Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The more you use it

@brittarnhild

The more you use nature, the more you love it!
And I think it is the same with winter, the more you use it, the more you love it. I am not a winter person. I do not like it when we have weeks and weeks of rain and ice and cold and wind, and....... But give me a day like today. A few degrees below frost, a blue sky, a bright sun and a world filled with sparkling snow.

We are lucky and live close to the woods, and after lunch today I put on my very good winter shoes and went out for a hike.

I followed the ski tracks, but made sure to walk right out on the edge, not to be in the way for the cross country skiers. Being a Tuesday noon there were not many people out though. I could enjoy the quiet, a few birds singing, moose and deer tracks, and the beautifully dressed fir tree.

Sure, I do love winter.......and I am longing desperately for spring.

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More picture over at @brittarnhildshouseinthewoods on instagram

 

But where is spring hiding?

@brittarnhild

In my previous post, which I wrote a month ago (can it be that long!) I talked about spring.......in the greenhouse. We were in deep winter then, and we are in even deeper winter now.

Poor Terje, on Sunday he spent hours shovelling our driveway and the paths we need in the garden to feed the birds and walk down to the greenhouse. Lucky for both of us he is a very fit 67 years old, and of course all this shovelling makes him even fitter.

These pictures were taken on Sunday.
Since then it has continued to snow and snow ands snow.......

 

Out hiking again

@brittarnhild

We have been out hiking again.
I have already, in a previous post, told you about our goal to do at least 100 hikes of 5kilometers or more during the year. We did not quite catch the goal last year, but we are trying again this year. Today was our 17th 5km+ hike of 2023, so we are really doing great progress.

We hiked from our house today, over to the arena where the World Championship of Nordic Skiing will be held in 2025. Yes, it will be quite close to where we live, so we are sure we will get a full house with friends and family during the games, lol.

Still deep winter here with us, and today was a lovely day with sun and blue sky.

A lot of restoration work is being done at the ski arena for the moment, so it is always interesting to walk over to watch the progress. A week ago the ski jump was tested for the first time after its rebuilding and next winter there will be a "test world championship", so remaining work must be done fast now.

Our son in law Marius was a ski jumper, just like his father was. And now our two grandsons, Leander aged 7 and Milian aged 4 have started to jump as well....... They are both too young for the championship in two years of course, but one day.......

 

When grey is beautiful

@brittarnhild

After last night´s storm we woke up to a new morning.
I love colours, but I also see that grey can be immensely beautiful

 

I with Thee would begin,
O my Savior so dear,On the way that I still must pursue;
I with Thee would begin
Every day granted here,
As my earnest resolve I renew
To be and remain Thine forever.

The start of a hymn by the Swedish Lina Sandell (1832-1903)

Cabin life in deep winter

@brittarnhild

We are spending a couple of days at our cabin, on our way back home from an opera performance in the small town on Kristiansund last night. Yesterday, in Kristiansund, the weather did not feel like winter at all, mild and sunny, though the wind was strong, but when we woke up at the hotel this morning, the temperature had dropped down to freezing point, the wind was blowing a gale, and it snowed heavily. We had 50 kilometers to drive and a 30 minutes ferry ride to come here, and luckily and thanks to a very good driver, all went well.

Our cabin is quite simple, and no heating is on when we are not here, so when we arrived the inside temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius. A faithful old wood stove is your best friend then. You can see ours in the drawing above, a drawing I made back in October 2006.

A mug of hot mint tea, with dried mint leaves from the cabin garden, also helps to warm up.

And with the wind continuing to blow outside, and hails hammering on our windows, I have made a little spring corner inside.

Cabin life in winter can be perfect days, especially when you have your Jøtul stove, stacks of books and enough yarn to last you though as long as you want.

 

Two days "in the wild"

@brittarnhild

When I was a child we used to say that Norwegians were born with skis on their feet. Well, I can't tell if I was born with them, but as soon as I could walk, my parents took me out in the countryside, hiking in summer, cross country skiing in winter, so skiing has been part of my life for let's say 60 years. Not so much the last years though, and last winter I was out skiing one of the last days in December, but then no more during the year 2021.

But now we have 2022, and today I have been skiing. Yes!

The weather has been amazing for many days no, and when the ski tracks are like this.......well, even I wanted to be out there, with skis on my feet.

Terje is skiing almost every day for the moment, even when the two of us go for a hike in the woods, he makes sure to go skiing before or after. But for me this was this year's first. It was great and I feel so proud of myself.

Skis or no skis, we continue to hike together.
Yesterday, Sunday, we hiked up to an old farm in the woods some 5-6 kms from our house. The farm is open to public and have a café with the best pastries you can imagine.......no, the next best. When our son Torgeir, who lives in Sweden, came home for Christmas, he baked two batches of cinnamon pastries, and no other pastries in the world taste better than his :-)

Terje and I sat outdoors, outside the farm, with coffee and the next best pastries, and as always I had my knitting.

Rain is expected in a couple of days.
A lot of rain. They call it an atmospheric river.

But so far we continue to enjoy the blue sky, the low sin, the snow
and each other.

 

The frosted garden

@brittarnhild

Frost has come, with no snow yet, which makes the garden look and feel icy cold.
Plants have died down, gone to sleep, and one could think there is nothing more to do in the garden for some months.

Which is not trur of course.
I keep on doing my daily morning walks in the garden. I feed the birds, I check on plants, I visit the greenhouse, where we have no electricity on any more so it is as frosted as the rest of the garden.

And most important of all, I have my plant table.

I filled a pot the other day with hyacinth, a hellebores, moss, cones and hips. It n ow stands on a small round table close to our entrance door, welcoming guests and ourselves. When the temperatures fall below zero (which is the Celsius freezing point) I let the pot inside the entrance hall, then carry it outside again when the temperature rises.

 

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By the way, the plant table will hopefully play an important part when I start recording my advent episodes on YouTube.

 

 

 

Winter hiking

@brittarnhild

As a girl I loved skiing, from morning till night.

Now, aged 62, fast on my way to 63, I have stored away my skis. We are at the cabin, and while Terje is out cross country skiing, I simply hike on my two feet.

Not exactly from morning till night, but still, for long hours, which you can see from my bright, red cheeks.

It is pretty cold here for the moment, but we dress well, with layers of wool and good mood. Here I am with my  binoculars, searching for some special birds which I think I say yesterday.

I did not fine the birds, and since I had brought my big camera, I started to photograph lichen instead. Two years ago I had birds on top of my "I want to learn more of this - list", last year it was flowers. This year I think it might be lichens.

Life is too short and too precious not to find new interests, learn new things.

 

Are you ready for a swim?

@brittarnhild

We can't have guests for the moment, not even our own children or grandchildren. We miss them all of course, but luckily we can still meet outdoors. Yesterday we met the two oldest grandchildren out in the woods, cross country skiing, barbecuing sausages and having fun, fun, fun. Icy cold, but my gosh how it warmed a grandmother's heart.

Today Terje and I have been out walking little Vida in her pram for one of her naps. Still cold, but walking fast made us warm nevertheless :-) We walked up to a little lake which is a popular place for ice skating. It is Monday and we were there early, so we were the only people around, but you should have seen the place yesterday.

Can you see what I see? Right out there a hole is made in the ice, a hole for bathing, for swimming. Well, I am Norwegian and I guess I have viking blood running through my veins, but.......swimming in this cold! No way.
Today it was minus 9 degrees Celsius, which should be minus 15.8 °Fahrenheit

By the way, here in Norway we still let babies sleep their naps outdoors during winter, all the way down to minus 14°Fahrenheit.

On our way back to Vidas home, I simply had to stop to photograph this house for you. Can you see, even our houses are freezing during winter :-)

 

Here we go again

@brittarnhild

Just like I told you yesterday, today we woke up to a winter wonderland. I have not been up in the woods hiking today, I have more than enough beauty in the garden. Every autumn we move all the garden furniture under roof in a small house we have, but this year I asked Terje to leave this table and bench.......for nice photo shots :-) I am glad I did.

The birds are having a hard time now, with a world completely covered in snow from one day to the next. As soon as we got daylight this morning I was out to fill the feeders, and I am sure we have had more than a hundred birds visiting. This little red robin, rødstrupe, is my favourite.

It is a quarter past three in the afternoon when I write this, and here is my view just now. Yesterday it was dark at three o'clock, now the snow brightens everything up.

Five minutes later and Terje (and a neighbour) is out to shovel the courtyard. (the light you see up in the left corner is reflections from an indoor lamp)

I took some footage as well when I was out photographing, and will include it in my next YouTube-video :-)