Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Free coffee accompanied with piano music

@brittarnhild

We will be doing some work and changes at home this spring, and went to IKEA this morning to start working our way down the list we have been making.

After we were done it was time for coffee.

IKEA has cheap coffee, and it is probably quite good as well.

 

We did not have coffee at IKEA though.

You see, my parents live not far away, so we stopped there.

 

To get the best coffee.

For free :-)

 

And not only coffee,
but also my mother´s homebaked cakes

 

and her piano music.

 

Afterwards it was time to call my brother in Reykjavik and sing the birthday song for him on his 55th birthday.

 

 

Time for coffee Terje

@brittarnhild

Avery afternon, around 7pm, it is time for coffee in The House in the Woods. Then we have already had our dinner and the afternoon nap, we have done a few house chores and we are ready to sit down to watch the afternoon news on the television.

Today Marta came home and Terje was in charge of the coffee.

Look what he made!

 

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My blogs which have been updated today:

 

dagens lille grønne

Vandring gjennom året

maskerade

 

A coffee shop and a café journal

@brittarnhild

For years and years I used to go downtown early Saturday mornings. For a photo walk and for coffee. Somehow I stopped doing it, even though I miss it a lot. Who knows, may be one day I will start again. Meanwhile I go for coffee from time to time before or after work.

Many of the coffe shops I used to visit, I used to love, are closed now. The trend is that the main chains take over more and more. But there are exceptions. Like the one I found the other day, Café le Frère.

I sat down, ordering a café au lait, believing this was a caffee latte. It wsa NOT. It was far from. The barista understood my disappointment and offered me a real caffe latte for free, instead of the too strong café au lait.

Writing and drawing in my special moleskin café journal, enjoying my perfect caffe latte.

Life is good.

The twelve coffee cups

@brittarnhild

Half of my colleagues are men, the other half are women. From time to time we women decide that we want to meet after work to have some fun together (we also meet with the men, but that´s another tale), and several times we have ended up in The House in the Woods, cooking together, eating together. Long time readers of my blog might remember that some years ago we met to make spaghetti vongole, then a couple of years ago we made Cuban food using recipes from a cookbook by Cecilia Samartin. Yesterday it was time to meet again.

For the moment a young woman from Ethiopia works in our office, and we invited her to teach us to make Ethiopian food.

 

There were seven of us last night, and for two full hours we cut vagatables, we cut meat and grinded ut, we cooked, we braised, we made our own cottace cheese from milk, we laughted, we talked and we became more and more hungry.

 

 7 women working for two hours.
That´s 14 hours!

"I am so sorry" our Ethiopian friend said, "that we don´t have more time. This is Ethiopian fast food!"

 

When the food was ready, before we sat down to eat, our friend changed clothes. "My mother made me this for Christmas. It is all handmade. She also made similar outfits from my husband and for our two year old daughter"

 

After the meal it was time for the traditional coffee seremony. You remember the traditional Ethiopian coffee seremony from my visit to Ethiopia, don´t you.

Our friend spread a green cover on the wall, to resemble fress grass. On a small table she put out 12 tiny coffee cups, she filled a clay pot with strong Ethipian coffee, she sat down on a low stool, invited us to sit around her in a circle and served us coffee. And popcorn. Ethiopians always eat popcorn with their coffee.

 

"We are only seven women here, so why do you have 12 cups?"

"A good question. From old times the coffee seremony is a religious riual. The 12 cups are the 12 diciples. The pot is Jesus. The coffee poured from the pot is the tales Jesus told the diciples. When we drink the coffee it is the gospel spread throughout the world"

 

Coffee will never be the same again.
From now on it will be a word from Jesus.

 

 

Cafe au lait and a journal

@brittarnhild

There are many different pastimes. Some collect stamps, some bake cupcakes, some climb Kilimanjaro and some count money. I have several hobbies. One of them is to sit at a café or a coffee house. With a caffe latte, a book and my journal. While I sip my coffee I love to watch people.

Today, while I sat at Kaffebrenneriet, an old couple came in. She wore an elegant fur coat, he had a sheepskin coat and a walking stick. The man walked over to the counter and ordered, with a strong French accent and in a charming mixture of French, Norwegian and English: " Varm chocolade.....et pour moi en little espresso.....nei, no cream på chocoladen......."

I listened, and I let my mind wander. Who were these people, how is their lives, their home, why are they here.......... and a tale unfold......in my head....

....and in my journal.

 

Danke für jeden neuen Tag

@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.

Coffee in the morning

text and image britt-arnhild

Oh, this place is perfect for a Caffe Avec blog post, I told myself.
It was early morning, the coffee shop had just opened,
I was the only customer (at least for a couple of minutes)
and I bragged about my blogging.

I am a blogger, I told the young owner, I am taking photos for my blog.

The barista smiled.
I guess he is used to bloggers,
even coffee shop bloggers.

But may be not 54 years old coffee shop bloggers

Slowly the little place started to fiil,
fill to the brim,

and I realised that age doesn´t matter when it comes to

coffee in the morning.

......
and in my next life I would love to run a coffee shop!

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Photos from NyBakt at Steinkjer 

 

 

The photo walk again

text and images britt-arnhild@

This morning I was finally back to my Saturday morning photo walk. This walk used to be a weekly habit, today I felt I had almost forgotten how to do it.

At first I was not quite sure where to walk. The day was bright and sunny, the autumn colours are still shining vividly. Soon the trees will be naked, but today they were greeting me with a firework of yellow, orange, red, purple and green.

 

A perfect day for a lover of colours.

A perfect day for a photo walk.

My steps, or was it this angle feather, took me to the cahedral park.

I walk though this park almost every day all year round. Still the beauty and the peace is new every time.

Nature, season, light, colours
all gave me ths inspiration I needed.....

.....and after a while I could end my walk with a cappuccino at Choco Boco. 

Caffe Avec. Blends of coffee

text and images britt-arnhild

A few years ago we spent a few days in Krakow, and it didn´t take us long to fall in love with the cafè life there.

During our Krakow days, Caffe Avec was born.

Caffe Avec. My travel blog.

It started very well, with frequent posts.

But I soon discovered than maintaining more than one blog is hard.
Very hard.

Since the first post Caffe Avec has always  ben there.....

....like a well kept secret.

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A well kep secret........

....which I now want to share.

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I will need your help with the sharing.

I am sure you know someone who loves coffee and travels.

Someone who loves coffee and travels just as much as I do.
As you do.

 

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Why don´t you invite them over to Caffe Avec?

And who knows?
There might be a "winner" in the coffee party.

A winner of a coffee surprise.........

Here is where you find the Caffe Avec travel blog.

Welcome over.

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All photos were taken in Tallinn, Estonia, this weekend.

Two cappuccinos. Two dolces. Two hearts.

text and image britt-arnhild

Busy days, busy periods.

We seek a pocket for twogetherness and find it late at night in a cafe downtown.

 

Two cappuccinos.

Two dolces.

 

Two hearts.

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Nothing more.

Nothing less.