Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Ironing

                Can you believe that after three weeks as a princess here in Mysore, I miss my house and its homefun (read house work), I even miss the ironing. But most of all I miss Terje, Torgeir, Oystein, Ingrid Elise and Marta Kristin. And my parents. My mother emails me every day and I read her letters hungrily. Thank you dear Mom.

Now when my stay is almost coming to an end, and I know that I will be seeing them soon, I am counting days, soon I'll start counting hours.

          Carolyn sends her ironing away. "Of course I could do it myself" she says, "or Hema could do it. But this way I can support another family with their living."

The first time I went to the iron man it was his wife who did the ironing, he was sitting there watching life. The next time I came the wife was not there, and he was busy doing the work.

          My plane is leaving on Friday morning, a taxi will pick me up here late Thursday night. But untill then I have two full days to explore more of this fascinating country, to chat more with Carolyn and Hossy, to enjoy the meals and the friendliness of this house and this remarkable couple.

Some photos from the farm

         

Carolyn and Hossy outside the kitchen house. The farm has several small houses. To the right is Juli's Pantry, a wonderful place for any cook.

 

Juli in her pantry

 

A few days ago one of the dogs got puppies.

 

Vivek is baking rooties for lunch

 

Delicious rooties.

 

Juli in her vegetable garden. All the food in the household comes from the farm.

 

A small gecko came to watch me make the salad. I promptly named him Sangh.

 

The outdoor bread oven

 

The donkey

 

A cow and her big calf.

 

I hope you have enjoyed the tour. I fell in love with India in a new way during my day at the farm, and would love to try farmlife for a month like Helge and his wife did.

All Creatures, great and small

The travel tale "All Creatures, great and small" is finished. If you want me to email it to you, please leave a comment here or send me an email.

 

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We are almost ready to go to the farm of Carolyn and Hossy's daugter and son in law. They run an organic farm a couple of hours outside Mysore. They have been extra busy lately because of elephant problems. Two weeks ago 76 elephants had to be chased away. They did alot of damage.

What the snake is saying

 

I am not familiar with animals. When I was a girl we used to have undulats, but never anything bigger than that. I am scared of spiders, gekkos and 'living things that moves', I feel very uncomfortable with dogs and the dogs smell that right away..........though crocodiles and snakes fascinates me..........when they are at a safe distance.

 

Vinay, 'my' driver, loves animals. All kinds of them. On Friday we went to Mysore Zoo and he started to communicate with the snakes. Absolutely fascinating. Yesterday we went to Brandapur National Park on a safari, and Vinay confessed to me that he would love to live there, among the wild animals.

 

The two gekkos are still here. I have named them both Singh because I think that's such a beautiful name. (Thank you Debbie for suggesting that I should name them, it really helps) One day Singh was just outside my bedroom door when I went to the bathroom to do my morning toilet. Singh was in the bathroom watching every move I did. I am not so afraid any more though. My son sent me an email: "Mom, gekkos are so friendly, and they eat mosquitos. We had some in the house where I lived in Australia, and we never had mosquitos."

It's alot about reading and talking

 

This is my vacation time, and I am out exploring India from early morning till late evening. Exploring doesn't only mean driving along to temples, palaces, bazaars and such places. A great way to explore is to sit on Carolyn and Hossy's terrace. Alot of the time I read, or write. Carolyn has an amazing book collection, and I realized already the first day I came here that her taste of books is very similar to mine. There are bookshelves in most of the rooms in the house, and books are sorted by themes. A favorite shelf is where she keeps her travel litterature, and like me she collects ones by female travellers. Another collection I like is the one about nature, or the one with Indian books, or the one with........I plough my way through book after book, finish one almost every second day.

Here is what I have read so far:

• Our Favorite Indian Stories, by Khushwant Singh and Neelam Kumar
• A Vision of Eden, The Life and Work of Marianne North
• Wheels Within Wheels, by Dervla Murphy
• On a Shoestring to Coorg, by Dervla Murphy
• The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, Isabelle Bird
• Light at the Edge of the World, Wade Davis
• A Sand County Almanac, And Sketches Here and There, Aldo Leopold

Sometimes I wonder if I have come to heaven..........

I don't only read while I am on the terrace though. Carolyn is often there with me, and we tell each other stories of life. Or Hossy comes out and we talk, or rather he talks and I listen. He has lived such an interesting life, he is a good storyteller and he loves to tell. I am a good story listener and I love to listen and take notes. So we are a good pair.

Diwali

 

This week the Indians celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Light.

From my South India Lonely Planet:

On the 15th day of Kartika, Hindus celebrate the 'festival of lights' for five days, giving gifts (usually sweets), lighting fireworks and burning butter and oil lamps to lead Rama home from exile.

Our maiden, Hama (Vinay's wife) dressed up in her sari last night to go downtown to celebrate with family and friends. I took a photo of her in our indoor open courtyard.

Carolyn, Hossy and I spend the nights at home, which is perfectly okay for me, but I have been up on the roof of their house to watch the fireworks.

 

One day last week Carolyn and I went to an exhibition downtown to see old and new diwali-lamps. I bought a few fancy new ones, for gifts and for advent, end enjoyed looking at the old ones.

 

I would love to buy an old lamp, but I have a suitcase with certain limits.....

 

Last Saturday we were invited to friends for lunch, and in their livingroom I found this beautiful lamp.

More from the Bazaar - a Lotus Flower

 

 

 

 

"Do you know what this is?" Vinay stopped outside one of the market stalls. ".......?" I hesitated. "Can it be some kind of a pink artichoke?"

It was not. It was a Lotus Flower!

I have never seen one before. Such beauty!

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I have a new Blog of the Week up. An Indian one of course, one I have enjoyed for years, before I started to plan my trip here. Take a trip over to Rang Decor.

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Don't forget to leave a comment hereif you want to be in the drawing for "three Indian roses". I will draw a winner in a few days now.

The Bazaar

   

 

 

 

 

 

I knew that the market would be great, my guidebooks say thet the bazaar here in Mysore is one of the most colourful and livliset in India. Still I had absolutely no idea.

 

Tomorrow I will show you a photo of a man who made me a flower.

Friends coming for lunch

              Carolyn and Hossy have a wide circle of friends, and they love to give parties. Both Sundays I've been here we've had a house full for lunch.

          Lunch guests mean preparations. Carolyn brings out her old Indian cookbooks, from when she first moved here for more than 50 years ago, and the years that followed.

          I follow her steps, with my camera and my notebooks. Asking questions about everything. What is this? How do you cook that? Is it spicy, or sweet, or.......

                When I come home my kitchen will be influenced by my weeks here, with alot of healthy and colourful South Indian vegetable dishes.

 

To Somnathpur to meet God's blessing

          About 90 minutes to drive on bumpy roads, I and Vinay (the driver, I have misspelled his name earlier) came to the temple of Somnathpur, a Keshava Vishnu temple built in 1268 AD. The place was amazing. I sit here writing this blog with one of my guidebooks in front of me, and half a page is dedicated to this masterpiece. The world is filled with guidebooks, can you imagine all the Lonely Planet books or all the Rough Guides in a pile, and you will know what I am talking about. The world is filled with amazing sites. It would take weeks, or may be months to look at all the stone carvings in this place, and imagine all there is out there..........

          I walk around barefeet, on sunwarmed flagstones, turning my head up and down and around, almost like an owl, wanting to see, to take in all this beauty. My camera is busy, but after a while I put it away and let eyes and mind wander on their own.

            Inside the temple something strange happen to me. I know this is a temple, still I feel like I am inside a church. I feel God's excistense close and comforting, and my heart rises to praise Him, to thank Him, and to pray for the people of India.

         I live in luxury these three weeks, and I enjoy it immensely. I walk through my days with mixed feelings though. What is it God has to show me here in this country, this huge subcontinent, where so many milions of people live in deep and hopeless powerty. Where so many millions of people don't know the God which is more important to me than breathing, than life itself!

          On our way home we drive towards the most beautiful sunset. This is my first night with a sunset at all here in India, it is monsoon time, and all the other nights have been filled with rain and thunder. The huge orange sun gets bigger and bigger, then it waves goodnight and travel west to Trondheim to warm and comform my people there. Over Mysore the horisont, everything, turns brigt pink, and I can's stop myself turning to Vinay, who is an agnostic, saying: "Look, God is blessing us with his holy light tonight".