Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Statsraad Lehmkuhl, the three-masted barque

@brittarnhild

I had an appointment downtown near the harbour this morning. I was out early, the day was beautiful and I went for a walk along the fjord. A very special ship is visiting Trondheim these days, the three-masted barque Statsraad Lehmkuhl. During the weekend it was possible to get on board as a visitor. We did not have the chance to do that, but seeing it today was also quite something.

The ship was built in Germany in 1914, and in 1921 it was bought by the Norwegian cabinet minister Kristofer Lehmkuhl. Statsråd is the Norwegian word for cabinet minister, hence the name.

You can read more about Statsraad Lehmkuhl here.

 

A hike filled with autumn colours

@brittarnhild

We have spent a couple of days over on the other side of the Trondheim Fjord. Before going home we had a lovely walk in the middle of sun, blue sky and autumn colours.

Nature, rowan berries and old wooden houses played on the same team.

As many of you know, I have a YouTube-channel. Most of the videos are in Norwegian, but for a couple of years I manage to do every second video in English. Last summer I realised it was too much work (at that time) and I went back to doing only Norwegian episodes. More than one year later, I am very happy to tell you that I am back to doing episodes in both Norwegian and English again,

I did quite a lot of  filming during our hike, and this morning I added it to the episode I posted today. With my mother playing the piano in the background. But the hike is only the end of the episode. What I talk about is where I find inspiration for what I create.

Welcome over to listen and to have a look;

The Gigantic Spider in the Palace Park

@brittarnhild

Two days ago this gigantic spider was unveiled in the Palace Park in Oslo. The spider, which has the name Maman, is 9 meter high and is made by the late French-American artist Lousie Bourgeois (1911-2010) The National Gallery in Oslo/Norway, will host an exhibition with Bourgeois´s work later this year, and Maman is part of this.

Queen Sonja and Crown Princess Mette-Marit were in the park on Monday for the unveiling. I was not able to be here then, but all the same, I met the queen in the park today, in this statue. Our queen loves mountain hiking, as you can tell from the statue.

I have had a great day in Oslo today. I met a friend for morning coffee and chatting, I have been walking a lot, I have been shopping books and cloths, I had bacalao for lunch.......and now I am on the train back home to Trondheim.

 

The Iron Rose Memorial, and A Sea of Poppies

@brittarnhild

The main reason for travelling these days was to meet up with a small group of old colleagues from dioceses in Norway. Which I did today, in Oslo. We had all day together, ending with an early dinner, and after saying goodbye I had time for a walk in Oslo.

Outside the Oslo Cathedral I found the Iron Rose Memorial, with this text:

On 22 July 2011, an act of terrorism
ended the lives of 77 persons in
Norway. In a spontaneous act of 
solidarity, thousands of people laid
down roses in front of Oslo
Cathedral. Inspired by this sea of
roses, artists Tobbe Malm and Tone
Karlsrud initiated a project in which
smiths from all over the world,
survivors and others affected by the
attack were invited to forge roses
from iron 

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 

Back in September 2014 I visited the Sea of Poppies outside Tower of London.
Here is my post from then:

If you visit Tower of London this autumn you will find a sea of glass poppies flowing out from the tower, filling the lawn. Making it look like blood.

Blood from 888.246 men, many of them pure boys only, who died during WWI.

WWI started in November 1914, and the poppies are Tower of London´s way to remember.

Volunteers are putting up the glass poppies, the last one will be up on November 11th, 100 years after the bloody war started.

I had seen photos both on facebook and on instagram showing these poppies before coming to London. Still I was unprepared of my own reaction. Suddenly I found myself crying. Crying for all the lost lives. For all the bloody wars.

You can read more about Tower of London´s Poppie Project here.

 

 

 

 

Old and new in Lillestrøm

@brittarnhild

I am visiting my old friend Kari for a couple of days and today we did a walk in the town where she lives, Lillestrøm, just east of Oslo.

Unfortunately the day was wet and grey, still we had a great time together, stopping for coffee twice, for lunch once.

I have visited Kari many times over the years,

but never really visited the town before.

What fascinated me today was the mixture of old and now. 
Not elegant, not beautiful, but still.......well, charming.

 

The Hall of the Mountain King

@brittarnhild

I took the train from Trondheim and almost down to Oslo today. A 7 hours ride, passing over the Dovre Mountain. When Edvard Grieg wrote the music for Henrik Ibsen´s Peer Gynt, he found inspiration in the nature here in Norway. The Norwegian name of the composition  The Hall of the Mountain King is I Dovregubbens hall. Dovre is the name of the mountain, a gubbe is some kind of an old man, or as in Ibsens play, a n old troll. I love the Dovre mountain area. Usually when I go there it is by car, once, when I was young and fit, I bicycled over, but today I went by train.

I had been looking forward to enjoy the beautiful scenery today, but everything was gray with rain and very low clouds. I did not even remember to open my camera for a photo, not until I was far over on the other side, where the train had a short stop at Otta. Well, you can see the clouds here and even some fresh snow.

I am staying with a friend  from High School for a couple of days. We are having such a good time, talking so much, I have not even remembered to open my camera here either.......so far.

But who knows, may be there will be pictures and a new post tomorrow.

 

A Friday hike

@brittarnhild

I think I have mentioned it before, Terje and I are planning to do 100 different 5kms + hikes this year. We started on January 1st, and will continue till New Year's Eve. We have been in doubt this fall, will we really reach the goal, but we have never actually given up, and today, on our way to a weekend at the cabin, we stopped in a small town along the way to do hike no 84.

The town, Orkanger, is only about a 40 minutes drive from our home, and we often stop there for grocery shopping, for a cup of coffee or other errands, and back in early spring/late winter we did a hike along the river there. But we have never actually walked to where we did today, the old wooden house town.

The wooden house town has a long history, and along the way we passed several signposts telling the history. 
I love the colours of these old houses, and also the way they are restored to keep the old look.

This house is not among the old houses, more like a vintage one I would say :-)
The colour is very uncommon for a Norwegian wooden house, and I love it.

A cathedral made with waste plastic from the oceans

@brittarnhild

We are on our way back home from two fantastic weeks in Sweden and Denmark. We have spent the night in Helsingborg in Sweden and will be driving all day up to Trondheim. But somewhere along the way we need a proper lunch stop, and the very best place to do that is in Fredrikstad just over the Norwegian border. "Why Fredrikstad?" you wonder. You see, there they have built a cathedral, or more correct, they are building a cathedral, and the material they use is waste plastic from the oceans. A hope cathedral

I have heard about this project for many years, and today I finally got to see it with my own eyes.
To visit the site.
To go inside.
To pray.

         

Hope Cathedral.
An interfaith cooperation on
environment, creation and sustainability

You can read more about the project here

 

 

Opera Night

@brittarnhild

Friday Night was the night for our babysitting, Saturday night was our night off, and we had tickets for the opera. Not Swan Lake (which is a ballet by the way) as you might be led to believe from this picture, lol, but Georges Bizet Carmen. May be to most well known by all operas.

The National Opera and Ballet in Oslo is beautiful, situated down by the Oslo fjord. Terje and I have been to one opera performance here before, years ago, so coming here again was a very special treat for us.

We started with dinner in the opera restaurant, and then walking right into the concert hall and three hours with dramatic music, love and death.

With little Vida to the Royal Castle

@brittarnhild

Our little princess walking though the rainbow, into the Princess Ingrid Alexandra Sculpture Park.

It took us about 20 minutes to walk from our AirB&B down to the Royal Castle and its surrounding park. Oslo has had a problem with droughts this spring, with prohibitions concerning watering gardens and parks. But, lucky for us, and for everybody else I guess, rain came a few days ago. Still no water in the fountains around the city, but the parks are green and flowering.

Here is a huge rhododendron in front of a statue of Camilla Collett, an early female Norwegian author.

Look at the beauty of this rhododendron. I wish I had one in our garden, but as we live further up north I doubt it would give much flowers there.

The first image in this post was from Princess Ingrid Alexandra's Sculpture Garden. The rest from The Queens Garden, just behind the castle.