Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

New Message from hospital

One hour before the surgery they called from the hospital:

Surgery is delayed till October 14th!

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This is the second delay. I can´t believe it!

A minor surgery, a major circle of friends

text and images britt-arnhild

A window is opened to welcome the world. That´s how I want my life to be, how I need my life to be. T

Through this window I breath the fresh air, I look out to follow the life outside. Most of all the open window grants my contact with you.

In a couple of hours I am on my way to the hospital. A few hours later Terje will pick me up and drive me home. A minor surgery.

I will walk through the day supported by your prayers, your well wishes, your thoughts, good vibes.

I am neither allowed to eat, nor drink this morning. My breakfast consists of your comments, your emails, your postcards, letters, cell phone messages, Ingrid´s blog, and the certainty that we live in this world together. We care for each other.

I have two prayer request for you today

- a two year old girl had a fatal fall in kindergarten Wednesday afternoon, serious head injuries, doctors are fighting to save her life

- my cousin Jorg died a week ago, life became too hard for him, his funeral is today, same hour as my surgery

 

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Old photos from near our cabin

Discharging. Recharging

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I keep on moving photos over to my new Mac, memories keep on flowing.

Three years ago I spent  a week in Mexico City, taking part in the huge UN HIV-AIDS conference.

There was a young girl that week, one of the Mexican volunteers, she was so full of life, you could see the rainbow surrounding her, lights sparkling out from her eyes, from her finger tips, from her whole body.

I couldn´t take my eyes away from her.

In her every move, every light, every colour, I felt there was something I could learn.

This girl came back to my mind last night when I refused to be bored.

The way she lived her life fully.

The restlessness, the love of life I feel these days......I am more used to it as a spring feeling. Wanting to run out in nature to shout the spring cry.

I wonder if the upcoming surgery has something to do with it.

I know I will have to take life easy for a time after the surgery, my body and my mind is preparing, is discharging

Hopefully I will soon be recharged.

Time to be bored or time to do something crazy

text britt-arnhild, photos marta, taken the summer of 2010

It is raining. No, it is pouring. The world outside our windows is dark. The House in the Woods has so few comments and I am on the edge of getting bored.....

......but wait a minute. I am never bored!

Life is too short for that and anyway I plan to keep on travelling the world till I am at least 100, I can always read maps, plan a trip.

Or I can sort through old photos, move them from my mini laptop till my new MacBookPro toy.

Any seedling of boredom blows away.

Life surrounds me and I want to sing. Dance. Smile. Laugh.

Make faces.

Rain pours outside the House in the Woods. 

Rain pours indoors as well.

Raindrops of crazyness.

Welcome over to share with me.

A raindrop of lived life.

 

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Crazy photos, I know. But this is me.

Now I am waiting for your raindrops to come.

 

 

Crazy comments.

The Blue Garden Shadows Inspires

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Flowers, annuals, perennials, roses are fewer in The Blue Garden as the days gat shorter and colder. The garden is still alive though, with a change of light and colours every day, all through the days.

 
Light, colours, shadows, a constant flow of inspiration.

Sue in Great Britain saw a quilt in my shadow photos, and talented as she is, it didn't take her long to transform inspiration to a quilt.

 
On the diningroom tabel I have a bouquet of autumn colours, yellow and orange calendulas, marigold, a late rose, a pink or a white pelargonium, cornflowers, lavender.......a fresh bouquet every few days.

 
In The Blue Garden the bouquets of shadows are fresh every few minutes.......as long as the sun is out.

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A link to Sue's post about her quilt (scroll down to a post called Off the Wall)

What Nature Offers

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Last year winter came early. Snow and frost from some time in October. I am gathering as much as I can of autumn´s beauty these days. Long afternoons in the garden, long weekend hikes near the cabin or in the hills surrounding Trondheim.

My nose surgery will be on Friday. Afterwards there will be a period of rest, a period when I will not be allowed to hike. The winter months often have too much ice. 

Now it the time to harvest as much of nature´s beauty as possible.

 

By the way, I have a huge pile of books to be read during my sick leave, I guess I need many surgery sick leaves to read them all.....

Foxberry Tales

text and images britt-arnhild

The foxberries are ripe, tyttebær as we call them here.

We were out hiking yesterday. Had planned to go picking foxberries in the area where we know to find a lot, but as it is the time of moose hunt in Norway, we decided against it. Instead we went to Geitfjellet, not far from where I hiked last Sunday.

I have grown up with foxberries. My father loved to pick them, still loves to pick them, my mother preserved and made use of the brihgt red berries in her cooking.

Terje and I always make jam, and we freeze berries for trollkrem, but now I have started to collect foxberry tales.......i.e. old ways to use these rich berries.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was served foxberry porridge, made with rye, as a dessert. I asked for the recipe and will make it myself as soon as we get some fresh berries.

This week, at the meetings with the Sami people, a couple of the men started to tell foxberry tales from their childhood.

Like how they, in winter, found green foxberry leaves, gathered a basket full to give to their grandmother. She dried it on the stove and used it for tea. A treat for the leaves was a candy cut in half.

Nature is generous. Unfortunately we are forgetting how to harvest, how to use what is here right in front of us.

I had dinner with the Sami. To decorate the starter the chef had used rocket salad/ruccola. "I pick wild ruccola all summer" one of the men said. "Wild?" I asked, "I also pick ruccola all summer, but that´s because we grow it in our herb garden. I´ve never seen it wild in Norway"  My Sami friend smiled, "Dandelions, I pick dandelion leaves and use them as ruccola"

 

I like to learn more from Mother Nature.  

To pay forward old knowledge. To gather recipes from my foremothers. To cook traditional food.

Do you have family recipes with wild nature included?

 

Terje loves to eat foxberries directly from where they grow. We are a perfect hiking couple. I can walk my own pace knowing that he is there somewhere, picking berries.

Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival and two young men.

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Once upon a time there were two young men who loved music. One of them conducted a children´s orchestra where Torgeir and Øystein played, the other was best friend with my little brother Torodd.

The two young men were both talented musicians, they played in an orchestra, The Trondheim Soloists, and travelled the world with their music, visiting festivals, only to come home to a city where no classic festival was to be found.

"I feel that Trondheim is missing something" one of the men said to the other. "I agree" said the other, "Let us do something about that. Let us start Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival"

The two young men were clever young men, brave young men, not afraid to try young men. And 16 years ago Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival was born.

 

Terje and I had a date last night, a three course date.

- coffee with my parents, where one of the cakes was my mother playing the new piece she is practicing on her piano (Lawn Tennis by Peterson Berger)

- chamber music in the Freemasonry Hall in Trondheim with the German Hagen Quartet and the cellicst Ralph Kirschbaum

- dinner at Havfruen Seafood Restaurant

 

 

Vegard Snøfugl and Sigmund Tvete Vik, thank you for the wonderful gift you give Trondheim every yearin September. Thank you for The Festival.

A link to Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival

 

Isola del Deserto. A Memory. A Dream

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There is a small island out in the laguna, not far from Burano. I have passed it many times, I have read about it, and always wanted to visit.

 

Back in August Mauro took us there in his small boat, this morning, while it is still dark outside and the rest of the house is quiet, I am revisiting though photos and memories.

 
Saint Francis of Assisi came to this island, Isola del Deserto in 1220 and stayed for a couple of months, on his way from The Middle East back to Italy and Assisi. 

 

Mauro navigated his boat into the small canal, we climed out and walked up to the monastery.

Silence was what wrapped us comfortably.

 
A brother was woken from his sieasa when we knocked the gate. Welcoming us heartly. Sharing the history of the island, telling us more about Brother Francis.

 

Behind the Saint Francis church is a garden. A place for silence, serenity, thoughts, wanders. The Norwegian authour Kristin Flood, who lives in Venice, has written a book about Saint Francis. During her writing process she stayed in the island for some time. Writing.

 

 
How I wish that I could not only follow the foorsteps of Saint Francis, but also those of Kristin Flood.

 
Writing my name in the monastery´s guestbook was like saying: I will be back.......

 
A Memory. A Dream

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Do you have A Memory A Dream to share today?

The Autumn Colours are not gone

text and image britt-arnhild

While driving I was listening to the radio. A combination of light talk, light music, with some news in between. 

It was relaxing, and kilometer after kilometer was left behind.

The young radio voice had a local dialect. She presented some more music, she talked about this and than. I hardly listened.

Then, all of a sudden my ears opened. The charming voice talked about autumn, about too much rain, too much fungis killing the colours of autumn. The birches this year are losing their leaves even before the colour changes. there would be no woods dressed in orange, red, yellow.

I looked out the card window. No autumn colours?

So what is this I see along the road I am driving?

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Let me tell you a well known secret - the radio voices and the television faces, most of them live in Oslo and see just a tiny little bit of our long, varied, beautiful country.

Dear radio voice, may I invite you to drive with me one day and share autumn colours with me. It will be my pleasure.