Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The sock drawing, the table cloth and a surprise

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Wow, I am amazed by all the wonderful people out there who are deraming of a pair of handknitted socks :-) If I was a magican I would knit for your all.

I am not giving away my table cloth though. I bought it in India, at a special art market, and I have used it every day since I came home tree years ago. The colours on the photos are not the best ones, I shot the photos last night, in lamplight. But you get a good idea of the handiwork.

I have looked through my sock and decided I can give away two pairs.

Then my email was busy yesterday. Two of my dear friends and blog readers, both farmer´s wives, one Austrian, one Norwegian, both sock knitters, wrote me that after reading your comments, they wanted to take part in the giveaway.

So suddenly there are four names to pick.

Dagmar lives on a huge dairy farm in a charming little village in Southern Austria.

Among huge, snowcovered mountains. I have spent time there working on my books, hiking, enjoying Dagmar´s schnitzels, and......knitting socks

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Dagmar knits beautiful socks.

Granny (as she calls herself when she comments in The House in the Woods), is Norwegian, living on a farm only 90 minutes from Trondheim.

Near the fjord.

When we had visitors from California this summer, Granny invited us all to her farm, and when we arrived, on our way to the cabin, she served us her wonderful, rich, tasty fish soup.

Granny is also a knitter.

Dagmar and Granny don´t know each other. Well, they didn´t know each other until yesterday, when emails started to flow between the three of us. (I have had a secret plan for a long time to take Dagmar to Granny´s farm when Dagmar comes to Norway)

Dagmar and Granny have so much in common. 

Not only farming and sock knitting.

Also gardening....

and apples, like apfelstrudel and applepie......

 

But, this was not meant to be a post about Dagmar and Granny.

Back to the socks and the drawing.

 

 

Socks from The House in the Woods go to Kristi Jalics and vonnie.......

socks from Dagmar go to yael......

socks from Granny go to Mouse.......

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Congratulation girls.

Send me an email with your address. Mouse and yael, I will forward your emails to Granny and Dagmar.

A Saturday morning as I love it

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Saturday morning. Marta has cheerleading practice, Terje is renovation another room in The House in the Woods. I put the camera, a book and my diary in my purse and head downtown.

On Monday I am going back to work. I am back to normal.

I sit down for a caffee latte. The city is still quiet, the waitress is busy dressing up for halloween, the young waiter can´t take his eyes away from her. 

At the harbour a fisherman is selling the early morning catch. 

I walk into the fish market and buy some halibut.

A grey sky. A Saturday morning in late October.

 

In a shoe shop window I find remnants from last weekend´s Trondheim Open Art Show.

Ladies in pink. I wonder what they are up to.

Could have been singers in Die Csárdásfürstin, but they are not. I know because Terje and I saw the operetta Thursday night.

A lonely booth at the market place......

....no, there is one more. A woman selling lefse. I buy some. Knowing that they will be perfect with a cup of coffee after Sunday´s family dinner.

 

Father and child feeding the ducks near the river.

My Saturday morning in town is over. At the French bakery I have bought two small cream puffs. At home I know that Terje is looking forward to his coffee.

Later I start preparing the halibut......and who knows, there might be photos and recipe in The Blue Café........

The books and where I keep them.

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If you walk up the stairs from our hallway to the first floor landing, you will be met by a new bookcase, two new bookcases actually, put together. Filled with my collection of artbooks and my old paperback classics.

The bookcases were made especially for me by my 88 years old father in law this summer. Put up on the landing by Terje last week.

Terje and I decided to change rooms, dens, the ones where we have our desks, our computers, where we do our paperwork. He got the small one, the one I have been using for a couple of years, I got the big one, which is actually an extra livingroom, the one we used together for many years when the house was still filled with kids living at home.

In this moving process I decided to go through all my books, there are thousands of them. Dusting, sorting, giving away, filling new space, rediscovering old treasures.

Children´s books from my parents childhood, from my own, books collected, read and cherished for and by our gang of four.

 

In the guestroom, which is also a room where I display many of the children´s toys, I have set up a bookcase for the children´s books.

A heaven for any book loving child.

When I and my oldest brother were young readers, there was an elderly couple without children living in our neighbourhood. In their basement they had a special room where all four walls were filled with children´s litterarure. Once a week my brother and I were invited there, to look at the books, to feel them, to read, and to borrow. I was in paradise.

 One of the old books in this case is a bedtime storybook by Enid Blyton. Bestefar (grandpa) Johannes always read a story from this one when he took me and brother Frode to bed.

There are books in every room in our house.

Terje despair........shake his head.......and then helps me with the measures when I need a new bookcase carpented by father in law.

On top of mormor (grandma) Olga´s old sewing machine books, there are books waiting to be read, or like Jomfru Lide, which is the book Terje and I have been reading aloud the past months. Only one chapter left now.

 

In the hallway I have my collection of travel litterature. The crown of my book collection. The books mostly read.

Travel memories. Travel dreams.

Travel plans to be made.

 

There are still books to sort, to organise. But most of my dear books are in shelves now (most bookcases are in the basement........I forgot to take photos down there) Some are also in a couple of baskets, searching for new owners. If you lived closer I would invite you over and you couple see if you found something you like.

I love my books. You can see that, can´t you :-)

Last night I started to read..........well, that´s a tale for another day.

What is your favorite book?

Who is your favorite writer?

Warm socks. A giveaway.

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The warm autumn days with their low, bright sun are soon history.

I am knitting socks, preparing for a long, dark, cold winter.

I knit more than I need myself. A lot more.

Now I have an extra pair in blues (not the one on the photos) and I want to give it away. To one of you! Tell me in the comment section here why you want the blue socks, and I will draw a winner during the weekend.

 

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The orange book is my New Testament.

Prayers in every knit & purl.

I can easily get used to this life.....

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I can easily get used to this life. The life of pampering myself.

I wake up, read the newspaper, eat my breakfast, have my time for silence, Bible and prayers, feed the birds, blog, read, do a little this and that in the house, sit down at my desk for some paperwork. Look out the window. Enjoy the low sun, the ever changing sky, the autumn colours.

When it is almost time for lunch I fill a thermos with coffee, cut a couple of pieces of bread, search for a hidden piece of chocolate or cut a piece of my mother´s fyrstekake, or the spice cake with foxberries and cranberries which a dear friend gave me the other day. Then I drive up to Bymarka, unfold my map and search for paths new to me.

Yesterday a walk around the small lake of Baklidammen was my goal. Low sun, strong wind playing a symphony in the tree tops. A nature in peace, praising the season.

 

 

 

 

I could easily get used to this life. The life of pampering myself.

When the most difficult challenge during the day is to choose which photos to share with you among the dozens I take every day.

(may be I am not quite honest, there are other challenges as well, concerning my nose, my sinuses, my head, but I don´t want to focus on that, at least not here..........)

I don´t see many animals on my walks, but I see their tracks. Like these trees cut down by the beavers. In my backpack I always have a book, to read a little after lunch. Wouldn´t it be wonderful to sit down near these trees and read Narnia, and the brave beavers there :-)

 

 

"This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it"

( thank you Susan, your comment on yesterday´s post came in just as I was finishing this post )

"Today is just for me"

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I found the best key yesterday. The key to open my day. The key to pamper myself. The key to taking my lunch with me to Bymarka , the hills above the city, to do a hike around the lake, to sit down near Kobberdammen, The Copper Lake.

"Today is just for me" - thank you Jane for the title of this post. For the title of yesterday. Of today. Of every day.

I hope to go back to work again on Monday. I am missing my colleagues. My work. My daily routine.

I had planned to read my work emails these weeks, but as we were transformed over to a new server the day I had my surgery, I have not been able to get access. Now I am thankful for that. Only a few messages to and from my boss, a couple of phone messages from colleages........then nothing more. I can´t quite understand how life (work) can go on completely without me, but apparently it can.....

 

I have my key ring on the table in front of me. Filled with keys. I lift it up. I look at the keys. Feel them between my fingers. Different sizes, different shapes, different colours. 

I wonder which of them will be used to open today´s door.

The day is here. The day is mine.

Carpe Diem

How is the key you are using today?

The door to the future

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There is a huge door in my life. The door to the future. The door to the coming moments, days, months. The years ahead. The door is closed and it makes me wonder - what will I find behind? In my heart I keep a bouqet of keys, and from time to time I try one of them. Will I be able to open the door today?

Some days I am able to get a glimpse into the future. I am making plans, doing preparations, looking forward to, dreading. The door opens and I can foresee, I can make myself ready.

I make plans. One by one I build them, like logs. I make them fit well into each other. A safe, predictable, solid structure.

In the planning I can read stories from the past. Bring it with me. Paying forward.

Some days I struggle to find the correct key. To find any key at all. The door is closed. Plans made carefully are not to be.

A surgery. A sick leave.

The keys I have been storing for these weeks are not working.

 

Keys not working.

What do I do then?

Then I see........I have a lesson to learn.........to forget the keys..........to turn around.........to see what is already here.........unlocked.......

Here.

Now.

The art of living.

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Today I should have gone with the bishop to visit an area of our diocese for the rest of the week. That key didn´t work for me this time.

Instead I am HERE, NOW.......learning to live fully the life given me.

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Mrs Steglich, Kristi, Carol, Pondside, Jennifer, Lorrie, Kate I, Sophie, will you please email me your address and seeds will be on your way.

Anna, Fran, Pam, Marilyn, I already have your addresses.

Did I forget any?

 

Seeds with a promise of another summer

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Seeds are dry now. I am making small envelopes to keep the tiny treasures through winter. In a few months they will be planted and another summer will be on its way.

Wonders of eternal life.

I have extra seeds to give away.

Let me know in a comment if you want one of my small envelopes filled with Blue Garden seeds.

 

Not an ordinary Sunday morning walk, or Booktalk on a Sunday 43

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WARNING: text and images do not quite go together today..........or may be that´s exactly what they do? Let´s see what happens.....

At lunchtime today we are invited to nephew Benjamin´s 10th birthday. Tonight Torgeir, Øystein and Marius will come home for dinner. Enough on the board for one day for me right now, so I have no early Sunday morning down in the city planned.

 

Instead I am doing quite another walk. A memory walk down the Book Lane.

I am in the prosess of sorting through a lifetime of books.

Somehow there are always too many books around. Somehow there can never be enough books.

You know what I mean?

I have thousands of books, have never actually counted, but I know there are several throusands of them. I have managed to keep my travel litterature together, in two IKEA shelves with glass doors between the hallway and the livingroom. 

The rest of the book collection needs sorting.......and it needs dusting. Badly!

My goal is to get this sorted out before going back to work in a week´s time.

This Sunday morning it is the children´s books. A few from my mother´s childhood. Many from my own, my brothers´, my husband and his brother. Books I started to buy as soon as I knew I was pregnant, 30 years ago. Books collected for two sons, two daughters.

Now I am gathering them from around the house, we have bookshelves everywhere, putting them together in a special bookcase in the extra bedroom we call "the children´s room", which is also our guestroom.

As I gather the books, sort them, I am again and again taken down memory lane. A bedside storybook my grandpa Johannes always read from, a Nancy Drew with the inscription "to Britt Arnhild on your 12th birthday from Torodd" - brother Torodd was exactly three weeks old on my 12th birthday, a very old Johanna Spyri´s Heidi from my mother in law´s childhood, a series of "If you give a mouse a cookie....." which I used to read over and over for Marta.

.............The books are so many. The books are so filled with memories. All of them blessed, sweet memories.

The bookcase is not big enough. Many books will have to be put into boxes and stored away. Waiting for grandchildren, nieces, nephews. Waiting for new generations of readers.

Some of the books have the names of my brothers in them. Benjamin will get three of them today, for his 10th birthday. One of the Bobsey Twins, with his father´s name inscribed. Two about the Hardy Boys, is that also what you called them in USA, in the rest of the English speaking world, The Hardy Boys, the detective  brothers Joe and Frank?

When the children´s books are done, I will go through the rest of my collection. But right now there are more childhood memories to bring out of the mist.

(Yes, I knew the photos would be perfect for my book travel this Sunday morning.......)

 

Tonight, after the boys have gone home, after the dishes are done, I plan to reread a very special book, Secret Garden. I know that holding this special red, hardcovered books will bring memories. Of poor orphaned Mary, of a robin, a key, a garden coming to life, of friendship.........and of hours and days of sweet childhood reading.

 

Happy Sunday.

Happy reading.

Venezia - food & dreams -

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Tessa Kiros loves food and she loves travels. A perfect combination. And she write the most wonderful books where she shares her passions.

I have most of Tessa´s books, alternately I bring them out of the glass vitrine where I keep them. To dream.

In a few weeks Terje and I are going to Madeira for a week, so Tessa´s book from Portugal, Piripiri starfish is often out of the shelves these days.

But most of all I enjoy her Venice book, Venezia - food & dreams -

Travel tales, diary notes, restaurants, recipes, photos.........

Cicchetti, antipasti, zuppa, pasta, gnocchi, risotto, secondi, contorni, dolci......

A stroll at the Rialto fish market to get the best fish, a visit to the kitchen in a restaurant to learn a few secrets, a meal alone or shared with friends.

My mouth waters.

My dreams travel east of the sun, west of the moon.

 

Venezia - food & dreams -

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Soon you find me in The Blue Cafe´s kitchen, cooking.

Today a fagioli soup is on the menu. Partly inspired by Mauro and the huge pot of soup he made us on a hot, hot laguna beach day, partly inspired by Tessa Kiro´s recipe.

Most of all my own.

 

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Enjoy your day.

Nurture your dreams, and your cooking.