Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Dog-violets and other wild flowers

@brittarnhild

Hiking in spring, well, I can say for sure that it is among my favourite things to do. Especially when the sun shines, like it did today. The birds are singing, the leaves on the trees almost exploding, and the wild flowers pop up everywhere.

I have a special spring project going on this year, more of that further down, and during today's hike I was especially looking for wild flowers. Back in Trondheim there has, for a couple of weeks now, been possible to find three, may be four different spring flowers, may be one or two more if you go to the right places and look carefully. During our hike today I counted 11 different species.

Among them were three types of violets.

I am not sure of the English names, but I think those above are both dog-violets, two different types. Correct me if I am wrong.

I couldn't resist bringing a couple of them home (of course they look best where they are rooted, but.....), and here we are at my spring project. I write down the different wild flowers I see, I draw/paint them and I write about them. And I also write short and some days longer essays, anecdotes and memories of spring. I have several notebooks for this. In the picture above you see my spiral bound drawing pad, where I do the first sketches, a notebook where I do another sketch and also write about the specific flower, and then I have a black moleskin notebook which I use as some kind of a spring journal, for all my spring writing.

 

Just in the middle of a yellow spring

@brittarnhild

We arrived at the cabin a few hours ago, and are noe living just in the middle of a perfect yellow spring. Sun, daffodils, forsythia, hyacinths.......you name it.

The cabin garden is at its best at this time of the year, and too many years we are not here to enjoy it.

This year we are!

 

50 shades of spring green

@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.

A late and slow spring this year

@brittarnhild

Spring is late and slow this year. We still get snow every day, and I am waiting for growth and warmer days. Not all the garden is covered in snow any more though, and the fresh snow we get melts quite fast. Actually, since quite a lot has melted today, more than half the garden is bare now. And new miracles are appearing every single day. 

Life is stubborn. Even when covered in layers of snow, the spring plants start to grow, and as soon the snow melts they praise life with their colours.

I still do my daily walks in the garden, morning and afternoon and in between, just as I do all through the year as long as the snow permits me. But where I spend most of my time is in the greenhouse. The violas have been blooming for weeks now, and with glimpses of sun through the day the greenhouse easily warms up and more plants are growing as well. In these pots are irises and pelargoniums.

In just two days now we are promised sun and warmer weather. I simply can't wait.
how is spring in your corner of the world?

 

Spring is in the air

@brittarnhild

Spring is in the air, and both Terje and I have long list of things to do. Cleaning the bicycle, was on Terje´s list, and when Leander saw bestefar busy cleaning, he decided his bike needed a deep clean as well. Water and soap and a lot of hand cleaning. And afterwards the bicycles dried in the late afternoon sun.

 

I am busy in the garden and in the greenhouse, and.......

.......made a greenhouse video, in Norwegian:

 

 

Blogs updated today:

 

My blue garden

My journal pages

My bird journal

My greenhouse blog

 

 

 

From winter to summer in a couple of days

@brittarnhild

A few days ago we had full winter here in my corner of the world.

Then the temperatures warmed up, and all of a sudden, summer, and bumblebees and butterflies were here.

I love every season, but how can I say that any other season than these lovely days of spring is my favourite?

 

All my life I have been counting signs of spring, and for about 10 years or something now, I have had a very special, beautifully bound notebook where I write down signs of spring. Like yesterday I saw the first northern lapwing of the year, today I saw a flock of flying geese on their way north, the other day the first common chaffinch of the year had lunch in the garden, this afternoon I picked the first leirfivel / tussilago and gave it to my American friend Jane.......and I could go on and on and on.

 

 

 

You can´t fool April

@brittarnhild

I worked in the cabin garden yesterday afternoon. The herb garden looks so nice now, and I have started to use greens in my cooking.

But you can´t fool April.
Don´t even try.

 

Life in Norway is never boring.
This is what we woke up to today.

 

Signs of Spring, the migrant birds.

@brittarnhild

Last night I went to a friend´s birthday party. I came home around midnight, got a ride home with one of the other women there, she stopped down the main road behind our house and I walked the few meters up the small hill, in through the gate to our garden. It was then I heard the sound, the sound of hundreds of geese. One in the lead honking eagerly.....does the goose honk or whay? First one, then more, then a lot answering as they came closer. Soon the air was filled with the noise. A lamppost made some light agains some low white clouds, and all of a sudden I saw the first plow, flying just over my heads.

 

Three years ago the migrant birds passed our house on my birthday, at the very same hour as my guests arrived. You can read about it here. One year ago we followed the migrating swans and geese in Iceland. Last night, as we set our watches on summer time, I was outside at midnight, an hour when I "always" sleep, and there they were. The migrant birds.

 

I have a special "signs of the seasons"-notebook. I will write in it today. And I have a stack of migrant bird books, William Fiennes The Snow Geese, Scott Weidensaul´s Living on the Wind, Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, and Edwin Way Teale´s North with Spring.

 

Happy Sunday.
If you want me today, you´ll find me with my nose in a book.

Photos: from Iceland April last year

 

Scillas in March

@brittarnhild

 

It is still only March, a winter month in Norway, but the weather is sunny and mild, and when I walked through the cathedral park this morning, I discovered that the blue scillas are already blooming. I walked on a blue blanket, trying to make myself light as a feather.

 

Grandma Olga´s garden was painted blue in spring, with scillas. My love for blue started already when I spent time there as a little child. And also as I grew up in Blåklokkeveien, Bluebell Street.

My energy level is low these days. Working 50% feels like carrying an overweight suitcase. It felt good to leave the suitcase behind and walk on the blue carpet.

And with spring here, anything can happen.

Inside a Symphony

 

@brittarnhild

Spring is always eariler at the cabin than at home. Situated in a southfaced hillside, on the western coast, the snow melts fast, nature wakes eariler. The birds know this, and these days, being in the cabin garden is like being inside a symphony.

I don´t know enough about birds. My father is the bird master, and when he is out here, he can tell the different types by their singing. 

My most important knowledge is that I love their songs, their singing. They can wake me up at 3am, when the nordic May day is starting to fill with light. I try to stay awake to listen, but it turns out to be a perfect lullaby. The next thing I know I am awake again and it is morning.

I am sitting out in the middle of the symphony, a symphony of bird songs, a symphony of spring colours, reading William Fiennes The Snow Geese. Thank you Hanneke for recommending this book when I asked about suggestions for books about Migrant Birds.

By the way, Hanneke has a lovely blog about her travels in Northern Norway.
You find it here.

The Snow Geese.
So many different books in one.
The author travels from Texas up to the Arctic tundra, following the snow geese.
It is about the author´s way back to life after struggling with illness.
It is filled with information about migrant birds. 
It is a travel tale.

I learn so much about migrant birds and their amazing lives.
I really had no idea!

 

 

 

 

By the way, going back and forth between the cabin and The House in the Woods these days, give us spring, my favorite season, twice :-)