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At least once every summer we take the ferry out to the island Smøla, which is situated out in the North Atlantic, and drive over the island all the way to the small fishing village and harbour Veiholmen. Yesterday we went there, a perfect day, warm and with a bright sun shining from a blue sky.......not all days are like this out in the Atlantic!
Here are a few shots from our visit.
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@brittarnhild
East of the Sun, a blanket of left over yarn
It all started during Lent, two years ago. For several years I had been working with rainbow projects during Lent, and I put my thinking cap on to come up with a 2022 project. I ended up with, not seven, but only three of the rainbow colours, red, orange and violet.
In my something I had read in a British interior magazine years and years back, from a London flat, designed with colours from the Far East, floated.
I gathered left over yarn and started.
I crocheted in my studio, in the greenhouse.......
.......at a pizza restaurant in Stockholm,
at Villa San Michele in Capri,
in Venezia/Venice,
and the pile of squares grew.
Some periods the growing blanket rested for a long time, then another square was made, and another.
And then, yesterday, after hours of work, the blanket was done.
And I am so happy.
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@brittarnhild
I spent the morning in the greenhouse, before the sun made it too hot out there, working on an all white granny square blanket. I have been working on it, on and off for some time, using only left over yarn. I have no idea how big I end up making it, and that's not what's important. It is the process. The time I sit with my crochet needle and the small skeins of yarn. Letting my thoughts drift. Sometimes putting a prayer into the stick I am doing, other times just silence.
Today my parents were in the prayers. My dad and my mom.
Thank you so much to those of you who commented on yesterday's post, for your prayers, for your thoughts.
Can you se the book among the granny squares?
It is by a late Swedish woman, Eva Spångberg. A Christian artist working in wood. The title of the book is "it is nice to be old".
I am 66 now, I am thankful for every single year I have lived and I ecco Eva Spångberg, it is nice to be old!
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@brittarnhild
I call them sorgblomster, flowers of grief.
Colourful flowers on a black background.
I still have both my parents alive.
My dad is 91, living in a care home for 2 1/2 years now.
He has dementia and is fighting pneumonia
My mother is 94.
She broke her hip a month ago:
She came home from hospital/extra health care a few days ago.
During last night she had several falls and broke up the hip which is mending.
She is back in hospital.
Life is hard when you are old and have to fight severe health issues.
life is also hard when you are the child of old parents fighting severe health issues.
I work on these flowers reflecting on good memories.
I could have called them flowers of life.
Remembering good memories is part of grief.
Both my parents are still alive.
A blessing.
But I know their hourglasses are running low.
Life is transitory.
Flowers of grief they are!
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@brittarnhild
I am just coming in from a late dinner out in the garden, with a side salad made from what we grow ourselves.
We have been busy renovating part of our garden lately, and now it is done, fin ally. Yesterday we had the first coffee in this corner of the garden, today we had dinner. It was 7pm and the sun was still shining warm and bright. Not many days left now till we have midsummer.
The summer months is a period when we live much of our lives outdoors, which of course gives me less time for indoor hobbies, like reading, writing, crafting and blogging. I could of c course blog (almost) daily from our garden, and may be some of you would prefer that. But all year round crafting is important to me. With arthritis I knit and crochet less, which sends me down and up paths less walked. I paint, I embroider on knitting, I make small stillebens both in my studio.
Then, to my question - will you be interested in blog posts where I share some of this creative "art" I make, do you prefer posts about my garden, or do you want me to continue with different posts from everyday life, like I've done for almost 20 years now?
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@brittarnhild
Both Terje and I have been busy in the garden for hours and hours today. No time to make a proper dinner (I did make a simple and healthy one though), but I decided to treat ourselves with a starter. Directly from the garden.
Rhubarb soup.
The first of the season,
absolutely not the last.
The china is vintage, from Egersund Fajanse.
I collect it, piece by piece,
and love to use it
every day.
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@brittarnhild
After a long period of really warm weather (for our part of the world) we woke up to rain and quite chilly temperatures this morning. It made everything very lush and green and I had a nice morning walk in the garden.
This rhododendron was already here when we bought our house back in 2001, and has continued to grow and grow over the years. Every second year os so it is resting, and offers less flowers. This year is a no-rest year, and I love it.
Last autumn we started a quite big renovation of part of the garden, and now we are about to finish it. This area already had slate stone when we moved it, but the ground has become very uneven over the years. We have built a new terrasse and also done some other changes. Now Terje is doing the physically hard work of laying the slate stone "floor" and then it will be by job to do the finishing touches.
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@brittarnhild
Now is the perfect season for farms to open up for the public. We live close to huge areas of farmland and farms, and Høstadsand Farm, 20 minutes by car from us, had an open invitation today. Terje and I went there with our daughter in law and three of our grandchildren. Høstadsand is a dairy farm, and we could meet the cows and their calves, there were chickens and rabbits to feed, and a lot of activities going on. One of them was the ability to grow potatoes, dig them into the soil today, come back in autumn to claim the growth. Very popular.
We had such a lovely morning and afternoon. The children having fun, the sun shining, picnic on the lawns, eating homemade ice-cream, chatting, playing with the grandkids.......you get it.
I took quite a few pictures of the grandkids, which I don't want to share here, but I also took pictures many of the lovely flowers, like the irises and poppies you see here.
Farmers are under great pressure these days. In Norway, and probably all around the world. Partly because of politics, partly because it is hard work, but may be mostly because we, you and me, don't want to pay enough for the food we eat. Open days like this, where children can learn by experiencing where eggs and milk come from, where they can grow potatoes and let the newborn calves lick their fingers, well, do we really understand how important they are?
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@brittarnhild
Being away for a week when you have quite a few indoor plants, a big garden and a full greenhouse. Well, it can be a challenge. Lucky for us, we have very good helpers. Our youngest daughter Marta lives close by and looks after my house plants when we are away. A neighbour looks after the greenhouse. Usually, for one week the garden will manage without help, but this spring has been very hot and dry and last week was no exception. Our closest neighbour, who has his front yard just along our garden border, saw that my plants suffered and watered them. So everything was quite okay when we arrived home.
Well, almost. I spent the morning putting everything back where I wanted it in the greenhouse, water some more outdoors and hugging all my indoor plants. Now we are all ready for the summer ahead. Welcome June.
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