Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Depression or rainbow?

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Heard on the news that 1 out of 5 retirees are depressed. The number shocked me and a list of whys flowed through my mind.

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I started my first job when I was around 26. I had a good education, I had two young boys, it was time to work, at least parttime. I was employed by our church to do deaconal work. For 20 hours a week I was to make life more colourful, less lonely for the elder people.
I had a long list of old people whom I visited regularly, and I spent a lot of time wondering what made them meet life so differently. Many of them were depressed and used me as a wall to complain against. Others let the sun fall on me as soon as I walked into their rooms.

Two very different lives stay stronly in my mind almost 30 years later. Anna was depressed, she had lost the colours in her life, and once a week, when I came to see her, she spent all the time focusing on her lonely life. Often crying. Always complaining that her family never came to see her. To endure my visits I looked around in her tiny appartment trying to find object from her long life of which we could talk, of which she could share memories. I never found any. My feet were heavy when I left Anna. So was my mind.
Edith took a long time to open her door, which was fine as it gave me a chance to regain my breath after climbing the dark stairs up to her tiny appartment on the forth floor. Edith opened the door smiling, sent me into her miniature combined livingroom and bedroom while she and her walker slowly went into the kitchenette to make us coffee. I was never alowed to help. We sat down, sipped our coffee and Edith started to talk. Tiny, like her world famous name sister, she took me to the huge ballet theatres of Europe. After a while she reached out for her scrap book, and very carefully she showed me photos of a young, beautiful dancing Edith. For an hour I was totally mesmerized. When I left Edith I danced down the many stairs, out onto the street.

 I never found out anything about Anna´s life. I have no idea what happened to Edith, why a famous dancer could end up in this dark appartment.
I do know that Anna´s light place with the huge window facing a huge tree changing with the seasons, always felt dark, walls pressing agains my mind. I do know that Edith´s poor place felt like magic opening to  Sound of Music.

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I am deeply thankful to both Anna and Edith as they both taught me the same, important lesson, though in two completely different ways - I never wanted to become like Anna, Edith became a heroine:

Live your life fully. Collect your memories. Share your tales.
Seek for the rainbow, never anything less.

After visiting Anna I knew how important it is to keep a diary. To collect memories, to enrich my palette. After visiting Edith I knew hom important it is to keep a diary. To collect memories, to enrich my palette.

 

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And the moral of this post:

How can I share colours when none can be seen?
Or is there a moral? 

Bird in Lace

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Not all photos need words.

These don´t.

Unwrap the colours. The shapes. The light.

Take it all with you into your day.

A Sunday Walk, the Slow life

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My weekly Saturday morning walk became an after lunch Sunday walk. Saturday morning I was driving Marta and a couple of friends to their cheer-leading practice. Then I had about one hour for my photo walk before I was to meet up with an out of town friend.

I drove the girls. I drove downtown. I parked the car. I started to walk. And I realised then I had forgotten my wallet at home.

So what did I do? I walked back to the car. I drove home. I found my wallet. I drove back downtown. And I sat down to have a cup of coffee until it was time to meet my friend.

And I had a wonderful, wonderful time with my friend. Browsing a few stores, a little shopping, a long lunch filled with food, but most of all with words.

I am sure you know them, the friendships where there can be months, sometimes even years between you meet. But when you do you continue your conversation just where you ended it the last time you met.....in the middle of your hearts.

On Saturday I did not shot a single photo.

So when Sunday come I was more than ready to warm my camera. When Terje suggested a walk along the river I was in my boots right away.

A slow walk along the river. Words and silence hand in hand. And stops every time I found another view perfect for a photo.

I had planned today´s post to be a The Slow Life post. About the bread I baked, the paella I slowly cooked. The long meals we had, dinner for me, Terje and Marta Saturday night, for me, Terje and Øystein Sunday night. Life turned out so slow, so perfect, I never reached out for my camera once.

The Slow Life. A movement? Yes, out there somewhere. For us it is life. Both on the busy, long workdays and on weekends.

Dinner is the meal we always share. A set table. Nice glasses. Cutlery. White plates. Burning candles. Often a simple meal, like the spaghetti with shrimps and baby tomatos we will have tonight. Sitting down together. Time to chew. Time to taste. Time to let the shoulders down.

The Slow Life.

The Good Life.

Life.

Thanks for playing along last night. The photo was shot during our Sunday Slow Life walk and is of course the old spire of the Nidaros Cathedral.

Aslaug in Spain was the first one to give a correct answer, and she has already given me her address. The most creative guess  was Martha B´s elephant. I already have your address Marta (at least I think I do. You are in Kansas, right?)

Guessing Game.......just for fun

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Terje and I took a long walk after lunch today, and I shot this image.

A valentine surprise to the first one to tell where/what it is.

Another one for the most funny guess.

Booktalk on a Sunday 44

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Five years ago, on February 4th 2007, I wrote my first Booktalk on a Sunday blog post. I had planned then to write one every Sunday. Though I didn´t follow that plan close, this post happen to be my 44th Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods booktalk. Not bad :-)

You find them all, together with a lot of other book posts, if you click on the category BOOKS.

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Today´s bookpost is a little this and that. Ot may be I shall use the words from last weekend, a little bric a brac.

I started to read an author quite new to me yesterday. Philip Roth. Do you know him? I first saw his name on Twitter where the Norwegian Crown Princess Mette Marit mentions to someone else his name. I saw some of his books while browsing through a bookstore downtown yesterday, picked up Exit Ghost, srarted to read it last night and soon found that I like his writing pretty well. And as I am planning, the coming months, to concentrate a little on American litterature, to prepare for our July in California, Roth feels like a good choice. Ok, ok, he is from the East Coast, I know, but anyway!

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Have you read Philip Roth?
Which one is his best book in your oppinion?

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I have been on Twitter for several years. Active in periods. Quiet in other. Through the years Twitter has been a place for me to read about travels and to discover new books.

Yesterday I decided I want to share my travel litterature collection on Twitter, and I made a list #travelbookaday. There I will, yes, you got it, I will share a travel book a day. My definition on what a travel book is, is quite wide though. I stated yesterday with James S. Ackerman´s Palladio. Not exactly travel littarature, but it is the one I used when I traveled the Brenta River with my Italian friend Antonella last year.

I haven´t decidet yet which travel book to promote today, but you will find it on twitter.

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Back to American books. I made a list some months ago, based on your suggestions. I still have the list and I´ll use it now to chose books. But the list is not finished yet, so if you have a favorite, a book you think is a MUST before we visit the US/California, please let me know and I will add it to the list.

It is a grey winter day here in Trondheim today. Icy cold. Slippery roads. Soon time for breakfast, then church.

And then the rest of the way, well, at least a few hours, will be dedicated to reading.

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Have a blessed Sunday. 

Music for supper

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I´ve had music for supper two nights in a row. Different menues, though both in Olavshallen, both with Trondheim Symphonic Orchestra. The first night I went with a few colleagues. My parents were there also and I met them before the concert to have coffee. On the music menu was Fauré and Debussy. Fauré´s Requiem. Debussy´s Nocturnes.

I like to come early. Read the program. Let my expectations flow. Watch the musicians tuning their instruments

Fauré´s Requiem is some of the most beautiful music written. Debussy is not my favorite cup of tea, still okay and perfect music for wandering thoughts.

 

The second night was quite different. Same orchestra. Same music hall. Different conductor. This time it was my little brother. Torodd Wigum. Different music. Johan Halvorsen. Nino Rota. Jerome Kern. Igor Stravinskij. Johannes Brahms. Modest Musorgskij. Edward Elgar. And a few more.

Before the concert I had coffee. Not with my parents this time, but with Terje.

Friday night. A busy week is over.
Good to sit down together.
Good to share the week. 

Good to travel into the music hand in hand.

Good to walk home after the concert.

Hand in hand.

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Saturday morning has come no.

Guess what I will be doing this morning?

 

And lucky me. After my camera morning walk I´ll meet up with an out of town friend. We will have lunch together and I know that words will flow.

 

Running with wolves, flying with birds, or?

 

There are books in The House in the Woods which I read again and again. Last night I took out Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés from a shelf I have over my desk for very special books. The book will follow me the coming days. Weeks. Months.

I love to run with wolves. I love to fly with birds. I love to crawl with turtles. I love to sleep with bears.

Life is about all this. Life is about the colours of the rainbow.

 

Tears
Smiles
Hugs

 

Have you met the eyes of a friend today. Looked at your own beauty in his or hers eyes? Let him, let her, see his, see her beauty deep in your eyes?

 

A fire

Coffee

Sausages

 

It´s called life.

Playing ball with the sun

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Three pm. Me walking from my new office over to the Archbishop´s Palace and the old office.
Sun in my eyes. Made it hard to see the pathway. The ice. Made it easy to see that longer days are on their way.

It started with a letter. A penpal through 17 years. Bad news.
I couldn´t believe when I read,

It continued through out the day. A phone call, an email. Words across a table.
The more I got the smaller I became.

In the end I felt I could creep into the wall and become invisible.
Hide from the world.

But the days are becoming longer. The sun is rising.
Life will go on.

I will survive.

Shadows are here to show us the difference between light and dark.

Trondheim skylines and a little bric a brac

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I decided to do something different on my Saturday morning walk last week. To look for colours, shapes, angels I had not yet photographed. To surprise myself. To see my beloved city with fresh eyes.

And surprise myself I did.

The most wonderful patterns, laces and rainbows appeared.

How can I have missed the playful mixture of colours up this hill. My eyes see the hill almost every day. It makes me wonder what I really see. How much I miss. Then comes the lace pattern made by the bare branches. I have made posts about bare branche laces before. Now it all felt new, again!

The day was cold and windy. Not many people out so early on a Saturday morning. I was not the only photographer though.

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Skyline and bric a brac

    

I am probably pushing the meaning of these words outside their lines. Can I call the first of these two photos a Trondheim skyline? The second a bric a brac?

Of course not. Still I do. Still I can.
I love playing with words. Especially in English.
And I guess I fall into a lot of traps.
English is not my mother tongue. Norwegian is.
No matter, I love to play with English words.

May be it is high time to read A.S.Byatt again. She is the queen of words. Or Frances Mayes. She is the princess.
My copies of their books are read to pieces. I  buy new, but never in a millon years will I throw away the read to pieces-ones.

But I am talking too much.
This was supposed to be a post about Trondheim skylines. And about bric a brac. I love those three words put together, though I have no idea where or when I first heard them.

Here is what wikipedia says about them

Items of low value? No, their not. Not in my understanding of the language.

Bric a brac - curiosities along the road.

But back to my Saturday morning walk.

I am sure you all agree with me that Trondheim si the most beautiful city in the world :-)

With or withour bric a brac

Old and new.
Glass, wood, brics........yes, brics a bracs.....

 ....and surprises around every corner.

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I could go on and on and on.......

....and might continue with a few more photos and words in a post tomorrow.
Or I might find something else to blog about.....

......like the amazing low sun I photographed outside the cathedral yesterday.

 

Blogging is a passion. And there is always too much to blog about. To share. 

Aurora Borealis, Northern Light in The Blue Garden

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Years ago there used to be Northern Lights to see quite often. Now I hadn´t seen it in many years. Not until Sunday night. The sky was clear, the stars were shining and I told Terje we needed to go into the forst, away from the lihts of the city. I was going to see the northern lights again. Aurora Borealis. Magic fairy dust.

The nights was cold, so we wrapped ourselves in comfortable winter clothes, and walked out. The night was also dark and we had no flash light with us. Of course not. We were to see the northern light. We needed darkness. The snow was hard. I stumbled and hurt my leg. The sky was sparkling with stars. But no northern light. After a while we gave up and walked back home. Terje drove to pick up Marta from her cheerl leading practice. I went in to continue reading my book. But I couldn´t stop thinking about the sky. Why hadn´t I seen the magic?

After a while I wrapped myself in a shawl and walked out in the Blue Garden veranda.

And there it was.

The Northern Light.
Aurora Borealis
Magic Fairy Dust. 

The photos are taken with a handheld camera. No art shots.
But the magic is there!