Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

94 years young

@brittarnhild

Born on March 5th 1930.
That is a long time ago.
A very long time ago.

To be exact, it is 94 years ago. Today.

We celebrated my mother's 94th birthday today.
With a little party.

Her sister and her sisters partner.
Me and Terje.
My youngest brother Torodd.
Our daughter in law Silje and our youngest granddaughter Eline

My mother is the third in a sibling group of four:
Aunt Oddrun, to the right in this picture, is the little sister, still in her eighties, will be 9o next month.

Uncle John, the oldest, and aunt Solbjørg the second, have passed away.

My mother, 94 today, have baked the small breads and the almond cake you see in the back. The cream cake is from a local bakery.

Great grandma with little Eline.

 

Father's Day

@brittarnhild

Today is Father's Day in Norway.
We usually celebrate with as many of the family as possible gathered. But this year Terje and I are at our cabin, just the two of us.

This year must be the first year ever that I have not spoken to my father on Father's Day. Back in the beginning of January my dear father got dementia, and he is now in a care home not far from where my mom lives. He still has his phone and most days he manage to call at least my mother and also one or more of us four siblings. But today he hasn't called.

He has been in my thoughts though, and I am having a good time trying to remember as many happy childhood memories as possible. A blessed thing to do.

I have no memories of the fishing trip when this picture was taken though. My mother tells me she can remember the cute apron I wear over my dress. I have no idea, lol.

HAPPY FATHER´S DAY DEAR DAD, AND THANKS FOR GIVING ME SUCH A RICHED, BLESSED LIFE.

 

Sweden and Denmark vacation, day 3 part 1

@brittarnhild

In a tiny little flat in Stockholm, just 25 square meters, our son has created a paradise for himself.

Torgeir loves books and he loves to travel,

so books and travel memories are what you can find everywhere in the flat.

2600 books last time he counted. That was before he spent time with us (and as I am writing this from the future, I can assure you he bought quite a few new books during our days together).

In a corner of the flat Torgeir has a miniature kitchen, about the size of a stamp, lol, and here he bakes the most amazing cakes, pastries and macaroons.

I love Torgeir´s flat, and some day, when he is out travelling, I hope to come here to stay for a week or two, grab a book from his shelves and walk out into Stockholms streets, parks and woodlands.

 

Back to dad´s birthplace

@brittarnhild

Before heading back home, it was time for another visit to dad´s birthplace. The little farm where he was born, the fifth og seven siblings, the place where he lived for 14 years. Then grandpa Johannes and grandma Ragna Josefine sold the place and moved to Trondheim. To be closer to where their kids could get an education. A rather unusual decision at that time, considering that their four oldest, which were in the age ready for studies, were all girls.

A part og dad´s heart has missed Elva, the farm, ever since he moved in 1947.

Lucky for our family though, the new owners have become life long friends, for generation.

The woman who lives in Elva now, Bente, is an artist. Well, she works for a living as a teacher, but every nook and corner in her home show the touch of the hands of a real artist.

From the food she serves,

to stones covered in crochet.

Every time I go home from Elva, I am filled with inspiration,

and just like dad´s heart, mine has a special Elva corner as well.

 

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In my blog world:

Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader, my online journal

maskerade, with sweaters my mother knitted for the 1956 Winter Olympics

 

 

The concert was another goal

@brittarnhild

I wrote in my last post that our main goal for the weekend was to visit the small island where my father was born and lived till he was 14. I will write more about this in my next post, but today I must correct myself. You see, our weekend had two main goals. Visiting the island and the small farm where my father was born, and going to a concert where my brother Torodd Wigum was the conductor.

Luck for us, the concert was held at Knudtzonlunden, an amazing place only a few stone´s throws from dad´s birthplace.

Knudtzonlunden was built about 150 years ago, as a summer residence by Nicolas Knudtzon, a man who earned good money through selling dried and salted cod, baccalao, the gold of the oceans along the north western coast.

My father has strong memories from his childhood during WWII, which I wrote a little about in the last post, and after Kristiansund was bombed by the Germans in April 1940, many of the inhabitants of the town fled to the island Frei and were accommodated with the locals. At Knudtzonlunden there were boys my father´s age, and he came here to play with them. Also the local school, where my grandfather was the teacher, my father a pupil, was just close to the villa.

We were walking around before the concert, and I smiled when I heard my father call for my mother: "Marta, come and see this, these two lions, they were here when I was a boy!!!"

A lovely concert with French music by the Kristiansund Opera Sinfonietta, 

and my brother conduction.

Thank you mum, dad and Torodd for a wonderful evening.
And Terje of course, I can´t see why I have NO pictures of him!

Bridge along the memory road

@brittarnhild

We are on the road this weekend with my parents. Our goal is the small island where my father was born and lived till he became a teenager. The closer we come, the more my father´s memory lane opens. I love to listen to his stories. he was born at Frei, an island close to the town Kristiansund, on the western coast of Norway. As WWII started in Norway, in April 1940, Kristiansund was bombed and a fatal fire destroyed most of the town. My father had just turned 7, and still remembers the smokes from the fires, which could be seen out to where he lived. As we came to this bridge today, the bridge between Frei and Kristiansund, he started to tell, about the day of the bombing, people fleeing over the old bridge, which can be seen in the middle of the picture. Hundreds of people, old, young, families, children walking over the bridge. Carrying boxes with their stuff, prams, carriages, even wheelbarrows.

My three brothers and I have decided it is time to start writing down our family tales. I´ll start as soon as we are back home from this trip.......or, actually, I have already stated, have I not :-)

 

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My blog world today, with more tales from our road trip:

maskerade

my online journal

 

 

 

 

60 years of blessings

@brittarnhild

60 years today since I was baptised in the old medieval church Lade in Trondheim. Here with my parents Marta Wigum and Odd Inge Wigum, my uncle John who, died last year, and my three grandparents, grandma Olga, grandma Ragna Josefine and grandpa Johannes. Grandpa Benjamin died of cancer only one month within this day. He saw me once and I am told he ten put his hand on my head and blessed me. This blessing, and the daily prayers of my grandparents and parents has followed me through my 60 years.

 I think today deserves a special celebration. Terje, Let us find somewhere here in Cortona where we can have a feast 

Celebrating in Sweden

@brittarnhild

We are in Stockholm to visit Torgeir. Yesterday, May 17th, was Norway´s Constitutional Day, a day for huge celebrations. It is a red calendar day in Norway, and everyone are out in the streets, watching the children´s parades, the people´s parades, the brass bands and the flags, eating icecreams and icecreams and icecreams.

We knew that there would be a big celebration in Stockholm, Sweden as well, as there are many Norwegians living here. We did not know that the Stockholm celebrations was the biggest one in the worlds outside Norway.

Do you think we will be able to meet Kamilla? I said.
There will be thousands of people, Torgeir said.

Kamilla is a girl, well, woman now, which I used to look after when she was a child. I have not seen her in years.

I will look for her, I said.
There will be thousands of people, Torgeir said.

I will look anyway, I said.......

.......and there she was. With her fiancé, smiling, hugging, telling is that she and Espen would get married in a week.

 

 

 

We took part in the parades (the flower picture you see is because we went to the botanical gardens earlier in the day, and I have no idea how to let YouTube know which image I want to be shown.......)

 

And then we went to buy a wedding present :-)

 

An den Frühling

@brittarnhild

I had lunch with my parents today. They are 88 and 85 now. My father has not been feeling quite well lately, was in hospital when I had my birthday party, but is home again now, feeling better. I am happy to spend as much time as possible with them.

No lunch without my mother playing the piano.
She is reading Lucinda Rileys series Seven Sisters for the moment. She especially loves book number two, which is about the Norwegian composer Edward Grieg, and is playing a lot of Grieg for the moment.

Today she showed me a sheet of paper given her by her father, my grandpa Benjamin, at Christmas 1946, when my mother was 16 years old. Grandpa Benjamin, who died of cancer only two months after I was born, was a great lover of his daughter´s piano music.  He often attended Christian meetings to speak, and then my mother came with him to play.

The music she played for me today was from this sheet. To the spring, An den Frühling, Til våren, by Edward Grieg.

 

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Blogging/vlogging just now (will be updated)

 

Med bøker på menyen - books I read (in Norwegian)
Santa Maria Ferrano - a blog from a retreat center in Tuscany
The Blue Garden  - my garden blog
Nederst i hagen - my greenhouse blog
dagens lille grønne - daily "green" ideas
maskerade - my knitting blog

 

 

 

Today´s YouTube video

 

This picture says LOVE to me

@brittarnhild

It is Mother´s Day in Norway today.
One of Terje´s presents to me, the mother of his children, was to invite our kids and kids in law, Leander and my parents for dinner.

On YouTube this morning I posted a video of my mother playing the piano and I was hoping that she would play for us afgter the dinner today.

 

Of course she did. During the first piece I had Leander in my lap. He sat completely still, listening to the beautiful music. When the music stopped he slipped down to play with his cars. I looked up and saw my father watching my mother playing. More than 60 years of marriage.

This picture says LOVE to me