Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The Handkerchief Tree in Oslo

@brittarnhild

A year ago I had never heard of Armand David, os Pére David, the French missionary and biologist who spent much of his life in China. Now I have been to Woburn Abbey to see "his" deers, I have "his" Buddleja Davidii in my garden, and this weekend I saw "his" Handkerchief Tree in the Botanical Gardens in Oslo.

I have a little book, a biography about Pére David, 1826 - 1900 where I read:
Armand´s second trip to China was his most successful in zoologocal and biological finds: the giant panda, the monal pheasant, the golden monkey and 6000 feet up, a dove tree (the handkerchief tree).

I wrote about the handkerchief tree in my garden blog today, you find the post here.
And here is a link to my blog post from Woburn Abbey and Gardens.

 

A flower hike

@brittarnhild

The fields behind The House in the Woods are bursting with life now. The nice temperatures of spring has been here this weekend and we have simply lived out in the garden or, like today, hiking in the fields with Ingrid, Marius and Leander.

Leander is still in his pram of course, 5 1/2 months old now. I love this stage of his life. His laughter, his curiosity, his appetite for life. I want to stop time, to keep everything just like it is now. We have been babysitting Leander this night and sometime, in the middle of the night, I was sitting with him, singing my favorite old nursery rhymes, looking at the sun rise, the birds and the squirrels out in the garden, the breathing of a baby going to sleep. Everything was perfect.

 

At the same time I am loooking forward. To all the things I want to do with Leander. The things I want to show him. All the beauty of this world which he still knows nothing about. 

 

Some time ago I had visitors from Ethiopia. The woman, Elizabeth, had never been outside her country before, and as I took her around, showing her things she never new excisted, I discovered the world with new eyes. A revelation.

Today I saw the spring flowers with Leander´s eyes.

Growing potatos

@brittarnhild

Time to start the potatoes. Terje has four different types, and then my father came with three more. Dad, aged 83, has decided to become a "potato farmer". With no garden of his own he uses some of ours :-)

Potato farmer after the work is done? Or may be a potato Lord :-)

 

Blue Garden glimpse

@brittarnhild

 

 

I am still here.......

@brittarnhild

.......back in Trondheim, but with a few cabin garden photos for you.

After three days of continuous rain, on Monday we finally woke up to a sky where we could spot a very few patches of light blue, in between the clouds. And no rain. We had breakfast, dressed in warm clothes and soon we were out in the garden. I had weeding to do. Lots of it.

Or.......not that much actually. The garden is a small one with just a few beds. But the weeds are strong and stubborn.

After weeding I added fresh soil and fertilizer to the beds.

While I worked in the beds in front of the cabin, Terje did some digging in the herb garden, expanding it a little.

A bumblebee followed all our moves.

 

A blesses Pentecost

@brittarnhild

Pentecost, a celebration of The Holy Spirit. Our Christian knowledge that God is in everything. He has not left us. He never did. He never will. We celebrated in the beautiful, old church close to our cabin.

In Norway we have two official language (+ three different sami languages as well), bokmål and nynorsk. Bokmål is the most common, nynorsk the most poetical. Here in the little village where we have our cabin, nynorsk is the official language. The Holy Spirit, Den heilage ande, can be translated to the holy breath. God breathed when he created. Breathing means life. The children in church were asked to come forward, and through different ways of breathing the pastor showed us that we can´t see our breath, but we can see some of the effects of it - dew on a mirror, waves in the baptismal water.

We can´t see The Holy Spirit with our eyes, but we can see its effects.

Beauty on a rainy day

@brittarnhild

I am reading a book translated into Norwegian from Swedish, called Beads for life. It is about Frälsarkransen, a wrath of beads of God, developed by the Swedish bishop emeritus Martin Lønnebo. The first bead in the wrath is the Pearl of God. I have spent the day reflection on the image I have of God. Who is he? What does he mean to me? To the world? This little tulip in the cabin garden showed me part of his glory.

 

Same as last year

@brittarnhild

This photo was taken one year ago, on the 3rd of May. It could have been today though. Same forsythia, same yellow flowers, same view, same rain, same cabin terracce.

It is the Pentecost weekend, and we are spending four days at the cabin. I was dreaming of, wishing for sun and warm weather. I got rain and cold.  And I also got a husband whom I love, a cabin situated at the most beautiful place in the world, health, a job, a family, water, food, nature, peace.

Sure, I am a blessed woman.
Spoiled to pieces.

A dream is about to come true

@brittarnhild

Some years ago I bought my tiny little greenhouse, and Terje had a terrible time putting it together for me. During the first winter we almost lost it in a storm, the next winter too much snow almost destroyed it. The greenhouse survived though and has given me a lot of pleasures over the years. Already when I bought it I knew it was too small though, but it was a kind of test, to see if a greenhouse was something for me.

Now I know that it is.......something for me, and we are in the process of buying a real one, a much bigger one. I need part of Terje´s potato field, but my dear husband knows how much I want this new playhouse greenhouse, and is ready to dig a new field for growing potatos. We were out in the garden tonight, measuring, and tomorrow Terje will call the company we have chosen to use, south in Norway.

I am sooooo excited :-)

 

Blueberry flowers

@brittarnhild

The wild blueberry plants are blooming, the weather is warm and the bumblebees are busy. The blueberry season seems to be a very good one this year.

 

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After no posts since October, The Blue Cafe opened again today. I plan to post food from the nature the coming months.