Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

After the rain

@brittarnhild

We are used to a lot of rain during our summers, but ever since we came back from Paris it has been dry, warm and sunny. Which has meant spending my nights watering the garden. Some nights for hours.

I love the job, but I also want to do other things at night :-)

This afternoon a wet thunderstorm passed over our area. No damage done, but my job was effectively done.

No watering tonight.
Instead I am knitting. And enjoying the most wonderful smell which is filling the house, as Terje is cleaning the wild blueberries he picked up in the forest behind our house yesterday.

 

 

.....................and the knitting?
Well, it will soon be a new post in maskerade.

 

 

The caricature maker and the model

@brittarnhild

With the Saint Olav Festival going on, the town is filled with people. Leander has been with us this weekend and Terje and I took him downtown today to watch some of the busy life going on. 

Down in our main pedestrian street we found an artist drawing caricatures.

 Perfect to have one made of Leander, we though. 

Not long afterwards we had the caricature :-)

St. Olav´s Day

@brittarnhild

July 29th 1030.
The day king Olav died.
One year and four days later he was canonised and work was started to build a church on his grave.

Nidaros Cathedral

The St. Olav Festival is here again,
to celebrate the patron saint of the cathedral, and of the church of Norway.

A Lutheran church.
A saint.

 

St. Olav.

The beauty of the unfocused

@brittarnhild

A summer vacation is over. Last night I set the alarm clock to ring at 6.30, and as always I woke a few minutes before that, fully awake, ready for a new day.......well, almost ready. The first day after the holidays is always a little challenge.

The first day after almost four weeks without remembering one single work password. Almost like the first day of a new year, and time to make resolutions.

 

 

As I so often do when I have something on my mind, I walked in the garden, to dwell on the "new year", the months ahead, the new beginning.

 

With prayers in every step, I stopped in the rose garden where the roses are about to bloom, and answers were in the beauty of the roses.

A rose not quite focused told me the importance of staying focused,
but also something more important - a little unfocused is filled with a lot of beauty.

Focused
Unfocused

 

My path in the months to come.

 

 

 

Mrs Squirrel is still going strong

@brittarnhild

After an invasion of pigeons, I stopped feeding the birds for a few weeks this summer. The squirrels didn´t like this at all. They still find pinecones up in the trees, but to get their beloved sunflower seeds, they have had to go elsewhere.

Then my brother and his family came down from the Lofoten Islands to stay with us for a week. My niece came with her two little sons, Birk almost three years old, and Olai, 3 1/2 months. There are no squirrels in Lofoten, so for Birk I started to feed the birds (and the squirrels) again.

The squirrels are back, at least two of them. And so far only one pigeon has been seen.

Last year I wrote a daily blog on behalf of the squirrel family in the garden. You can find the blog here. 
My goal is to make the posts into a book for Leander, and now, with my new MacBook, I can finally download the programs I need to make this dream come true.

To share the moments

@brittarnhild

The garden is a paradise for all of us.
Especially for a little boy who experiences so many things for the first time.
Like playing in the bird bath.

A chubby little hand finds my index finger, and together we go for a discovery adventure.
We pick a strawberry here, a flower there.

We blow our wishes on a dry dandelion.

In the greenhouse most of the tomatoes are still green.
But who knows, may be we find a red one tomorrow?

 

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Oh, the joy of being a grandmother.

 

After the thunder storm

@brittarnhild

Our house guests, my brother Frode and his family, left after lunch. We ate fresh vafler waffles, out in the garden before the airport taxi came and picked them up. A couple of hours later the sky turned dark, darker, darkest. A thunder came and effectively watered our garden.

The storm has passed and the sky is turning blue again.

The green house is a perfect place to be during the rain, but now it is soon getting too hot again.
I guess it is time to continue weeding the flower beds. Or may be just sit and watch the birds and the squirrels.......

While eating snowpeas.
By the way, why are they called snow peas? In Norway we call them sukkererter sugar peas :-)
It was google who gave me the name snowpeas. What do you call them?

 

Lunch with best friends

@brittarnhild

Finally all three of us were in town at the same time, and all three of us had the day off. My two best friends and I.
An occasion not to be missed. Time to have lunch together.

"Why don´t you come to my place?" Aud said.
We still have our house filled with family, but they were going downtown for lunch today.
"I am coming" I replied.



Three best friends meeting for lunch. All three of us long time bitten by the garden bug. Lunch meant coffee, fresh, homemade bread, more coffee, lemonade, updating on each other.......

.......walking in the garden.

Friends. Precious flowers in the garden of life.
Friends. Blooming all year round.

When silence subsides

@brittarnhild

Summer is making a full visit here in the middle of Norway, and we are emptying the grail, making sure to drink every drop of it. Our two days of celebrating my parents are coming to an end. We have been gathered in The Blue Garden today, the guests have now gone, all the garden furniture is moved back to where they normally stand, the tablecloths are put down in the basement ready to be washed, the dishes are done. 

It is time for a walk in the garden. Searching for the small details.

A bumblebee in the masterwort
Flowers dancing in the wind
Light and shadows in the leaves of the Japanese maple
Toddlers showering under the garden hose
Walking barefoot in the green grass
Ripening tomatoes in the greenhouse

The day I learned to fly

@brittarnhild

I was ten when I learned to bicycle. A bicycle on your tenth birthday was a common gift when I grew up. I still remember mine. It was blue, and designed to be for girls. The one on the picture is not mine, it is a boy´s, if I remember correct it belonged to one of my cousins.

I learned to bike this day. On my cousin´s bicycle. With my uncle running behind to help me keep the balance.

The first time on two wheels. Wind in your hair. To master something you have dreamed about for a long time.
You can see it in my eyes that I am ready to explore the world. To conquer it.

Grandpa Johannes and grandma Ragna Josefine.
Everybody say I look like grandma.

I love that.

Grandpa was a headmaster and he and grandma lived in a small apartment in one of the old school building. We were many cousins, and we had a whole school to play in. An old classroom was up in the attic over the apartment. We kids were sent there during family partis when we started to make too much noise.

The school yard was perfect for biking.

 

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My brother Børge is sorting through old family photos.
I am taken down memory lane.

In the coming days and weeks there will be more memory lane detour posts.