Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Meeting the new year with books

@brittarnhild

Many years ago I discovered Ann Morgan and her project of reading one book from every country in the world through just one year, 2012. She inspired me to try myself, well, not to read that many books in one year, but to try to read one book from every one of the countries of the world........no, time limit. I did very well in the start, you can see my list here, but then it kind of came to a full stop. I do follow Ann Morgans blog though, quite unregularly, and ever get an email notice when she has a new post out. And when, this morning, a new email came, with information about this month's book, one from Syria, I decided to go back to my literary world travel again. 

I started with ordering the Syrian book, then found Ann Morgans Reading the World, Confessions of a Literary Explorer in my selves. I bought her book when it came out in 2015, but never read it. And I also digger out from my shelves The Lost Musicians by the Faroe Island writer William Heinesen. Strictly speaking The Faroe Islands is belonging to Denmark, but they are working to get their own sovereignty, so in my list they are :-)

I do have both an English and a Norwegian book blog, but as there are so many blogs I want to update throughout 2022, I don't know how much I will be able to write about my reading there. I do plan to update you from time to time here though.

 

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What are you reading for the moment?
Do you ever challenge yourself bookwise?

 

Knitting and chess

@brittarnhild

Do you ever play chess?
I know how to play it, but very rarely play.
I do collect chess games though.

The World Championship in Chess has been going on this week.
A few years ago I would have no idea there ever was a World Championship. Then Norway got Magnus Carlsen, a chess player who won everything. Our national television broadcaster (nrk.no) started to show the matches, people got interested, they developed a way to show us the games in a way everyone could follow and even understand. And then it did not take long till every single (well almost every single) Norwegian was glued to the television screen for hours, even days when Magnus Carlsen was playing.

I must confess I am among those glues to the screen. For two reasons. I love to watch Carlsen play. And it gives me great knitting time.

The WC in chess ended today, with Magnus Carlsen unfortunately not doing his best.

My knitting will not end and fortunately I am doing my best, at least that's what I think myself.......and I continue to love and collect chess games.

 

Do you play chess?
Do you ever watch chess being played?

Am I crazy to collect chess games?

 

Too much nature? Never!

@brittarnhild

I am always an early riser, but up before the sun should be easy for everyone with the short days we have up here in the deep midwinter. And with less than six hours of daylight, it is essential to be outdoors as much as possible while the light is there.

I went down to the river today, one of my many favourite places for hiking. I was hoping to catch some images of a group og swans which I knew were there somewhere, but I had no luck, no swans to be seen today.

So instead I hiked. And hiked. And hiked. Following a path along thew river.
At one point this path promise to take me directly into Narnia.......but no matter how much I seek, there is no lamplight to be found. 

Lamplight or not.
I love the place.

Can it be too much nature?
Never.

And the coming year I hope to share a lot of Norway´s amazing nature with you.
Are you ready?

 

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Unfortunately I could not keep up with making advent videos in both Norwegian and English, so the last few weeks the videos came out in Norwegian only. Over the new year I will be back to a mixture of Norwegian and English again. Meanwhile I might tempt you with the video I posted on Christmas Eve. Most of it is in Norwegian, me reading a story I I have written about the child angel Erielle, but 42 minutes into the video, and right to the end, I share with you some amazing footage of nature, filmed a year ago, with my mother playing the piano in the background.

 

 

On the forth day of Christmas

@brittarnhild

Christmas, how I love this season. First Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day and then the days of Christmas rolling out like golden beads on a string.

The weather continues to agree with me, and after our morning coffee today, Terje went out cross country skiing, I went for a hike (still two kids at home on Christmas holidays, with their own plans)

With the short days we have now in deep winter, it is essential to get as much daylight as possible, and today I was lucky. I hiked for more than one hour, and drank light all the way. Light and beauty.

Our house is situated almost right on the border between city life and countryside. A bus ride downtown, which was easy when I worked next door to the cathedral. A short walk and I am in the middle of the forest.

Still a few days early, but I plan to make more hours in the forest one of my main New Year's resolutions.

I will keep you updated.

 

 

Merry Christmas

@brittarnhild

Christmas is here, finally.
We have had a full house for several days, but now only two of the guests are left, oldest son, youngest daughter, which means that it feels very quiet after a storm of grandkids, haha.

Leander 6 and Milian (almost) 3 have been here for a couple of days. After quite a lot of snowing lately, we woke up to the most beautiful day this morning, so after breakfast we went out tobogganing. What a lot of fun!

Back home in the garden, Terje lit a fire while I made hot chocolate and warmed lussekatter , sweets saffron rolls.

The days are short now, and at late dawn and early dusk today the sky was painted in the most amazing pink, blue and purple.

Oh yes, we are still in the middle of a pandemic, we still have a handful of challenges here and there. But life in the Red House in the Woods is good. And I feel very pleased and happy to be back to blogging.

 

December 7th and a new door is open in the calendar

@brittarnhild

 

I am very sad to announce that I will probably post the last English Advent video on YouTube tomorrow. There is quite a lot of work to do these videos and only a few handfuls of people watch them. The Norwegian videos will continue.

 

December 6th. Hand knitted Oranges

@brittarnhild

Cute as an orange a button, or what?
Take a look in today's episode to see more of my hand knitted oranges.

 

 

December 5th. The most amazing Christmas cards

@brittarnhild

 

 

December 4th. Angels, what are they?

@brittarnhild

 

 

December 3rd. The sun rays on your face

@brittarnhild