Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The most beautiful......

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When spring finally arrives, she brings with her all her beauty, all her colours. We woke up to a blue, blue sky, a sparkling sun, a symphony of birds' song, a nature jubilant.

We packed a backpack with coffee and some snacks and walked out to breath it all inn.

Aure, Nord-Møre, western coast of Norway.
The most beautiful part of the world.

There can be no doubt about that.

I do agree though that the world has many most beautiful places.
When I travel I find them, again and again.
Rivers, lakes, laguna, small villages, huge cities, old, new, colours, greyness, mountains, plains, trees, stones, sky.

I have so many "most beautiful" places.

Up The Brenta River from Venice to Padova, down Mekong River in Laos, hiking the hills above Terracina, a village with a very special farm in Austria, Central Park in sparkling autumn, afternoon in a small town in Eritrea watching the street sellers wash their feet after a long, dusty day, my summer village, a botanical garden on Tenerife, morning mist in Tuscany, a hill filled with irises in Florence, Easter in Budapest, ruins in Rome, catching vongole in the laguna.........

But today, here, now.....

.......the most beautiful place is Aure, and its sea, sky, mountains, colours and air.

So tell me, where is your The Most Beautiful place right now?

Toilet in the sun. Water in the forest

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Behind ther cabin is a tiny little house. Our toilet.

The door can be locked. From both sides. 
This is a room where you can find peace :-)

Charming on a sunny morning.
Not as charming on a stormy winter's night.

I know what I am talking about, believe me. For some reason I visit this tiny little house every night ;-)

For water we need to walk to the well, deep into the forest.

Usually with two plastic buckets, one yellow, one orange. The buckets old as the cabin (from 1975). This time we needed only the orange one, as the other was already full.

The well is the old well used by the nearby farm.
The well is never dry, and I am absolutely sure the water is better and purer than the water the farmhouse gets in the pipes nowadays.

Back to the cabin.

Through the forest.

 

 

All this walking makes me thirsty.
The sun is here, the sky is all blue and the raindrops from last night are drying up fast.

Have a blessed Sunday!

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What are your plans for the day?

Our is to do a hike. Yeah!

On a rainy day

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A rainy day never stops us.
Terje dressed properly and went out to chop woods.

I dressed completely different and drove the 15 kilometers from Rastarbo to Tingstuo. In search for green.

I found what I was looking for.

And I found more. I found coffee, fresh cake, and words, wordsgetting to know,  for sharing, for growth of a  newborn friendship.

Where IS spring?

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Four weeks ago we left a cabin and a forest almost invisible because of snow. I had planned to spend Easter praising spring, instead we looked out our windows to watch snow, snow and more snow.

For three loooong and busy weeks at work I have counting days till this weekend. To go to the cabin again, this time for four whole days, not only a too short weekend. And to find spring.

All the snow has now melted. Well, almost all the snow. There are still white patches here and there in the forest behind the cabin. The forsythia has tiny yellow flowers, yellow daffodils and blue muscatis (which we call pearl flowers in Norway) are blooming. One of the flower beds has a beautiful carpet of purple primula flowers and the rhuburb is ready to use.

But spring? Where are you?

It is raining, icy cold drops almost snowdrops. It is blowing. We heard the birds' symphony last night (the sun was here then, and no wind), now the concert has a long break with the musicians hidden, making sure to keep their instruments warm and tuned.

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Spring time at cabin. You never know what you get :-)

 

And while I wait for the sun, there are always things to do, things to enjoy.

Like reading Magnhild Haalke, a Norwegian writer who wrote books just before I was born. Wonderful books with an eye for the beauty of the Norwegian nature. Writing letters, I am back to my "favorite" habit of writing "mother India" a letter a day....to brighten her challenging days the coming months. Sorting through my collection of old paper dolls which I have in a box somewhere out here. Drinking coffee with Terje and reading aload from another Norwegian writer from around the time I was born, Leif Borthen and his En suppe i solen, (A Soup in the Sun), the funniest, yummiest, most colourful food and travel descrciption I've ever read, and believe me, I HAVE READ A LOT!

Or just look at the view, listen to the wind, smelling fresh forest, let myself be cherished by life.

Cabin days ahead

Four cabin days are there, waiting for us....
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Roses and a song

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With roses on our breakfast table I walk out into the day with a song in my heart.....

En himmel full av stjerner,
blått hav så langt man ser.......

Children´s of the Rainbow

 

Inspiration from a kitchen in Toscana

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Two years ago I spent a week on an old farm in Tuscany, Santa Maria. There I found silence, beauty, hills for hiking, mist, a church for prayers, new friends......and a kitchen where food were made. Old traditional farmer´s meals.

A few of the days I was allowed to prepare the food, and one day I said to Thomas, the master of the farm; "Listen Thomas, if you ever need a cook for one of your Santa Maria retreats, why not ask me?"
Thomas looked at me, seriously, and replied:"Why should I ask you? On these hills there are more Tuscan housewives that I can count. I can ask any one of them!"

 

Sure!
Why ask me?

The day I left, a retreat with stone mason artists from Belgium was about to start. Right after breakfast a woman came up from Sicilia. She would be the cook for the artists. I was not to leave until the afternoon, and for hours I followed the Sicilian´s every step. Licking up every drop of cooking inspiration I could find.

Asking her a million questions. 

Her patience was like a Tuscan garden. Fertile, bountiful, without borders.
Unfortunately I was too busy following her around, asking question, there was no time to write her answers down.
Still, my heart will remember.
Always.

 

In the soup she started in the morning, and left on the stove to simmer for hours, she put handfulls of nettels. Picking them all without gloves.
Me: "How do you manage? Doesn´t it burn your fingers?"
She: "It burns, but it is healing for arthritis"

 

Now I have tried it myself.
And I´ve found that she is right.

It burns.

It is healing for arthritis.

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The first nettles are up in The Blue Garden.
We are expecting friends for dinner tonight.
As a starter I plan to make them nettle soup.

Blog galore

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After months and months of hibernating, many of my "old" blogs are reopened.

The Blue Garden

Life Close to the Cathedral

Trondheim Through all Seasons

My Year in the World

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Welcome over any time.

And as always - I love to hear from you.

Bear in winter, teacher during summer. But what about spring?

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Being a bear during winter, hibernating. Being a teacher during summer, vacating.
But what about spring?
What about autumn?

A gardener during spring would suit me I think.
And then a traveller when autumn arrives.

Yes, a perfect cyclus.

Or?

May be not?

May be my every day scedule is perfect as it is.

Yes, may be it is.

 

Though I am wishing for shorter work days just now. And longer days in the garden. In the green house........

Your hands are filled with flowers

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Dine hender er fulle av blomster
hvem var det du tenkte å gi dem til?
Mine blomster er plukket til Jesus,
men han er stått opp, han er ikke her.

I have a hymn on my mind, humming it, with the words in my heart:

Your hands are filled with flowers,
to whom will you offer them?
My flowers are for Jesus,
but he is risen, he is not here.

 

A group of 4 year olds decorated the alter in our church with flowers during the service on Sunday. Flowers for Jesus.

The women came to the grave and found it empty. Jesus was not there.

We come to the altar with our flowers.
There we find Jesus.
He offers us the flowers back

"Take them out in the world. Share my love!"