Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A Garden Tour

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California was not only blogging friends, birds, hiking, sailing, bbq, hamburgers, sun, San Francisco mist, grocery shopping, penguins, Yosemite, redwoods, Jack London and all that.

California was also gardens.
Many gardens.
Charming gardens.
Private gardens.
Small gardens.
Big gardens.
Colourful gardens.

Starting with the Japanese garden outside Jane and Lanny´s guest house. Where I had my breakfast every morning.
Ending with Cecilia and Steve´s garden, where we had out last, long, warm nights.

Ever since we came back from California I have wanted to travel back through mu photos on a garden tour. And today is the day.

Grab some fruit and come along, will you?

Many of the gardens we visited were gardens of friends.
Like sitting under a mimosa tree up in Grass Valley, visiting Debbie and her family.
Here is where we saw our first humming bird.

Unfortunately we didn´t have enough time in Jack London State Park.
The hydrangeas smelled lovely though.

A mountain range, an oleander forest, early morning, me and my journal.
That´s my kind of morning paradice :-)

 

Another kind of a garden,
a tour in Wine Country.

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A place to sit down with a friend.

A place to refresh.

Frightened by a scarecrow.

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I am still not halfway through my tour, through my pictures.
But it is time for breakfast,
and the post is getting too long.......

A bird is a bird is a bird.....or

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I have just finished reading The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a book written by Mark Bittner, about his years feeding a group of wild parrots in San Francisco. 

It is an amazing book, on how it is possible for a man to become friends with wild parrots, to get to understand them, to communicate with them, and still let them keep on being wild.

We didn´t visit Telegraph Hill during our day in San Franciscvo, there never was time for it, though next time I come it is on top of my list. We did see a few wild parrots though, while waiting and waiting for a bus which never came. I got no photos.

I did get a lot of other bird photos though.

Actually, our three weeks in California turned out to become quite a bird watching event.

It kind of started up in Grass Valley, where we all saw a hummingbird. Terje and Marta had never heard of hummingbirds, though after we came home and learnd that the Norwegian name is kolibri, they had of course. I have ALWAYS wanted to see one.

In Grass Valley it was impossible to get a humming birds photo, except for the ones shown is in books.....

  

... but later during our stay we saw them again and again, and even manages to get photos. Marta is the main photographer of the humming birds.

And also the photographer of many of the other birds we saw.

Birds are fascinating.

There are so many different types. Many of those we saw in California are familiar to us here in Norway, many are not.

Babies and adults.
We saw them all.

I know too little about birds.
I would love to learn more.

In The Blue Garden I feed the birds all year long. And am rewarded with a wonderful variety of birds.
I have started to photograph them, and write a bird diary of sorts. 

Hopefully this will heklp me to learn how many different ones we get in our garden during a years.

I have, from amazon, orderes several books on hummingbirds....

And slowly, slowly I am learning.

And that´s part of what life is about, isn´t it :-)

To learn, to explore.
to find your place it the amazing Creation!

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And while some of us are busy photographing birds, one is speaking with them :-)
And Marta captures it of course.

 

Photos: the first one is from Maderia, the others from California, some taken by me, some by Marta

 

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I always post links to my blog posts on facebook and on twitter.
Phototaker sent me this beautiful photo on twitter this morning.
Isn´t this San Francisco parrot a gem :-) 

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Here is a link to "The Parrot Man"´s homepage

 

Grocery Shopping

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House guests and dinner guests are expected to fill The House in the Woods the coming week. We went grocery shopping last night, Terje, Marta and I.
Grocery shopping is something I usually do once a day, on my way home from work. I have never been one of those who shops BIG once a week, making plans for what to eat when and so on. I am more of a "on the whim" person.......deciding on my way home from work what to make for dinner that day, and then almost always need to stop at the grocery store to buy what I am to use.

Most often I shop at our local grocery store. There I know where to find everything I want, there I can chat with those working, there I can take the groceries home with me even if I have forgotten my purse, my credit cards or my money.

Most often I am satisfied whit what I find in the shelevs in my local store. Fresh fruits and vegetables, though the variety could have been better. Fresh meat. I miss fresh fish, but visit the downtown fishmarket a couple of times every week, so get what I need there......and there I can also get a good variety of cheese.

There are times thogh that I miss living in a bigger place, are at least a place with a Whole Foods Market. Ingrid has discovered this chain online, and took us the huge one in Kensington when we were in London in February.

While in San Francisco we saw people with Whole Foods bags, and I asked Jane if they had these stores in Elk Grove.

They did not.
But thay did have something else!

A Nugget Market!

And on our last day in Elk Grove, Jane took us there.

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In Heaven´s Grocery Store Lane there must be a Nugget Market. Opposite the Whole Foods.
I am completely sure about that.

And as I plan to continue to cook in heaven, I will be a regular customer. 

Outside the store, in Grocery Store Land, I will sit down with you,
we will discuss recipes,
plan menues,
chat....

I will invite you over to my place for breakfast.

We will visit the store together

And I will take you to where they sell the most important breakfast ingredient.

The Norwegian Brown Real Goat Cheese.
Ekte Geitost

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Where is your favorite grocery place?
How do you buy your groceries?

Who is the cook, the chef in your household?

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This coming week there will be a food festival here in Trondheim.

I can´t wait to take you there. 

A Place for Inspiration

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Some places inspiration comes easily.
To me this often happens when I am near water.

Walking alone.
Words come floating.
Forms into sentences.

Wind from the sea grabs the tiny sand grains.
Blows them into a tale.

I am there.
Walking the wooden paths.
Smelling the salty ocean.
Letting grains of sand slip through my fingers.

Down at the beach I take my shoes off,
let mo toes be cherished by the warm sand.

I have my diary with me.
Sitting down I open it,
and starts to write.

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At Asilomar, near Monteray Bay,
inspiration came,
through wind, salt sea, air,
tiny flowers in the white, dry sand.

My novel will not be finished this year,
probably mor the next.

But its story lives in my heart.
And slowly, slowly it forms into words.
Words which might be shared.....

......some day. 

Mofongo and other of Cecilia Samartin´s books

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A most popular cookbook in Norway is Mofongo, mat for sjelen (food for the soul). It is a book filled not only with recipes, but also with colourful photos and warm family tales. 
I have used the book for many dinners, for my family, together with friends (do you remember our Mofongo party over at The Blue Cafe?) 

While flipping through this book, enjoying its photos and tales, trying its recipes, it was never in my dreama that one day I would take part in one of the Samartin´s parties.
But you never know what life has hidden up in its sleeves for you, do you.......

Cecilia´s parents had to flee Cuba in the early 60ies. Cecilia was just a little baby then, and grew up as a typical first generation Cuban American girl.

Her books have both Latin America and The US in them, based as they are on stories from her own family and stories she has met as a psycotherapist and social worker, working with families from Mexico and Central and South America.

 

Over the dessert Cecilia´s parents came over to talk with us. They are the most charming couple. How I loved discussing books and photography with papi Jose Antonio, cooking and family tales with mami Tania. And travel tales with them both. During a long evening we traveled the world together.

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I have read all of Cecilia´s books, and now I am rereading them.
Starting with the one I found by accident many years ago, Senor Peregrinio. I read it and loved it so much that I gave it away right afterwards, knowing that this book had to be read by more people. Now I have downløoaded the English version, Tarnished Beauty, on my kindle.

The gipsy girl Rosa plays an important role in Senior Peregrino, and also in its sequel, La Salvadorena.
And look on the wall in Cecilia and Steve´s dining room :-)
There she is!
Painted in Paris in the 1920ies, as a Parisian gipsy, but there is no doubt,
she is Rosa all the same.

Cecilia has a new book coming out in Norway in September, Dona Maria. Set in Cuba, with the Ladies in White as her inspiration.
She and Steve will be in Trondheim the 18th of September, where Cecilia will do a book signing in a couple of our book stores.

Guess where I will be then?

While waiting I will continue to reread Cecilia´s other book.
Out in the blue garden right now.....though in my mind I am in a sun room on the other side of the world.

Or in quite another garden, a more secret one..........
(Cecilia and Steve, I LOVE your garden, with its koi ponds, its waterfall and its many secret hiding places)

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 Cecilia´s book can be found on amazon

or you can find the Norwegian ones here, with interviews with Cecilia in English.

Thank you Cecilia for sharing part of your life and family with us.

And thank you for letting me share it all with my blog readers.

Everything has an end

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Everything has an end.
A three weeks´holiday in California.

(and hopefully even a looong plane ride
back home to Trondheim)

 

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As you read this, Marta, Terje and I will be on a plane somewhere over your heads. There we will be sharing memories from the last three weeks. Talk about highlights, laugh about funny adventures, remembering this, remembering that.

I know there will be one thing which will get most of our words and thoughts......

 

.........all the wonderful people we have met.

Jane and Lanny......and all their family and friends.
Debbie and Glen.
Marilyn and Jim.
Maddie
Robin.
Cecilia and Steve.
Karen and Tom.
Diana.....

and all the others.

 

We will always keep you in our hearts.

The House in the Woods always has room for you.
Hope to see you there one day.

 

Setting sail

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A day on The Pacific.
Sailing with Cecilia, Steve and Steve´s mother Lynn.

Little me on the huge ocean.
Sailing in happiness.

Lead  by captain Marta.

or by captain Steve.

Everything so serene, so peaceful.

Nothing could go wrong.

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Then, all of a sudden......

Pillow over board.
Drama

"We have to save this pillow"
"Stop the boat"
"Steve, listen. STOP THE BOAT"
"Where is the pillow now?"
"Who is keeping an eye on it?"
"Where is it?"
"WHERE IS IT?"

.

 

Cecilia climbes down, almost into the water, Steve holds the boat in position, Terje holds Cecilia, mother Lynn helps with a hook, Marfta watches and I am the war reporter.

And all of a sudden the pillow is resqued.
We won the war.

 

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The King of Norway, King Harald, is a member of Cecilia and Steve´s Yacht Club.

Back at the club, hanging around, having dinner,I look for The King. He is nowhere to be seen of course, and then I remember.....

......as our day is heading towards afternoon, a very special day is starting in Norway.

July 22nd.

One year since the terrorism in Oslo and at Utøya. 

Of course King Harald and Queen Sonja are in Norway,
for the memorial. 

 

Universal Studios. Something completely different

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Hi there. This is Britt-Arnhild from Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods, blogging from Universal Studios.
Me, the same Britt-Arnhild as said NO to DisneyLand even before we started planning out trip. Me, the same Britt-Arnhild as had a very hard time walking through the crowds at The Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Me, the same Brit-Arnhild as hates, and I really mean HATES crowds! 

When Cecilia and Steve visited us last autumn, Steve told Marta that they live only minutes from Universal Studios. And Marta was determined. No vacation in California with a visit there.
And as we are the best parents ever walking on this earth............well, we ended up spending a day in Universal Studios.
AND I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! 

Crowds, sure there were crowds.

But also quiet spots where I could.....well, like planning my next vacation with Mister Bean.
That would really be something to blog about, wouldn´t it?

okay, okay, okay.....I get the message......Terje has something to say about that idea.......

 

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The best part of the day were the Studio Tour, where we were talken through a heaven of film studios,  heaven and a hell I must say.

Planecrash, esrthquakes, floodings.
But also charming villages, cityskapes and Desperate Wives´retreat.

I am not much of a movie girl, have never been one. I am always concerned that watching movies takes too much of my reading time.....or my blogging time.

Now I might change my mind.

I think I´ll start watching movies.

Run Terje, run!

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Terje is having a hard time keeping up with me and my blogging friends in California. Actually we all have. And we LOVE this run.

We left Yosemite.
Had a stop in Columbia, and old Wild West Gold Rush Town.....

 ...came home in time for a beautiful sunset outside Jane and Lanny´s guesthouse, our home in Elk Grove, enjoyed a bottle of wine given us by Carlene and Dennis, relatives of Lanny, in San Juan.....

....made dinner in the guesthouse with ingredients from Jane and Lanny´s garden.....

....had a farewell lunch with Jane and Lanny.

Thank you for wonderful weeks. We already miss you!

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Then we flew down to the Los Angeles area,
and came here just in time for a Cuban dinner,
prepared by Cecilia.

Now we are ready for more adventures.

 

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You can check out Cecilia´s books here.

Yosemite......Mysemite

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As Norwegians we are used to great nature. Mountains, fjords, lakes, waterfalls, hiking, cross country skiing......
You have followed me on some of my greatest hikes, like Preikestolen and Kjærag (click on the names and you will be taken to the posts)

Yosemite was different.
Grand!
Splendid!
Magnifique! 

Though we camped simple, as I showed you in yesterday´s post, we started out majestic with a dinner reservation at Ahwahnee Hotel. There I bought a National Geographic Park Profiles "Yosemite" by Kenneth Brower, started to read the same night and kind of dived into a world av spledid beauty.

 

As a child,Kenneth Brower always though going to Yosemite meant going to "Mysemite", and I decided to spend the day in search of  my Yosemite, Mysemite.

One day of hiking is not enough to discover Mysemite of course.
Still, one day is one day, time is Now, and we hiked, we saw, we admired, we enjoyed.

We did some meditative resting,
which is important when you seek for "Yoursemite"

We watched wildlife (though no bears).......

 

and mountains.

We climbed stairs and found art.

Yes, I found Mysemite.

Though my eyes, through my heart, through my lenses.

Two nights in a tent, a day´s hike. Yes, it was enought to find Mysemite.
Enough to fall in love. 

I don´t know if I will ever come back.
But I will keep the sacred Indian valley in my heart.

And if I need more, I have Ansel Adam´s "Yosemite and the High Sierra" to enjoy.