Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Non-stop snowing

@brittarnhild

Good to have a little glimpse of spring indoors when it snows non-stop outdoors:

 

 

Siberian Cold

@brittarnhild

Europe is freezing this week, icy cold air from east, from Sibir, is sweeping over the continent, bringing snow as far south as Rome. I got a photo yesterday from Santa Maria, the old farm on the hills east of Florence, where I spent Easter last year, and will go again in a few weeks. Hard to imagine snow there, the old stone buildings must be terrible cold. My sinuses are not fond of this cold, dry air, so I am home from work today. The hearth has a fire running, I am wrapped in a wool quilt and have a mug of hot water with lemon and ginger at hand. A book in my lap, but mostly I am watching the birds at the feeders out in the garden. Letting my thoughts wander where they want.

 

Sunday was a snowy day, we drove home from the cabin and I did some filming from the drive:

 

 

Do I need to say that I long for spring.......

Winter break in the mountains

@brittarnhild

Winter break started in our part of Norway this weekend. Closed schools for a week. We don´t have a break from work just now, but as Terje´s brother and his family are up in the mountains, at their cabin near Røros, we decided to visit them for the weekend.

 This winter continues to overflow us with lovely weather and more than enough snow for ski fun activities.

Take a look in the YouTube video to see more of our winter fun activities :-)

 

 

 

Winter weather

@brittarnhild

We are having a great winter so far this year. We got snow before Christmas, and no snow melting since then. A wonderful, stable winter. A lot of sun, and perfect conditions for cross country skiing, snow shoeing and hiking in the woods. Today the weather changed though, and the snow started blowing. Our weather forecast predicts extreme weather and a storm tomorrow morning. The storm Cora. Our plane is supposed to leave Trondheim airport at 07.30 am local time. We are crossing our fingers.......

 

Updated blogs in my blog world today:
(this list will be updated)

Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal

Britt-Arnhilds samlede - my collections

Blåklokkeveien - where the theme this year is trees

Britt-Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal

 

 

Lunch in my woods

@brittarnhild

Tomorrow is back to work, but today is all mine, to do whatever I want.
Well, some housework, but to be honest, I really don´t mine, yes, I actually want to do it.....with a clean and tidy house as the reward :-)

Around noon I packed a backpack though. My journal, something to sit on, a thermos of hot chocolate and two lussekatter, safran buns from the freezer. 

The woods starts almost just behind our house, so I did not have far to go. It took me some time to reach the place where I wanted to eat though. There were so many birds to spot along the way, so many trees to enjoy and to photograph. And also, there was the silence to listen to.

We had a few snow showers this morning,
and deep into the forest I met this fairy tale world.

 

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In my blog world today:

Britt-Arnhild´s  Blue Garden

Britt-Arnhilds samlede - my collections

Blåklokkeveien - where 2018 har trees as its theme

Britt-Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal

Fløy en liten blåfugl - about birds

maskerade - my knitting blog, with a new, exiting my own design project :-)

Vandring gjennom året - my nativities

 

 

 

 

Christmas means a full house

@brittarnhild

We have a full house this Christmas with every bedroom in the house occupied. Torgeir was the first one to arrive, from Stockholm. He got a deal with his company to work in the company´s office here in Trondheim the week before Christmas, so he came already the 15th of December. He flew back to Stockholm today, and will continue to Minsk in Belarus tomorrow for a few days. Those of you who follow him on instagram and facebook will see that 2018 will be another year filled with great adventures for him. Ingrid, Marius and Leander came on lillejulaften, and will stay till over New Year. Marta also came before Christmas and spend some nights here, som in her own apartment.

Øystein spent his first Christmas away from home, celebrating with Silje and her family. They are back in Trondheim now, and tonight they are coming here for dinner, and a sleep over.

The garden is also busy. Snowmen, birds, squirrels, deers.......

 

I love the Christmas season :-)

 

A perfect morning for skiing

@brittarnhild

It is the week of Christmas, or romjula as we say in Norway. We still have a full house, and every morning we are up early with Leander. Blessed moments.

These morning hours are still pitch dark outside, but as light return, and Leander´s parents woke up, Terje and I took our skis and went out into the forest for cross country skiing.

When winter is like this, there is nothing more beautiful on earth. And lucky us, it is all just outside our back door.

A couple of hours like this, and we are ready to get beck home, starting the next meal.
today we will serve halibut for four generations.

 

Snowballs for a lantern

@brittarnhild

There are many different types of snow. I have heard that sami people who own reindeers have more than 300 different words for it. In the Norwegian language snow is snow, or rather snø as we say in Norway, but we do have quite a few words to describe if the snow is dry, wet, icy, new, old and so on. For the moment, with temperatures around  Zero Celsius, which is the freezing point, the snow is kram,  which means that it is perfect to work with. Not kram enough to make snowmen though, but perfect for small snowballs.

Small and big hand together can form quite a lot of snowballs, putting them together. First a small circle. Then one on top of the other.

And soon you have a lantern to light up the dark, arctic Christmas night.

 

Winter Wonderland

@brittarnhild

This is what I came home to last night.

 

And here are a few photos >I took walking to the bus this morning :-)

 

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Blogs updated today:

Vandring mot Kristmesse - my new advent blog

dagens lille grønne - green ideas

Vandring gjennom året - today a nativity from Iceland

 

We found the snow finally, and I smiled broader than the sun

@brittarnhild

On our way back home from the cabin, we finally found the snow, and could do some cross country skiing. I am one happy smile :-)