@brittarnhild
Judith (to the left) is a long time blog reader (10+ years) from Canada. For the moment she is in Norway with her sister, traveling on the Coastal Line from Bergen all the way up to Kirkenes and back again. Yesterday the ship had a four hours stop in Trondheim, and I was able to meet the two travellers in the coffee shop next to the cathedral :-)
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@brittarnhild
I started blogging in Januray 2005. First on blogspot, and in April that same year I moved over to typepad, where I have been ever since. In the beginning only a couple of posts a week, then, for many years, every day. Every single day year after year, almost up till now. Lately I have been slower again, some times blogging several days in a row, other periods there can be several days without a new post here on The House in the Woods.
This doesn´t mean I don´t post. I still post every day, but more and more on other blogs. For the moment the garden blog is the most busy. And my journal blog. Both of these in Norwegian.
Blogging is an important part of my life, and has been so for more than 12 years. It has given me new friends from all over the world. Many of them I have visited, many have come to Norway and The House in the Woods.
Tomorrow one of the first blog readers of The House in the Woods, Ardi, is coming over from The States. Ardi was also among the first to leave a comment. Here you see the post where she first commented :-)
Welcome to the real House in the Woods Ardi.......
.......and to all of you others, I will blog about our days together. Of course I will.
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@brittarnhild
After blogging on blogspot for a few months from January 2005, I moved over to typepad in April that same year. This means that Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods is 12 years old :-)
One of the readers who has followed me almost from the wee beginning is Ardi.
Ardi lives in Seattle, USA, but this summer she is coming to Norway to stay in the real House in the Woods.
Ardi loves traveling, and over the years she has shared a lot of her travel information with me.
The first time we took Marta to Venice, Ardi sent us one of those tiny little booklets which unfolds to a map.
The booklet is worned out a long time ago.
Ardi loves Venice,
and she loves clothlines.
This blogpost is for you Ardi.
And for all of you others :-)
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@brittarnhild
Back in April my husband and I were in London for a few days. During our time here we took the train down to Chichester in Sussex for an overnight stay and for a meet up with my very dear friend (and blog reader) Fran and her husband Steve. While we were there vi payed a visit to Chichester cathedral, and there we came over a very interesting installation with 1000 tear bottles. I blogged about it, you can read the blog here. Some time after we came home, the artist of the bottles, Deborah Tompsett, found my blog and contacted me, and since then we have sent a few emails back and forth between us.
When Deborah learned that I was coming back to London again, and even south to Sussex to visit Fran, she invited both of us to come to her garden, and her studio.
And today was the day we entered a tiny little paradice garden and workshop south in England. We had planned to stay for a short while, we ended up being there for hours. We had so much to talk about, so much to share, and in the middle of all three of us chatting along, Fran and Deborah suddenly dircovered they had been in school together, same year, though not same classes.
Deborah is a very talented artist, and has some very exciting projects coming up. I am sure I will be able to tell you more about them later.......
.....for the moment I want you to cross your fingers that I manage to help Deborah to get her artwork to be displayed in Norway, somehow!
You find Deborah´s webpage here.
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@brittarnhild
Today I got a most beautiful, touching letter in the mail. I knew the family name and address written up in the left corner of the envelope; one of my blog readers, but one I had not heard from in a long time. As soon as I got indoors I opened the letter, looking forward to read my friend´s news.
Though, the letter was not from my blog reader at all, but from her husband:
This is a note from M... I am sorry to report that C... passed away on.....
The letter continued with a most heartly tribute to his wife through 54 1/2 years.....She was my all. She was my boss right up to the end. She was my wisdom, my ears, my eyes (when driving), my memory and my love...........and then the most touching part: She spent 49 days with hospice at home. I believe she was still trying to whip me into shape......on the 49th day, the Lord said to C..., I gave you an extra 7 weeks to work on M... You have been trying for 54 1/2 years, it is time to come home. She said: yes Lord, may be he is hopeless, but I love him!
At the end of the typed letter was a handwritten note just for me:
Dear Britt.
C... enjoyed your blog and the contact that she had with you. She would keep me updated and share your pictures with me. Thank you for being her friend. M...
This blog post was meant to be continued with a few other tales regarding blogging. But I am not able to continue right now, so I will let the other tales wait and instead reread M....´s letter, look at the photos he has added and also a copy of the program from C....´s memorial service. With the song There Will be a Day by Jeremy Camp.
The real life of blogging
I don´t know if you ever see this post M..., but I will write you a letter to let you know what your words mean to me.
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@brittarnhild
You have met them before, Sonia and Fabio, the young Italian couple who came to Norway last year in search for jobs and a place to live. They stayed with us for a week then, becoming almost like another daughter, another son.
I first met Sonia when she came to Trondheim as a student for a few months at our Technical University. She had found my blog, she wrote me an email, we decided to meet.......and all of a sudden we were friends. Many times during the months she spent in Trondheim she brought international student friends with her to our Friday night pizza parties.
The two Italians have lived in Norway for 18 months now, and in August last year they bought a house over on the other side of the Trondheim´s Fjord.
Last time I met Sonia she told me that they were in a busy process of renovating the house, "as soon as the first floor is finished, we will invite you over for a meal."
Well the first floor is finished now, and a few days ago I got an email "Welcome to us for Sunday lunch"
Sonia and Fabio are true Italians. Food is important, meals are important and they are both born with the Italian skill to cook the most delicious food.
Today was no exception.
Cheese, ham and salami directly from Northern Italy.
A fresh salad.
Polenta cooked the typical Veneto way.
A roasted leg of lamb
Add infused water, a bottle of Italian red wine. A walnut chocolate cake and an apple struddle.
Strong Italian coffee.
Next time it is our turn to invite Sonia and Fabio to The House in the Woods.
I have already started to prepare the menu.
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@brittarnhild
It was on my second day in the monastery. I was just finishing my lunch and was planning to have a quiet afternoon, walking in the abbey park, may be do some reading, some writing and some praying. Then the door to the room where I was served my meals opened, and one of the sisters came in with a woman I had never seen before.
"Hi, I am Lindsay, one of your blog readers. Do you have some spare time, or do you want to be alone?" Of course I had some spare time. Of course I wanted to be alone, but more than that I was ready to spend a couple of hours with a blogging friend.
We walked in the Turvey Abbey park together, both of us with our cameras, both of us with our life stories.
Then Lindsay invited me for tea over in Emmaus Village Carlton, where we continued to share bits and pieces from our lives, and I learned about the Emmaus project for homeless. I had never heard of the Emmaus project before, but as I walked through one house after another with second hand stuff, learning about how much it means that we re-use, that we take care, that we use second hand when we can, I was amazed what this project is doing
And I never get tired of singing out aload - the blog world is an amazing world, with friends and friends to be around every corner.
You can read more about Emmaus Village Carlton here
And you find Lindsay´s blog here
Lindsay took this photo of me and posted it on her facebook page :-)
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@brittarnhild
During the summer we have visited quite a few open gardens, and we have eaten at and/or stayed in small, charming family run businesses. Every place nourish the dream somewhere deep inside me, the dream to open my own home, my own garden. I could start a B&B or a tiny little guesthouse, I could have a café out in The Blue Garden where I could serve herb tea and home made pastries, I could invite tourists to a traditional Norwegian dinner, I could have music nights or reading lunches, I could.......
I have had this dream for years. It will never come true......though at the same time it comes true every single day.
The House in the Woods is an open home. Family, friends and visitors are welcome as long as we are at home. From time to time, quite often actually, we have dinner parties, I love to take people on a garden walk, I have a little "giveaway bookstore" up in my studio and I am looking forward to blog readers coming to stay for one night, several nights, a couple of weeks.
I think it all over and suddenly I see that my dream is already a reality, and has been so since 2005. Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods is open, and friends from all over the world are coming here every single day.
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Thank you for yesterday´s comments.
Today´s photos are from last night when we had a barbeque dinner in the garden
By the way, I am working on several of my other blogs these days. You find link to all of them in the right hand sidebar.
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Mardelle, I got your postcard from Norway! Too bad you couldn´t make it to Trondheim, but hopefully there will be a next time.
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@brittarnhild
One of Mauros many goals in life is to teach me how to make the real spaghetti vongole.
One of my goals in life is to let Mauro teach me how to make the real spaghetti vongole
It started many years ago. I had been to Italy, I had eaten spaghetti vongole, I loved it and I tryed to make it when I cam home. And I blogged about it.
Mauro read the blog post, and commented right away: "this is NOT spaghetti vongole, come back to Venice and I will show you the real thing"
So I went back, Mauro invited me to have lunch with him at a typical local restaurant, among the gondola drivers in their striped sweathers, presented me to the owner of the restaurant as a famous travel writer.........and we had a feast, a lunch which lasted for hours, with the chef making the spaghetti just at my table.
On the next visit he invited me out to Murano to have spaghetti vongole in Casa Mauro, then the next time after that he took me, Marta and Terje out in the laguna to catch our own vongoles.....
.....and then, last Sunday, a current highlight occured.
Chef Mauro making spaghetti vongole in Casa Mauro while we watched, and photographed, and asked questions, and hhs and ahs, and more ohs and more ahs.
I had spaghetti vongole every single day during our days in Venice. And there is no doubt. Absolutely no doubt. Chef Mauro´s is the best!
I ate so much I had almost no room left for the fish which followed, neigther for Barbara´s delicious homemade tiramisu.
Thank you Mauro. I´ll be back......
.....for more spaghetti vongole!
Here is the link to when I attempt to make spaghetti vongole
Here is my lunch as a "famous travel writer"
And here we catch vongole in the laguna.
Enjoy!
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@brittarnhild
I woke up this morning with a song playing in my heart. The words are Germen, I have no idea why, but may be because I usually sing it in German when I sing it for myself. The song is translated into Norwegian, and probably into a lot of other languages as well.
I am sure the song has to do with the afternoon and night I had yesterday.
So let me tell you about it:
When, many months ago, I knew that I was going to Istanbul, I contacted Pinar, a woman who has read my blog for more than seven years. At once Pinar started to plan what she wanted to show me, do together with me in her city.
Yesterday she was waiting for me in our hotel when we came back from an audience with His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch (more about that later). At once we jumped into a taxi, they have happy, bright, yellow taxies here in Istanbul, just like the cabs in New York, and our adventure started.
It will be impossible to tell you all we did, but after a visit to Pera Museum, where we, among other thins, saw a photo exhibition from the riots at Taksim Square, and a television footage about Osmans Hamdi Bey´s painting The Turtle Raiser, we walked over to Pura Palace Hotel. The famous hotel where people traveling with The Orient Express took in, and where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express.
"I want to take you there" Pinar said, "because of the history of the hotel and because they have high style tea there".
Sure they did.
We had turkish coffee, and we shared two desserts between us. And we were in heaven.
We talked about politics. We talked abut our families. We talked about growing up in Istanbul. We talked about blogging. We talked about everything.
Our empty coffee cups had tales to tell, and Pinar read both.
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Our blogging friend night continued. More walking, more visits. More taxies.
And it ended up ina fishing village down on the shores of Bosphoros, where we had our dinner.
Here our sharing of tales continued,
both of us aware that there was, there is an angel between us.
The first post Pinar read in my blog was about and angel, in my empty coffee cup we found an angel.
Pinar, thank you for the most amazing afternoon and night with you.
We´ll meet again, here and in Norway!
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Danke für diesen guten Morgen,
danke für jeden neuen Tag.
Danke, dass ich all meine Sorgen auf dich werfen mag.
Danke für alle guten Freunde,
danke, oh Herr, für jedermann.
Danke, wenn auch dem größten Feinde ich verzeihen kann.
Danke für meine Arbeitsstelle,
danke für jedes kleine Glück.
Danke für alles Frohe, Helle und für die Musik.
Danke für manche Traurigkeiten,
danke für jedes gute Wort.
Danke, dass deine Hand mich leiten will an jedem Ort.
Danke, dass ich dein Wort verstehe,
danke, dass deinen Geist du gibst.
Danke, dass in der Fern und Nähe du die Menschen liebst.
Danke, dein Heil kennt keine Schranken,
danke, ich halt mich fest daran.
Danke, ach Herr, ich will dir danken, dass ich danken kann.
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