Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

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.

 

 

 

What has happened to the nest box?

@brittarnhild

Terje and I are spending the weekend at the cabin. Winter, but no snow, tough some very wet snowflakes are falling from time to time, but melt quite fast. Used as I am to a white world at this time of the year, the winter green nature fascinates me. Wet, lush in a kind of deep, sparkling green way, a few songbirds out even at this time of the year, days still short.

Inspecting the nest boxes is what we always do at this time of the year, before the birds start looking for a place to lay their new eggs. But look, what has happened to this box? To hole is way to big for a tit or a flycatcher! Who is the sinner? A squirrel? A woodpecker? 

We have no idea. But as a pair of flycatchers come back here every years to breed, Terje changes the nest box with another one we have, with a hole the correct size.

 

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I had a bad fall in the wet, slippery snow just outside our cabin this morning. Hurt my left index finger badly, a finger which is essential when I knit. So here I am, updating blogs instead of knitting. So far today two other blogs have been updated:

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal
Med bøker på menyen - my reading journal
Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal

Maskerade - my knitting journal 

 

 

Inside the old farm

@brittarnhild

The old farm has been there for generations. A croft (that's the word google translate gave me), with quite a few tales to tell.

For animals originally,

but this winter a friend of mine has transformed it into her art studio.

An art studio with a view you can only dream of.

Or search east of the sun, west of the moon to find something just as good.

A place to create. But also a place to invite a friend (me) over for coffee and talk. Words between friends are the most precious.

At the foot of the mountain. Where inspiration is.

 

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Terje and I are spending our first weekend this year at the cabin. I breath blessings.

 

Here is my lates podcast (the next one, which will be out next week, will have filming from the cabin):

 

 

Cabin view, again.......

@brittarnhild

 

 

 

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In my blog world today
(as always updated all trough the evening):

Hytteliv på Rastarbo, my cabin journal.......several posts as I have been behind

Med bøker på menyen, Books on the Menu, my reading journal

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader, my online journal

 

 

The rhododendron nursery

@brittarnhild

Not far from our cabin there is an amazing rhododendron garden. Terje and I have visited several times, and last year I wrote about the visit in my journal blog. The text is in Norwegian, but you can always enjoy the pictures. You find it here. 

Magnar Oldervik, the owner of the garden, makes all his plants himself, and to do that he has a rhododendron nursery on a small island, a bit further away.

On our way back home from the cabin we decided to go out to the island to visit the nursery.

A group of garden enthusiasts were there when we came, and Magnar was busy guiding them. So Terje and I just walked around, enjoying the place and the hundreds of plants in different sizes.

Our garden at home is not suited for rhododendrons. We do have a few, but the soil we have is not the right one, so even though I am always tempted, we are not buying any new ones.

But nothing can stop me to enjoy a rhododendron when I see one :-)

And to dream of having my own rhododendron nursery :-)

Or even better, to fill a whole island with rhododendron.

 

A month of vacation

@brittarnhild

Yesterday I closed my computer at work and knew that I had a full month of vacation ahead. When I arrived home, Ingrid, Marius and Leander were there already. Ingrid and Marius on their way to Riga in Latvia for a week, Leander to stay with his grandparents for the same week. The night before Terje and I talked about how we were looking forward to have Leander with us for almost a week, and we knew a new tradition in our life together was born - to invite grandchildren to spend a week of summer vacation with is.

Leander is the first and so far our only grandchild, so he is the first one out.

We are now at the cabin, grandma bestemor, grandpa bestefar little Leander.
Walking in the forest, listening to birds, picking pinecones, watching the changing of the blue in the ocean, laughing, eating, live life as it was meant to be lived.

 

When your day start like this.......

@brittarnhild

When your day start like this, you know it´s gonna be a perfect day. The pure and simple pleasures of a sun which rises every day, fresh air to breath, table set for two, the promise of cross country skiing and a man who knows how to prepare your ski to make them perfect for the conditions.

The promises of a day at the cabin.

 

 

......and if you want more photos, you can always visit my special cabin blog:
Hytteliv på Rastarbo

 

Autum Colours Collection

@brittarnhild

Lucky us. It looks like we have chosen the most beautiful weekend of the year for our October cabin weekend.

I started to collect autumn colours already on the drive out here.

And I plan to continue through the weekend and beyond.

 

A red dot, and it is mine

@brittarnhild

Not far from the cabin is a tiny little valley, with just a couple of handfullsof inhabitants. There used to be a secondhand store there, the owner becoming a very good friend. The store is closed now, but today, in the same building, the old schoolhouse, there was an open cafe and an art exhibition.

I love this little valley. In my dreams I have a little house there, with white laced curtains and red geraniums in the windows.

Terje and I went over to the old school house. We had coffee and homemade chocolate cakes. We met new people. We heard tales about the school house, from people who were pupils there 50 years ago.

We enjoyed the funny, charming animal drawings.

And I put a red dot on this sheep profile.

Now it is mine :-)

 

You can´t fool April

@brittarnhild

I worked in the cabin garden yesterday afternoon. The herb garden looks so nice now, and I have started to use greens in my cooking.

But you can´t fool April.
Don´t even try.

 

Life in Norway is never boring.
This is what we woke up to today.