Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

1st Sunday of Advent in Britt Arnhild´s World

@brittarnhild

I am so happy to share with you the first of a series of videos from Advent here in the House in the Woods.

 

 

 

Friday noons downtown

@brittarnhild

Over the last few weeks Terje and I have developed a new routine, a routine we both enjoy a lot. Every Friday, which is Terjes day off, we go downtown just after breakfast. To do some shopping, for the moment it is Christmas gift shopping, and to have coffee in a cafe or lunch in a local no chain restaurant. Today was such a day. A list of gifts to buy and then a no-calory coffee (as my American friend Jane calls it, lol).

An hour with our coffee, our pastries, each other.......watching life outside the window. Downtown life in the time of the corona. A mother with a pram. a young couple holding hands, a lonely old lady, the garbage van, a little boy with his grandma.......so many lives, so many tales.

On our way home we passed my dear friend Giorgio with his accordion. Always smiling, just living his life here and now, challenging as I am sure it is. His music brightening up my city, my life.

 

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Don't forget to watch my latest YouTube-episode:

 

 

 

A new English video and plans for the upcoming weeks of Advent

@brittarnhild

I have a new video out on YouTube today, in English, the November Monthly. I am so excited about these videos, and they are so fun to make. Of course the Norwegian ones are the easies, when I can speak my mother tongue. It is a bit more challenging to do it all in English ands quite so often I have to search for words or ways to express myself. I am sure I do quite a few mistakes, but who cares :-)

With Advent coming up, I have so many plans for new episodes. I plan to share one Norwegian episode every day through Advent, and I am now crossing my fingers (and toes) that I also manages to make them in English. No promises yet, but I hope, I hope.......

Here is the episode I uploaded today. Please go visit, press the like button, leave a comment and share with your friends. It means so much to me:

 

 

 

Portrait of a "bestemor"

@brittarnhild

Our oldest grandson, soon to turn 5, has made a portrait of his bestemor, grandma. It s easy to see it is me, with my long dress and even longer hair :-)

I love it!

Photos of grandchildren are precious. So are writing down grandchildren tales.
Drawings and paintings are the best though and proves that a picture says more than a thousand words.

 

Let's play hide and seek, shall we?

@brittarnhild

 

Here we go again

@brittarnhild

Just like I told you yesterday, today we woke up to a winter wonderland. I have not been up in the woods hiking today, I have more than enough beauty in the garden. Every autumn we move all the garden furniture under roof in a small house we have, but this year I asked Terje to leave this table and bench.......for nice photo shots :-) I am glad I did.

The birds are having a hard time now, with a world completely covered in snow from one day to the next. As soon as we got daylight this morning I was out to fill the feeders, and I am sure we have had more than a hundred birds visiting. This little red robin, rødstrupe, is my favourite.

It is a quarter past three in the afternoon when I write this, and here is my view just now. Yesterday it was dark at three o'clock, now the snow brightens everything up.

Five minutes later and Terje (and a neighbour) is out to shovel the courtyard. (the light you see up in the left corner is reflections from an indoor lamp)

I took some footage as well when I was out photographing, and will include it in my next YouTube-video :-)

 

Collecting greens for winter decorations

@brittarnhild

It is late night when I write this. Outside it is snowing and has domer so for many hours. Tomorrow, as soon as we get daylight, I hope to be out with my camera.......and yes, I will share photos with you of course. This morning though I was also outdoors, to find wild blueberry heather for winter decorations.

It was raining when I went out. Everything felt fresh, clean. It might be challenging to hike when the snow is here, so I made sure to make the most of every minute out in the woods.

And I got my heather :-)

I hope to make a short video on YouTube every day during Advent, and will show more from making the decorations there. Hopefully there will be English videos as well.......if you are interested.

 

Last day before the snow?

@brittarnhild

Snow might come tomorrow, according to the weather forecast. I have enjoyed every snow free day so far in November, and decided to make the best out of today as well. 

Of course snow might be fine as well, what I don't like is the hard ice which covers our ground for weeks and months during winter. I do look forward to share snow pictures though, of course I do. But for the moment I love Autumn, even now when most of the Autumn colours have gone.

Anyway, today I made the most of the day, going out for a hike right after breakfast, greeting the sun rise.

A few hours outdoors, wood bathing. The best I can do.

When I came home Terje told me that in 2019 he had his first cross country skiing on exactly this date :-)

 

Knitting here, there, everywhere

@brittarnhild

Lucky me to have knitting these days. I knit every day, not all day but not far from, and I have knitting projects around everywhere.

This rainbow cardigan, photographed at our cabin two weeks ago is on of my newest finished objects. Knitted in left over yarn only. Being a knitter for soon to be 60 years, hardly throwing away any left over yarn at all, I love challenging myself to find ways to used it. Knitting the rainbow.

I love the colours, I love the wool, I love the garment and have used it more or less every day since I finished it. Like every morning when I take my daily walk in the garden, feeding the birds, opening the greenhouse door, checking the beds.

 

 

Hi friends, I'm back

@brittarnhild

My computer tells me I have not posted here since September 28th. September 28th!!! I can't believe it. That's more than a month ago. It must be the longest break ever since I started blogging here in spring 2005. I have been thinking of blogging a lot though. Not every day, but I tell the truth when I say it is not far from it. And I think of you, my dear blog readers. Not every day, but again.......not far from it.

Well, no excuses, just life, and here I am, with a new goal to be back on a regular basis.

Just like the rest of you, we are hit here in Norway also, by Covid 19 and all it means to our every day living. We are lucky though and not, at least for the moment, hit as hard as many other places. As you know, I retired this spring, and for the moment my life is more or less what it would have been anyway. Well, I meet less people and I stay more at home, and do not travel at all, except from some week-ends to our cabin.......

But, listen.......I do not want Britt Arnhilds House in the Woods to be a place where I complain about Covid 19, terrorism, presidential elections or whatever. I am not closing my eyes, far from it, but some corners in our lives are to be positive places, where we can rest, where we can gain energy, where we can have fun together.

So with this in mind, I am back and I hope to see you here as well.
How are you all? I do hope to hear from you and I promise to write you back on all our comments :-)

 

The images were all taken today, in the woods not far from home. I have been out hiking several days a week for months now, and will tell you more about this later.

 

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Some words about Britt Arnhild on YouTube.
My channel is now in Norwegian, but once I month I plan to do an English only episode. The October one is here: