Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A grandnephew

@brittarnhild

My niece Gunhild, daughter of my brother Frode, got a little boy on Friday. My brother has become a grandfather, my parents are great grandparents.....but what am I? In Norway we say gammeltante, old aunt, but I have not found the correct English word yet. Can you help me?

Gunhild lives in Lofoten, where she and her fiancee Lars has bought an old little small farm. The newborn baby, my grand nephew, with the beautiful name Birk, already has a big brother, Lars´son Oliver, and he moves into a farm filled with dogs, hens and ducks.

 And not far from the farm lives 16 years old aunt Kamilla, who makes the most wonderful crocheted baby shoes :-)

I am the proud aunt of these two beautiful young woman.
And I love to be part of a growing family.

Congratulations Gunhild and Lars! We look forward to see Birk.

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Great grandparents for the first time. Hopefully there will be many, many more.

 

A Park and a Church, and some light

@brittarnhild

I was on my way to a morning meeting, and as always, just in case, I had my camera in my handbag.

Already on the bus I knew I was in for a light and colour feast.

Dew in the grass, blue sky, sun as crisp as only the autumn sun can be.

I was early as always and could waløk around in the park to capture the moments.

Too soon it was time to go into the church, where the meeting was.

 

 

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The photos are from Lademoen in Trondheim. I had my first job in this church, as a deacon, back in 1985-1987

 

Self portrait and a cat

@brittarnhild

Books on the Menu

@brittarnhild

Preparing for a travel always makes me seach for books with connections to the places I am going to visit. In a few weeks I´ll be in London and Great Britain, and in Books on the Menu I´ve started a London Reading List.

Welcome over.

 

Autumn sneaks into the garden

@brittarnhild

I am having a day off, and I spend it doing all these "doing nothing" things which I so much love to do. Terje has a very bad cold and is home from work, though still sitting in his home office working from home. Marta has a very bad cold, went to the doctor yesterday and got penicillin for her sore throat, though she went to school today, this is her last year of high school and she doesn´t want to miss too much. I think maye be I´ll make chicken soup for dinner. 

My first doing nothing thing, after having breakfast with Terje where he drank herbs from the garden tea with lots and lots of honey, was to do a garden walk. With my camera. Autumn is sneaking into the garden now, though still slowly. It is like the garden is on the edge of getting a cold, a sore throat, which eventually will be healed by a long, deep sleep.

The Blue Garden squirrels are busy these days, digging sun flower seeds everywhere. Small sunflower plants start to grow in the funniest places. Poor squirrels haven´t learned that their winter food is sprouting and will be nowhere to be found when winter is here.

I would love to write a "my year in the world"-book from The Blue Garden. Spiced with tales from around the world. So far I have not found enough doing nothing hours, but who knows.......... may be some day.

Meanwhile I continue to write one chapter a day in my Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods´book, loving every feedback you give me.....here, on facebook, in emails, on twitter........

 

Sour apples

@brittarnhild

My neighbour is a weekend dad for two years old Petter. The other day he came over to my where I was picking herbs for dinner. "Petter stole one of your apples on Saturday. He took one bit, made a face and exclaimed - SOUR - then ate it all!"

Poor Petter. I wonder what happened to his stomack.

A Memory Lane Detour

@brittarnhild

I had lunch with a friend today, in the cathedral cafe. I came a little early and my friend was a little late. Which gave me time to take a memory lane detour.

The cathedral has always played an important part in my life. Today´s cafe is situated in a new, modern glass house. When I grew up there used to be an old, red, wooden building here. Most people found it kind of ugly. I loved its faded charm. When I was a teenager I belonged to the youth club which was run by the cathedral congregations. On Sundays we often came to the church early, and when the service started, we had Sunday school, or more kind of a babysitting, for the children. Sometimes inside the cathedral. More often in the old, red building. Where we could go wild in all the narrow hallways and tiny rooms.

Most of my memories from this period have faded away. But they are not gone completely. I am glad I am able to blow life into them from time to time.

 

As I sat there waiting for my friend I made a New Year´s resolution  new season resolution. I will come early more often. To get time for memory lane walks.

 

Spring Cleaning Out of Season

@brittarnhild

I went back to work and it started to rain. For a week. Then Saturday came and the rain stopped. My two breakfast friends had left and I sat out in the garden with a book. I did not read a word. Instead I looked at the air, the flowers, the glass bird, the dry seeds flying in the wind, the sun rays.

I looked up to the sky and looked directly into God´s eyes.

Celtic spirituality talks about the thin film between heaven and earth. As I sat there, with the book in my lap, there was no fil mere at all. Heaven was open.

 

 

There and then God had an out of season spring cleaning.

Now the angels are playing ping-pong with all my dust balls.

The remains of the day

@brittarnhild

Do you remember The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro? The beautiful book about the butler Stevens, and the film with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson? I am going to reread that book. I am going to see the movie again.

Almost 60 years ago my father in law built his own house. He married the love of his life, and my mother in law moved in. Terje was born there and lived there till he was 19. His two brothers were also born there, Arne two years after Terje. Håkon one year later. Unfortunately Håkon was never able to live in the house but stayed in a child´s care hospital until he died, still a toddler.

After my mother in law moved to the nursing home, later died there, my father in law has lived in his big house alone. We have spent part of every summer there. Always.

A lot has changed over the years. From being a house surrounded by fields filled with sheep and only a handful of houses, there are now houses everywhere.

My father in law loves his house. But aged 91 it has become too much for him, and yesterday he moved into a care home. Terje is there and he sent me a snap from their first meal in the new place. I will go down there later this fall.

My best memories of father oin law´s house are from the kitchen. His cooking. All of us together around the table, father in law saying a blessing, eating together. All meals made from scratch by him, even this summer, his 92nd!

This last photo was taken in July when Marta´s boyfriend Martin came with us to meet farfar. Both of them carpenters, they had a lot to talk about.

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By the way, here is a link to one of my favorite posts from father in law´s house.

Good luck in your new home father in law.

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Most photos today are taken from fil´s veranda.

 

Friends, food and flowers

@brittarnhild

I was busy this morning. I had invited my two best friends, Aud and Solveig, over for food and flowers, a breakfast and a garden walk. 

We have known each other "always", but with with our full every day scedules it is not easy to find time to meet.

Two days since last meeting, or two months.....it doesn´t matter actually. We know we are best friends, we know we have each other, we know we will meet again. And again.

And when we meet, we have a million things to share, like our common love for gardens and gardenings.