Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Hiking to a dead end

@brittarnhild

Our last day on the beautiful islands of Lofoten has come, and we decided to spend it hiking. The nature here is wild and fantastic, the hiking options a million. After a little talking back and forth we ended up with the several hundred year´s old Fisherman´s Path from Nesland to Nusfjord. "It is not too dramatic" we had heard, "you should make it in a couple of hours.....and then the same way back again"

Terje with a backpack containing water, coffee, bread, eggs asnd raincoats, I with my camera. We were ready for the day and the beauty.

 With the ocean to the right and steep mountains to the left, we were just in between, walking, climbing, stopping for photos, breathing beauty all around.

 

It was steeper and more wild than I had expected, but I´ve done some climbing earlier this summer, and felt fit for fight.

"Are we having a stop again?" I could hear from Terje´s voice that he would have prefered a much faster walk. I am not going to tell him my secret - I stop for photos every time I need to get my breath back......

And believe me, I could breath in my own pace, there was always some beauty to shoot.

To follow the path we had to look for the red Ts, but after a while the hike became more and more difficult.

Still beauty everywhere, but where could I put my feet?

Then, suddenly we came to a dead end. Or more correct, I came to a dead end. Terje could have climbed the boulders, but me knees cried NO loud enough for both me and Terje to hear it. Our goal, Nusfjord, was not for us to reach, we had to turn and hike the same route back again.

 Which felt quite okay actually. The beauty was just as beautiful seen from the other side :-)

We had met only a handful of people during our hours out in the wilderness. Among them were three young French people, two boys and a girl. Coming back to our car they were there, and could tell that they had hiked from Nusfjord. Now it was too far to hike back, they wanted to walk up to the road trying to fidn a car which could drive them back.

We knew that "walking up to the road" would take them hours, so we offered to drive them to Nusfjord.

So in the end we ended up in Nusfjord anyway.....

.....we were invited into the fisherman´s cabin they rent, and we became friends :-)

Nice to meet you Thomas, Bruno and Audrey. Safe travels back to France and welcome back to Norway again.

 

And when you follow your dream it comes true

@britarnhild

I have been up to "my" little red house again today. More photos, a peek in through the only window without shutters, more photos....a lot more photos. The house is not for sale, but my dream is for free and will stay with me.

28 years ago Johhny came to Lofoten from Sweden. Just like me he fell in love with the place, and a year later he had bought his dream. Today, many years later, Johhny is married to my best friend´s brother, we are facebook friends and instagram followers, and through internet I feel I take part in a tiny little bit of Johnny´s dream.

 Johnny and Trygve live in Southern Sweden, but spend every summer in Lofoten. When Terje and I came here last summer it was still early summer and Johnny and Trygve had not arrived. We climbed the gate to their home and felt like intruders to the amazing perennial garden, took a million photos and later I sent an email asking if I could use some of the photos in a blog post. Johnny said yes then, and yes again today when we came to visit. This time by an invitation, knowing that both men would be there to greet us.

 

This year Johnny and Trygve arrived from Sweden early in the summer, and have since then been digging, weeding, planting and cultivating their garden.

We were taken on a garden tour, among the 300+ different perennials.
To manage a garden like this, north of the arctic circle, staying here only during the short summer.....I can´t imagine how they do it.

After a long walk Trygve said: "I hope you are hungry. We have coffee, pancakes and cloudberries waiting for all of us inside"

Hot pancakes, Swedish coffee and cloudberry jam! Of course we were hungry. Trygve and Johnny had made a huge pile of pancakes, but between the four of us we managed to eat them all :-)

On Sunday Johnny and Trygve will have an "Open Garden" with people coming from far and close to enjoy their parennials. We have traveled south by then, but were lucky enough to have our very special garden walk alone with these two creative, charming guys!

 

You can follow Johnny and Trygve on their instagram blog @hageflekkinord

 

Gardening on the edge.

@brittarnhild

Cultivating a garden far up north, far out in the North Atlantic is a challenge. Terje and I went out for a morning walk, and I decided to look for gardens. Most houses had lawns, some of them quite huge. Most houses had trees and/or shrubs. But very few had a perennial garden.

A couple of weeks ago I got the summer magazine from the national Norwegian garden company, Hageselskapet, in the mail. There I read a very interesting article about gardening at Røst, about its challenges and about how daylight 24/7 during summer compensates for the short season.

We had beautiful weather during our two day´s stay. Gardening looked like an easy job. But I know there must be chains of days here with mist, cold, howling wind. Days when you have to hold on to every post and stone you find to walk a few steps, days when the icy cold wind fills every fibre of your body, making you believe a world without wind doesn´t excist.

As we walked along I started to dream about finding an abandon house, move in for a summer, and start a garden.

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Come back in a few days and may be I have a post about a couple who did just that!

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  Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods has been on the internet since 2005. The blog is my virual diary and a tribute to life and life´s Creator. I love to hear from my readers, in comments and in emails, and from time to time I am lucky to meet some of you, here, there everywhere.
I also have a few other blogs, you find them in the right hand bar. Welcome over, and welcome back here.

Pietro Querini, an opera about stockfish

@brittarnhild

Many hundred years ago, in 1430, the seafarer Pietro Querini and his crew sailed from Venice, a ship filled with goods, men filled with dreams of wealth and fame.

A few months later the ship was wrecked and most of the crew had died. Only a few remaining ones, among them the captain Pietro Querini, stranded on a small island in a cold, dark place, their only opting struggling for life a few days more, and then die.

 

Hell had never felt so close, but Pietro never lost hope and prayed to God for salvation.

For days and weeks which felt like months, like years, the men struggled. Some lost the fight, but one day salvation came. Not far from the little island where they had stranded, there was a community of fishermen, their wives and children, on the islands of Røst, and a dream of a little boy sent a group of men over the the shipwrech island to look for two lost calves. They did not find any calves and could not believe what they found instead.

 

The men were saved and spent a hundred days on Røst before returing to Venice. And with them on the return were sacks and sacks of "gold" from the North, sacks of tørrfisk, or stockfish.

The story about Querini and his men has been told in different ways over the years. Two years ago it was made into an opera and performed at Røst, with my brother Torodd as the conductor. We spent our summer in California that year so it was not an option for us to travel to Røst, but when I heard that the opera would be set up again this summer, we set our plans right there and then. We were to go to Røst!

 

If you do a google search you will realise how far out in the North Atlantic Røst is situated. It is hard to believe that people have lived here for hundreds of years. The livelihood is fishing, the ocean has always been filled with cod. To preserve the fish they dry it. You can read more about it here.

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We reached Røst yesterday, and today was the day for the Querini Opera.

We were among the first ones to arrive, the last ones to leave :-)

We were not allowed to photograph during the performance, but afterwards my camera was busy. Torodd, my brother, the conductor, the man with the broadest smile.

A few professionals, a lot of locals,
together it made for a most wonderful opera!

Now The Querini Opera has been performed at Røst twice.
What about next time in Venice?

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It is not the season to hang the fish now, so alle the wooden racks are empty. They do make for perfect photos though.

Here is a link to the Querini Opera´s website.

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  Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods has been on the internet since 2005. The blog is my virual diary and a tribute to life and life´s Creator. I love to hear from my readers, in comments and in emails, and from time to time I am lucky to meet some of you, here, there everywhere.
I also have a few other blogs, you find them in the right hand bar. Welcome over, and welcome back here. 

What the kittiwake says

@brittarnhild

She left Trondheim as a young bride more than 50 years ago. Her new home was a fisherman´s farm on the tiniest of islands far out in the North Atlantic. Here she was to spend a lifetime, giving the farm and the sea all her labor, all her love.

Today the place is abandoned through the long, dark arctic winter. The woman and her husband live somewhere else on the tiny island. In early spring life is back though. Couple after couple of kittiwakes starts to prepare a new season, repairing their old nests, laying eggs, hatching, feeding the baby birds.

The kittiwakes are an endangered bird species and the old woman does her best to help them survive. Every spring she is back in her old house, counting the number of birds roosting, the number of eggs, the number of new birds.

When we met her, she talked passionately about her dear birds. About her life on the island.

"Do you know what the kittiwake says after shitting on you?" she said with laughter in her voice. "vakk´e mæ, vakk´e mæ, vakk´e mæ" (wasn´t me, wasn´t me, wasn´t me.......)

We listened to the birds, and all of a sudden all of us could understand kittiwake language :-)

 

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 Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods has been on internet since 2005. The blog is my virual diary and a tribute to life and life´s Creator. I love to hear from my readers, in comments and in emails, and from time to time I am lucky to meet some of you, here, there everywhere.
I also have a few other blogs, you find them in the right hand bar. Welcome over, and welcome back here.

Time for breakfast

@brittarnhild

The minutes after breakfast, when you have time for an extra cup of tea, and the journal has white pages ready to be filled, and life is quite okay!

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Our drive up north continues, this day all the way up to Tranøy on Hamarøy, from where we will take the ferry out to Lofoten. The choice of the night´s hotel was mine (as usual), Edvarda´s House. Edvarda is a fictional character from several of the late Nobel Prize Winner author Knut Hamsun´s books.

From one beautiful part of the corner to another. My camera is busy, luckily I have several batteries and a huge memory card.

 Dinner on Tranøy was inside an old ship. We wanted to sit outside, but as soon as we sat down, a thunderstorm came. The weather in Norway is acting strange this year. Unusually warm, which create quite a lot of thunder storms.

Luckily every thunderstorm has an end, and we could walk back to the hotel, still with a busy camera.

Back at the hotel it was hard to concentrate on journal writing. The view was too good.

 

From The Library at Edvarda´s House.

 

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 Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods has been on internet since 2005. The blog is my virual diary and a tribute to life and life´s Creator. I love to hear from my readers, in comments and in emails, and from time to time I am lucky to meet some of you, here, there everywhere.
I also have a few other blogs, you find them in the right hand bar. Welcome over, and welcome back here.

A farm with goats, fish and charm

@brittarnhild

This mountain, Hatten, the hat, has given name to a valley north in Norway, Hattfjelldal, The Hat Mountain Valley. I have been there before, through work, with a group og Sami people, but this time we had a very special goal, Sæterstad Gård, an ecological farm with goats and Arctic char. Sæterstad is owned by Siri Kobberrød and Knut Kastnes. Siri is one year younger than me and we grow up as next door neighbours, but now I hadn´t seen her since I was 14, she 13, when her family moved from our neighbourhood.

I have heard about this farm, deep into the wilderness, for years, and finally I had the chance to come here.

And what a place!
We arrived in the afternoon, and had a couple of hours to sit out on the terrace of the eco-house where we were to stay. Sun, clouds, goats, a little lake with ducks, mountains with patches of snow, fresh air, silence.

 Before dinner Knut showed me the bread oven, where they can bake 25 breads at a time.

At Sæterstad they make most of their own food. As a starter we got cured meat from a goat´s leg, cheese, bread and vegetables. The main course was salt baked Arctic char, and for dessert we had a heavenly fruitcake made by Siri, coffee and coffee cheese.....yes, you read correct. Coffee cheese is a Sami tradition, probably from long cold winter days when the food you brouht with you on long days in the mountains froze. Pieces of dried and frozen cheese were put into the cup, coffee poured over, and when the coffee was finished the cheese ready to eat. I loved it!

 

After dinner it was time to pamper ourselves. First one hour in a new salt grotto, perfect for my troublesome sinuses, then another hour in the jacuzzi. After a while we even persuaded my parents to try.

 

Breakfast was another delight for the palate. Siri, Knut and their four children are not only clever, it looks like everything they touch becomes gold. I ate almost double of what I usually have for breakfast, the same did Terje and also my parents. Fresh bread from the oven, warm smoked and cold smoked of char, a lot of different goat cheeses......and again cheese in the coffee.

Siri and Knut, you have done an amazing job building up Sæterstad. We had a wonderful stay and will be back!

 

And next time I come I hope to have more time to enjoy this view.

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You can read more about Sæterstad here.

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 Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods has been on internet since 2005. The blog is my virual diary and a tribute to life and life´s Creator. I love to hear from my readers, in comments and in emails, and from time to time I am lucky to meet some of you, here, there everywhere.
I also have a few other blogs, you find them in the right hand bar. Welcome over, and welcome back here.

 

Up North, first stop

@brittarnhild

After a couple of days at home to unpack and pack again, and visit the St.Olav Festival, we are on the road again. This time together with my parents. Goal and adventures will be revealed in the blog as we go.

Our first stop was my special surprise for my prents, a coffee and fresh pastry stop at Høie garden and atelier, if you read my blog you remember the place from a few weeks ago. My parents had never been there, neither did they know that theplace, which is situated a couple of hours north of Norway, excisted.

 

During my last visit at Høie I scooped up a million idea and brought them back to my own garden. This time I scooped up a million more.

 Any my mother took as many photos as I did......almost.

 

We had sun while we were in the garden. An hour later we drove right into a heavy thunder and hail storm.

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More tomorrow.
Let me know if you want a postcard.

 

Olsok, or St.Olav´s Day

@brittarnhild

Today, July 29th is St.Olav´s Day, or olsok as we say here in Norway. Nidaros cathedral was built on St.Olav´s grave, and the St.Olav Festival is celebrated each year in honor of the saint why was killed in the battle north of Trondheim almost 1000 years ago.

Olsok is celebrated here in Trondheim, but also in the rest of Norway, in Sweden and Denmark and even beyond. On our drive up along the western coast we met the St.Olav tradition several places. First in the old stone church at Avaldsnes, which I have already posted about, then in the wooden church in Balestrand, near Kvikne´s hotel.

I know this St.Olav´s church has its special tale, but as I read only a few lines on a sign outside the church, I need to search more for the real story.

After Kvikne´s  and Balestrand we though we were done with the celebrations until we arrived home for the festival, but to our surprise we passed a St.Olav market on our way up to Sognefjellet.

It was just time for coffee, it always is just time for coffee, so we stopped, had coffee and svele, and I bought a real treasure,

an old wooden "something", I have no idea what to call it, but the "something" knew perfectly well how to call me :-)

 

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We are about to go downtown for the St.Olav´s festival now, and tonight we have tickets for Bach´s H-Moll Messe in the cathedral, with René Jacobs, Norsk Barokkorkester, soloists and Purchell Choir.

 

Kvikne´s Hotel, like a fairytale

@brittarnhild

Every summer we treat ourselves with a visit to one of the historical hotels in Norway (or other special places to stay). We have a couple of books about wooden hotels, and we also use internet when we start to make our plans. We start early, and as soon as I know the date of our stay, I send an email to the chosen hotel, asking for the best, most charming room they have. This year the email was sent to Kvikne´s Hotel in Balestrand, and not much later I got an email back from Kari Kvikne with an offer. A few more emails back and forth and the stay was set, with a demi-suite,a table for dinner and everything. We arrived in the afternoon, but when we wanted the check in our reservation could not be found, and the hotel was FULL!

I almost started to cry. What were we to do?

 

Soon three young people behind the desk were helping us, and soon we found out what had happened, I had booked a wrong date! And as I already said, the hotel was full!

I almost cried again!!

Then the desk person in charged smiled, we seem to have one room left for you, in the new part of our hotel. Not the historical part like you had booked, not a demi-suite, but still a nice room, a room with a fjord view.

I stopped crying, well, I had never actually cried but I stopped wanting to cry. And soon I smiled. We would not have our romantic demi-suite, but we had a room at "The Jewel of Sognefjorden", we could have dinner in the historical part of the hotel, we could swim from the pier, I was there with the man I love. What more could I ask for?

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By the way:
we swam in the fjord before dinner, and we swam again before breakfast in the morning
we had an excellent four course dinner served by the charming young Polish Przemek
we had a morning walk in the village
we slept well
we toured the rooms on the ground floor of the huge historical part of the hotel
we LOVED our stay!

 

and, even though we (so far) visit each hotel only once, there are so many to visit and we don´t have money for more than one of these nights a year, I think we need to do an exception. We must come back to Kvikne, because now we MUST try one of the historical suites.

 

 

 

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You can read more about this amazing place here

 

 Big thanks to the staff at Kvikne´s for making our stay so lovely.