Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A life with the flowers

 

During my long morning walk yesterday, I passed so many beautiful houses with flowers all around. My camera was busy, I was all smiling.

Then I came back home to the farm of Dagmar and Hans, and realised that the most beautiful flower house of all was the one behind their farm.

 

As I walked up to the house the owner came out. I am no master in German, but as he spoke no English I had to dig deep into my brain to get out the German words and sentences I know. And I am proud to say that I managed quite well :-)

Three hours is needed every day for watering these plants!

Breathing in all this beauty I started to miss my own garden, especially wondering how my peonies are doing. I have a collection of peonies, placed at different parts in the garden, and now I sent an sms to Terje to his cellphone asking: "How is our garden doing, do you know if the peonies are blooming yet? If they are, can you please ask Marta to take a photo and send it to me?"

I got an email from Marta in the afternoon, but no photo. "Have you spoken to pappa?"I asked, "I wanted him to ask you to take a photo of the peonies by the bird feeder"

"Oh, by the bird feeder. Pappa was so sure you meant the flowers near the playhouse, and they are not blooming."

Well, I should have been more spesific. I have several peonies near the playhouse, but they are new and will probably not bloom in a couple of years yet. How could Terje know :-)

By the way, I spoke with Terje in the evening and he told me that no peonies were blooming yet, but the deep red ones near the bird feeders have huge buds.

Snapshots from Kärnten

 

I am enjoying my days with friends in a small village in Kärnten, Austria. Writing in the mornings. Long walks.

While I walk I knit tapestries with words, inspired by the beauty of the nature here. Inspired by the light. By the colours.

 

 

 

Shoes fit for colourful walking

 

I walked through "all" of Venezia twice yesterday. First in the morning to say good bye. Then later in the day with my heavy suitcase, from my flat near Accademia to the railway station. It was hot, hot, hot.......

Italian ladies wear such lovely, high heeled shoes. I brough several pairs of shoes with me (no high heels though), but all my walking, hours every single day, easily gives me blisters, and again and again I ended up in my old puma shoes. Not chick I know, more like a cow on two feet, but they are comfortable, oh so comfortable.....

I have arrived in Austria now, and here I will spend a few days with my dear friend Dagmar and her family. There might be some daily blogging, there might not.......I am here to work on my book and to enjoy days with Dagmar, so internet comes further down on my list.

I have no internet access on my own laptop, but Dagmar's daughter let me use hers. That means I will wait to post some lovely, lovely Venezia tales till I am back in Norway with my own computer and my archive of thousands of photos.

 

Interlude

 

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I am on my way to Austria today.

Back to more blogging tomorrow.....hopefully

Can it be Venezia's best pizza? and THANK YOU!

 

Mauro folded out our well worn Venezia map. "There are so many places filled with tourists here in this city" he said, "I want to show you the real thing, the real Venezia."

With a pen he made a cross, and in the nearby canal he wrote - all'Anfora, ask for Claudio.

 

It was Marta and Terje's last night in Venezia (for this time), and we wanted to celebrate with "some real stuff". Mauro were right. The pizzas at all'Anfore were the biggest we've seen in Italy and really some of the best as well.

We came early and were given a nice table. It didn't take long till the restaurant garden filled up, mostly with Italians, the chatting noise rised high, high, high, totally unlike Norway :-)

 

A meal shared. A strong token of love.

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It is early morning in Venezia. I am having a cappuccino and a glass of orange juice at a small outdoor table at the hotel where I finally found some internet access, and I am reading through ALL the comments from yesterday's posts. A smile found its way to my face, my heart beats a little warmer and I feel love and thankfullness flowing towards you all.

I will move in some way or other........

.......but I don't think I can live without my blog ;-)

without blogging ;-)

Aqua Alta last night

 

"I wish I could see aqua alta" Marta said. She did not, she left Venezia and a few hours later the aqua alta alarm went off!

I finished my dinner, payed my bill and went down to St.Mark Square as soon as possible. I wanted to experience aqua alta, unfortunately without Marta.

 

I took off my shoes and enjoyed the night!

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Aqua alta gave me tons of photos, tons of stories. But not for this blog. Some must be saved for the book I dream of writing............I hope you understand.

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The House in the Woods is losing readers. I wonder if it is time to move on......

A Day on Water

 

Since the first, well, actually the second time I came here, four years ago on our silver honeymoon, (the first time I was 14)I have looked at almost every boat. Dreaming. "How I wish I was one of the persons in one of the open boats in the small canals, in the laguna, in Canal Grande."There is nothing to prevent my dreams, and I always have alot of them.

Mauro made this dream of mine come true.

"Are you free tomorrow?", he asked. "Yes, we are, why are you asking?" Mauro smiled and said; "If the weather is fine, not raining, come here at 11.30, and we'll see!

 

We came. The weather was fine. And suddenly we were out in Maoro's small, wooden boat. Built by his own hands.

Through a million small canals inside Venezia, out on the laguna, crossing Canal Grande. I could never have dreamed the dream better.

 

Mauro, you are giving us such strong, vivid, wonderful memories.

THANK YOU! GRAZIE!

Fragola and other frutti

 

Terje and Marta are flying back home to Norway today. We have left Nati House and I will be moving into another flat for a few days. Some time next week I'll be on the train up to Austria.

I will feel lost without them! But I willl have time for working on my book.

What would you do if you had a few solo days in Venezia?

 

There is probably no internet connection in my new flat.....

 

.......but don't despair. There are alot more travel stories to come :-)

Do you want to try?

 

We spent all morning on Murano, looking on glass everywhere. At one point I let Marta and Terje wander on while I sat down to write....a story with glass in it.

Back in Venezia we decided to visit Mauro in his workshop to pick up the squirrel he made for Marta and also a necklace Terje has bought me as a belated birthday present.

 

We were on the point of leaving the workshop when Mauro suddenly asked Marta: "Do you want to try to make some glass art? Come here, sit down." He didn't need to ask Marta twice, she promptly found her way to Mauro's special work chair, and a lesson started.

With steady help from Mauro's hands, Marta made the cutest litte fish in the colours of the Italian flag.

 

 

 

Again we were on the point of leaving, again Mauro stopped us with a question: "What about you Britt, do you want to try?"

OF COURSE I DID!

My heart beated fast, I was sweating and my hands were shaking! I made my first tiny litte piece of glass. A bonbon.

 

 

 

Who knows, with a bit of training I might become a glass artist! Watch out for competition Mauro :-)

Mauro will be moving his workshop to a bigger place in a couple of weeks. Yesterday he told us one of his dreams - to be able to open the workshop for a small group of selected tourists. For a week they can come and learn to make glass art, to watch his work, to eat nice meals and to get to know more of Venice.

I would LOVE to be one of the selected tourists in one of these groups. What about you? Are you ready for a glass adventure?

May be there will even be some spaghetti vongole.....

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You can read more about Mauro Vianelli and his work here, and also follow his blog here.

 

First and last photo from Murano. The others from Mauro's workshop.

Mauro's animal

 

Isn't this a cute squirrel? Marilyn, if you email me your address, I'll send you a Venice postcard.

We spent a long time in Mauro's workshop today. I even made my first piece of glass art! Come back tomorrow morning to see :-)