Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

My neighborhood

@brittarnhild

I don´t think I have ever taken you on a tour in our neigborhood, have I? After writing my blog post yesterday I decided it was time to continue to do nothing, letting nothing be a walk with my Nikon in the small streets which surrounds our house.

If you ever decide to come here for a visit, The House in the Woods is easy to find. Follow the signs.

Four houses up the road from us is a kindergarten.

Winter is a perfect time for children.
And for silver haired ladies with a camera cameras.

The photos are all from yesterday.
Will you believe me if I tell you that we´ve got more snow today.
A lot more!

Summer is MY season.
But I have no problem at all the see the beauty of my winter wonderland.

Though driving might be a challenge.....some days.

The last couple of days we´ve had no wind, so the snow is still covering the trees.

Beautiful, isn´t it :-)

Can you see The House in the Woods?

 

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Tomorrow I plan tp draw the sock winner,
so you still have time to comment.

 

 

Nostalgia, or......

text and images britt-arnhild

Two cabin Saturdays in a row I visited flea markets.
A lot of bric a brac of absolutely no interest.
Though, hiding in between, small treasures.

My favorites are textiles, especially of they have handmade touches, and old glass.

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Where does this love of old things come from?
To mend, to take care of, to use, to re-use.

"Oh mamma, you are so oldfashioned, sometimes I wonder if you were born before God" - Ingrid sighed this words many years ago, wanting our home to be more like the minimalistic photos she could see in furniture magazines.

 

I have always loved old stuff (.......and old people :-))
And I am a born collector.

This does not go together with minimalism....

 

....so if you ever  when you come to The House in the Woods, I will show you around. Three floors filled with a life, with lives, with memories, with tales.

From the first tiny little china cup I got when I was two, my first pink diary from I was five, a silved filigree Persian bracelet given me when I was a little girl from my uncle John who traveled the world drawing maps......to quilts everywhere, handpieced and handquilted by me when the kids were small, small puzzle games collected from all over the world, to a collection of spinning tops, another one of chess games, all the way to a wooden redwood bowl bought in Muir Woods in California this summer,  or two small beautiful ceramic plates with handpainted birds bought on Madeira last year.

Nostalgia?

Old fashion?

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I like to call it life.

My life. My shared life with my husband.

 

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By the way, I would love to show you around in The House in the Woods.

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Photos: when I found at one of the flea markets

Other people found other treasures :-)

Spring cleaning in The House in the Woods

text and images britt-arnhild

Spring cleaning time in The House in the Woods.

Marta is away, somewhere near Oslo at the Norwegian Championship in Cheerleading with her team.

Terje, I, Ingrid and Marius are performing a spring cleaning championship in The House in the Woods.

I started the day setting a dough for pastries for lunch.

It is always much more fun to clean a house wich smells of fresh baking.

The House in the Woods is a broad smile today.

It loves being cleaned.

I smile with the house.

I love to watch the house being dusted, vacuumed, tidied, cleaned.

There are some MUST breaks though. Ski jumping on television can´t be skipped.

And now the pastries horn are finished.

Lunch time.

 

See you later.

Back in my kitchen

text and images britt-arnhild

With all the travelling and all the working I have done lately, I have almost forgotten what my kitchen looks like, or how to cook. 

I cooked an Italian birthday dinner last Sunday for the whole big family, and that´s about all. Until this weekend that is!

Now it is time to get to know my kitchen again. To look through the fridge, the cabinets and the drawers to see what is there, to make grocery lists, to go to the fish market, to plan the menues, to open a bottle of white wine bought at the taxfree in Madeira, and finally start the foccaccia dough.

With the dough raising on the counter, it was time for the paella. Olive oil, garlic, leek and onion braising, filling the whole House in the Woods with the best smell there is.

Adding rise.

Stirring.

Then water, a little at a time, white wine. Keep on stirring. Sipping a little wine. Tasting a shrimp.......I must make sure that they are good, of course I must.

Salt, pepper, the dark yellow paella spices, bought in Spain by a colleague.

 

Frying some white fish.

On an impulse pouring some white wine from my glass over the fish.
Creating magic.

Just as the foccaccia was ready from the oven, the paella was perfect for serving.

Terje had already come down from his first floor studio, drawn by the smell, and had set the table. I hastily put together a green salad, filled a small bowl with black olives, and hocus pocus........Saturday night dinner was ready.

Even with a starter - marinated scampi.

Marta, her friend Elisabeth, Terje, me......candles, roses.

 

Home is where the heart is. Where the heart is, is where it is good to be.

East, west, home is best.

 

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On the menu today.........a vegetable soup (I found too many "almost not fresh any more" vegetables in the fridge), and then Shepherd´s Pie.

From The House in the Woods I am wishing you a blessed Sunday

Neighborhoods

text and images britt-arnhild

Usually I am not at home during daylight in the deep winter. The flu made my week different. One day I braved the cold, dressed in my warmest coat and went outside to shot snow photos of the House in the Woods and its neighborhoods.

Days like this, completely snow covered, are rare. As soon as the wind comes, the snow is blown off the trees. Days like this are whole and completely beautiful.

Our mailbox is the one in the middle. It always has room for more letters and postcards...........

One of the trees back there blew down during the hurricane Dagmar last week.

The carport.

Up the road. This is what I see from my studio window. Can you remember when I saw the mooses here? 

Still Christmas indoors.

The Blue Garden asleep. Spring is still a long way ahead.

What does your neighborhood look like these days?

What is it with those Californians?...or Thank you Cecilia and Steve

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This summer is teaching me that Californians are wonderful people. In June and July Jane and Lanny stayed with us for three wonderful weeks (if you read my blog regularly you already know a lot about that), last night another amazing Californian couple came to The House in the Woods, loaded with wonderful gifts for the hostess - flowers, two bottles of Californian wine, a book fresh from printing.

Cecilia Samartin and her husband Steve Myles.

I met Cecilia last year when she came to Trondheim to sign her book Mofongo. My friend and I went to the bookstore and while there I realized I had forgotten my camera - which turned out to be a blessing. Steve took a photo of me and Cecilia and emailed it to me......and a kind of a tiny little online friendship started.

 

A few weeks ago I learned on facebook that Cecilia was coming back to Trondheim, to sign her new book. I sent her a dinner invitation to The House in the Woods, sure that she and Steve would be too busy to accept. Then, to my pure pleasure, she wrote me back; yes, they would LOVE to come.

 Last night was The Day. Cecilia and Steve, me, Terje, a couple of friends, brother Børge (from Iceland) and son Torgeir. 8 people around the table. A perfect number for a dinner.

When I woke yesterday morning I was all cold feet. What could I serve this famous author and her husband. She has not only written novels, but also a wonderful cookbook sharing her most precious, delicious family recipes, and here was I, trying to compose a meal.

"Don´t forget to put your woollen socks on" my best friend wrote me in a message. I did, and soon I was enjoying myself in the kitchen. Making fish soup, baking foccacia, cutting chicken, brokkoli and paprika, preparing the dessert.

Some nights are just meant to be perfect. Last night was one of those. Cecilia is not only a fabulous writer, she is also a wonderful person. And I am sure Steve´s middle name is charming.

Tales and laughter shared during the meal. The hours passed too fast and soon it was time to start a long session of saying goodbye......which included photos, book signings, words to remember in our guestbook, hugs and kisses. And an invitation to come to California next summer.

We could then tell Cecilia and Steve that we are actually planning a vacation in California next summer. To visit Jane and Lanny. And yes, it will be a pleasure to stop a few days in their home in Los Angeles on our way.

Marta and a friend came home from their night out then and Steve told Marta - we live close to Universal Studios, we live not far from Disneyland, we have a silboat, do you want to go sailing with us.......

I am sure you can imagine Marta´s smile.

Before Cecilia and Steve left it was my pleasure to give them a gift. The book I have written.

A wonderful evening. Great memories.

......and a dream of next summer in California.

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Thank you Cecilia and Steve.

Thank you Heidi and Noralv, Børge and Torgeir, Terje.

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Cecilia gave me her newest book last night, La Peregrina. I am tempted to start reading it right away, but will save it till I wake up after the surgery......

It feels like a new room. It is a new room.

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

When he had finished the new hallway it was time to do something with the old one (the new hallway is a kind of extention to our house). First on the list - removing the ugly, white wardrobe.

What a joy to know that the wardrobe would now be history. So would the worn dark orange floor.

 
My father in law is a carpenter, and though Terje works in quite another field, as a civil engineer, he has inherited his father's skills.

 
For weeks now he has spent the nights either out cross country skiing, or working in our old hallway.

Most nights he has done both.

 
To the noise of busy tools, the smell of fresh wood and paint, I have followed the work. Followed it in my way. The way I love spending the nights.

Reading!

 

What am I reading, you ask? Through words and a few illustrations I am travelling several hundred years back in time, several hundred miles south, toVenice and the Veneto region in Italy, learning more about the renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.

I first read about him in Frances Mayes' blog, ordered Palladian Days by Sally Gable and Carl I. Gable, started an email correspondence with Mr. Gable, ordered The Perfect House by Witold Rybczynaski, kept on armchairtravelling with my blogreader (and dear friend) Antonella who lives in the region......and suddenly a Palladio week-end in May together with Antonella, with boat from Venice up the Brenta Canal is booked.....

 

How different The House in the Woods is from the Palladian Villas. How I love sitting in my red house from 1975, dreaming about villases built 500 years ago.

Palladio wrote Four Books on Architecture/Quattro Libri dell' architettura. From one of them I read:

One must describe a suitable house which will be appropriate to the status of the person who will have to live in it and of which the parts will correspond to the whole and to each other.......

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Our new room is finished....almost. We still need to by a lamp or two, the 100 years old drawer, which used to be grandma Olga's, needs a new mirrow, the old one wouldn't do any more....we have order a handmade one made in the old style......and the white wall needs a painting. I am planning to look for an antique one in Venice.....later this year. Or in the summer.

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My current booklist:

 

 

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Breakfast

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
It is my day off today. A whole day streched out ahead of me. I do have quite a few plans for the day, I might follow them. I might not.

Just had my breakfast. A very traditional Norwegian breakfast. Like I've had my whole life. Two pieces of dark bread with butter and brown cheese, a cup of tea, a glass of orange juice. The juice used to be milk when I was a girl, and no tea then.

These days, in The House in the Woods, breakfast is served on Finish china, from Pentik, a line called Vanilla. The blue cloth was crocheted by Terje's aunt Elna, my mother in law's older sister. Elna, who died almost 20 years ago, made us 12 of these. Heirloom pieces.

I've made myself an extra cup of tea. Enjoying my extra time. Enjoying time here with you. Tere hommikul Pene (good morning in Estonian), jo reggelt Kristie (good morning in Hungarian) God morgen, or simply "morn" as we say in Norway, to you all. What do you eat for breakfast? What does your day look like today? How do you say Good Morning?

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First photo: my breakfast

Second photo: an old quilt I made back in 1993. It hangs in our stairway.

Some house fun first.....

High up on Marta's list of the fun the two of us will do this week-end, is sleeping long mornings. This is one thing we do not share, sleeping long I mean, so with all our shared plans ahead of us, I am spending Saturday morning doing house fun (read house work......think house fun)

I really should go out in the garden to do some much needed garden fun, but, though the sun is up now, it is still frost outside. So now I have a Sibelius/Prokofiev-cd playing, I've changed bedcloths, I've done the dishes and am ready to start dusting. In between I'll plan the dinner we'll have tonight, Marta and I.

 How nice to have a quiet week-end in The House in the Woods.

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Photos: my kitchen this morning.

and here is the rest of the new studio

 

Yesterday I invited you to a corner of my studio, today you can see it all if you want :-)

Welcome in though the red door.

 

The studio is a small room. Still I have squeezed in all I need here. This is the place where I spend much of the night when I am at home. Then the red door is mostly open, and Terje is in a room nearby, so we can easily talk.

 

The glass cupboard is a "left over" from Ingrid. It holds my Venezian mask collection....

 

......my diaries (well at least some of them).......

 

.....my collection of pill tins.... What do you call these tins in English? The Norwegian name is pilleeske

 

.....my travel diaries......

 

....a few small treasures, like this creche from Venezia.....

 

.....and notebooks handy for travels.....

 

Over my desk I have a shelf which Terje made years ago. It holds my collection of old Bibles and Hymn Books, and also MY book; "40 dager - fra karneval til oppstandelse".

 

A dresser with drawers for every purpose.

 

Books everywhere, and family photos.

 

The desk is my heaven. With pencils, paper, stationary, books and music at hand. And the laptop with my blog, my window to the world.

 

I like to call this a charming chaos.