Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A day at the cabin

@brittarnhild

Let's start the day already when it is just a few minutes old young, shall we :-)
Midnight, and nights are filled with light here up north at this time of the year. Well, not quite all night, we do have a few hours with the sun taking a dive in the ocean, but all of a sudden it is back again, the sun I mean.

It is hard to go to bed when the light and the view is like this, but harder to stay awake, I am always tired at night, and sleep hits me the moment my head meets the pillow.

Hours later I've had my beauty sleep, we have had breakfast out in the terrasse, and while Terje is up on the roof, finishing the work there, I am watching the bumble bees, smelling the thyme.

Then I drink a mug of mint tea, I read, I knit and I watch the view.

Soon it is too hot to sit in the sun and I seek shade behind the red currant in the herb garden.
More reading, but then Terje comes down for the roof, "what about a swim in the ocean again?" A perfect idea. We have to drive to find a good place to swim, so I make a thermos of coffee, fill a water bottle and pack some snacks, and off we go.

It is night again. Not quite midnight yet, so I am still awake.

I am working my way through my travel literature and garden literature this summer. Taking photos of each and every one of the books I have, posting them on two of my instagram accounts, using the hashtags #brittarnhildsreiselitteratur and #brittarnhildshagebibliotek

There are so many great books in my shelves, and as I read on along the travel literature path I'm playing with an idea. I have this blog Caffe Avec which I started many years ago while we were vising Krakow in Poland. I fell in love with the cafés and coffee houses there, something you can read about in the very first post over at Caffe Avec, Krakow, Let's get started.
Since then the blog has been used for quite a few different topics. But my idea now is to re-open the blog for posts about past travels, inspired by the travel literature I read, or simply inspired by memories.

What do you think? Will it be of interest to you? Will you go there, will you read it?

 

A swim in the Atlantic

@brittarnhild

We have such amazing weather for the moment. A weather which calls for a swim in the ocean.
Terje is busy at the cabin these days, repairing the roof after a leak, but after lunch today we decided it was time for a hike. A hike to the ocean.

Icy cold
And so refreshing!

 

First day of summer vacation

@brittarnhild

Vacation? Aren't you retired?
Sure I am, and in that way I kind of have vacation all year round.......or?

Well, it really does not feel like I have. The days are passing by sometimes faster than I can follow and when it is time to go to bed I often feel frustrated. Where did the day go? There are still so many things I want to squeeze in before sleep takes over!

I guess this is a good sign. No, absolutely no, boring minutes in my life :-) 

Last weekend was a kind of climax, busy in the most wonderful, perfect way you can imagine.
Our Øystein got married to his Silje (I hope to write a post about it some day)

 

And this morning I woke up to this lovely feeling, the first day of vacation feeling.
We had breakfast, I watered the greenhouse while Terje packed the car, and then we drove the two hours out west to our cabin.

We will stay here for just a few days only, this time, but the sun is shining, the temperatures lovely, the stack of unread books high and the knitting projects many.

It is summer vacation.

 

All the images are from our cabin today.

 

Slow Living, my way

@brittarnhild

A week at the cabin

Terje and I

Slow Living

My way

 

Hiking

Knitting

Reading

Cooking

 

And time to make another episode in Britt Arnhild´s World on YouTube.
This time I sit outside on our terrace, with the camera hold to show you the amazing view we have, me looking directly into the cabin wall :-)

It is a short video.
A slow life video.

I hope you like it.

 

 

The weather forecast gave us a great day

@brittarnhild

Late last nigh the mist slowly started to come in from the Atlantic and when we woke up this morning the world was all white. Luckily the mist left again, just as quiet as it came and we could sit out in the bright, smiling sun. The weather forecast predicted thunderstorm and some very heavy rain just after noon though, so we decided to stay at the cabin. A day of rest, what a blessing.

At some time during the day we could hear the thunder, but it never came close and not a drop of rain fell. The cabin garden is very dry, we do not have water so Terje is having quite a lot of work carrying buckets of water from the well. While I spent hours out there with my books and my knitting. I knit very slowly for the moment, with my stiff fingers, but I knit and I truly enjoy the snails I am knitting.

Do you follow my snails tails?
Yes, I know they are all in Norwegian, but google translate is an amazing tool.
I started out posting them daily on instagram, @brittarnhildsstrikkedagbok
and on the Facebook page Britt Arnhilds verden.

But now the snails have their very own blog, where I post tales daily :-)

Our cabin is situated right in the middle of Mother Earth´s Nature Hear. I always have my camera close by and can capture the precious moments.

 

 

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My most previous episode on YouTube:

 

 

Hiking with a waffle iron

@bnrittarnhild

For my birthday earlier this month I got a new waffle iron, one to take with me when hiking. It had been on my wish list for some time, and today was the first day to use it.

We hiked out to a place where we almost always go when we are at the cabin, a place with a fire pit everyone can use. Terje brought wood, I brought the batter and some raspberry jam. And a thermos of coffee of course.

Oh my, can you imagine a better lunch?
I did took some footage of course, which I will include in this week's episode on YouTube.

 

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Sorting through some old photos I found this one, yes, it is me :-)

 

Cold spring

@brittarnhild

It is the last day of April, and here in our corner of the world we are still far from any warm weather. The daffodils are blooming in the cabin garden, but here and again a snow shower passes over us. In between a cold sun is shining.

We are stubborn Norwegians though, and we do not lack warm and proper clothing. So after lunch today we went out fishing.

Well, even for us it felt icy cold. I got nothing. Terje got two sei (coalfish?) And then we gave up.

Poor Terje had to clean the fish.
Afterward he had problems putting his gloves on, his fingers were so frozen.

 

Now we are back in the cabin, the fire is burning, the sun is shining and we are both warm again :-)

 

This view, again.......

@brittarnhild

This view.
Of course I can never have enough of it.

My parents really found the paradise spot when they bought this place back in 1975.

Winter is waving good bye, see you again in a few months.
Spring is swinging at the top of her voice, here I am, who wants to play with me;

 

Thank to all of you who contacts me to let me know that you keep on checking Britt Arnhild´s House in the Woods, wanting to hear from me. I am here and will do my best to update more often.

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By the way, here is my latest video on YouTube, from yesterday:

 

 

 

Winter or spring, what do you prefere?

@brittarnhild

We cam out to the cabin this weekend in search of spring. Back home it is still winter, cold and snow, here, near the coast, spring is already into the process of colouring the world in her lovely spring colours.

And what did we do? First thing after breakfast today we took the car and drove up to the snow....... Terje for cross country skiing, I for hiking.

Well, the day and the snow was so beautiful, we could not resist :-)

A couple of hours later we were back in spring,

enjoying flowers and birds and sun and view and.......life :-)

 

 

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I am a little behind with sharing my videos, but here is the one for orange week:

 

 

You can easily find my other active blogs through my new webpage, brittarnhild.no
The other blogs, which focus on different themes, are all in Norwegian, but the images are all our shared language, and you can always easily use google translate :-)

I have a list of different instagram accounts:
@brittarnhild
@akeleiehagen (the blue garden)
@brittarnhildsstrikkedagbok (knitting)
@brittarnhilds_naturdagbok (nature notes)
@brittarnhildsbokhylle (my bookshelf)
@brittarnhildsflora (wild flowers, active during the summer months)
@brittarnhildsmatseddel (menue)
@dagenslillegrønne (green living)

On Facebook I hava a page connected to this blog, which I call, obviously 
Britt Arnhild´s House in the Woods. Feel free to subscribe to it. I am also considering making a group connected to this page, where we all can post, chat, have discussions, sharing and so on. Would that be of interest for you? Well, let's see where this path leads us, shall we?

I do have an account on snapchat as well, mostly for family and a few close friends. Let me know if you are interested in getting the stories I share there, and we might connect :-)

 

The birth of a rhododendron garden

@brittarnhild

Not far from the cabin is a rhododendron nursery which we visit every year. Slowly a dream of our own rhododendron garden has stated to grow inside me, and today it happened.

So far with only two plants, but everything has to start somewhere :-)

Now we cross our green fingers that the deer will not eat the new plants and that the sky will give enough sun, enough rain.