Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Low tide on Good Friday

@brittarnhild

There is an old tradition in this part of the world to walk on the beach at low tide on Good Friday afternoon. Not a strong tradition today may be, and since we don't live near the sea, I had not heard of it until a few years ago. We were spending Easter at our cabin then, and could easily reach the beach, which we did, and since then I try to do this walk every year.

Easter always come on the first Sunday after Spring Moon. A full moon makes impacts on the tides, the low tides lower, the high tides higher, which again means that the low tide on Good Friday is always especially low, making the beach a very interesting place.

It feels like walking on the bottom of the sea. Which it kind of is, isn't it :-)
I do not know much about ocean life, wish I did, but I know beauty and interesting sights when I see them.

And the older I get, the more I want to learn about nature. Or rather experience it, being in nature. Breathing it with all my senses.

 

Terje and I had a very good low tide on Good Friday hike today.

 

Celebrating in Sweden

@brittarnhild

We are in Stockholm to visit Torgeir. Yesterday, May 17th, was Norway´s Constitutional Day, a day for huge celebrations. It is a red calendar day in Norway, and everyone are out in the streets, watching the children´s parades, the people´s parades, the brass bands and the flags, eating icecreams and icecreams and icecreams.

We knew that there would be a big celebration in Stockholm, Sweden as well, as there are many Norwegians living here. We did not know that the Stockholm celebrations was the biggest one in the worlds outside Norway.

Do you think we will be able to meet Kamilla? I said.
There will be thousands of people, Torgeir said.

Kamilla is a girl, well, woman now, which I used to look after when she was a child. I have not seen her in years.

I will look for her, I said.
There will be thousands of people, Torgeir said.

I will look anyway, I said.......

.......and there she was. With her fiancé, smiling, hugging, telling is that she and Espen would get married in a week.

 

 

 

We took part in the parades (the flower picture you see is because we went to the botanical gardens earlier in the day, and I have no idea how to let YouTube know which image I want to be shown.......)

 

And then we went to buy a wedding present :-)

 

Summer Solstice with Ardi

@brittarnhild

Summer solstice and it is raining, raining, raining. Here in Norway we traditionally celebrate midsummer on the 23th, on St. John´s Day, but with Ardi here, we have learned a new solstice tradition.

She had told us about it for several days, that some time during today, when we were all gathered (even Marta is at home for a few days and could take part) she had something she wanted to do together with us. On the photo above we have cleaned the table after dinner and Ardi is telling Marta, and us, about weathergram, inspired by Lloyd Reynolds.

Here is from the information sheet Ardi brought:

The Weathergram was invited by Lloyd Reynolds. Lloyd is considered to be the father of calligraphy on the West Coast, especially Oregon.
Lloyd´s idea for Weathergrams originally came from the Japanese tradition of attaching prayer slips to trees. Lloyd thought it would be nice to write a short verse (similar to a haiku) in calligraphy about some sudden insight. This thought, or insight, would then be left hanging outdoors between the equinox and the solstice, and the solstice and the equinox. This exposure to the elements would weather the verse (hence, Weathergrams) making it complete. The verse is often written on a strip cut from a brown paper bag with a piece of twine attached.

On my weathergram I decided to use words on a print which was given me by my hostess in Venice in April, Alessia. There were some construction work going on in the palazzio of Alessia and her husband, and as an excuse for the noise, I was given this lovely print (an a couple of bottles of wine and a bag of local biscotties.........sure, I did not mind the noise at all :-))

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them"

Terje is hanging his weathergram.......which is about how he loves the singing of the birds in the morning.

Here is Marta´s.

Thank you Ardi for presenting a new tradition to The House in the Woods and the Lindland family.

 

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Lagre

Shrove Tuesday

@brittarnhild

 

In Norway we call today feittirsdag, fat Tuesday. In America I think you call it Shrove Tuesday, in Great Britain Pancake Tuesday. Whatever you call it, in Christian tradition today is the last day before the long fast which leands up to Easter.

There are several feittirsdags traditions in Norway. The one I am used to, is to eat a salted, boiled leg of pork.

Traditions, both local and global, are important to me.

That´s why I started the blog Vandring gjennom året, A Walk Through the Year.

 And that´s why I wrote the book about Lent 10 years ago.

 

 

When I worked on the book, I spent some time with my dear friend Dagmar in Austria. I was on her farm on Shrove Tuesday, and Dagmar made their traditional Shrove Tuesday food, a herring salad.

Dagmar´s Herring Salad

 

Make a cream of:

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

pepper

1 tablsp mustard

olive oil

vinegar

3 tblsp majonaise

3 tbsp creme fraiche

 

Dice and mix in the cream:

4 hardboiled eggs

1 apple

4 spiced herrings

4 potatoes

 

Make the salad a few hours before you plan to eat it, to make it more juicy.

I had problems with my camera when I spent Shrove Tuesday with Dagmar, so the photos are of a salad I made another year.

 

Today I got a message on WhatsApp from Dagmar:

 

 

My mouth started to water.......

 

 

How do you celebrate Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday, feittirsdag?

 

 

 

In Norway we call today feittirsdag, fat Tuesday. In America I think you call it Shrove Tuesday, in Great Britain Pancake Tuesday. Whatever you call it, in Christian tradition today is the last day before the long fast which leands up to Easter.

There are several feittirsdags traditions in Norway. The one I am used to, is to eat a salted, boiled leg of pork.

Traditions, both local and global, are important to me.

That´s why I started the blog Vandring gjennom året, A Walk Through the Year.

 And that´s why I wrote the book about Lent 10 years ago.

 

 

When I worked on the book, I spent some time with my dear friend Dagmar in Austria. I was on her farm on Shrove Tuesday, and Dagmar made their traditional Shrove Tuesday food, a herring salad.

Dagmar´s Herring Salad

 

Make a cream of:

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

pepper

1 tablsp mustard

olive oil

vinegar

3 tblsp majonaise

3 tbsp creme fraiche

 

Dice and mix in the cream:

4 hardboiled eggs

1 apple

4 spiced herrings

4 potatoes

 

Make the salad a few hours before you plan to eat it, to make it more juicy.

I had problems with my camera when I spent Shrove Tuesday with Dagmar, so the photos are of a salad I made another year.

 

Today I got a message on WhatsApp from Dagmar:

 

 

My mouth started to water.......

 

 

How do you celebrate Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday, feittirsdag?

 

 

Lillejulaften and lutefisk for two

@brittarnhild

It is lillejulaften, little Christmas Eve, the day before the festive season stasrt. Here in Norway it is the night for seting up the Chrostmas tree, here in the House in the Woods it is also the night of thje traditional lutefisk party. For many, many years now, we have filled the big diningroom table with guests, serving the traditional lutefisk dinner.

Today was supposed to be a bit different though, and it turned out it was, though in another way than planned.

It started with a phone from our daughter Ingrid some time ago. "Will you have your lutefisk party this year". "Well", I replied, "we are not quite sure, I guess so but no plans have been made yet." Then another phone from Ingrid a few days later. "My mother in law is coming down from Lofoten for Christmas. She will come with her car filled with fish from Lofoten, and she wants to invite you to lutefisk in our home on lillejulaften." I smiled for a long time then. Yes, to be invited to a lutefisk party! Both Terje and I simply love lutefisk.

As you already know, last weekend we all got a stomach bug. We are fine again now, but as soon as Ingrid´s mother in law came, she got it too. This resulted in another phone call from Ingrid. "Sorry, my mil is sick and we have no idea how to prepare lutefisk. There will be no party on lillejulaften.

So in the end Terje and I had our own lutefisk dinner for two.
And we loved it.

Deck the halls.
Now we are ready for Christmas.
Starting with a family reice porridge lunch tomorrow.

 

 

The best birthday gift

@brittarnhild

Bestemor means best mother, ie grandmother :-)

Yesterday was my 58th birthday, and I got the best birthday gift ever. Leander´s christening.

The ceremony took place in the service in Havstein church, and old medieval church, where I was ordained 30 years ago and where Ingrid was baptised in 1989.

 

After the service there was a party for Ingrid and Marius´ family and friend and for the coffee after dinner I made Leander a special cake. Well, he could not eat any of it of course.......

What a joy it is to prepare for a party.

I got other gifts as well, one of them given by my garden. But that´s a tale for the garden blog.

Ferming, an Icelandic confirmation, or The love of being an aunt.

@brittarnhild

We are gathered here in Reykjavik, Iceland, for the confirmation of my nephew Ágúst Örn. You already know Ágúst, yes, he is the actor, I am the leader of his fan club :-) Can you remember I have been here to see him take part both in Oliver Twist and in Macbeth at the National Theatre here in Reykjavik.

The confirmation, or ferming as they say in Icelandic, took part in Hallgrimskirkjan today, and yesterday many of us met in one of the side aisles in the church to make it ready for the confirmation party.

My sister in law had planned everything doen to the tiniest details, for us it was just to set up the room. What a lot of fun to do this, the whole family together.

Ágúst, and my other nephew Benjamin, who will have his confirmation in Trondheim in a few weeks, are always teasing me. Some time during the preparations they had found my camera, so when I came home and looked through my photos I found quite a few I had never seen before :-)

I love their teasing of course, and when I gave Ágúst a speech during the reseption today, I made him promise that he will never stop his teasing. In our family we always say that you tease the one you love. He must love me buckets!

Today was the confirmation service. 10 young girls and boys.
I couldn´t help myself getting quite emotional.

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

Thank you Ágúst for a wonderful, memorable day. Now I am looking forward to yours Benjamin :-)

 

 

The tiny seedlings

@brittarnhild

A little more than a month ago, on December 4th, I cut three tiny branches from the fruit trees in the garden. It was Santa Barbara Day, and in parts of Germany the tradition says that if you cut branches that day and put them in water, they will give you flowers for Christmas.

My branches were all still brown and looked dead on Christmas Eve, but today, on Epiphany, the first tiny green seedlings are out. A wonderful sign of spring, and of hope.

 

You can read more about St.Barbara Day here.

 

The Baby Shower

@brittarnhild

To have a baby shower before the birth of a baby is a fairly new tradition in Norway. A few years ago I had never heard of it, now it has become quite common. After I gave birth to my four kids, family and friends came on maternity visits. With flowers, with sweets and with gifts for the newborn. It was considered bad luck to give baby gifts before the birth. But with the new baby showers this has changed, and when Ingrid´s friends invited me to the shower, I was thrilled.

Marta and I started planning right away. Marta´s middle name is Kristin, though it could be Creativity :-) She made the most amazing diaper cake, and she made cakepops perfectly decorated for the little boy who will arrive in a few weeks.

The shower was supposed to be a surprise for Ingrid, so Marius invited her out for dinner while we invaded their apartment and made everything ready. One of her friends made this salad. Isn´t it cute :-)

I managed to finish my baby knitting just in time for the shower.

Shrove Tuesday

@brittarnhild

It is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, feittirsdag, Fat Tuesday......or, what do you call today? The day before Ash Wednesday and Lent? Today´s traditional dinner in The House in the Woods is salt pork and mashed root vegetables.

It is so easy to celebrate the happy feastday. The days when we do something extra.....because we deserve it. We always deserve something extra, don´t we?

But what about the other days. The days of Lent. The days of sharing.
The days to do something for others.....because they deserve.

 

Ever since I wrote the book about Lent, it has been my mission to live Lent, to live simple. To take care. To pay forward.

 

I wonder where this path will take me this year.

The road less travelled.

 

 

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In Blåklokkeveien yesterday I shared a moment at a museum in Brussel, a museum where I went to see Peter Bruegel´s paintings. While googling Shrove Tuesday today I came over another Bruegel painting -
the fight between carnival and lent

 

He got the point Bruegel.
It is a fight,
and I hope both of them win

a time for everything