Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Two families with a long, common history

@brittarnhild

Yesterday I took you to the old farm where my father was born. Today we are in the house next door, where the cousin of Bente, who now lives on the farm, has his home with his husband. His name is Ole K, and his father, the man to the left in the picture, is my father´s childhood friend. Over the years, though living far apart, our families have tied many different knots. After having had coffee in the old farm, we were invited over to Ole K and his family for lunch. 

Music is one of the very strong knots between our two families. Ole K and my brother Torodd have played together, violin and viola, with my mother on the piano, ever since they were young boys. This year Old K plays in the opera orchestra while Torodd conducts.

After lunch there had to be a house concert of course.
No practice had been done, still it sounded like music from paradise.

Ole K plays on many different strings, like weaving damask fabric for the local bunad, regional costume. But that´s a tale for another day.

 

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I continue to play with YouTube and today´s film is from the greenhouse:

 

 

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.

 

 

A Persian Silver Bracelet

@brittarnhild

Photo: grandma Olga and uncle John, carrying me to my christening, July 6th 1958 

 

I have a very special bracelet in my collection. Made in silver filigree, bought in Tehran in 1961 or 1962. I was just a little toddler when my uncle John, my  mother´s oldest brother, and his wife to be, Kari, moved to Tehran in Persia (today Iran) to work for a company who drew maps. It must have been a dream! And it was. Uncle John and his Kari married during their stay :-)

When they arrived back home, uncle John and aunt Kari brought me a most precious gift, the beautiful filigree bracelet, made for the wrist of a little girl.

Uncle John, who would have been 91 next month, died last Sunday, and today was his funeral. In the old church Havstein, where Leander was baptised on my birthday last year. 

After the funeral the family gathered to share memories. There are so many of them.

Tomorrow two of John´s daughters, two of my cousins, will come here, and we will continue to share.

 

Smiles and tears, hand in hand

@brittarnhild

We had a very special service in our church today, to say goodbye to our dear dean who has served in our diocese for more than 40 years. I was to sing in the choir and came an hour before the service started. During the practice I could feel my smart phone vibrating and I knew at once that it was my mother. I also knew what she was going to say.......that her older brother, my uncle John, almost 91, had died.

Before the service started I lit a candle for uncle John, to give him som light on his very last travel.

 

Lunch for three

@brittarnhild

A bright and sunny first day of September.
A day to celebrate I told myself, and invited my parents out for lunch.

Lunch with a view, down by the fjord.

 

After eating we decided to go for a walk.

Ladestien, the pathway along the fjord just north of the city, is among the most beautiful places in Trondheim.

Very busy on Saturdays and Sundays, but quiet and serene on a Friday afternoon.

We decided to make this a tradition, may be once in a month.
Friday lunch somewhere.

 

While breathing blue sky, sun rays and honeysuckle

@brittarnhild

Every bedroom in our house is busy. My oldest brother and his family are here for my parents´ 60th wedding anniversary. They have come down from Lofoten. Another brother and his family have come from Iceland. They stay in the apartment of our aunt. My youngest brother lives here in Trondheim with his family. Torgeir is coming from Sweden. The boyfriend of one of my nieces has also come up from Sweden, though he and my niece are both students in California. A nephew has his Canadian girlfriend here. Three great grandkids of my parents, Leander in the middle, Birk is almost three, Olai 3 1/2 months and cute as a button.

Tomorrow´s party will be at my parents´
In between The Blue Garden is our "head quarter"

The small ones have gone to bed. The dishes are done. The House in the Woods is having a little break and I am out in the garden to breath the honeysuckle air.

Again and again I have to pinch my arm.
Is this good life real?

 

The rocking chair and the farm kitten

@brittarnhild

Our American relatives are still in town. Today Terje and I took them over the fjord, to the old farm where my great grandparents lived, where grandpa Benjamin was born and lived till he was old enough to move out. Grandma Serine died when I was nine. Grandpa Sefanias died when I was ten. I was allowed to come to their funerals, which was unusual for a child in the 60ies. I have not been to the farm since I was a girl. The farm has been completely renovated since then.

The first thing I saw, I mean really saw, with my heart, today, was the rocking chair.

"Oh, look at that chair. I remember great grandma Serine sitting in a rocking chair in this very room!" I smiled. "This is Serina´s chair" my mother´s cousin Sverre said. "The same old chair!"

50 years apart. Great grandma Serine. Me.

Me as a girl loved to play with the kittens on the farm.

Today another little girl plays with the kittens.
Thank you Annika for showing me little Pippi.

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Visitors from the Mid-West

@brittarnhild

We had visitors from Minnesota the other day, Kathi and Tim. Kathi is mother´s second cousin. Kathi and Tim came to Norway in 1978, and since then we have created a strong link between our two families with visites both here and there, and over the last years also on facebook. And new generations join us.

 

Friday my parents set their lunsj table.

As always a delicious table with my mother´s home made bread. And for coffee afterwards, her krumkake and fyrstekake.

Piano and viola by mother and my brother Torodd. And a lot of talk, led by my father and Tim.

 

  

Looking at old photos is a must when we gather like this. Here is one of my great grandparents Serina and Sefanias, with three of their kids. Grandpa Benjamin in the middle.

 

Lagre

A small part of eternity

@brittarnhild

If you take a look in maskerade you will see that today I have finished a secret knitting project, a pair of wrist warmers, decorated with old buttons. After I finished the wrist warmers yesterday afternoon, I let Leander help me sorting the old buttons. Most of them inherited from my grandma Olga, Leanders great great-grandma.

AS we sat there my prayer was: dear God, let me be for Leander what grandma Olga was for me!

 

Looking at old photos

@brittarnhild

It is Øystein´s 33rd birthday today. He and his girlfriend Silje invited to a family party. Their apartment is just a tiny one, so we were invited to "The House in the Woods", which meant that Terje and I cam directly to the party from the cabin. After dinner Øystein went down into the basement to find old photo albums, he wanted to show Silje glimpses from his childhood. And of course we all ended up flipping through the albums, looking at photos, sharing old family tales.

When I found this portrait of Terje and I, I knew I had to share :-)