diffrent backgrounds, our different life luggage.

 

The topic started a flow of thoughs in me. What does art mean in my life? Music, words, colours, shapes, fragrances, tastes.....

 

A painting, a sculpture, a Bach sonata, a poem by Olav H. Hauge, words by Ibsen, photography, opera yes always opera, a Gertrude Jekyll garden, food prepared with the season's palette,, glass art from Hadeland or from Murano.....

 

What does art mean to you?

What kind of art genre is your favorite?

What can you not live without?

What can you live without?

 

Words and photos: Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland. Copyright.

Photos from a park in cental Oslo last week.

FAIRYTALE!

 

Congratuationss Alexander. We love you!

 

It is past midnight here, Marta has the violin out, singing and dancing FAIRYTALE!

 

 

The Year of a Traveller. May 2009

 

Three days, three different travels. Even I can sometimes feel that I am reaching a limit! But as always I strive to fill my work travels with at least a few minutes with travel adventure, a task I find quite easy.

 

Thursday morning it was time to fly up along the western coast, on one of those small planes which I love. I travelled with a colleague, and already at the airport both of us felt the blood rush fast through our travel veins. The small plain filled with a group of international engineers with eyes for windmills. Several languages floated around us, if I closed my eyes I could imagine to be anywhere around the world.

 

During the flight these men were busy looking out the small windows on the plane, photographing east and west, and their ohs and ahs were a very effective eyeopener. I love this coastline, and have showed you photos here in the blog earlier, but this time again my camera got alot to do. Though while the men were mosty interested in windmills, I seeked out the small islands, dreamed myself a life somewhere there.

 

Come along, have a look with me. What do you think?

 

 

In the end - a perfect landing!

 

 

 

Photos and words by Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland. Copyright.

Photos: Flight from Trondheim to Rørvik Thursday 14th of May 2009

The garden keeps me sane

 

What a week. A new travel every day. This morning the airport taxi picked me up at 05.10am! (the sun was already up when the alarm woke me at 04.30) What makes me sane is the garden late at nights. In the Nordic light it is possible to keep gardening till the wee hours. The photos were taken last night around 9pm.

My bouquet of blog stories is growing. I am looking forward to help them unfold.

 

How is your garden growing?

 

Busy jumping

 

I am busy jumping around. Work travels, gardening, visiting friends, playing with Marta.........always looking out for stories to share. Among stories too come here are the growing of potatoes, reflections on art, sweet peas.......

I am looking forward to share them with you.

A book, and more typepad stuff

 

As soon as I got to know about my promotion, I knew that there was a book I wanted to reread. Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. The book was at the cabin, but last week-end it folowed me home in my bag. Have you read it?

 

Typepad has asked my to change my comment page as a way to sove my problem. I do as they say, as usual, and hope, hope, hope that it is okay for you to read my blog now. No freezing computers in this time of global warming?

 

Photos: Frog quilt in Blue Garden (yes, I made the quilt)