Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Good Friday low tide

@brittarnhild

After a few days at home, we are back at the cabin. This time together with our youngest daughter Marta and our youngest son Øystein, his wife Silje and our two granddaughters Vida and Eline.

Today is Good Friday, and we have followed our tradition, to go for a walk on Good Friday low tide.

Terje, Marta and I drove down to the church and from there we walked down to the sea.

We came at the very best time, just after the sun had set and the world was coloured in pink.
The darkness fell fast, and we didn't have much time, we wanted to take the walk back from the car to the cabin while we still could see the path.

But of coursed, we didn't want to go back. We wanted to stay in this beauty as long as possible.

 

Annunciation

@brittarnhild

March 25th. Nine months till December 25th and the birth of Jesus. Annunciation. We celebrate the day the angel came to the young girl Maria to let her know she would give birth to Jesus, the world´s Saviour.

The image above is from Museo di San Marco in Firenze (Florence). The mural shows the annunciation, painted by Fra Angelico in 1432-34. It is painted directly on the wall, and has never been moved.

I visited the museum back in June last year, together with the women participating in the knit retreat I was leading. I will never forget the feeling when I came to the stairs, looked up and my eyes caught sight of the painting.

The angel. In the painting you can see he already knows that Maria is the heavenly queen,

and Maria, her hands already protecting the unborn baby.

The messenger, the young girl.
The change of history.

What would my life have been without this moment?

Later last summer I visited my friend Eva south in Sweden. In September I will lead another knitting retreat, this time in Sweden, together with Eva. When I visited, Eva took me to the place where the retreat will be held. Both in the old church and the old rectory I saw amazing wood carvings made by Eva Spångberg, a Swedish sculptor who lived from 1923 - 2011. I already knew about Eva Spångberg and her nativities carved by wood. I had no idea I would meet her in the church, and will meet her again in September.

Maria and Jesus in Eva Spångberg´s sculpture reminds me so much of Maria and Jesus in the small weaving given to me by a friend some few years ago, it is woven by her mother. The picture also shows a pattern of the mother and child, drawn by me. I plan to knit a small picture, using the weaving, and also Eva Spångberg´s sculpture as an inspiration. The drawn pattern is not finished yet, I will need to work more on it.

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Maria, Mary, Santa Maria, St.Mary.
An inspirator.
A guiding star.

Maria and Jesus, a statue in Matera, south east in Italy.
I took this picture when we visited Matera in October last year.

 

And then we woke up to snow

@brittarnhild

Well, yesterday I wrote about the insecurity of spring here up north.
Today we woke up to this.!

Not much, and it melted fast, but snow showers have come and gone all through the day.

It is Palm Sunday today. No palms here of course, but the forsythia out in the cabin garden is about to bloom. I cut a few branches some days ago, and they are looking very good now, and are perfect to use as palms :-) Together with the forsythia and the yellow tulips, you see some feathers, from a woodcock, which we found in the woods here last year, and also a few of the eggs from my Easter egg collection.

I do have most of the collection at home, but found these when I was looking though my box of Easter decorations. They are handmade and beautiful. Unfortunately I can't remember where I bought them. Probably in Poland or Estonia, many years ago. 

Last night the sky was clear, and we were able to see the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis. We can see it from time to time at home, but this is the first time we've seen it here at the cabin.

 

You never take spring for granted.......

@brittarnhild

Living in the middle of Norway, like we do, we never take spring for granted. It can be mild and sunny one day, then snowing the next. But now we've had a bead-string of sunny mild days, and I do not have words for how much I like it. The climate is milder here at the cabin than home, closer to the ocean as it is, and we can't get enough of the birdsong, the flowers popping up in the flower beds, the tiny mouse ear leaves on the trees. We can even sit outdoors with coffee, lunch and books.

The crocuses in the cabin garden open up and smile to the sun, I find I do the same.

Norwegians have a very special habit for Easter time. We read crime!
I have collected my Iain Pears book from the bookshelves here at the cabin, and have already dug into the first one.
By the way, "Easter-time" in Norway started yesterday afternoon and lasts till work starts again next Tuesday. Weird, I know, but that's how it is.

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Thanks to Sky and Vonnie who wrote me back on my question about my Easter egg. Sure, there will be some upcoming posts about my collection. Several I hope.

 

Dyeing Easter eggs

brittarnhild

Back in the 1990ies I worked as a deacon. For some time there were many asylum seekers from former Yugoslavia staying at an asylum seeker center not far from our church. I often went there to pay visits, and one year, before Easter, I invited the women and some of the children to our youth club. They told us about their Easter traditions, and taught us to dye Easter eggs.

I did some egg dyeing last night, not with the best result, but.......
The grey eggs and the lighter brown one, are from the workshop we had with the asylum seeker women, the rest are from last night. All are dyed using onion skins, yellow and red onions.

I have been playing around with the eggs today, trying to see how I can use them in different decorations.

Like in the flower urn I have outside, on the terrasse.

I made this small quilt, or rather a wall hanging also back in the 90ies.
Down the right side and along the bottom I have quilted in a line from an old Norwegian nursery rhyme, kom kyllinger små, som neppe kan gå/come small chicks which can hardly walk.......

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By the way, I have collected different Easter eggs for years and years. Would you be interested in some blog posts with them?

 

We love it when we find new places to hike

@brittarnhild

Like last year and the year before that, we have a goal to do 100 hikes together, Terje and I, also this year. We had a great start the first two weeks of the year, on Tenerife, with hikes every day. Then, after we came home, we've had more challenges with snow and ice everywhere. Still a few hikes, with spiked shoes, but finally, it looks like spring is here, at least here on the coast where our cabin is situated, and I feel this overwhelming, amazing joy of spring.

A couple of weeks ago our daughter Ingrid and her family found a new place for perfect hiking out here, and today we went to the same place.

The snow has only recently melted, so no wild flowers up yet, but we could walk with our sneakers, still with dry feet, and we could smell spring everywhere.

I know I said there were no wild flowers, but we could see hundreds of snow drops in a garden we passed.

 

 

The tiny farm museum

@brittarnhild

We are spending a week at the cabin.
This morning we went down to the farm, where my second cousin and his wife live.
"Do you know my husband has made a small museum in the old barn" his wife said, "do you want to come and see?"

Of course we wanted the make a visit.

The farm has been in my second cousins family just for two generations. When his parents bought the farm "everything" was sold on an auction, still, over the years, my relative has managed to find hidden items from the farm life during the centuries here and there. Up in the attics, hidden corners in the barn and so on.

     

When I came here as a girl, I remember there used to be pigs in this room.
What a change to see the same rooms today.

My fingers itched to start weaving when I saw these grindvev, heddles.

I actually did some much bigger weaving back in the 1980-ies, and I wove a tapestry similar to this one. The one I made is a kristnateppe, a christening blanket, and the three oldest of our kids were wrapped in it when we took them to church for their baptism.

Have you ever tried making shoes?
Well, I have not :-)

I do knit socks all the time though,  does that count, lol

     

The museum is just a small, private one, but as each item has one, or probably many tales to tell, well, what a treasure.

How I would love to be able to read all the tales.

 

 

 

Troll 2, the upcoming movie

@brittarnhild

I don't watch many movies, but I have heard of the movie Troll, though never seen it. And I know there will be a sequel, a Troll 2, and actually, it is being filmed in Trondheim just now.

I was downtown this morning, to meet some of my old colleagues, all seniors now, for our monthly lunch, and while walking over Elgeseter bridge, on my way to the café, I could not help watching part of the film crew busy making preparations.

Quite a few changes were done to the landscape, and my guess is that when the movies is out, it will be hard to actually recognise the area.

     

No actors to be seen, I have read that the filming will happen after darkness has fallen. Still interesting things to see :-)

Have you seen Troll? 
Will you see Troll 2?

 

Pictures through the car window

@brittarnhild

As you already know, we celebrated my mother's 94th birthday last week. It is not easy to find a birthday present to someone who has lived for almost a century, giving an experience became our solution. We decided to go for lunch up in the mountains (still close to the city) Look who greeted us when we drove up the hills, yes, The King of the Woods, the moose. 

Our goal was Skistua, an old cabin on the mountain Gråkallen.
Luckily for my mother, Terje could drive us to the door before parking the car.

No perfume, no new china, flower vase or clothes.
Instead the three of us, me, my husband and my mother had a nice drive up to Skistua, shared a meal, had time for talking and could enjoy a lovely view.

A perfect sustainable birthday gift.

 

When magpies build their nests.......

@brittarnhild

When magpies build their nests they know exactly where to find the best land.......