Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A long tale of love

@brittarnhild

In 1995 I had my name and address listed in a "I want a pen-friend´s list" in QNM, Quilters Newsletters Magazine. I got many letters, mostly from the US, many from Europe and one from India. From Carolyn. A woman in Mysore in India who was a quilter and wanted to correspond with a Norwegian quilter. Yes, at that time I was an avid quilter, it was long before arthroses put a huge forbidden-sign on my fabric collection, my threads and my needles.

Carolyn is the same age as my mother.

From the start Carolyn invited me to come visit her in India. At that time, a mother of three, then four kids, it was impossible for me.

In 2002 I got a phone call at work from a colleague further south in Norway. "I am arranging a bus trip to Rome with a group of deacons and have one seat available. Do you want it?" That same day I came home from work to find a postcards from Rome in my mailbox. "Dear Britt, I am in Rome visiting my daughter for a few months. Since we now are in the same continent, why don´t you come down to see me?"

 

Fate?

Meant to be?

 

I went to Rome. I met Carolyn, har daughter and her grandson.

Later I travelled to India twice, to visit Carolyn and her husband Hossy, first in 2008, my 50th birthday gift to myself. Then in 2012, the year before Hossy died.

Two months ago Carolyn moved to her daughter in Rome. Two months ago Terje and I knew where we would go for our autumn break.

 

The moment we arrived at Termini, the railway station here in Rome, Carolyn had a bad fall, and has to stay in bed.

Today I have been sitting on her bedside for many hours, and Terje met Carolyn for the first time.

 

 

Follow this link and you will find all my India tales.

 

A tale of Life and death

@brittarnhild

Skogskyrkogården (the Forest Cemetery) is an outstandingly successful example of a designed cultural landscape which blends landform and natural vegetation with architectural features to create landscape that is ideally suited to its purpose as a cemetery.
The creation of Asplund and Lewerentz at Skogskyrkogården established a new form of cemetery that has exerted a profound influence on cemetery design throughout the world.
UNESCO´s justification 1994

 

In between thousands of graves and huge old pines, bird boxes were hung.

There were no information,

and since we write August, there were no birds in them.

I closed my eyes,

and saw and old widower.

His wife had been a lover of all birds though her life.

With her death, all the birds had left their garden.

Now, in his loneliness, he spent long days and nights making bird boxes,
and every time he came to see the woman he loved though life and death, he hung a new box in the forest where her grave was.

 

 

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::..

 

Skogkyrkogården is situated a few metro stops south of Stockholm city.



 An amazing place, well worth a visit.

 

The importance of a break

@brittarnhild

I had been up early, after a night of little sleep. A taxi took me to the airport, a plane flew me down to Oslo, a train took me into the city, my feet led me to the meetingroom. One minute before the work meeting started I sat down on my chair, poured myself a cup of tea and was ready.

The program was tight, the air in the meeting room limited. Still, this was work, this was important, this was interesting. I tried to hide my yawning. I tried to keep my brain clear and my eyes open. I tried not to think of my headache and my protesting sinuses.

"The air in here is terrible" I heard the leader say, "I think we all need a break and some air. Let´s go two outdoors for 45 minutes and discuss this theme......."

 

I decided that I + me = two, and walked out to breath.
This girl was waiting for me, eager to share her music.

 

The beauty of the ordinary

@brittarnhild

It was a break in the meeting. I rose from my chair and walked over to the window. Looking out, but too deep in my thoughts to see anything.......at first.

Then, after a while, my eyes focused. And I saw a crow.

A quite ordinary crow.

 

There are millions of them around.

Grey and black.

Usually you see them without seeing them. They are too ordinary.

Not today.

Today I saw the crow. I mean, I saw it, really SAW it.

 

And I saw how beautiful it is.

 

The bright side of life

@brittarnhild

The last few years have been a bit hard for me. I am getting older. The kids have all moved out. Health issues has prevented me from doing the work I loved. Depression has been knocking on my door and I have struggled hard to keep the door closed.

The struggle has kind of shadowed my life. Greyish watercolours have outmaneuvered the clean, shining colours which I have had in my palette most of my life.

 

The greyish watercolours road is a steep one to climb.

Then, today, out of the blue, out of a clean, shining blue, my inner voice spoke to me:

"Britt-Arnhild, why not make the coming days, the coming months, the coming years the very best time in your life!"

 

 

You know what! That´s what I plan to do!!!

 

The old well and the fairytale forest

@brittarnhild

We have an old well in the forest where we get water for our life at the cabin. Last time we came here Terje discovered two holes in the old, rusty currugated iron roof. A drinkwater well needs to be safely covered, so after speaking to the farmer, my second cousin, who owns the land and the well, it was decided that Terje would get new tin plates to cover the well. "Just say at the shop that I will pay for it" my cousin said. I love this simple country life, where people can trust each other.

This morning we got new plates. Six of them.

Terje carries them up the steep him from the car to the well, and covers the old, rusty ones.

Though my arms are no good at carrying, I am there with my camera, taking photos for our cabin blog. While I am up there I start to look around, and all of a sudden my head, my heart is filled with plans for coming "hikes" and picnics with our grandson.

I am sure this old, fairytale, moss grown forest will be a dream next summer for Leander. And for more summers to come.

Only a few steps from the cabin, yet qjuite another life. A place to explore, a place to find unknown animals, a place to sit down and share adventurous tales.

Wait a minute. I don´t need to wait for next summer, do I? I can go exploring all by myself. I don´t even need to find the child in me. A middle aged silver haired woman can do it perfectly well. All by herself.

 

All these days.......the necklace of my life

@brittarnhild

All these days. The common days. The everydays.
They are the gems making the necklace of my life.

A necklace I wear with love.

 

The process is a rainbow

@brittarnhild

From time to time I have some extra minutes in the mornings, before work. This morning was one of those times and I left the bus one stop before I had to, and took a detour to work. The pink and yellow benches in front of  Samfundet, the Student Society in Trondheim, made my heart sing, they coloured my thoughts. Suddenly a new chapter in the book I am writing, the life long project, was born. I stopped at a café, sat down with a caffee latte.......and wrote.

The book project might never be finished, but the process is the rainbow.

 

 

The tales that make a journal

@brittarnhild

Back in January I told you that I had put my thinking cap on, working on some ideas on where to lead my blogging. Since then I have been very quiet here, though still blogging on several of my other blogs,  mostly Blåklokkeveien, Akeleiehagen and Fløy en liten blåfugl, one post in Edens Hage,  reading my way around the world in Books on the Menu, and also the newly created Hytteliv på Rastarbo. All Norwegian blogs.

But it is here, in Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods, I have my main blog, and I am missing blogging on a daily basis here.

The thinking cap is telling me that what I want to do is to use the blog as a kind of journal. A place where I tell the small and some days bigger details and events of being a middle aged woman, wife, mother, grandmother, reader, gardener, Christian, daughter, sister, aunt, knitter, traveller, apprentice of life, living in a red house with a garden, in a small city up north in the world.

So this is what I hope to do. Tell you a little this, a little that, about life in my corner of the world. And what is better than to start with a few photos from two days ago, Sunday, when Terje and I were out in the snow with our little grandson Leander in his pram.

In deep snow :-)

The two first photos shows our house from the backside, and angle you have never seen before I think.

 

As I walk this path with you, I hope to hear from your life, from your everydays. Share in the comment section, and who knows, may be we can create a few conversations across the borders.

 

 

Blue Morning with a View

@brittarnhild

Most mornings are good to wake up to, some more so.

We have our breakfast outdoors, listening to the birds, trying to figure out how many we can classify only by their singing.

A deep blue veronica wants us to rest our eyes on her.

The colour sets the day.