Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Lunch at the monastery

@brittarnhild

The church at Mariaklosteret, the Cictercian Monastery on Tautra island, out in the Trondheim Fjord. I took part in the midday prayer there yesterday, and afterwards had lunch inside the monasery. Not with the nuns, they have their own diningroom where visitors never come. But in the guest kitchen, a diningroom for people who stay in the monastery guesthouse for a shorter or longer time.

Many years ago, when I worked on my book about Lent, I stayed in the monastery for a week, and had my lunch here every day. The other meals I prepared myself, in the guest house. I have been back to the monastery many times since then, but never for a meal, so to be able to do that yesterday, felt like a rich blessing.

I have a very special tale to tell from my week in the monastery, in January 2007. You can read about this tale, my Violet Dinner, here. I never included the tale in my book, at the time it was too personal. I regretted that descision afterwords, but have shared it many times when I have been around, talking about the book.

The meals at Mariaklosteret are simple, but every mouthful you eat is a mouthful filled with prayers.

I have not always been good at using the "categorie button" when I write my posts here, but here is a link to my posts from Tautra (well, a very few of them:

Tautra

 

And here is the link to the category This Holy People (this category has several pages, so make sure to press the tiny arrow when you come to the bottom of the side:

This Holy People

 

And finally, the link to the monastery itself:

Tautra Mariakloster

 

Change of Season

@brittarnhild

I am home alone for a couple of days. Yesterday morning was a beautiful morning, I was out in the garden to take photos of my new green house, and later I went downtown for a photo walk. Then the weather started to change. The birds were the first to let me know. They were so busy at the feeders, I knew something was going on.

Then it started to rain,

and soon a strong wind followed.

The House in the Woods is sheltered from the hardest storm, but this time, the first autumn storm of the year, it hit relatively hard here as well.

I slept well during the night, with an open window. Listening to the rain and wind lured me into a deep, refreshing sleep.

This morning I walked through the garden, curious to see what the storm did.
A few plums, still not ripe, have fallen down.

The dahlias, my pride, are strong and have conquered both the heavy rain and the stron wind.

But the hollyhooks? They are totally bent over, but not broken, so with a little help I hope that they will rise again.

As I continue my walk I see that there is quite some work to be done in the garden today.

Hopefully the rain will stop, making gardening a little nicer :-)

Go where your heart leads you

@brittarnhild

I just watched a program on the tv about a Norwegian nature photographer. A man who goes for the best photo, no matter what. A man who don´t mind icicle fingers as long as he gets what we goes out for. A man who let his contagious laughter fill my livingroom when he tells about his shots. About his experiences.

The meeting, through the television screen, took me up to the moon. Filled my brain, my mind, my heart, with smiles, with colours, with expectations. Life has so much to offer.

The meeting encouraged  me to continue along my own path. The path less taken. The path which gives me icicle fingers.
the path where I say "yes, thanks" when life gives.

A new greenhouse blog

@brittarnhild

I have started a greenhouse blog to record as much as possible about the new greenhouse.
I thought that you might be interested.
You find it here.

I have dreamed about a huge greenhouse for many years.
It would never ever have been a reality without Terje.

Here he is using some materials from the old miniature greenhouse to finish the new one.

Nothing is going to waste in The House in the Woods.

 

Climbing grandpa´s mountain

@brittarnhild

I have a lot of writing and reading and planning to do at work, so instead of sitting in my office in the Archbishop´s Palace, where I get easily disturbed, I packed a bag with a computer, some books and a lot of papers and drove out to our cabin for a few days. Drove out in the wee hous of yesterday morning, when the mist was still to be found over the lakes and down in the valleys.

On the way I decided to climb a mountain, Storfonna, 772 meters over sea level. I had packed a backpack with a thermos filled with coffee and a matpakke, three pieces of bread packed in paper, and was ready for a morning of exploring new land.

Storfonna is the big mountain which I showed you some days ago, close to the mountain where we "met unknown family history", and ever since I saw it, it has been on my mind and in my heart to climb it.

Steeper and higher than I had expected.

But reaching the top, enjoying the view, which completely tok my breath away, was worth the toil.

I challenged myself and I made it. No wonder I smile so broadly in this selfie, taken with my cell phone.

 

But now I must leave the blog end dig into the pile of papers I brought with me.......

 

The new greenhouse

@brittarnhild

Look! Isn´t this amazing!

Torgeir came one Saturday a couple of weeks ago to work on the greenhouse. Yesterday afternoon he came back together with Øystein and his girlfriend Silje. I made pizzas and pastries. Today I am the one who has been helping Terje.

As I stood inside the greenhouse today, helping to hold the plates as Terje put them up, I was dreaming. Dreaming of next spring, the first greenhouse season.

The seeds I will start, the plants I will grow. Where to put flower beds and where to have flagstones, a table, a few chairs.

 The greenhouse is big, much bigger than I imagined.
And I love it.

This will be my playhouse for years to come.

 

Willowherb or fireweed

@brittarnhild

We have had so much rain this summer, I am agraid I am growing webbed feet. Today´s weather forecast said rain again, but as I sat there with my mug of ment tea after breakfast, watching the birds in the garden, the sun was actually shining. At least a tiny little bit. I had planned to spend the day cleaning a few kitchen cabinets, but turned on a dime as we say in Norway, and went for a hike up in the hills above Trondheim.

What a happy choice.

As always I brought my camera, and now I have a question for you.
What do you call these shining, beautiful flowers?

When I use google translate and put in geitrams, I am given willowherb, but I think I have also heard the word fireweed. May be willowherb is British English and fireweed is American English? Or what?

Colourful salads

@brittarnhild

After I had posted photos of salads from my garden on facebook, several friends asked me if they could come and have a look, and to come and learn about edible plants, or edimentals as a crazy garden and salad man here in Trondheim calls plants which are both edible and ornamental. Then the idea of an open day in my garden was born, and I created a facebook event: Colourful Salads.

The open day was yesterday. First my parents came, they wanted to fill their buckets with black currants, to make jam.

And soon the garden filled with colourful women, eager to learn how to make colourful salads.

What fun to walk around with them, showing them my garden, talking about the plants and then let them all pick what they wanted to make their own salads.

This photo was taken by one of the women. Isn´t it beautiful :-)

And here is another one, from the making :-)

 

Thank you dear women for colouring my day.

 

Exploring an "unknown" mountain leads me to family I didn´t know

@brittarnhild

When we drove home from the cabin, we had packed a backpack with coffee and rhuburb cupcakes, and instead of driving the usual way we took a detour. I had heard about a mountain where we could drive the car almost all the way to the top.

This is in grandpa Johhanes, my father´s father´s area. While we were on the top we could see directly down to a farmstead. I was sure it was Vikan, where grandpa Johhanes was born in 1900 and I posted the photo on facebook, proudly writing about my roots.

It didn´t take long before I got a comment: "No, this is not Vikan but a hamlet close by.

She was right of course. We started to chat on messenger and realized we are second cousins. Her 86 year old father still lives on the farm where grandpa Johannes was born, and now I hope that we can visit him the next time we go back to the area.

Then I also plan to hike this mountain, here seen from the top we hiked today.

 

Oh, so much to look forward to :-)

The old well and the fairytale forest

@brittarnhild

We have an old well in the forest where we get water for our life at the cabin. Last time we came here Terje discovered two holes in the old, rusty currugated iron roof. A drinkwater well needs to be safely covered, so after speaking to the farmer, my second cousin, who owns the land and the well, it was decided that Terje would get new tin plates to cover the well. "Just say at the shop that I will pay for it" my cousin said. I love this simple country life, where people can trust each other.

This morning we got new plates. Six of them.

Terje carries them up the steep him from the car to the well, and covers the old, rusty ones.

Though my arms are no good at carrying, I am there with my camera, taking photos for our cabin blog. While I am up there I start to look around, and all of a sudden my head, my heart is filled with plans for coming "hikes" and picnics with our grandson.

I am sure this old, fairytale, moss grown forest will be a dream next summer for Leander. And for more summers to come.

Only a few steps from the cabin, yet qjuite another life. A place to explore, a place to find unknown animals, a place to sit down and share adventurous tales.

Wait a minute. I don´t need to wait for next summer, do I? I can go exploring all by myself. I don´t even need to find the child in me. A middle aged silver haired woman can do it perfectly well. All by herself.