Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

St.Olav Festival........again!

text and images britt-arnhild

It is THAT time of the year again. The St. Olav Festival. And none of my blog readers are here to celebrate with me....... Where are you readers? What are you thinking about? The one and only place to be at this time of the year is of course Trondheim. And the festival. Next year I hope to see you here.

This year I have a few special images to show you, kind of behind the scenes photos from one of the booths at the medieval market.

On behalf of bishop Tor, I am leading the regional Norwegian Bible Society group, and we have a booth at the market to promote the Bible. I am in charge of this and has the pleasure to stand there part of the time. It must be said though that it has been a pleasure to find volunteers for the booth.
We share the booth with beautyful Nina from Ren Fryd, who makes her own soap. A delightful share which fills the booth with a heavenly fragrance. Temptation in the air, I would say :-)

The festival continues for 8 days.
I haven´t had much time for photos yet, but plan to take my big Nikon with me tomorrow.

So readers, since you are not here,
what do you want me to photograph for you?

Martnan in Trondheim, the annual market

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It is time for the annual three days market in Trondheum, Martnan.
I am not sure, but some sources tells that Martnan has a tradition all the way back to around 1540. Anyway I remember it from my early childhoos as one of the year´s highlights.

Martnan is a mixture of fun, food, traditional arts and crafts, bric a brac and junk stuff.
For many years junk took a bigger and bigger part, so it was with great pleasure I found less of it this year, and instead more food, a lot more food.
And crafts.
And fun. 

Like this woman who showed me how to do a special kind of weaving, brikkevev.

Or racks of hand knitted mittens in the traditional selbumønster (pattern from Selbu)

An international booth with crafted items from Belarus caught my interest.

 

A tivoli amusement park who came to town was an important part of Martnan when I was a girl.
And it still is.

Grandpa Johannes had 21 grandchildren, and he set himself a goal, to win teddybears for all of us at the raffle tombola at Martnan.
He must have used a fortune, and
he made his grandchildren extremely happy :-)
If i wrote this blog in Norwegian I would now quote Alf Prøysen´s song Teddybjørnens vise, The Teddy Bear´s Song.

Writing this I realised that Marta doesn´t know Teddybjørnens vise, so I had to sing it for her. All six verses. Sweet memories.
Blogging leads to so much........

......one can easily get addicted.

Martnan, the last week of June, a perfect time to come if you plan a visit to Trondheim.

The Eight Sided Church

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A visitation means that we live with the congregation, the community, for almost a week.  There are highlights every hour.

Today I am back in my office,  writing on the speech the bishop will give to the congregation after mass on Sunday. I read through my notes. I re-live the moments. I count the blessings. I fold my hands and open my heart in prayers. 

 

Last night, during a service, we had a prayer walk. I lit a candle. I knelt at the altar. I wrote down my prayer for the congregation, folded the sheet of paper and put it into the prayer pot. I met the eyes of a young woman. I smiled to an old man.

The days are long. I am met by Terje´s love when I come home. "You don´t need to tell me you are tired" he smiles, "I know you are". And he let me be me! In the mirror of his eyes I am beautiful.

The Autumn Colours are not gone

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While driving I was listening to the radio. A combination of light talk, light music, with some news in between. 

It was relaxing, and kilometer after kilometer was left behind.

The young radio voice had a local dialect. She presented some more music, she talked about this and than. I hardly listened.

Then, all of a sudden my ears opened. The charming voice talked about autumn, about too much rain, too much fungis killing the colours of autumn. The birches this year are losing their leaves even before the colour changes. there would be no woods dressed in orange, red, yellow.

I looked out the card window. No autumn colours?

So what is this I see along the road I am driving?

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Let me tell you a well known secret - the radio voices and the television faces, most of them live in Oslo and see just a tiny little bit of our long, varied, beautiful country.

Dear radio voice, may I invite you to drive with me one day and share autumn colours with me. It will be my pleasure.

The end of a festival

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
For a week now Trondheim has been turned upside down. The St.Olav Festival. The annual feast!

Two nights in a row we've been downtown. First to watch an outdoor show, TRANSITion with the German action theatre group Pan.Optikum. Then last night a cathedral filled to the brim, Verdi's Requiem.

 
Have you ever seen a firework with human bodies involved? A few weeks ago we were in the middle of an amazing firework in the Venetian Laguna. The other night was totally different, we were standing in the middle of it all.

You feel quite small as a human.

 
The festival has lasted for a week. Every day filled with program. The city of Trondheim filled with people.

 
One day the bishop and the two local county governors met to talk about values. Values on life and death.

 
Artists everywhere. Like this cathedral stone mason working on a copy of Archbishop Eystein.

 

Musicians, and my favorite conductor.

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The festival is over. The Archbishop's Palace is back to normal. New challenges are waiting.

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I am sorry I don't have much time for blogging these days. I will be back though!!!

Time for a walk along the river

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

.....well, not much text actually, but a lot of images......

 
The river Nidelven

 

The Old City Bridge, Gamle Bybro

 
A quiet river, its water running slowly

 
Belief. Hope. Love

 
Mauro has taught me an importan lesson: explore, if you see an open gate, walk in to find hidden treasures.

I did, and found a pair of old wooden skis :-)

 
Reflections

 
River seen from another angle

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Thanks for walking along.

When you come to Trondheim I'll take you on a river walk. What else do you want to see? To do?

Here, there, everywhere......is it time for some coffee

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
Another day on the road. Three hours north, a long meeting, three hours south again. This time I knew that the place where I usually stop for coffee has changed its opening hours, so I packed a basket with a thermos and a couple of cookies made by Ingrid and Marta.

I know the road almost like my own pocket, and knew exactly where I wanted to stop.......to get the most beautiful view.

In the car I listened to Paolo Coehlo's Veronica Wants to Die. Have you read it? It gave me quite a lot to think about. To reflect on. It helped me to see the colours of my rainbow more clearly.

 
Twice during the day I passed the little green house. The house I fell in love with a few weeks ago.

 

Steinvikholmen, not far from Trondheim. Why don't I go there more often. Some years ago, when I worked as a deacon, we used to have a yearly camp for my church in the neighbourhood. The leader and the oldest kids in the scout group managed to borrow the key to the castle, and at midnight they organized a ghost hunt out here. Paradice for the kids!

I enjoy my coffee and the last cookie, dwell on the memories and enjoy the bird watchers.....and the bird life.

 
How lucky I am to live in this country, in this area. To have a job that takes me here, there, everywhere.......

 

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The cookie makers, Ingrid, Marta, Mathilde, Marius

 

 
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Terje are back from Barcelona......with a new necklace for me, nothing expensive but cute, cute, cute....torquise and a silver crab creeping up my neck.....

Now we have coffee tales to share he and I

Edge of the City

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

A favorite spot on my morning walk (on my way to work). The edge of the city, well, at least in older times. From here it takes me 20 minutes to walk to the cathedral and the Archbishop's Place. If I turn it takes me 10 minutes to walk back to Terje's job, where we leave our car. It takes almost one hour to walk back, up the hills, to The House in the Woods.

I walk slower when I pass the old farm. How was life here? The father and his sons working on the fields, in the barn, the mother cooking, mending clothes, knitting socks for the winter, a little girl helping to wind yarn, a weaving loom in the corner, a cat leaping milk, the maid milking the cows, a boy playing on his violin a late summer night, a swim in the river on mid summer........

....then my walk continues, and my thoughts turn to may day ahead.

I love the combination of old farmhouse buildings and modern blocks of flats. Though modern? This block was built in the 70ies, and ready to be torn down.

A city is always changing. A city shall always ask the questions - what to take care of, what to let go?

A favorite spot on my morning walk.

I am part of this city's history. I am part of Trondheim, the city I love......even though the roads are so icy and slippery for almost half the year.......

French television coming to "my" fishmarket

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
Writing a daily blog (for more than 6 years, with almost 2000 posts so far) means that I get a lot of emails. People search on google or other places for the strangest topics, and often they are sent to my blog. I try to write back to most of the people who writes me, though when an American man wrote me to ask where he could buy fishballs I had no idea what to tell him. Nor did I know what to say when a woman wrote to ask me about Norwegian men; "I have heard that Scandinavian men as so stubborn, always getting their own ways. I am married to one and need to know more about why he acts like he does. Are all Scandinavian men like that?" Well, the most important man in my life is loving, caring, charming.....but she only needs to read my blog to find that out. I wrote her no email.

Last week though I got an email which made me comment back right away. It was from Allison, working for French television. She is working for a travel and culture program, had done a search on Norwegian fish markets and found my posts from Ravnkloa. Now she wanted to do a program about this fish market in Trondheim. One of her questions was "does fish monger Ketil still work there?"

 
Fish monger Ketil still does. We grew up in the same neighbourhood so I have known Ketil all my life, and every time I visit Ravnloa, which is quite often, we squeeze in time for a chat. I went there last week after I got Allison's first email (there has been quite a lot more since then), but Ketil had gone home for the day.

Then I went there again a couple of days ago, told Ketil about French television and their plans, asked him to pose for me, and right away he walked over to this huge, ugly fish. Great shot, isn't it?

 

Ravnkloa is an indoor fish market. Outside there are always fishermen selling fresh fish directly from their boats. I love the area. The atmosphere. The small. The colours.

 
Inside Ketil and the other fish mongers, are busy selling fish and fish products. Fresh. Delicate. The smell takes me to fish heaven (which is a wonderful place)

 
I have told Allison that if she comes to Trondheim she is welcome to The House in the Woods for mølje. Unfortunately (for her and for me) she will probably only send a couple of camera men up to Trondheim. I really think she should change her mind. How can she say no to mølje?

 
I love to buy shrimps at Ravnkloa. In the summer tourists love it too, then they can sit outside, along the canal, peeling their shrimps, throwing the shells into the water. Saegulls are there in a blink to catch treats.

  
In the winter it is quiet outside.

 
The view is still great though. You can actually look right over to where the young fisherman from our ongoing tale spent his lonely Christmas.

 
Looking in through the window.

 

Here is a link to Allison's television program:

Echappees Belles

Good luck Allison.

 

A bird near the river

Text and image Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
I went downtown for my weekly photo walk, or photosafari as I like to call it. The day was wet and grey. Where could I find beauty to shot?

I started down at the harbour, the fjord was so grey there was nothing to see. Continued along the canal. I love that area, love the boats there. Got some great photos.....for another day......and then continued up to my favorite spot along the river Nidelven.

 
I saw a skarv (sorry I don't know the English name) there in January last year. Got a misty photo which I love so much. And to my pleasure the skarv was there again.

 
This bird is famous up on the Lofoten islands where my brother Frode lives. Years ago there used to be an old blacksmith, quite a character, who used to make the most elegant skarvs. WE have a small collection of three of them out at our cabin.

 
The skarv stands in a tiny little island out in the river. This island can't be seen when the tide is in, the tide from the Trondheim Fjord goes up the river a little, but yesterday, when I came to search for the skarv, the island was perfect for both of us.

Can you see the iron kind of a cross out on the island? If my information is correct, this iron cross was mentioned already in the old Norse litterature written by Snorre.

The skarv, the iron cross, the tiny island, the river, the Pilegrim Center and the cathedral.

I love this photo.