Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, or blogging is a passion

Blogging is a passion. Every day there is a special corner of my heart which fills up with ideas. How can I blog about this? How can I show, share, explain.....how can I pay forward what I have been given?

Lately I have been thinking alot about the time I spend on blogging. Is this the path I am meant to walk? The statistics shows more readers almost every day, the comments are fewer than they used to be (alot of comments give me a kick, few is not what I like.......) When I wrote yesterday's post I was seriously thinking about giving daily blogging a break.

Then Anne's comment came in almost as soon as I had hit the publish button. Then there came more. Some of you share your faith, some share your lack of faith, your doubts. Much later Catarina B's words came to me: Do you realize that your online friends take comfort from reading your words , and I suddenly knew that I am on the right path. The road God is creating for me. Some days the path is narrow, dark, filled with obstacles, other days I reach the tops and can share the wonderful view with you all.

My mind turned.........my blogging keeps on.

THANK YOU!

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Well, when I started this post I had planned to write about Ash Wednesday, and what I did with Torgeir last night, when we went to Vår Frue kirke/Our Lady's Church where Maja Zakariassen read from The Desert Letter by the Swedish Göran Tunstrom, written as the autobiography of Jesus from his early childhood till his 40 days in the desert. Knut Størdal played on the organ his own music created for this book. A mighty night. A very good start of the 40 days of fasting, the period of Lent.

Afterwards the Anglican congregation here in Trondheim celebrated a service in the church. Again I could put my life in the hands of God.

God, show me the way. Make me willing to walk it.

Photo: the organ in Vår Frue kirke

Pay it Forward

For two long, full days we have had a gathering for more than 200 church workers in the diocese of Nidaros. Focusing on how to share what we believe in: "God gives - we share", we have been together for mass, prayers, meals, talks and seminars.

Two services/masses and one morning prayer during the two days. I try to be in the cathedral early, to sit down in the silence. To let God fill me, to let he lead my prayers, my thoughts.

To let he, by the help of the cathedral's boys choir, fill all of me with praise and beauty.

I was baptised more than 50 years ago. My name was written in God's heart that day and has been there ever since. For more than 50 years I have been growing as a christian, walking the paths, the roads already made ready for me by my creator.

 There are signs along these paths, saying "you have been given so much, never forget to pay it forward"

Where are you leading me God?

What direction does my path have today?

 

Feittirsdag, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Grass, Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, or.......

Today, the last day before Lent starts, has alot of different names. Here in Norway we call it feittirsdag (fat Tuesday), and traditionally you ate alot on this day, to fill up your body before the long, hard period of lent.

 

 

My book about Lent is decorating a special table in the House in the Woods now, and I will create the rainbow around it. One colour for every week of lent, starting with red this week.

 

I am busy with extra long days at work for a couple of days, but Terje has promised to buy salted meat and swede today on his way home, and tonight I will make our traditional feittirsdag's dinner.

 

Here is a link to"40 dager - fra karneval til oppstandelse" (you can flip through the book by following the link bla i boka her.

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Happy feittirsdag!

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A few years ago I celebrated the beginning of Lent in Austria, visiting my dear friend Dagmar:

In Austria I was fascinated by a tradition unknown to me. Every year at Ash Wednesday a Lent Tapestry is hung in the church, and there it will hang during the seven weeks of Lent.

When I found out about this tapestry tradition Dagmarhad to take me around to every church where she knew there was a tapestry, and I could have stood there for hours just reading the stories told through images.

The Fastentuch in Dagmars local church, only a stone's throw from Dagmar's farm, is from 1555. It is made of 39 different pictures and is huge - almost 5 x 7,5 meters.

The Lent Tapestries are from a time when most people could not read and the images was used to tell the stories of the Bible.

Lent is a time for silence, prayers and reflections. I make my own Lental Tapestry. Not with colourful wool treads but with Bible stories woven with a purple feltpen in a small orange and purple silken notebook.

My first weaving is the story of the rainbow:

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Photos: a modern Austrian Lent Tapestry, two Austrian churches near Dagmar.

Booktalk on a Sunday 35. Photographing India

During the month of January I read several books on photographing. The more I read, the more I study photos, the more I see how I can make my own photos better.

My dear friend in India, Carolyn, is a daily reader of my blog, and when I some time ago mentioned the Indian photographer, the late T.S.Satyan, which used to be a friend of Carolyn and Hossy, she sent me a list of his books. I did a search on amazon and ordered Satyan's autobiography; Alive and Clicking, and had a wonderful time, filled with vivid memories from my three weeks in Mysore, while reading the book.

The autobiography contains a few of Satyan's black and white photos, but I wanted more. Actually, ever since I saw one of his photos in Carolyn's studio in Mysore, and looking through his photobook In Love With Life which I found on Carolyn and Hossy's coffetable, I have wanted more.

 

Amazon couldn't give me anything though, his photobooks were unable or out of print.

 

Then an email came from Carolyn: I have bought In Love With Life, and will mail it to you.......

 

The book came a few days ago. And I have been looking through it several times since then. Trough T.S.Satyan's photos I've traveled to the old India, and at the same time memories from my three weeks in Mysore has come alive in a new way.

 

Here is a photo of Carolyn in her studio. Carolyn is a master quilter, there are almost more quilts coming from her hands and heart than I am able to count. Many of them are made of hand woven and hand dyed cotton from her daughter's farm. The black and white photo up to the right from Carolyn's head is one she and Hossy were given by T.S.Satyan.

 

I have been looking through all mu hundreds of photos from India today. I feel blessed to have all these memories, blessed to have such dear friends in India. I don't know if I will ever go back there, but the memories will live with me forever.

 

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All photos are from people in and around Mysore.

Happy Day! Three in one!

While I spend (at least part of) the day working on my next booktalk, I want to wish you a

Happy Norwegian Mother's Day

Lovely Valentine

Blessed Fastelavn (Sunday before Lent)

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Photo: Kew Gardens in February 2009

A List of This and That

1. I had an appointment with my oldest son in another part of Trondheim, so I didn't have time to visit my new found Saturday morning café. Instead I sat down at Café Bristol. During my cappuccino ideas for a Caffe Avec post from Trondheim was born........and will be posted in the travel blog.

2. Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods now has her own group on facebook. New members are always welcome. Follow the link and you will be right there.

 
3. When will it stop snowing?

 
4. Next week-end I will be in London and hope to meet a few of you on Saturday afternoon. Let me know if you are in the area and I'll let you know my plans.

 
5. I had teo coffees downtown today. The second was with Torgeir and was not a coffee at all, but a huge mug of English Breakfast Tea and an applepie with whipped cream.

6. My mailbox was filled when I came home. Letters and gifts from Leslie, Carol and Carolyn. What I got? Well, that's for tomorrow to write about............ 

Fastelavnsboller, pastries before Lent

It is the carnival time, or the last days before Lent starts. A period which is filled with traditions, and often the strongest traditions, those which survive, are the traditions concerning food. On facebook this week-end alot of my friends have written about the baking of "fastelavnsboller" or semlor as Sewdish Ilva call them. I see from what Ilva has written that in Sweden they are typical for Fat Tuesday, and this differes a little from the Norwegian traditions. here they are for Sunday before lent, "fastelavnssøndag".

Traditions are important, and in The Blue Café I try to follow the traditions as best as I can. During the period of carnival the food is rich, you are supposed to fill up before Lent starts. I don't say totally no to meat during Lent, but still I try to make our menues simpler, with less meat, less sweets. Then it is nice to feast with food now, these last days before Lent starts, and the cream filled pastries which we call fastelavnsboller, are perfect for that.

fastelavnsboller

300g butter
1 liter milk or water

100g fresh yeast

1 teaspoon baking powder

a little salt

2dl sugar

white flour

Melt the butter, add milk/water and warm till fingerwarm. Add the fresh yeast. Mix flour, suger and salt and add the fluid. Mix/knead well. Let the dough raise for almost an hour. Bake round pastries and let them raise for at least 30 minutes. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 220C.

Eat them cold, filled with whiped cream. At "fastelavnssøndag" we always hide a miniature Venezian ceramic mask in one of the fastelavndsboller. The one who finds the mask gets a little gift.

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Music for the fastelavnsboller? It can't be anything else than Saint Saëns and Le Carneval des Animaux, can it :-)

 

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This post was posted a year ago on my old Blue Café blog on blogspot.

 

You find more about Lent and the traditions in my book "40 dager - fra karneval til oppstandelse"

Trondheim for me and for tourists....and for you.

I never get tired of walking in Trondheim. With my good friend, my third eye, my camera, I am out every Saturday morning. First walking, photographing, then after a while I find a café where I can enjoy a cup of coffee, the quiet, and the playing with words.

Last Saturday I was not alone. Tourists from one of the ships visiting spent a few morning hours walking around the most famous tourists sights. Like the Old City Bridge, and the old wooden warehouses along the river.

Tourists often makes me see my old city with fresh eyes.

Though I must have taken photos from this bridge a thousand times already.

When you come to Trondheim I'll take you on a tour along my favorite route. Or along several routes.

Where do you want to start?

Please don't think it was easy to photograph the new oven.

I am so thankful for all the comments you gave when I posted about the new oven and the old recipe book. Several of you asked for photos of the new oven, and here they come.....though they were quite hard to shoot :-) The oven is a Norwegian Beha, especially made for the Norwegians' love of baking, according to our seller. The first thing the seller asked when we came to look for a new oven, was "Do you like to bake?" I could answer a loud and clear YES, and then he replied back that he had the perfect solution for me.

The coming days and weeks will show me if he was right.

I love this shining black.......the old oven was impossible to clean, to make shine.....

 I love the new display, with alot of great functions.

 I have been baking the last days, yes I have :-) Here I am starting to prepare a pizza dough.

It looks delicious, doesn't it :-)

Spanish Serrano ham, Norwegia cheese, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. So simple. So good. I love to make pizzas, different pizzas, and we love to eat pizzas, different pizzas. Right now the favorite of Terje and me is pizza topped with pear, blue cheese and walnuts. Ah, my mouth is watering while writing this.......

Then some ruccola/rocket to make the pizza swing.

Afterwards I made a roulé, and Marta helped me fill it with some leftover Nugatti (Norway's answer to Nutella)

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Welcome to The House in the Woods to share a meal with us......any time!

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What is your favorite pizza topping?

From where do you pick up your courage?

We have had snow for a couple of months now. Just enough with the roads ploughed clean (ask me who is in charge of the ploughing in Trondheim, and I am beaming.....). Living in Trondheim means that I am used to drive all year round, no matter what the roads look like, but I must confess I rather drive during the snow free months. The bus is my choice when I go downtown for work, or I drive with Terje and walk the 25 minutes from his office to mine.

Yesterday morning was different. I had a meeting at the other side of Trondheim, and going by bus would have taken a long time, time I did not have at hand. Our silvergrey Peugeot was waiting for me in the carport when I woke up. Looking out the window while eating breakfast, my heart fell. So much snow had fallen during the night, and the local roads in our neighbourhood had not been ploughed yet. My first though was: "Is there any possibility to stay home today? A sickday?" But I had no headache (I never have), my tummy felt ok, no fever, I did not feel sick.....I did not even feel a slightly bit unwell. Second thought: "Is this a snow day?" But we don't have snow days in Norway. I never heard of snowdays untill I made oversea friends.

I had an appointment with my hairdresser before work, and left the car at home while walking the 5 minutes over to her, hoping for snowfree roads when I came back. Two hours later I was back with the car, no less snow on the roads. "What about a taxi?" I said to myself..........but then started to think better of it.

"Hey Britt-Arnhild. You are Norwegian, born with skis on your feet, stubbornness enough for two. You have done more challenging things than this. Where is your courage?"

I started the car, I made it up the first steep road from our house.....and then all the way downtown, then to the meeting, and in the end back home again in the afternoon. Then I was met by the ploughing car, removing tons of snow from our slope, right up from The House in the Woods. The ploughman was still working when I came home, the way in to our drive was filled with snow and I had to wait while he finished. I met his eyes through our car windows, and could give him a huge smile. Yes, I had made it!

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Where do you pick up the courage to live through the everyday challenges?

Do you want to hear where I pick up mine, I mean except  from belief, prayers and so on.......?

.......I pick it up from female travel litterature! My passion! Dervla Murphy, Vita Sackville West, Freya Stark, Isabella Bird, Jan Morris and oh so many others. What is driving a car in Norway during a snowy winter of 2010 compared to their adventures!

This morning I drove with Terje, and had my 25 minutes lovely walk.

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All photos are from The Blue Garden