Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A weekend in Bergen

@brittarnhild

Terje and I are in Bergen for the weekend. It is spring, the sun is shining, the rain is falling, love is in the air and it is the annual music festival Festspillene.

We take the cable car up to Mount Fløien and have the "of course we must take a selfie here"

We hike in the woods,

and go to a concert at Trollhaugen, Edvard Griegs home. Schuberts Dia Schöne Müllerin

We walk, and walk and walk.

We have lunch with friends from Iran

and we are ordinary tourists.

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Now Terje is on this way back to Trondheim while I am still in Bergen, till tomorrow night, for some work meetings.

 

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My lates vlog, YouTube video. Even though you do not understand Norwegian, I am sure you'll enjoy the footage from our cabin.

 

 

 

Inspired by the Swedish artist Josef Frank

@brittarnhild

We were in Stockholm, visiting our oldest son. One day we had lunch in a small restaurant in Søder, three old ladies were sitting at the table next to us, two of them were talking about painting, and I couldn't help listening. One of them mentioned Josef Frank, "Oh, I wish I could paint like Josef Frank, but nobody does any more......." I had never heard the name, googled it and found an amazing series of watercolours. 

Later that day Torgeir bought me a late birthday present, a book with many of his paintings. This book is now on display in our living room, and are of great inspiration to me.

It must be possible to transfer the colours into knitting, I told myself one day.......

.......and started to do so :-)

A pair of pear wrist warmers are now done,

and the whole adventure is told in my YouTube vlog/podcast

In the podcast I also read from a book I've inherited from my mother, and I share a cute little video of a busy spider :-)

 

 

 

The season of harvesting

@brittarnhild

Burning nettles are growing in our garden. Weeds, most people call them. Not I, not here with us. I let them grow and use them all through the three seasons till winter arrives again. The other day I picked young leaves and made soup, filming the whole process, sharing it in the most precious episode on my YouTube channel. As always I speak Norwegian, but the part where I make soup is completely without words, music only, and can be "read" by everyone.

Some years ago I wrote a legend I call "When God gave the nettle the name burning nettle", where I let the fresh nettle complain to God. It is early spring, the little nettle let his leaves sprout but as soon as he does, the woman is there picking them. The nettle gets angry, very angry and wants to burn the woman. But God is giving him a lesson, letting him know how important his leaves are for the woman, for her children and her husband. In the end God changes the nettles name as a punishment. I read the legend in Norwegian, but here you have the essence :-)

A few year ago I bought a skein of yarn made of nettle fibers. I bought it out of interest, but had no idea how to use the yarn. Then, one day, I got an idea. Why not make a kind of soap shrub, a little bag to keep the soup and hang it in the shower cabinet!

I have made many nettle bags since then. They are perfect as small gifts. Here is one I made this week, a gift for my sister in law for her birthday.

I've made a couple of other birthday gifts as well this week. Cotton pads and wash bags for two of my nieces. Left over yarn, green living, sustainability :-)

And I have fin iced a pair of socks I've been working on. 2 Color Socks by the Argentinian knit designer Joji Licatelli. The pattern can be bought on Ravelry.