Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Making plans for a month in Italy

@brittarnhild

For many years I've had a dream to spend spring in Venice/Italy as soon as I retired.
I did retire three years ago, just when the pandemic hit us, so my dream was obviously out of the question.

Now, three years later, it is possible to travel, but a whole spring away from home is not possible for me just now. Instead I am doing a second best, going to Italy for a month (almost), starting and ending the month in Venice, or Venezia as I prefer to say.

We are leaving in three weeks, and Terje will go with me the first two weeks.

To make myself ready for the month I have been treasure hunting in my bookshelves today, in the area where I keep my Venezia-books. I wish I could reread them all, which is impossible of course, but slow reading bits and pieces will be a perfect way of getting me in the mood.

I have gone back though my blog posts and realise that there are several Italian trips I've never blogged about. I will really make sure to take you along this time.

Are you ready to follow along?

 

A glass of red currant juice

@brittarnhild

I am out in the greenhouse for my daily photo session.
Yes, I am out there every day, shooting photos for my instagram account @brittarnhildsblomsterrom
If you are on instagram, you are welcome over.

Today I have brought with me a glass of Terjes homemade red currant juice. You see, I am slowly recovering from a hard night fighting a stomach bug. I can't force myself to eat anything yet, but Terjes juice, made of berries from our own garden, is just the perfect medicine.

 

Two hikes a week, or something like that

@brittarnhild

We did a hike in the neighbourhood today, a bit more than 5 kms.
I have told you about our goal, haven't I? To do at least 100 5kms(+) hikes this year. This means around 2 hikes every week, and so far we are following the goal.

Today we followed paths we know quite well, still there is always something new to discover.

Here is our church, with the cemetery in front.

 

Still waiting

@brittarnhild

The Gigantic Spider in the Palace Park

@brittarnhild

Two days ago this gigantic spider was unveiled in the Palace Park in Oslo. The spider, which has the name Maman, is 9 meter high and is made by the late French-American artist Lousie Bourgeois (1911-2010) The National Gallery in Oslo/Norway, will host an exhibition with Bourgeois´s work later this year, and Maman is part of this.

Queen Sonja and Crown Princess Mette-Marit were in the park on Monday for the unveiling. I was not able to be here then, but all the same, I met the queen in the park today, in this statue. Our queen loves mountain hiking, as you can tell from the statue.

I have had a great day in Oslo today. I met a friend for morning coffee and chatting, I have been walking a lot, I have been shopping books and cloths, I had bacalao for lunch.......and now I am on the train back home to Trondheim.

 

The Iron Rose Memorial, and A Sea of Poppies

@brittarnhild

The main reason for travelling these days was to meet up with a small group of old colleagues from dioceses in Norway. Which I did today, in Oslo. We had all day together, ending with an early dinner, and after saying goodbye I had time for a walk in Oslo.

Outside the Oslo Cathedral I found the Iron Rose Memorial, with this text:

On 22 July 2011, an act of terrorism
ended the lives of 77 persons in
Norway. In a spontaneous act of 
solidarity, thousands of people laid
down roses in front of Oslo
Cathedral. Inspired by this sea of
roses, artists Tobbe Malm and Tone
Karlsrud initiated a project in which
smiths from all over the world,
survivors and others affected by the
attack were invited to forge roses
from iron 

 

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Back in September 2014 I visited the Sea of Poppies outside Tower of London.
Here is my post from then:

If you visit Tower of London this autumn you will find a sea of glass poppies flowing out from the tower, filling the lawn. Making it look like blood.

Blood from 888.246 men, many of them pure boys only, who died during WWI.

WWI started in November 1914, and the poppies are Tower of London´s way to remember.

Volunteers are putting up the glass poppies, the last one will be up on November 11th, 100 years after the bloody war started.

I had seen photos both on facebook and on instagram showing these poppies before coming to London. Still I was unprepared of my own reaction. Suddenly I found myself crying. Crying for all the lost lives. For all the bloody wars.

You can read more about Tower of London´s Poppie Project here.

 

 

 

 

Old and new in Lillestrøm

@brittarnhild

I am visiting my old friend Kari for a couple of days and today we did a walk in the town where she lives, Lillestrøm, just east of Oslo.

Unfortunately the day was wet and grey, still we had a great time together, stopping for coffee twice, for lunch once.

I have visited Kari many times over the years,

but never really visited the town before.

What fascinated me today was the mixture of old and now. 
Not elegant, not beautiful, but still.......well, charming.

 

The Hall of the Mountain King

@brittarnhild

I took the train from Trondheim and almost down to Oslo today. A 7 hours ride, passing over the Dovre Mountain. When Edvard Grieg wrote the music for Henrik Ibsen´s Peer Gynt, he found inspiration in the nature here in Norway. The Norwegian name of the composition  The Hall of the Mountain King is I Dovregubbens hall. Dovre is the name of the mountain, a gubbe is some kind of an old man, or as in Ibsens play, a n old troll. I love the Dovre mountain area. Usually when I go there it is by car, once, when I was young and fit, I bicycled over, but today I went by train.

I had been looking forward to enjoy the beautiful scenery today, but everything was gray with rain and very low clouds. I did not even remember to open my camera for a photo, not until I was far over on the other side, where the train had a short stop at Otta. Well, you can see the clouds here and even some fresh snow.

I am staying with a friend  from High School for a couple of days. We are having such a good time, talking so much, I have not even remembered to open my camera here either.......so far.

But who knows, may be there will be pictures and a new post tomorrow.

 

Exciting clouds

@brittarnhild

With still some snow left up here where we live, we decided to do a hike down by the fjord the other day. 

The day was sunny and quite mild, we found several of the first spring wild flowers, we had coffee and vafler at Sponhuset, and we really enjoyed watching the magic clouds.

I have learned that they are called lenticular clouds.

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Terje and I have set a goal to do at least 100 hikes in 2023,  none of them shorter than 5 kilometers. This was our 34th, so we are doing fine so far.

 

Snowdrops

@brittarnhild

We have had so much snow this year, I still wonder if all of it will melt before summer solstice....... Well, of course it will, but waiting for spring when it continues to snow and snow and snow can be very hard. For almost a couple of weeks we have had very nice weather now though, and quite a lot of the snow has melted. And as soon as there are bare patches in the garden, the snowdrops start waving their white petals, singing hello spring.

I can't get enough of them, and bring them into the house and the greenhouse.

I really can't tell which is my favourite spring flower. But I can tell that today it is the snowdrop.

What is yours?