Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

2014 in review

@brittarnhild

On this last day of the year. I am up early, the house is still quiet, and I have an hour until I must start making breakfast. First I told myself I would write my diary, but somehow my journal has been hidden in my backpack for weeks. No words have been written there, and to start again I know I need more time. More time alone. With me and the silence. So here I am inetad, sitting by my desk with my MacBook and my blog, looking through photos from the past 12 months. 2014 in review. This first photo was taken on the forth of January 2014. It was my husband´s birthday and we did a lovely walk downtown after having breakfast at a favorite breakfast place.

 

Last winter was a strange one, with no snow in Trondheim. In February my husband was desperate to go cross country skiing. I was happy, because with no snow in the countryside, he came on walks with me instead. Thhis picture is taken from the restaurant at Ringve Botanical Museum.

In March I opened my greenhouse, read playhouse, for the season. Again a strange winter. March should be cold and filled with snow, March should be too early for signs of spring. I loved it though.

April was a wonderful month of travels. Friends took us to Naples and the Street of Nativities  and Mauro introduced me to the Blaschkas and their glass models. I had my moment of fame when Terje and I were having dinner in a small, local restaurant in Venice and I heard the couple on another table whispering "........Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods........"

May came as always,

and then June, the best cabin month.

In July Torgeir, our oldest son, took part in a chess tournament. We watched one of the matches and afterwards had lunch with him on the roof terrace of the hotel where the tournament was held.

August was another travel month, with climbing the Pulpit Rock as one of the highlights.

September. London. The poppies outside Tower. A WWI memorial.

October. Mild and perfect for hikes in the hillsides above Trondheim.

November, with camelias in bloom in Brussel.

December. Christmas Tree. Decorations old and new.
And all of a sudden a year has passed.

 

What will 2015 bring?

 

Thank you notes

@brittarnhild

As soon as family and friends heard about the death of Terje´s father, flowers started to arrive. A few at first, then after we came home from the funeral the house filled up. Flowers, plants, decorations, food. All with cards of condolences.

This  is an important tradition. To make you feel loved, to wrap you in good thoughts.

 

Now it is time for Terje to write thank you notes.
I found some beautiful, handmade stationary I bought in India at an organic market many years ago, cut it the right size and now it is all ready for Terje to use.

 

Time for friends

@brittarnhild

While it continues to snow, we are enjoying indoor life. Christmas time is perfect time to catch up with friends, perfect time for cosy fires, long meals, sharing tales. I have a best friend who is queen of christmases, and yesterday we were invited there for lunch, before we all went to a concert in the cathedral.

Friendship. I have a friend. My best friend. 
It makes me reflect on how blessed I am. A few very good friend. A lot of good friends. There can be long periods when we do not meet, though we keep contact through calls and emails. Then, when we meet, we know we are there for each other. We have a shared past. We have a strong bond there and then. We are looking forward to a future together. Best of all, we know, in the deepest of our hearts, that we are important to each other. Our lives are richer, more blessed because I am here and you are there, and we are something together.

 

Before lunch I walked though my best friend´s house, with my camera, but even more with my heart, being fully aware that ever since the first time we met, both of us teenagers, she has been on of the main inspirer in my life. She still is.

Lately we have had a lot of time together. I wrap myself in it and bring it into the new year as a special gem. The gem of deep friendship.

 

The dangers of winter

@brittarnhild

The beauty of a White Christmas can cheat you.
As I was out photographing our neighbor´s house yesterday morning, just as the sun rose, Jane and Lanny went for a walk, to admire the beauty. Under the snow there were slippery ice, Lanny fell, and ended up spending hours at the Emergency at the hospital. A broken wrist, and now he will bring with him a cast as a special Norwegian souvenir when he leaves in a week.

 

A Box of Christmas Ornaments

@brittarnhild

I have a box filled with some very special Christmas ornaments.

Every year for eleven years now, since Christmas 2004, I have got one in the mail.

All the way from Seattle to Trondheim.

All put in a hand decorated envelope,
together with a handmade card.

To Britt Arnhild from Ardi.

Ardi Butler.
A penpal.
An ingternet friend.
A blog reader.

Ardi and I have never met in person yet.
But one day I know we will.

In the middle of the day

@brittarnhild

 

Christmas is party time. Our American friends are still here, and today we invited a few of our closest friends for dinner so that Jane and Lanny could meet them. Hours with food, laughter, talking, friendship shared.

When the several hours breakfast was over and the guests left, it was still daylight outside. I grabbed my camera, put on warm clothes and winter boots and walked up into the deep snow in the forest.

My a little before New Year´s resolution is to look for beauty every day......this has actually been my resolution for years and years but sometimes it is so easy to forget....... today the beauty was very easy to find.

 

Have you looked for beauty today?
What did you find?

 

Merry Christmas

@brittarnhild

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers

and as always - my Christmas wish from you is a "hi" in the comment section.

 

The day before the day

@brittarnhild

Yesterday, lillejulaften, little Christmas Eve, a day filled with activities to prepare for the day, the big day, julaften, Christmas Eve.

We had a long list of things to day, but also enough time to do it and a lot of loving, helping hands.

Marta and Terje started with cookie decorations. The small cookies, a gingerbread house, and new this year, a ginger bread nativity.

Marta´s hands and fingers have all the patience needed. All the love needed. 

And so has Terje´s.

  

Marta and Martin helping decorate the Christmas tree.

 

Last night we again filled the dininroom table with friends for the traditional lutefisk dinner. This year we were people from Norway, Italy and California...

...but then I was too busy to take any photos.

 

 

The Stary Sky

@brittarnhild

I have collected nativities since 1998 when I bought a native one in Haiti, a coconut formed to be the manger, small clay figurines. I had a few creches already before 1998, but it was the coconut one which made me actually start a collection.

A growing collection also meant that I started to read about nativities and their development since St. Frances set up the first one in Assissi a long time ago. This reading and also my growing collection created a dream in me to start making a nativity village. Just like the ones they have in Provence, in many part of Italy and probably a lot of other places. But somehow I never got myself around to actually make one.

Then, in Berlin last week, when I met a street vendor at one of the Christmas markets, who sold old village houses and a wide variety of figures, I knew a new path had started for me. The path towards my own nativity village.

Yesterday I bought the stars for the sky over the village, and with good help from Terje, soon the village was all ready.

My Provence creche is there, somewhere in the middle of the village. Hard to see on this picture.
You can read more about this nativity here.

And the one from Haiti is here.

 

Where beauty is

@brittarnhild

I got a long and caring email by a good friend last night. "Britt-Arnhild, forgive me for saying so, but are you sure you are okay? I am caring for you and from what I see you are too tired just now........" Only minutes before the email came, I sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs in the living room, asking myself: "What is this? Why am I so tired? Why do I feel so sad? Where is my joy for the coming Christmas?"

Of course we have had a very special period, culminating with the death and the funeral of my father in law. Of course I had a lot of good reasons to feel tired, to feel low. But it kind of felt more than that. My friend´s email continued, and all of a sudden I saw myself in another light. In the light of someone who loves me, who cares for me, and has the wisdom to speak up, the wisdom to tell.

 

While Terje and Marta were busy in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies, I sat there, I let my mind wander, I permitted myself some rest. There is a "thing" going on on facebook right now, you can press on a link and in a blink of an eye facebook makes a short video of your 2014 on facebook.  I have not pressed that link, but now I pressed a button in my own heart instead, with good help from my friend´s email. Looking back I saw that somewhere along the road I had forgotten to bring something essential with me. Something related to joy, beauty, purpose, love.......

I need to go back and find it. I need to tell myself that it has not been lost, it is only hidden and just now the main purpose in my life is to go back and find it.

"Britt-Arnhild, why and when did you stop looking for beauty in every day?" I asked myself. It might be the darkness of the winter months, it might be the death of my father in law and the hospital stay of my own father, it might be the busy scedule I´ve had the last few months, it might be the cold I am having just now..........but none of these are excuses.  Several times over the past years I´ve written about me being an apprentice of life. As an apprentice I can´t just let myself float along. I have a job to do. A purpose to live.

"You must go back to looking for beauty all around you again" I continued, and remembered that I have not used my good friend Nikon for a long time. "But beauty now when everything is so dark" I mused. 

 

Then my ears suddenly took in some noise, some laughter, some chatting, some smell from the kitchen..........and beauty came to me.