@brittarnhild
All the snow has melted, the sun is shining, birds are singing, flowers are blooming and we are out hiking in the spring woods.
Never has green sparkled as it did today.
Never have the birds sung more beautiful.
We hiked where we have never been before,
and met some challenges along the way. The path was really not as simple to fight as we hoped.
Every new obstacle were met with our smiles though, and there were always flowers to enjoy.
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
We did a hike in the neighbourhood today, a bit more than 5 kms.
I have told you about our goal, haven't I? To do at least 100 5kms(+) hikes this year. This means around 2 hikes every week, and so far we are following the goal.
Today we followed paths we know quite well, still there is always something new to discover.
Here is our church, with the cemetery in front.
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
After a long, cold and snowfilled winter, it feels absolutely lovely to greet spring this Easter week. And the weather has really been lovely. There is still more than enough snow up in the hills, and Terje is out cross country skiing every day (I have been once), but today we decided to go for a hike near the Atlantic. Øystein, Vida and Marta left yesterday, but Ingrid, Marius, Leander and Milian were still here (they left after today's hike)
As so often before, we went out on the island Skardsøya, and as I told my two grandsons, I believe this is my most beautiful place on earth, with sky, mountains and ocean meeting.
Skardsøya also played an important role during WWII and there are some fatal memories from WWI, so during our hike today, on the day 83 years after the Germans invaded Norway, we gave the boys a history lesson.
Here we are standing by a memorial stone set up to remember a mine accident in 1919, where 4 people died while deactivating a mine, a mine expert, a local farmer and two of his sons.
Easter break is almost over. Tomorrow (on my 65th birthday) we are heading back home.
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
We have been out hiking again.
I have already, in a previous post, told you about our goal to do at least 100 hikes of 5kilometers or more during the year. We did not quite catch the goal last year, but we are trying again this year. Today was our 17th 5km+ hike of 2023, so we are really doing great progress.
We hiked from our house today, over to the arena where the World Championship of Nordic Skiing will be held in 2025. Yes, it will be quite close to where we live, so we are sure we will get a full house with friends and family during the games, lol.
Still deep winter here with us, and today was a lovely day with sun and blue sky.
A lot of restoration work is being done at the ski arena for the moment, so it is always interesting to walk over to watch the progress. A week ago the ski jump was tested for the first time after its rebuilding and next winter there will be a "test world championship", so remaining work must be done fast now.
Our son in law Marius was a ski jumper, just like his father was. And now our two grandsons, Leander aged 7 and Milian aged 4 have started to jump as well....... They are both too young for the championship in two years of course, but one day.......
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
January 1st last year we started something that turned out to become a wonderful adventure. We started to hike together. Well, we have hiked together ever since we met and fell in love back in 1978, but the special thing about this new adventure is that we set a goal to do at least 100 different hikes, each of them at least 5 kilometers (5000 meters) during 2022.
And all the hikes had to be done together.
We both do other walks and hikes and cross country skiing an so on individually, but the 100 ones of 2022 had to be done together. We took photos along every hike, always a selfie and always a screenshot of the map from the hike.
I shared them all on. Facebook, but since I lost my old Facebook account all the updates disappeared of course. Luckily I have it all safe on my phone (and in the Cloud), and I do have a goal to save them further in a special blog I have made for the purpose.
I got covid for the second time in December, and did not have the energy to hike at all for several weeks, so we did not reach our goal. But we hade 96 of them, and we both feel happy about that.
And of course we will continue in 2023.
4 hikes and counting, so far.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Do not forget to follow the Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods group on Facebook, where I will update you and all what is going on here, and you will also find links to all my posts on my webpage brittarnhild.no
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
When I was a child we used to say that Norwegians were born with skis on their feet. Well, I can't tell if I was born with them, but as soon as I could walk, my parents took me out in the countryside, hiking in summer, cross country skiing in winter, so skiing has been part of my life for let's say 60 years. Not so much the last years though, and last winter I was out skiing one of the last days in December, but then no more during the year 2021.
But now we have 2022, and today I have been skiing. Yes!
The weather has been amazing for many days no, and when the ski tracks are like this.......well, even I wanted to be out there, with skis on my feet.
Terje is skiing almost every day for the moment, even when the two of us go for a hike in the woods, he makes sure to go skiing before or after. But for me this was this year's first. It was great and I feel so proud of myself.
Skis or no skis, we continue to hike together.
Yesterday, Sunday, we hiked up to an old farm in the woods some 5-6 kms from our house. The farm is open to public and have a café with the best pastries you can imagine.......no, the next best. When our son Torgeir, who lives in Sweden, came home for Christmas, he baked two batches of cinnamon pastries, and no other pastries in the world taste better than his :-)
Terje and I sat outdoors, outside the farm, with coffee and the next best pastries, and as always I had my knitting.
Rain is expected in a couple of days.
A lot of rain. They call it an atmospheric river.
But so far we continue to enjoy the blue sky, the low sin, the snow
and each other.
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
A new day in a new year, completely fresh, waiting to be coloured, to be written on.
January 1st is my favourite day of all. The day to start from scratch.......kind of.
I always make a long list of new year´s resolutions, knowing perfectly well that most of them will last very long. Some of them only for a few days, others for weeks and if I am lucky one or more for months. It doesn't matter. I continue to make my lists, and I love doing so.
On top of my list this year is to do at least 100 different hikes with Terje. As a matter of fact, this was my Christmas gift for him, 100 different hikes, every one of them at least 5 kilometers, all of them unique, he and I doing them together.......
.......which meant that after a late first day of the year breakfast this morning, we dressed in our winter hiking outfits, walked out the front door, though our garden and into the woods. The winter was amazing, clear sky which was dark when we started, then turned the most lovely virgin blue, sunrise along the way, snow in the trees.
I will tell you more about my other resolutions later, and by the way, the hiking one I plan to make to the end, 100 unique hikes during the year of 2022 :-)
Do you make New Year's resolutions?
Do you mind to share?
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
I am always an early riser, but up before the sun should be easy for everyone with the short days we have up here in the deep midwinter. And with less than six hours of daylight, it is essential to be outdoors as much as possible while the light is there.
I went down to the river today, one of my many favourite places for hiking. I was hoping to catch some images of a group og swans which I knew were there somewhere, but I had no luck, no swans to be seen today.
So instead I hiked. And hiked. And hiked. Following a path along thew river.
At one point this path promise to take me directly into Narnia.......but no matter how much I seek, there is no lamplight to be found.
Lamplight or not.
I love the place.
Can it be too much nature?
Never.
And the coming year I hope to share a lot of Norway´s amazing nature with you.
Are you ready?
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Unfortunately I could not keep up with making advent videos in both Norwegian and English, so the last few weeks the videos came out in Norwegian only. Over the new year I will be back to a mixture of Norwegian and English again. Meanwhile I might tempt you with the video I posted on Christmas Eve. Most of it is in Norwegian, me reading a story I I have written about the child angel Erielle, but 42 minutes into the video, and right to the end, I share with you some amazing footage of nature, filmed a year ago, with my mother playing the piano in the background.
| | |
| | |
@brittarnhild
Christmas, how I love this season. First Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day and then the days of Christmas rolling out like golden beads on a string.
The weather continues to agree with me, and after our morning coffee today, Terje went out cross country skiing, I went for a hike (still two kids at home on Christmas holidays, with their own plans)
With the short days we have now in deep winter, it is essential to get as much daylight as possible, and today I was lucky. I hiked for more than one hour, and drank light all the way. Light and beauty.
Our house is situated almost right on the border between city life and countryside. A bus ride downtown, which was easy when I worked next door to the cathedral. A short walk and I am in the middle of the forest.
Still a few days early, but I plan to make more hours in the forest one of my main New Year's resolutions.
I will keep you updated.
| | |
| | |
@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.
::::::::::::::::::::
Sorting through some old photos I found this one, yes, it is me :-)
| | |
| | |
Recent Comments