Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The sky, the sea, the stones and me

Text and photos Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland

At one point I left the others to  do a solitary walk. I need solitude, just like I need breathing, praying, eating, colours, Rim Banna on my ears, a smile from a special friend, a kiss from my lover, the crisp sound of walking on falling leaves, the knowledge that my children love each other, dreams, hopes, words.....

I walked without thoughts, still all the thoughts of my life filled me.

Concentrating on not to fall on the wet, slippery stones I felt complete and content. All the everyday struggles were gone with the wind. My life was whole and complete.

At one point I felt scared; how can it last, is there a catastrophy waiting somewhere? Then I let the seagulls take my negative thoughts away and rested in the moments of love and peace.

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The angel carrying the basket of thanks had a heavy burden to bring The Creator of Heaven and Earth.

 
When I came back to the others, Marta was helping Marius catch the third coalfish, the biggest one. Now we had enough for today's dinner.

Gone fishing, and a fish worth a kiss

The food industry is a hot topic in Norway right now. How clean is the food we buy and eat, do we know exactly what we buy? Some of our meat and fish contains phosphat, but how will we be able to know.....

In the middle of this discussion it is a pure pleasure to spend a week-end at the cabin with Terje, Marta, Ingrid and Marius......and go out to fish our own fish!

Not only do we get a healthy dinner for free.....we also have quite a lot of fun while fishing. And not only fishing. What about dancing a sister sister cancan.....

As you know, food is important to me - what we eat, how I prepare the meals, eating together. I try to avoid as much pre-made food as possible, no fastfood in The Blue Cafe, now with Marta a vegetarian we eat very little meat, a lot of vegetables...... but this healthy food issue is not easy. Not at all. How can we know what we eat?

 I don't have the answers to "how eat healthy", but I have a few solutions to how I want to live, for myself and for my family.

Like adding love as an ingredient in every recipe.

With a sister and a mother around with cameras, Marta is always ready to play along. I've never heard about a fish transformed to a prince when kissed, but who knows.......

 The blessings are many. Too many to count. I wrap them in love, and they are ready to be unwrapped whenever I need them.

Even the weather is playing along this week-end. With temperatures far, far from snow and frost.

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Tonight we have shrimps on the menu here at the cabin, together with playing games, sharing fairytales.

Tomorrow we will eat the three coalfishes we caught.

Memorable Macarons of Montmarte

Paris is macarons. Sweet, seducing, mouthwatering, tempting.......

We passed Biscuterie de Montmartre and told ourselves.......the macarons are not for us. Too sweet, too tempting.....we can't bring them all the way back to Norway anyway.....

....or may be we can? What about one single box......

The thoughts of the macarons followed me. I could feel their soft melting taste on my tongue, their colours danced before my eyes where ever I turned.

 ....let's go back to the biscuterie.....to have a look only.....and to remember the fragrance....

....we don't need to buy anything you know......just have another look.....

....hi, why is she filling a bag with dreams......we didn't buy anything......

....or did we?

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Photos and memories from a Saturday morning in Paris a couple of weeks ago.

And look, we were not the only ones tempted, the only ones baking photos....

An October post from my first year of blogging

Text and images Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland

I have been blogging for almost 6 years. Soon I have 2000 uniqe posts in my archives. Here is a repost from October 2005, my first year of blogging:

Inspired by Tasha Tudor

At our cabin I have three books by and about Tasha Tudor. I love reading them, looking through them, getting inspiration from them. Last time we were at the cabin Tasha inspired me to make a few decorations, Still Lebens, using the autumn nature around me. And when you are inspired nothing is difficult :-)

It was too late for the summer flowers, but nature was still filled with colours, and I loved bringing a few of them indoors.

The fox berries didn't last long on the table though. The girls ate them right from the plate, and I saved the last ones to eat with my dinner.

The roe berries lasted longer :-) They are too bitter to eat.

Nights are always very cosy at the cabin. We don't have electricity, only use candles and oillamps. Well, the last few years we've also had sun cell, so we have reading light all night now. I still love to enlighted the cabin with candles though.

I love the view through the livingroom windows. The table and chairs are placed to get the best view of the fjord and the mountains. The windows are huge and the curtains are almost always open. We want to enjoy the nature and the sjy as much as possible.

And what is better then, after a dark and sory night to enjoy berakfast in the rising sun on the terrace:-)

Breakfast under the lime tree

Text and images Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland

A couple of nights ago I finished the chapter in my travel book which tells about my week in Syria. While writing it has been almost like living the travel all over again. While reading the chapter I get yet another travel :-)

I am in Oslo today. Came down last night to stay with friends and had a lovely night with them, I could have talked non stop about Syria, but then they came home from Madeira the night before and stopped my flow of words to squeeze in some of their tales.

I am having breakfast in my friends' house. They have already left for work, so I am eating alone. Alone? Oh no, I have my Syria memories with me.

Just now I am dreaming myself back to breakfast under the lime tree. I remember the funny murals in the hotel in Damascus where we spent our two last night and I smile......

 
Memories are precious. Do you have one to share today?

You create every new day

 

Praise be to God for the new day!

Play the games

Text and images Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
First of all: THANK YOU from the deepest of my heart for the comments you left yesterday. I have read them all, several times, thinking of you and our friendship while reading. I know about such lamps several of you mention, but I don't think I will buy one. My main problem according to winter is the cold, not so much the light, or lack of light. Yes, we have a wood stove, we have electric heathing and we have a hearth. But we also have a huge, open house, so on the coldest days it will take time to heath it all. I will manage though....right now it is more the thoughts of so many winter months ahead.........

 
I do have a lot of things going on to keep warm though. Like celebrating the 9th birthday of a nephew. As  a birthday gift we gave him a backgammon I bought in Damascus, and after eating the birthday cake, he sat down to play with Torgeir (our oldest son)

 
I collect chess games from travels. In Syria there were some amazingly beautiful handmade ones. If I play chess? Yes, I do......a little. Last year our nephew, Benjamin, got a chess game from us which we had bought in Krakow, Poland. Benjamins grandpa has taught him to play chess. A few weeks ago Banjamin slept over with us and before going to bed he came to me: "Aunt Britt-Arnhild, do you want to play chess with me?" Of course I did. When the game was over I was tired and wanted to go to bed. It was way past bedtime for Benjamin, but he went over to Terje with his most charming smile: "Uncle Terje, will you play chess with me?"

Can you guess Terje's answer?........... Well, I can't because I went to bed.......

 
I could have bought several chess games in Syria, but restricted myself to one handmade box and a set of figures. The box was made in Syria, the figures came from India and are pieces of art, every single one.

 
Long, dark and cold winter nights, perfect for celebrations, being together, eating, playing games.......

To face the dark season

Text and images Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland

We were talking about the weather the other morning driving to work. Terje is not cycling any more now when the snow has come, so we drive together to his work and from there I walk half an hour to mine. "You know Terje, the thought of the long winter ahead of us makes me feel a depression might be on its way. How can I cope with it?". Terje doesn't feel the coming dark and cold season heavy on his body like I do, so all he had to say to my question was; "Well, the only thing to do is to take one day at a time and just live through it....."

 I was quiet during the rest of our drive and while walking my 30 minutes I said to myself; "Is this really the only way, just to let each day come, trying to make the days the best I can?"

Terje is right.......and wrong. Yes, what to do is to face every day......but then we always have a choice to make the day ours, to put on the best glasses (as I wrote about a few days ago).

This morning I knew which glasses to put on; "Let's leave the snow up here, drive down to the fjord and walk Ladestien (The Lade Path). Then we can say goodbye to autumn yet another time and pretent that winter is not here yet". Terje was with me on this :-)

Dressed in warm coats, scarves and gloves we walked the path. Took photos, had coffee at Sponhuset, walked some more, talked......and had a fabulous morning.

I am almost starting to look forward to winter. What will the months ahead bring?

Let's meet at Fairytale Cupcakes

Winter, my least favorite season, is knocking heavily on my door. Up where we live the ground is covered in snow, downtown it is wet, icy and slippery.

Some days I want to drag the duvet over my head and hibernate till spring. The challenge of facing 6+months of a cold winter feels too much right now.

Then Ingrid phones, "Mamma, shall we meet in town for a cup of coffee tomorrow. What about Fairytale Cupcakes?"

My world fills with colours again, and I start to believe that I will survive another winter.

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Happiness: to share a blueberry cupcake with your daughter....

 
.......and then bring some extras home for the rest of the family.

Thank you Ingrid for colouring my day!

Spices from the souq of Aleppo flavouring my soups....and some aged olive soap.

Text and photos Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland

The souq in Aleppo, from Lonely Planet:

Not as extensive as Cairo's Khan al Khalili or as grand as Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, Aleppo's souq is nonetheless one of the most atmospheric in the Middle East. Its appeal derives largely from the fact that it's still the main centre of local comerce. If an Aleppan housewife needs some braid for her curtains, a taxi driver needs a new seat cover, or the school kids need backpacks, it's to the souq that they all come. Little seems to have changed here in hundred of years, and while recent years have seen an increase in tourism, the local trade has yet to be replaced by sightseers.

Part of the souq date from the 13th cantury, but the bulk of what stands today belongs to the Ottoman era (largely 16th to 19th century). A walk through the souq could take all day, particularly if you accept invitations from the stall owners to stop for tea.

 
A walk in the souq could take all day..........and all we had was less than an hour. And all the time we had to walk together with the guide, together with the group. The guide knew the souq well though, and knew where to take us, where to make stops. Like near this stall selling herbs.

Oh my, how I longed to go wild there and then. Dive into the spices, perfume myself in the fragrances, dream myself into the kitchens of Aleppo where the housewives use these spices every day, and have done for centuries. It felt a little cowardish to stay so close to the guide and the rest of the group all the time. I should have followed my dreams and gone wild. Really I should!

Imagine the stories I could have told then.........

 
I did buy some small plastic bags of spices. Two types of pepper, "they go perfect together" the friend of the young seller told me. And he is right. I use them together now and get a taste of the Syrian kitchen in my Nordic Bluie Café dishes. Coriander........and regret all the spices I did not buy.....safron, cumin, allspice.........

Next time. There is always a next time, isn't there.........In real or in my dreams!

 
I made a vegetable soup the other day. Marta has been a vegetarian for three months now, I love the challenge of deciding what to make for dinner.

A carrot, some left over cauliflower, garlic, spring onion, half an onion, cellery, a piece of a squash. Boil for half an hour, add Syrian pepper mixture, coriander from the souq in Aleppo, salt from the saltmines outside Krakow in Poland, memories from west of the sun, east of the moon.

 
Terje, arriving home from a long day at work, warm from cycling up the long hills: "Mmmmmm, what a lovely smell in the house. What is there for dinner?"

Later, Marta, at the table: "Mamma, this soup tastes delicious."

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More from Lonely Planet:

One of the best things about Aleppo's fantastic souq is the olive soap. It's unique, handmade, decorated and 100% natural, being made of 90% olives and 10% bay laurel. And if it's good enough for the great queens of the Middle East (Cleopatra, Nefertiti, Sheba and Zenobia) it's good enough to pack away as a souvernir.

But not all soaps are created equal. The oldest highest.quality (and most expensive) soap is aged for eight years. The next quality down is aged for only three years and is best kept for the hair and body, while the cheapest soaps are only three months old and used just for your hands.....

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Lucky me, I have two Syrian masterly decorated pure olive soaps in my bathroom, patiently waiting in a glass bowl. I have no idea if they are three months, 5 years or 8 years, but it doesn't matter much. I am not going to use them yet, will keep them in the bowl for years, and put my nose down to them from time to time to smell them.....and to be taken right back to the souq.