Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Fishing in the ocean

@brittarnhild

We were invited by Ingrids father in law to go fishing in the ocean outside Lofoten. We love fishing, we love the ocean, we love to be outdoors, so we YES, was out immediate answer.

It was a sunny day, as all our days have been so far this vacation. Quite calm near Stamsund where we left the shore, but windy enough out on open sea. 

The Lofoten Island is traditionally where you get the most and the biggest cod, and lucky for us, it still is today.

It did not take us long to fill our buckets. Big cods for us, smaller fishes for the eagles.

The captain of the boat took us out to an island where he knew there are eagles, and true enough, soon we found two, and I could start photographing.

For a long time they sat watching us, but when we threw out a fish one of the eagles took of to catch it. 

I was lucky enough to catch both the eagle and the fish :-)

Great catch :-)

The concert was another goal

@brittarnhild

I wrote in my last post that our main goal for the weekend was to visit the small island where my father was born and lived till he was 14. I will write more about this in my next post, but today I must correct myself. You see, our weekend had two main goals. Visiting the island and the small farm where my father was born, and going to a concert where my brother Torodd Wigum was the conductor.

Luck for us, the concert was held at Knudtzonlunden, an amazing place only a few stone´s throws from dad´s birthplace.

Knudtzonlunden was built about 150 years ago, as a summer residence by Nicolas Knudtzon, a man who earned good money through selling dried and salted cod, baccalao, the gold of the oceans along the north western coast.

My father has strong memories from his childhood during WWII, which I wrote a little about in the last post, and after Kristiansund was bombed by the Germans in April 1940, many of the inhabitants of the town fled to the island Frei and were accommodated with the locals. At Knudtzonlunden there were boys my father´s age, and he came here to play with them. Also the local school, where my grandfather was the teacher, my father a pupil, was just close to the villa.

We were walking around before the concert, and I smiled when I heard my father call for my mother: "Marta, come and see this, these two lions, they were here when I was a boy!!!"

A lovely concert with French music by the Kristiansund Opera Sinfonietta, 

and my brother conduction.

Thank you mum, dad and Torodd for a wonderful evening.
And Terje of course, I can´t see why I have NO pictures of him!

A colour called blessings

@brittarnhild

Frosta, a peninsula in the Trondheim Fjord, is said to be Norway´s Tuscany. Lush farmland close to the fjord gives midl winters and lovely summers. I have been on a two days trip with my colleagues at the office and we spent the night at Frosta, with a perfect view over to the island Tautra.......where I have taken you many times before.

We arrived yesterday afternoon in four cars, I the driver of one of them, and as soon as I opened the front door the smell of fresh onion filled my nostrils. It is harvest time, and the farm where we stayed the night is surrounded by onion fields. I am allergic to perfume, I love the smell of fresh onions, and all other vegetables.

Today we started with morning prayer together with the nuns at Tautra monastery, and afterwards we were invited in to the Scriptorium to have a long talk with one of the nuns. 

 

The wrapping paper of my day today had the colour called blessings.

Postcards from an island in the sun

@brittarnhild

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blogs updated this week:

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal, one new bird every day

Britt-Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online diary

Blåklokkeveien - one new tree every day in 2018

 

Sandhamn, way out in the Stockholm archipelago

@brittarnhild

Torgeir was waiting for us at the metro station this morning. Just the way I love to see him. With a book.
He had planned the day for us.

A bout trip deep out into Stockholm´s archipelago,

to the island Sandøy and the village Sandhamn. Famous for its murder series, The Sandhamn Murders.

Our day had absolutely no murder in it, but was as quiet, serene and beautiful as it could be.

We started with lunch, local herring for me,

before we started to stroll around for a few hours.

What an absolutely charming place.

One place better than the last wherever we looked.

Before taking the boat back to the city,

we sat down with coffee, waffles, cream, ice cream and strawberries,

and told ourselves that we will be back.

And next time we will stay the night.

 

Two fishes. Dinner for two

@brittarnhild

Blue ocean.
Blue sky.
Blue man.

We´ve been out fishing today.

Two fishes.
One pollock.
One mackerel.

Just perfect for a dinner for two.

 

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Back at the cabin I made a cucumber salad,

and a potato salad.

Terje cleaned and fried the fish.

And then we had a feast.
A Saturday night dinner for two feast.

 

 

Out to the North Sea island

@brittarnhild

Every summer it is on our list, a visit to the North Sea island Smøla, west of our cabin. Half an hour to drive, a little waiting for the ferry, 20 minutes on sea and there we are.

Well, there we are, kind of.
Our goal is always out at the very tip of the island, the small fishing village Veidholmen.

A place with such charm, I have to pinch my arm every time I come there.Is this a dream?

Today as always,
beauty all around.

Sometimes I dream of living there.
Breathing in the fresh air from the sea, falling a sleep listening to the seagulls, let the North Sea wind blow my hair.

Growing a garden.

 

Oh, the sweet dreams :-)

 

The island of the day before

@brittarnhild

A week in the warm sun. When we first came to Tenerife in 2011, every night we saw the sun set behind a litte island out in the ocean. La Gomera. Next time, we told each other. Next time we want to visit this sunset island. 

Next time came, January 2014, another week on Tenerife and a day trip to La Gomera was on our list. Then I got a stomach bog which meant I spent two nights and the day between in bed, sleeping, vomiting.

 This time we decided to go for different tactics and we booked the whole week on La Gomera.

And here we are. In the sun. In the warmth. Enjoying sunsets and sun rises and all the hours in between.

 

Today is epiphany, the day of the three Magi. Which means that last night was the main day of Christmas celebrations in Spain and in La Gomera.

Last night, after the sun set, we walked over to one of the villages close to our hotel. A village party was going on on the beach. Flame dancers. Drum dancers. Rope jumping. All generations taking part.

 

The island of the day before.
Whjy this title?

Just because I like it.....stolen from a book by Umberto Eco.

 

And as our hotel still has problems with the internet connection, I am writing this from a tiny little pizzeria on San Sebastin, the capital of La Gomera.

 

To fall in love with a house…..or a way to live life

@brittarnhild

This week we stay in a little cabin near Reine in Lofoten, the most beautiful area you can imagine. The place belongs to my brother´s parents in law. Just behind where we stay is a tiny little red house, and I have fallen in love!

 

A tiny red house, closed. 
A tiny red house, patiently waiting for someone to come and open the shutters, let in life, love, laughter

 

 

Can you imagine living there for months during the summer :-)
Lace curtains and pelargoniums in the windows. Beds made for a guest or two, a kitchen where the fragrance of freshly baked pastries sits in the wall, books, paintings, collections of small stones and shells, a loom with a weaving in progress, music......

The house is not for sale, but in my dream it belongs to me.

Will you come for a visit?

 

Gardening on the edge.

@brittarnhild

Cultivating a garden far up north, far out in the North Atlantic is a challenge. Terje and I went out for a morning walk, and I decided to look for gardens. Most houses had lawns, some of them quite huge. Most houses had trees and/or shrubs. But very few had a perennial garden.

A couple of weeks ago I got the summer magazine from the national Norwegian garden company, Hageselskapet, in the mail. There I read a very interesting article about gardening at Røst, about its challenges and about how daylight 24/7 during summer compensates for the short season.

We had beautiful weather during our two day´s stay. Gardening looked like an easy job. But I know there must be chains of days here with mist, cold, howling wind. Days when you have to hold on to every post and stone you find to walk a few steps, days when the icy cold wind fills every fibre of your body, making you believe a world without wind doesn´t excist.

As we walked along I started to dream about finding an abandon house, move in for a summer, and start a garden.

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Come back in a few days and may be I have a post about a couple who did just that!

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  Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods has been on the internet since 2005. The blog is my virual diary and a tribute to life and life´s Creator. I love to hear from my readers, in comments and in emails, and from time to time I am lucky to meet some of you, here, there everywhere.
I also have a few other blogs, you find them in the right hand bar. Welcome over, and welcome back here.