Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The tricky part of being a grandmother

@brittarnhild

Those of you who follow my knitting blog know that I am very musy for the moment. Wednesday is May 17th, Norway´s birthday, and for some weeks now I have been busy knitting a very specual jacket for Leander. A jacket with a lot more work than I imagined when I started. You find all the progress in maskerade, and here is today´s post:

I have come to the tricky part. Where I have to sew seams with the sewing machine, then cut with the scissors. Cut in my knitting. Can you imagine!

I have done this so many times already, still every time I do it, my heart beats a bit faster. The sewing maching is down in the basement, and while I was down there, getting ready to start sewing, Terje was up in his first floor studio. "Terje, will you please come down a minute. This si so scary. I need you to see what I am about to do, and tell me that I do the right thing" Terje came: "sure, this is perfectly right" and walked back upstairs.

Well, the sewing is not the worst part actually.......

.......cutting is!

"Huffamei" (oh, my gosh) I cried at one point.
"What is it" Terje cried back, "did you do some wrong cutting?"

No, I did not. Believe me, if I had, I wpould have cried sp loud you had all heard it!

All these amazing signs of spring

@brittarnhild

Sometimes I wonder if it is possible to appreciate spring the way we do here in my corner of the world of you live somewhere else. If you live a place where the grass is green already in February, a place where you don´t need to worry about snow and night frost all through May.

Since I´ve always lived in Norway, I guess it is impossible for me to answer that question.

What I do know though is that these days I cherish every single minute. I pick them like a bouquet of flowers, let their colours and fragrance fill my heart, my mind, my all.

 

Lagre

Morning prayer with the bishop

@brittarnhild

Today I´ve had a full day meeting with the deacons in our diocese. As usual we started with a morning prayer with eucarist in the cathedral. This time in the St. John´s chapel. As usual I was there early. Always good to sit down in silence and prayers before the others come.

The bisjop has been with us all day. Among the things he talked about is that God has promised to be with us, always. This also means that whenever we come to an unknown place, whenever we do something which we have never done before, God is there already.

Our dear bishop Tor will retire in four weeks. Today was the last mass I celebrated with him.

 

Lagre

Lagre

Wild garlic pesto

@brittarnhild

Pesto made from the wild garlic we picked yesterday.

 

Wild garlic

@brittarnhild

It is time to harvest the wild garlic.
A few years ago I learned about this plant, which grows wild near our cabin.

Today I took Terje to the "secret" place where they grow. And soon we had two plastic bags full.

Tomorrow I´ll make pesto :-)

 

The fog came on a visit

@brittarnhild

Last night a heavy, thick fog rolled in along the fjord, covering our world in cotton. Some of it was still here when we woke this morning, and loved the place so much, it decided to stay. I do understand the fog. I also love this place so much, I want to stay, and stay and stay. Terje and I had planned to go for a hike, a very special hike, to harvest wild garlic, but has delayed it for tomorrow. Today we stayed near the cabin, Terje working on his projects, I an mine.

It turned out to be a good choice. Some time after lunch we got a call from friends. They have a cabin in the area, and now they wondered if we were home. They wanted to come for a visit. Of course we were :-)

When they arrived I had just finished weeding the first flower bed.

And Terje had made a new staircase up to the terrace.

 

Never a boring minute at the cabin.

 

 

In the late afternoon sun

@brittarnhild

These long days, when the days are much longer than the nights. Still a cold, crisp air. So clear you can see east of the sun, west of the moon.

The cabin has been waiting while we have been in Italy. Our son Øystein came here for a few days over Easter. He sent a picture to Italy so I knew the cabin garden had some lovely surprises for us.

Now we are unwrapping them. Petal by petal.

Growing dreams

@brittarnhild

I am going to dream about weeds tonight...... and tiny little seeds put into the soil.......

-------and about new growth.

 

Lagre

And now before the eye can focus.......

@brittarnhild

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus—
Crocus.
by Lilja Rogers

Thank you for posting this on my facebook wall Ardi.

What a blessing.
First a lovely, sunny, blooming month in Italy while it continued to snow up here.

Then waking up to the most glorious sunny day.

Terje and I have been out in the garden for hours. So much to do. So lovely to do it :-)

The name of this chapter in my life is Gardening.

Lagre