Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Fields of daffodils

@brittarnhild

Last summer we visited the small island Gossen/Aukra, four hours by car and ferry south west of Trondheim. It was then I heard about the fields of daffodils for the first time. "You should come back in spring" my friend told me when we drove past the church, "then these fields are painted yellow with thousands and thousands of daffodils. There and then I promised myself that I would go back in spring.

But when is spring in Norway, when exactly will the daffodils be in bloom?
The past weeks I have sent quite a few messages to my friend on the island, "how are the daffodils doing? do you still have snow? when will they bloom this year? And a couple of weeks ago I wrote again "we will be at our cabin fort the Easter holidays (our cabin is halfway between our home and the island) do you think the daffodils will be blooming then? 
My friend was sceptical, probably Easter time would be too early, and I told myself to wait for better luck next year. Our opportunity to see the flowers this year had to be Easter.

Then, some time last week, my friend wrote again, the snow has melted and with the warm, sunny weather we have now the daffodils will probably be in bloom next week.

All I had to do then was to convince Terje that six hours of driving home from the cabin was about the same as two hours driving, since we then got to see the daffodil fields, and also had an invitation from our friends to come and eat lunch with them. Terje is rarely hard to convince and yesterday we found ourselves on the island.

The story says that the very first daffodil bulbs were taken home from The Holy Island around 1720 by Alexander Borck who was a priest on the island then. Back home he planted the bulbs but was for a long time haunted by guilt. He had not been given the bulbs but had taken them, from Calvary, and now he doubted that God could forgive him. He struggled with his guilt for a long time until he finally prayed for forgiveness through one whole night. Finally dawn came, he looked out his studio window and was greeted by a field of yellow flowers.

He was forgiven, and for 300 years now people have been blessed by the yellow daffodil fields in spring.

 

To the Lighthouse

@brittarnhild

I am so happy to tell you that I have found a rhythm on my videos on YouTube which works very well for me, and hopefully for you as well. As you know I started my YouTube channel in English, then after some time, several years ago, turned the video updates into Norwegian. Then, a couple of years ago, I startet to do them both in Norwegian and in English. It worked for some time, but in the end I had to realise it was too much work for me.

The last few months have been kind of back and forth, partly because of travelling, partly because of a long sleep my computer had, partly because life has been too busy.

But now, finally, it seems like I have found the working way, the path less traveled so to say.
One week I will do a Norwegian episode, the next week one in English, then back to a Norwegian one, and so on. I have tried this for a few weeks now, and really like the way it turns out.

This week is the English week, and today I have posted a video I have been waiting to do for several weeks now, with footage from a trip Terje and I had down south to the village where he was born, combining it with an overnight stay in a lighthouse. I dod quite a lot of filming from the lighthouse and the amazing beaches nearby, and this is what I let you enjoy with me in the episode.

There is more in the episode as well, of course, as usual. I talk about several different knitting project and I read from one of Virginia Wollf´s books, not To the Lighthouse, but The Waves.

Enjoy:

 

 

Welcome to the City of Roses

@brittarnhild

Molde, a small city in the northwestern coast of Norway. Molde, the City of Roses, a name it got more than a hundred years ago.
Even though we are north in Europe, the climate here, close to the Atlantic Ocean, is good for roses and also garden flowers in general.

History tells that every cruice ship which enters the city is given a bouquet of roses from the hotel directors. This continues even today.

You find flowers everywhere in the city, even up on the roof of the municipality hall. I took some footage from there, which I will add in an upcoming video.

From our cabin we take a ferry and then drive for 2-3 hours, over The Atlantic Ocean Road, as I showed you yesterday, and not long afterwards we are in The City of Roses. We went there two days ago and stayed overnight at Hotel Scandic Seilet (The Sail). Our room was up on the 7th floor. I love heights, the view was amazing.

We had a lovely walk Sunday afternoon, another one on Monday morning,

and before heading back for our cabin, we drove up in the hills to see the city from above. Wherever you are in Molde you can see the mountain skyline across the fjord. I am sure Molde is the city in the world with the most beautiful, scenic view.

 

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In my next English YouTube video I will take you along The Atlantic Ocean Road and also to Molde.
Meanwhile, why not watch an old episode, from October last year:

 

 

 

If I had a flower shop

@brittarnhild

If I had a flower shop I would cover the pavement outside my shop with rose petals.

Red, yellow, white, purple. Like smiles to greet the passerby.

If I had a flower shop.......

 

.............

I don't have a flower shop and I guess you don't have one either.
But we can always cover our paths with rose petalsRed, yellow, white, purple.
Like smiles to greet the passerby.......

 

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I took these images in Molde today. Molde is Norway´s  City of Roses
And quite a lot of other flowers.

 

Driving the Atlantic Ocean Road

@brittarnhild

Having worked with roads for 40 years, the first thing my newly retired sivil engineer husband wants to do after his retirement last week, is travelling along spectacular roads.

We are spending a few days at the cabin, and decide to drive down to the charming city Molde for an overnight stay.

The way south to Molde take us along the Atlantic Ocean Road, an area I guess you might have seen on spectacular tourist films from Norway.

We have driven this road many times, but today we decided to stop, here, there and everywhere, to explore. Which turned out to be a very good choice. Like here, when we hiked near the ocean and found an instalment where the artist had played with "cream from a spray can", at least, that's what it looked like.

At the end of the road we came to the small fishing village Bud, and had lunch there. We ate bacalao and fish balls. Did you know that the stockfish for bacalao comes from this part of the world?

I took quite a lot of footage along the way, and will share in my next English video.

 

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Meanwhile you can still enjoy this one:

The old Coastal Line Ship

@brittarnhild

The annual opera festival is going on in Kristiansund, the small coastal town not far from our cabin. As usual Terje and I are here, this  year we have tickets for Rigoletto.

We left Trondheim some time after breakfast, had a short stop with Ingrid and Marius just to smell and cherish the little newborn Milian, stopped for a lovely lunch along the way, had coffee and a sweet treat, svele, on the ferry, and arrived here in time for stroll along the harbour before heading back to the hotel to change for the opera.

One of the old, and with that I mean really old, hurtigruten, coastal line ship has anchored at the Kristiansund harbour. A beautiful vessel. With a million tales to tell.

Nordstjernen, the North Star.

Like a queen. And believe me, we were not the only ones there with cameras.

Then one of the new ships came in. A stop in Kristiansund on her way from Bergen to Kirkenes. Next stop after Kristiansund is Trondheim.

 

From ocean to mountain

@brittarnhild

The western part of Norway has so much to offer, and today we took our visitor, blog reader Ardi, from the ocean up to the mountains.

Starting with the Atlantic Ocean Road, the air still filled with the remnants of the stiff breeze which had followed us all though the night. Making me lay awake in bed enjoying the fact that I am alive.

From the ocean road we drove on, a ferry ride,  a long underwater tunnel under one of the thousands of Norwegian fjords, and then steep, steep up, up, up.

Watching out for trolls, over bridges, turning one hairpin bend after another.

And then we reach the top. And could look down at Trollstigen, the Troll Path, the serpentine mountain road with 11 hairpin bends which is  prohibited for buses longer than 12.4 meters (41ft). At one point, when we drove down again, Terje had to leave the car, going out to direct a driver who was almost in panic, with long lines of cars both ahead and behind.  Terje never panic, and soon the trafic flowed again.

If you ever come to Norway there are two musts: The Atlantic Ocean Road and the Troll Path.

And if you are lucky, you meet a juggler.......

.......or two.

 

A wooden hotel and Christmas breakfast in July

@brittarnhild

Time had come for our annual visit to one of the many amazing wooden hotels in Norway. This time we decided not to visit one of the historical ones, but a place which opened only 15 years ago (an old farm restored), BesteBakken. We had read about the place already some years ago, when we stayed at Walaker hotel with our friends from California, Jane and Lanny. What caught my interest then was to read that BesteBakken sold art by Ingun Dahlin.

As I knew it would, it turn out to become a lovely stay. We arrived a few hours before dinner and had time to sit in the garden, and also to take a bath in the special bubble bath which our bathroom had. At dinner we shared a huge table with other guests, a family from Poland, a mother and daughter from Germany, two young men from Switzerland, a couple from the US and another couple from the Netherlands. Tales from all over the world were shared while we enjoyed the tasteful three course dinner.

The climax though came with breakfast the next morning. Lindis, the owner of BesteBakken, told us that her goal was to show her guests what a Christmsa breakfast in Norway is. A breakfast when the family gather around the table and eat and talk for many hours. A breakfast when you serve ALL the best food you have.

Lindis explained all the food, and let us know what should be eaten together.

We listened, and we ate and we ate and we ate and we ate,

all while I made mental notes - I want to make this, this is perfect together, what a great idea.......

 

We had to leave right after breakfast, other adventures were waiting, but I did have time for some photos first,

and we said goodbye to the lama outside :-)

BesteBakken, a gem of a place,
and with Ingun Dahlin´s angels everywhere :-)

 

 

Vestlandet, The Western Coast again

@brittarnhild

Vestlandet, The Western Coast of Norway is like a magnet. I love it. And I have been lucky, we go there almost every year.

On our way today, we drove over Sognefjellet, The Sognefjell Mountain. The beauty here is breathtaking. I enjoyed it with my camera, Terje would have loved to do summer skiing.

May be next time :-)

We then drove another mountain pass, Tindevegen, a toll road only open during summer.

Stops for photos, photos through the car windows.
Beauty everywhere.

 

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.