Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A rhododendron fairytale

@brittarnhild

Back in 1943 a man started to plant a fairytale garden for his wife. Rhododendrons were their favourites, a plant almost unknown in Norway at that time. The man got seeds from the US, planted them, cared for the small seedlings and year by year the garden grew.

The man and the wife never had children, the garden became all their love.

Today the garden is open to public.
The love sown by a man and his wife, decades ago, can now be enjoyed by everyone.

I think it was Martin Luther who said something like:.......if I knew I would die tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today.......

Have you planted a tree today?

 

"I was born here. I know everything about everything"

@brittarnhild

We have spent the day on the bird island Runde on the western coast of Norway. We did a long hike up to the sea bird colony and saw so many birds I've never seen before. I took pictures with my camera, not my cell phone, and don't have the equipments I need to transfer the images from the camera to the computer with me. I hope to share another post with you after coming home, with a few of my bird photos, today I just want to share with you words I heard from the owner of the camp site where we started our hike:

"I was born here. I know everything about everything"

Quite a motto, isn't it :-) I think I will bring it with me.......I was born here, I know everything about everything :-)

On the road again

@brittarnhild

200+ kilometers by car.

Three ferry rides.

A few stops along the road.

I am sure many of you can see where the picture above is taken.......

An old telephone booth.

Now transformed to a used book kiosk.

On the picture you see Terje with a book we found. Written by my father´s first cousin. All about the intellectual history of sports!?!

Terje wanted it. 

I am not going to read it.......

.......or may be I will, some day.

An old house spotted along the road.

I wonder if it has been a hotel, some time.

 

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My Caffe Avec blog, my travel tales blog, is up running after a long break.
It is in Norwegian, but you can always use google translate.......

Caffe Avec

Welcome over, anyway.

 

 

 

 

Some more garden inspiration

@brittarnhild

 

 

Knitting, inspired by my garden

@brittarnhild

We went for another spring this morning (I write about it in my travel blog, Caffe Avec) and the rest of the day I have been enjoying books and knitting in the shade on our cabin terrace. 

My knitting is taking me along new paths these days, not quite new actually, I have been slowly walking one step following the other for a few years now. I mostly use left over yarn, I love to play with colours, I make my own design inspired by nature and I embroider on what I knit. Mostly duplicate stitches, but also other stitches, kind of like a stitch as I go.

I have no idea where this new path leads me, but so far it has sent me to teach knitting in France, in several locations in Norway and in September I've been invited to come to Sweden to teach.

Where I end up is not the point though. I love to use my creativity this way, the progress is what's important, not the product, and both the knitting, the embroidery and the playing with colours gives me joy and fulfilment.

How and where do you use your creativity?

 

The first swim

@brittarnhild

Still May, and for weeks now we have had very high temperatures, not at all normal for Norway at this time of the year. And together with high temperatures we have almost no rain at all. Still everything is green, thanks to the melting of the winter´s snow, but who know what our green landscape will look like if this continues.

Of course we can try to forget climate changes and enjoy, and that's what new decided to do today.

We were invited up in the mountains to visit some good friend which also have a cabin at this corner of the world. We brought our swimming suits, and we had a lovely swim in the small lake close to their cabin.

We enjoyed the moment and now we are back to reality.
What do we, what to I do to save our planet!

 

Back to the cabin

@brittarnhild

Life at home can be challenging, with my 91 years old dad in a nursing home with dementia, my 94 years old mother having a femoral neck fracture after a bad fall last week. But after a busy period we were able today to pack the car and leave home for a week. Of course, what we did first thing was to drive the two hours to our cabin. We will stay here for a few days before continuing the travel, and if life goes our way, I will be able to take you along.

When we left the cabin last time, the very first lily of the valleys had started to develop the tiniest buds. I have been looking so much forward to come here and pick a bouquet, and then, when we arrived today, most of the flowers were already gone. After some searching, I managed to find a few in a shaded part of the forest, just enough for a small bouquet.

They are beautiful, aren't´they?

What is your favourite spring flower?
I have so many, it is impossible to count them.

 

Royal preparations

@brittarnhild

The Danish King Frederik X and his wife Queen Mary arrived in Oslo this morning. Terje and I were on our way to the National Art Museum and had to pass the harbour where they would arrive. We had planned to have a coffee before the museum, instead we stopped, watching the royal preparations.

Well, royal preparations are not quite like other preparations.......

The Norwegian King´s Guard were there,

The police were there.

King Frederik X and his Queen arrived by boat, to be greeted by our Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Our King Olav and his Queen Sonja were there also, but from where we stood, it was hard for use to see them, impossible to get pictures.

 

When the nights are filled with daylight

@brittarnhild

Terje met a childhood friend today and had lunch with him. I have spent the day with some of my old colleagues, from the time when I worked in the Church of Norway. We met some time during dinner, and then went for a long walk.

After a rather cold spring so far in Oslo, summer temperatures have finally arrived and "everybody" are outdoors enjoying.

Baby geese are busy eating their first meals on their own,

swans have arrived for the summer season,

and we enjoy this rather "new" area of the city, Bjørvika.
Here you see the new Munch Museum and the amazing sculpture Mother by the British artist Tracey Emin.

A few days in Oslo

@brittarnhild

Terje and I took the train south to Oslo this morning. Early breakfast, 7+ hours on the train, arriving in time for coffee, a long lovely walk, early dinner and a concert in the Operahouse.

The photo above is from the park surrounding the Royal Castle, "Slottsparken", slott is the Norwegian word for castle. Tomorrow the new King of Denmark and his wife will visit Oslo, today the slottet was empty.

The cherries are in bloom. Here is a statue of the late Crown Princess Märta welcoming them. Märta was married to Olav, our previous king. She died young though.

Since our oldest son, Torgeir, moved to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, more than 7 years ago, we have fallen in love with that city. But coming to Oslo is always a treat. Especially when the weather is as beautiful as it was today.