Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Manneken Pis

@brittarnhild

I am just having a realization. Now I know why I am not a tiny little woman, but a quite big, stout one. Do you want to know my secret? Sure you do :-) It is because of all the things I gather while traveling. Well, not only while traveling actually, it is of all the things I gather while living life.

Like in Brussels. I gathered travel tales on every corner. I gathered information about the city, about its people, its food, its art, its tradition.......... like the loadful of legends about the cute little bronze statue Manneken Pis (little man peeing)

There are many tales about this little boy, all of them includes how his peeing saves the world around him. The Manneken Pis statue is situated in the center of the town, not far from the Grote Markt, the market place. It is in a side street, quite small, but easy to find because of all the tourists gathered around the 61cm high statue

Poor little guy. Stading there peeing all day to satisfy a million Japanese tourists, half a million Americans and a stout woman from little Norway.

By the way, the whole area was filled with chocolate shops, many of them with little Manneken Pis in chocolate.

I bought none.

I did buy a lot of other chocolate though, and took a thousand chocolate window photos. Which I will show you another day ;-)

 

One ticket, four museums, a father and a son

@brittarnhild

"This is a combi ticket" the female guard told me. "You can use it for all four museums and must start with musée magritte". "But I don´t want to visit musée magritte, I want to see the Bruegel paintings" "Then you have payed too much for your ticket. Go back to the counter and tell them to give you money back" "Well, the price was not too bad, I don´t have much time and I want to see the Bruegel paintings, I don´t need to get money back" "You will of course see the paintings, but go back to the counter and ask them to give you money back" "But........." I looked at the woman and knew I was defeated. I walked back to the counter.

"Sir, I am here to see the Bruegel paintings and the woman over there told me I had payed too much for my ticket and that I should come back here to get a cheaper one" "You have a combi ticket, it is for all four museums" "I know I have a combi tickets, but I have no time for all four museums. I am here to see the Bruegel paintings" "Of course you want to see all four museums. They are too good to be missed" "I am sure they are, but I have time for only this one, I want to see the Bruegel paintings and the woman over there told me that with this combi ticket I had to start with musée magritte" "Give me your ticket. Look, I am writing OK here which indicates that you can start with this museum first and then continue with the others afterwards" "Sir, I don´t have time for the other museums, only this one, and the woman over there told me I can get a cheaper ticket to do that and that you are to give me money back" "Of course you want to see all four museums. After you have finished this one you will want to continue" "But, sir......." I looked at the man behind the desk and knew I was defeated again.

Still, I wanted to see the Bruegel paintings, and knew I could do so with my expensive combi ticket. I left the counter, I walked fast and determined past the female guard and climed the stairs up to the Bruegel section.

 

There I could finally immerse myself in The Census at Bethlehem. First the orininal painting made by father Pieter painted in 1566. Then the copy made by son Pieter 40 years later.

 

And after a long while I even had time for some of the other Bruegel paintings.

 

 

Then I left the museum with an almost unused combi ticket and a mind filled with amazing art.

Here you can read about Pieter the father,

and here about Peter the son.

 

Le Botanique

@brittarnhild

The first thing I did after I knew I was going to Brussels was to buy a guidebook. The second thinng I did was to flip through the book to check if I could find something about a botanical garden. And there, on page 49 in Eyewitness Travel, I found it; 

In 1797, the city of Brussels created a botanical garden in the grounds of the Palais de Lorraine as a source of reference for botany students. The garden closed in 1826, and the new gardens were relocated in Meise, 13 km (9 miles) from Brussels. A grand glass-and-iron rotunda was designed at the center of the gardens by the French architect Gineste. Third iron glasshouse still stands, as does much of the 19th century statuary by Constantin Meunier......

 

I have been in Brussel for a few days for work, visiting Eurodiaconia. We´ve had long days with meetings, but yesterday, before flying home, I finally had some time off. And of course went to serch for my botanical garden. Or actually the remnants of it.

Squeezed in between skyscrapers and busy traficc, the garden was surprisingly calm and silent.

The iron- and glassrotunda is still there, today a concert- and art center.
I walked around, trying to imagine when it must have looked like through its golden days.

 

On my way to La Botanique I had stopped at Musées des Beaux-Arts to learn more about Peter Bruegel and his village scenes paintings. With them in mind, my camera kept looking for scenes in the garden.

They were easy to find :-)

 

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By the way, I hope to write more about Bruegel another day.

 

 

Brussels

@brittarnhild

Yes, I am in Brussels, eating Belgian waffels :-)
And doing a lot more.

 

Claudia, if you send me your address I´ll send you a postcard.

Which country?

@brittarnhild

No time for blogging, only one question....
Where am I?

 

There might be a postcard coming to one of the correct guesses,
and there will be updates later. Lots of.

 

Tower of London, a repost

@brittarnhild

 

A repost, because today is the day to remember.

 

If you visit Tower of London these autumn you will find a sea of glass poppies flowing out from the tower, filling the lawn. Making it look like blood.

Blood from 888.246 men, many of them pure boys only, who died during WWI.

WWI started in November 1914, and the poppies are Tower of London´s way to remember.

Volunteers are putting up the glass poppies, the last one will be up on November 11th, 100 years after the bloody war started.

I had seen photos both on facebook and on instagram showing these poppies before coming to London. Still I was unprepared of my own reaction. Suddenly I found myself crying. Crying for all the lost lives. For all the bloody wars.

 

 

You can read more about Tower of London´s Poppy Project here.

 

Singing in Church

@brittarnhild

We have a beautiful organ in my church, a beautiful organ which makes beautiful music.......especialy when our cantor plays on it :-) The singing of hymns can be a challenge though. Some Sundays the huge room is filled with somng, other Sundays ony a few people open their mouth enough to be heard. Our cantor wants to do something with this, so on Saturday he sent an email to three of us asking if we could come to church one hour before the service started, to sing through the hyms and the liturgy.

I was one of the lucky three :-)
And I am looking forward to doing this again.

When the blessings are flooding

@brittarnhild

Father´s Day.
Family gathered.

 My kids are lucky. They have the best father in the world. Just like I myself have. 
I have double luck though, as I also have the best husband in the world.

 

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Full table.
Three generations.
Brother, nephes and niece from Iceland.
Food.
Laughter.
Blessings, like a flood.

 

We just squeezed in around one table.

Terje is, as always, the turkey chef.

 

Around the World with my Garden Companion

@brittarnhild

When I came home from Oslo tonight there was a packet from amazon with books and videas waiting for me on the diningroom table. Among other goodies was the dvd "Around the World in 80 Gardens" with Monty Don. 

Writing a series about the gardens of the world which I have visited has been on my list for a long time. India, Nepal, Rome, Padova, Great Britain, Copenhagen, Tenerife.....there are so many gardens, so much beauty.

Last time I was in India I got this little travel companion, handmade by my Indian mother Carolyn. Our first common travel was to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore.........but hopefully there will be many more.

Now I am looking forward to the dvd for inspirations.

 

 

The world as I see it

@brittarnhild

In celtic spirituality they talk about thin places. places where the film between heaven and earth is worn by prayers.

I want my garden, my life, to be a thin place.

 

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The photo was taken from my garden, looking towards the sun across the neighbor´s property.