Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A Day Named Perfect

Text and image Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

Some days are meant to be perfect days.

Days when you focus on what is close by without taking your eyes off the horisont. A day when life almost overwhelms you.....but only almost.

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Perfect days can be observed, lived from different angles. You can be an observer, looking out for new land......or you can walk out exploring the new land ahead of you.

 
Some days are meant to be perfect days.

I breath deeply, fill my palette and do my best to learn new steps. Or to keep on using the steps I already know....and master.

 
Photo: Leiv Eriksson looking out towards new land All four photos taken at midnight!!!!

 

A History with Colours

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

"Have you always loved colours?" Jane asked me this question when we had coffee in town yesterday. I started eating my cupcake, I had to think about this question. Have I always loved colours the way I do today?

A very difficult question to answer, but as I sat there with my fantastic green pistachio cupcake, on a dreamy blue plate, images started to play in my mind like films. Images from childhood, from youth, from 53 years of living with colours.

Like when I was in fourth grade and wanted to knit myself a pair of slippers in art class. I picked some bright green and blue yarn but when I came over to the teacher she said...."no, blue and green don't fit together, you have to pick another colour combination" I wonder if that's why the green blue combination is my favorite combination today :-)

It was Marta's job to pick out a café for us yesterday. And of course we ended up at Fairytale Cupcakes. Thank you Marta.

Friends open your eyes

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

Showing new friends your world, your life for the first time is a wonderful thing. And what an eye opener it is. Like showing your world, your life to yourself for the first time.

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Jabe and Lanny came yesterday, and as we want to show them everything at once, we are superbusy......I have to remind myself that the slow life, which means so much to me, is also an important part of what we want to share.

I really can't blog about everything we do, there is not space enough in the blog, not minutes enough during the days.....but the coming weeks I will make sure that you get moments enough to rise your appetite to come to Norway and explore yourself.

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As always when we get guests from abroad, we took Jane and Lanny to "The Tower" for dinner. From there, the old television tower where the floor turns around, you get a 360 degree view of Trondheim and its surroundings in one hour.

The photos is taken from my parents' house where we went afterwards for coffee and my mother's famous krumkake

Of course my mother played for us, she never says no when I ask her :-), and Lanny had a busy time taking photos and short videos. I love the first photo where I am out on the terrace shooting a photos of mother and Lanny though the huge windows.

And then there is another one taken from indoors :-)

(one day I will learn how to transform my vidoes into YouTube ones and then I will share my mother's music with you all)

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If you want to travel to Norway though your computer you can follow The Norwegian Coastal Line, Hurtigruten, though the World's Longest LIVE Documentary, Hurtigruten minute by minute.

Here is the link

This morning Hurtigruten is in Trondheim for a few hours.

Are you Britt....... a repost. And friends soon coming

Last spring I met Jane and Lanny in Florence. Jane and Lanny live in California, and today they are coming to Norway, to Trondheim, to The House in the Woods.

We will spend almost three weeks together and I can't wait to start sharing our experiences with you.

Here is a repost from April 2010 when I met Jane and Lanny in Firenze:

 

I am back in Florence after 3 days of solitude and silence up in the Tuscan hills. Thomas, the proprietor of Santa Maria in Ferrano, drives me to the train station in Florence, and from there I walk to hotel Scoti. This time is different from Thursday, I walked to the hotel then as well, to be sure to find it, but then without my missing suitcase. Now I am happy, filled with thanks for the heavy load I am dragging - in it I have light summer clothes (and tons of books). The air up in the mountains was cold, I was freezing before my suitcase finally arrived on Saturday around noon and now, walking through the narrow streets of Firenze, I am dressed in jeans and a warm jacket. Oh my, Firenze is hot. It feels like a Norwegian sunmmer.

In the hotel (hotel Scoti is worth its own blogpost......later) I take a shower and dress in some light clothes, I pack a shoulder bag and I am ready for the city.

Hours, many hours later, with a basket full of stories to tell, I realize I haven't eaten in ages. My feet are hurting, and though it is a bit early for dinner, I decide to find a place to sit down for a pizza or something, and then make it an early night.

I look into several, actually quite alot of restaurants, but none of them feels right. Eventually I find myself at Piazza della Repubblica. The restaurants on one side of the pizza are extremely expensive, but before giving up I walk over to the other side. There are several restaurants there as well, much cheaper. I decide on the one I find most charming and head for a table close to the piazza.

Even before I sit down, a beautiful woman is coming over from the neighbour yable. "Are you Britt? I am Jane, a reader of your blog!"

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Oh yes, Italy never stops to surprise me.......

......to be continued

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the story continued last spring in Firenze and today it will continue in Norway

Summer party in the city, new friends waiting.

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
I was invited to a summer party last night, hosted by The City Mission of Trondheim. Invitation had gone to the about 900 volunteers, 150 took part in the party.

The party was held in The City Mission's backyard, and form where I sat, enjoying my summer dinner, cream cake and coffee, music, speeches and talking around the table, my eyes fell on the old chimney and the top of the cathedral spire.

The church, the creator, our bond.

We were a mixed group of guests gathered, from all parts of the world, from all parts of the city, all different groups of people. A mixture like God's first rainbow.

 
A choir gave us a concert, and while breathing in their music and their words, my thoughts started to wander. Suddenly I felt that my world, or rather the way I look upon the world, is so limited. I have my family, my job, my penpals and blogging friends, my books, my writing, my garden, my travels.......still there is so much more out there......out here!

The young beautiful African woman, why didn't I talk more with her, the drug addicted, I wonder what his life is like, the old woman with a face filled with wrinkles shining like sunrays, the man busy with his camera, the young girl who sang, the boy who played the piano, Alma from Mexico who shared a page of her life with me, the group of young women in the choir, they all looked to have so much fun together.....

 
I woke this morning filled with expectations. A new day! I wonder what it will be like?

Tears, sorrows, worries......ok, that's part of living life fully......but also smiles, looking into the eyes of a friend, words shared, a kiss from my husband after breakfast, a young couple on the bus, in love with each other, dinner with friends tonight, work done, making up two beds for US guest arriving tomorrow, birds in the park outside my window........but most of all people.....new friends waiting around the next corner.

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Show me my path Lord, and make me willing to walk it

May I tempt you with a rhuburb foccacia?

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
Seasonal living is not easy when you live as far north as I do. We could always live on snow, rainwater and dandelion leaves, but that would be a poor diet.

Still, I try to do my best to follow the seasons, like using the rhuburb now when they are at their best.

 
Do you remember the hot rhuburb soup I made at the cabin a couple of years ago? I made it again for a garden party last week, and again it was a success.

Sunday morning I read Lucullian's Delight, a favorite blog of mine, and again I was inspired to cook seasonal. I looked out the kitchen window, saw my rhuburbs......and got the idea. A rhuburb foccacia!

 

The recipe is very simple; 25g fresh yeast, add a little salt and a little sugar and wait till the yeast has melted. Add 3dl fingerwarm water and wheat flour till you have a smooth dough. Lat rais for 45 minutes. Spread on a baking tray and sprinkløe with diced rhuburb and a lot of suger. Bake for about 20-25 minutes in 225 degrees Celsius.

Enjoy!!!!

He made it! The greenhouse is finished :-)

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
Walk past the front door, through the Blue Garden, down the lawn, pass the young apple tree, and there you are. The greenhouse.

Finished! Finally! After so much work!

 
Now, when my tiny house is finished, I am glad we never had any idea of all the work required. If Terje had suspected it would give him only 1/10th of the work he actually had to do, I am sure he would have put his feet down and proclaimed: NO! NEVER!!

 

Lucky for me, unlucky for him (?????) none of us had any idea of the work included for such a tiny little house to be put together......and I am waving goodbye to my dream of a bigger house once I knew that I would love this.......if I want a bigger house I guess I will need a new husband first, and that is completely out of the question :-)

 

But now the labour is forgotten, and the greenhouse is filling up with the first plants. Paprika, tomatoes, and a few others.

 
And even though the greenhouse is tiny, tiny....it is big enough for me to bring my coffee, put a chair in there and sit down with my book......and my dreams.

 
Or I can sit dry inside the greenhouse, all through the wet summer, looking out to the lush Blue Garden.

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Want to join me?

Welcome over.

 

Defeated

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
Defeated by rain.

Last night we looked at each other and exclaimed - enough is enough!

Then we packed our bags and drove the two hours back to Trondheim.

 
Still raining today.....but in this weather I prefere The House in the Woods to the cabin....

......and we will have so much fun to do indoors today making the last plans for Jane and Lanny's visit (blogreaders/friends from California)

 
By the way Jane and Lanny, there are bad floodings sout of us, between Trondheim and Oslo. Roads and railway closed. I will write you more in an email (it should still be okay for you to arrive here in Friday, somehow :-))

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Photos: roses at the cabin two years ago

Coffe time with roses, strawberries and lilacs

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

Last night's torden and heavy rain seems like the start of much more rain. It is pouring down today, and icy cold. The rain is perfect for my cabin roses, for the cherry tree we planted two years ago (do you remember?) and perfect for my curls.........a disaster for anything else!!!!!!

We can read of course, we can nap, we can play games........but at some time it was time for an expidition. A visit to the annual art show (on Pentecost weekend) and then coffee at the small apple blosson café - I gave the cafe its name some time ago because of its beautiful apple blossoms.

A proper name today would have to be Strawberries and Roses :-)

Andyes, the cake really tasted as good as it looks.....and we finished it in no time.....

Later we drove out to one of the small island, hoping to be able to go for a walk, but no....

....and then found a small local restaurant where they served a bacalao buffet.

Now I am back at the cabin with my books and my curls....

.....and cold rain playing on the rooftop.

 

Tor's fight in the Thunder Storm

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

Thunder in Norwegian is torden, coming from the ancient Norse god Tor. Tor had a strong hammer, and when he was angry he flew over the firmament, thundering with this Tor's hammer.

 Tor must have been very angry tonight.........his storm lasted for a long, long time. It is Pentecost, and I wonder if Tor actually was having a fight with The Holy Spirit. That explains all the water Tor let fall during his fight. A good try to kill the holy flames.

 Thank God, The Holy Spirit wins this fight. Today and all through eternity :-)

Photos: from our cabin during tonights torden