Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Where to go next

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Born with the love of travels in my veins.
A life collecting travel litterature.
The sloping ceiling in my blue studio covered with maps.

No suitcase to pack for weeks.

 

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To travel is so much more than packing a suitcase, flying to another country.

a detour over the snowy cahedral park before work
a new tea blend for my morning mug of tea
liking a new page on facebook: elding whale watching, reykjavik,  dreaming of going whale watching there in april
a minute of fame in hong kong (pressing this link, scroll down almost to the bottom to the blue page called voyage)
teatre tonight with terje, death of a salesman by arthur miller
reading travel literature from himalaya

 

Where to ho next?

 

Right into the next moment of my day. 

Impossible, or is it just me?

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Marta and I are working on a hummingbird jigsaw puzzle.
9 pieces.
Completely impossible to figure out.....

Or is it just the two of us?
9 pieces. It can't be that impossible, can it?

We fell in love with hummingbirds when we visited California last summer.
Had never seen them before, but now we met them again and again.

Marta got the best photos,
but I did a few as well.

We are working hard to figure out this puzzle.
There must be a clue which we can't get.

Øystein is coming home for dinner today. I am sure his brain will solve this mystery at once.

 

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I am not a jigsaw puzzle master.
Not even an apprentice.

During my week in India in November, Carolyn and her daughter Sheri were working on one of 1000 pieces. They set up a special table, and sat down there, mother and daughter. Playing hide and seek with tiny little pieces of a 1000 pieces puzzle, the week told me that jigsaw puzzle solving is a perfect mother and daughter activity.

 

I sometimes sat down with Carolyn.
I searched for pieces.

I never found a single one during my week.
Though it was a perfect place to be to chat with my Indian mother.

 

 

I simply remember my favorite things.......

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"I simply remember my favorite things........."

Taking you with me on a walk in Trondheim, along the river, close to the cathedral, boat watching at the canal........sure, it is among my favorite things to do.

We have been waiting for snow a long time, the pure, white, virging snow, which paints everything clean. When I woke up yesterday morning it had snowed during the night. Passing the cathedral, which I do several times a day, my world was all white, light blue, lace, and the seagreen which makes my heart sing.

Luckily As always I had my pocket camera in my pocket, and as I know you love the Trondheim photos just as much as I do, I almost forgot I had more work to do.
I could easily have continued to walk around the cathedral, and around the cathedral, and around the cathedral.

Everything has an end, even my walk in the pure, white snow,
around the cathedral.
Like a pilgrim walking towards the goal.

Everything has an end.

 

Or has it?

There is something called eternity.

Isn´t it?

I glimpsed it yesterday. 

New path on Mondays, my extended blog family

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8 years of blogging.
More than 2600 posts.
Some days I feel I have said it all!

I was in a reflective mood yesterday.
I want to continue my bloggnig, but if doing so, I want it to be worth reading. I want my followers to stay, wish to come back next day and the next.

 

I opened my blog notebook, a beautiful one in warm, brown leather, and wrote down a list.
Blog ideas.

I have a long list now,
and look forward to follow it.

Starting today, I have a new theme, a Monday theme.
To present my extended blog family.
A few of the many wonderful people blogging has sent my way.

Starting today I want to take you to Sarajevo.
Not to meet the man, the artist, you see in the photo.
No, I want you to meet another man.
One I have never met in person, face to face,
but still a man who has become a close and dear friend over the past few years.

Because of blogging.

Faruk.
Who read my blog about Sarajevo, after I was back home.
Who took contact and became my friend on facebook.

Faruk, a man with an exeptional knowledge of the world and an exeptional heart of share.

Many and loooooong emails are travelling between Trondheim and Sarajevo. Often. Faruk and I learn about each other's lives and families. We share book ideas, and when I am about to travel somewhere, Faruk gather useful information for me, page after page after page after page. (Faruk, in April I am going to Nepal :-))

Two years ago, when I was planning the food for Marta's confirmation party, I needed a receipe from Bosnia. I knew who to ask, and I did not only get the receipe, but also very interesting information about Bosnian food.

Last spring, when our friends Jane and Lanny were planning to visit Sarajevo inspired by my blogging, I contacted Faruk, and he gave them amazing days in his hometown. Their last night together was my birthday, April 10th. Jane, Lanny, Faruk and Faruk's wife were out having a goodbye dinner, and used to opportunity to toast a blog lady in Trondheim :-)

For the moment I have no plans of returning to Sarajevo.
But with Faruk there, I know I will have to put it on my list some day.
And I also know that Faruk will then give me a travel experience I can hardly imagine.

Yes, Faruk, one day I'll be there.

 

Meanwhile I continue to enjoy by Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West's book about Yugoslavia, like I did every morning in Sarajevo, on the edge of the bridge made immortal by WWI

 

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You can meet Faruk here

 

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Next Monday I hope to be back with another 
New Path on Monday, My Extended Blog Family.

The 8th anniversary celebration and further forward

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Januar 27th in 2005. Time was there to start a new adventure. An avid letter writer ever since I learned to write, many years of emails and yahoo groups, a few years of advent letters and travel tales posted as group mail, I had discovered blogging, and I was ready to try.
First three months on blogspot, then in April 2005 I knew that this was a road I wanted to follow, and I moved over to typepad. I have been there ever since. The last 5+ years with daily postings.

2671 posts on my main blog, so far. Hundreds of more on the other blogs I run. Some of them hibernating, others open and fully alive. 30461 comments on the main blog so far, around 400 pageviews a day. Some days more, a lot more, few days less.

Blogging has changed my life.
- I spend more time on the computer
- have gotten more friends around the world than I ever dreamed of
- I have met quite a few of you, here or there, everywhere
(impossible to count, it must be a hundred, at least)
- I have become more reflective
- I live more fully
- my spiritual life, my life as a Christian has grown
- my photography skills have changes completely......to the better
- my English language has developed

 The list can go on and on and on. 

As usual I took my camera downtown yesterday. With my blog and my blog readers in mind. With 2671 posts, isn´t all said, told, shown already? What new can I give my blog readers? What new can I give myself? How can I challenge myself to continue this travel. I give so much of my time, how can I get even more readers, more comments?

Continue.
Find new inspiration.
Surprise.
Do the unexpected.
Give energy.
Share my belief.
Develop the wide circle of friends.
Meet more of you.

Continue to bless myself through giving, sharing, receiving.

Take you all shoe shopping in the shop where Ingrid Elise works.
My gift for you :-) 

Seek out new paths for me and for you.

And then come home to the wonderful 8th anniversary party with you. With comments, emails, Swiss chocolate, art supply baskets, oranges, prayers, cakes, laughter, tales, sharing.

Make the world a better place to live.

 

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The 8th anniversary is today.
And then it is time for a wish, isn´t it?

 

And I do have one:
that you share my blog with a friend, to expand my group of readers. 

 

Is this too selfish?
Anyway, it is mine and our anniversary,
and we want to share, don´t we :-)

 

And my promise:
I´ll do my very best to make Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods a place of interest for the coming years. 

 

Blog inspiration

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I am going out, into the world, to search for blog inspiration.

What will I find?

 

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By the way, tomorrow is my 8th blog anniversary. 
May be it is time for a celebration.
A party.

Who will come?
What will you bring?
What do you want me to serve?

 

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My first blog posts, at blogspot.
In January 2005 

 

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Photos: door at an Indian restaurant in Reykjavik 

The Energy Givers

text britt-arnhild, image of britt-arnhild

Winter is still dark and cold, oh, so very, very cold.
Me, the morning bird, struggle to leave my warm, soft eiderdown duvet in the morning.
Struggle to wake up my joy, my love of yet a new day.

Then the day starts, slowly lights overcome darkness, and my smile returns.

 

I am back working fulltime after my sinus problems sick leave and my travel to Iceland.
I am back with my daily routines, my colleagues, friends, family here, there, everywhere.

I am back among my energy givers.

 

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Have you discovered that some people give you more energy than others.
There are a few people in my life who are my battery chargers.

The other day I met one of them,
and all of a sudden the day was warmer, lighter, brighter.

 

 

I have very few photos of myself, but when I found these on my computer, I wanted to share them :-)

Back in my Blue Studio

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A night in my studio.

All the tidying and organizing I did while I was down with my cold means that now I know where to find my stuff......almost. 

An envelope with photos from a trip to Iceland back in 2002. Marta and I and my parents rented an appartmen and stayed for a week. Celebrated Àgúst´s baptims and Norways Constitutional Day May 17th, but also had a lot of time for sightseeing, The Blue Lagoon, The Botanical Garden......and feeding the ducks.

A scrapbook with this and that, using bric á brac, started in 2005. 

 

Creativity hit me.

I remember when I took the photos I dreamed about making a series of children´s books about Marta, and her travels.

Dreams have always been important to me.

Kept me going.

 

 

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Inspiration to do yesterday´s scrapbooking came from here.

To let nature disturb you.....

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A few hours on the road.

 With the meeting and the following lunch finished, I wanted to drive back home as soon as possible.

But when nature along the road disturbes you like this.......

.....the only thing to do is.....

....to stop and......

.....let nature disturbe you!

Theatre here, there, everywhere

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Three nights a week at the National Theatre for Macbeth.
A role in children´s´television on Icelandic TV.
Up early to shot a scene for a movie.

 

This is not enough for Àgúst.

"Aunt Britt-Arnhild, I love acting. I want to act all the time. I will never stop" 

Àgúst and his friend had been to the theatre Saturday morning to watch Karius and Baktus by the late Norwegian Thorbjørn Egner, and as soon as they came home, the livingroom was transformed into Jens´mouth.
The boys wrote their own version of the story, and spent hours playing and acting.

The aunt from Norway had a lovely time,
watching two boys too busy for computer games.

Not difficult to see that this is a mouth, is it?

 

Do you know the story about Karius and Bactus,
the two tooth trolls?

  

 

Àgúst, you are inspiering me.
I tend to spend to much time on the computer.
I´ll learn from you and do some "playing and acting" instead.