Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

With my new snow shoes

@brittarnhild

More snow fell, and I bought myself a pair of truger, snow shoes.

The first night I tried them out in the garden, but yesterday it was time to explore "wildlife", in the woods behinde our hourse.

Some problems in the start. Already in the first hill I realised a pair of poles would be essential.

But soon the start problems were forgotten.
This was fantastic.

In the beginning I kept close to the ski tracks. I felt safer there. A skier stopped, admiring my new snow shoes, and we had a nice chat about how wonderful it is to be out in the wilds.

But I had not bought the snow shoes only to walk along the tracks. So after a while I became braver, moving into the deep snow.

With poles this will be easier.

For there will be a next time for sure. And a next time, and a next time, and a.......

Snow in my garden

@brittarnhild

It has been snowing all day, and the world is beautiful.

 

 

 

Preparing for the cold days

@brittarnhild

Cold winter outdoors. Snug and cosy indoors.

The time of the year when I love to sit down with my knitting, my book, my cup of tea. Burning candles. Eat a little snack. Invite family and friends over.

The tree, the sembra pine,  Terje cut down two weeks ago is now made into logs.
And I have started to write about my walks through the year.......so far in Norwegian only, Vandring gjennom året.

 

November in the garden

@brittarnhild

The snow we got a couple of weeks ago has gone, but after a period with temperatures over the freezing point, frost is abck, making the garden look lovely.

An onion I forgot to harvest is now a sculpture in the herb garden.

Not all colours are gone. A sweet gentiana blew me a gentle kiss.

 

Another tree had to go

@brittarnhild

Today it was time to cut down the third of the five huge pines which have been growing right outside our livingroom. They have grown too high, they are too close to the house, so there is no other option. They have to go.

Terje is cutting them doen himself, one every autumn, which gives me a break. I still have two pines left. And so have the birds. And the squirrels.

I was out in the garden, working shoulder with shoulder with Terje, feeling sad because of the fallen tree, when I decided we could make the day special anyway.

It is November. The first snow has come.

 

What about a barbeque?

When snowflakes covers my world

@brittarnhild

Yesterday, just after breakfast, the first snowflakes started to fall, and it continued to snow on and off during the day. Not much yet, so far the earth is only slightly dusted. But as the temperatures are around or below zero (celsius that is), the snow is not melting. Not even when the sun shines.

Our house is situated so that we have no sun for a few weeks every winter. But for the moment the sun shines on the garden, for a shorter and shorter time every day.

I don´t want to miss the beauty.

 

Out of the office

@brittarnhild

Once a year, in winter, we close the office after lunch and all of us head for the countryside. Many of us have work which includes quite a lot of traveling, I am among them, and yesterday was actually my first opportunity to take part in this skidag. And what luck I/we had. Snow, more than enough of it, blue sky and a sun which, though we are still in early March, is starting to give some warmth.

Food is always essential on a day like this. We made an open fire where we grilled sausages, cheese sandwiches, bananas and marsmallows.

Then came the "teaching" part, how to prepare your skis. One of my colleages is a master, and gave us a very interesting lesson.

I am not sure I am going to use any of what I learned though, as Terje is the one preparing my skis (and of course he is a master as well :-))

The last part of the day was for cross country skiing.......or hiking. I did not bring my skis, so together with a couple of others I hiked over and around the lake.

By the way, we have more than enough snow this winter.......

 

 

Terje´s inspiration is worth gold

@brittarnhild

As soon as Terje hears the world snow, he is making plans for his next cross country skiing. And as soon as the first snow flakes starts to fall, he is out on his skis. I need more time. A lot more time. But I do love skiing and I do love nature, so this morning, just after breakfast, I was out with my cross country ski hero. My every day life hero.

 

It is a year since I had skis on my feet so I felt stiff in the beginning. But it didn´t take me long to find my old young self. After all I am Norwegian, I was born with skis on my feet.

Cross country skiing for me means finding a cosy place somewhere out in the forest where we can sit down with hot chocolate, pastries and sharing an orange.

The Snowman Family

@brittarnhild

Do you know that snow can be a lot of different things. I have heard that the Sami people have quite a few different words for it, in Norwegian we use adjectives to describe the snow. Today the snow has been kram which means that it is wet and perfect to form. After bearkfast Terje went out cross country skiing. "The day is so perfect, I plan to be out for a couple of hours" Terje said as he kissed me goodbye. Fine, I thought, two hours with my books and knitting until he is back and we can start our Saturday chores together - shopping, hoovering, baking.......

Before sitting down I had to fill the bird feeders though, and as soon as I came out into the garden I knew I could not go in again. I hadn´t made snowman in a hundreds years, not since I was a child, or at least not since the kids were toddlers, but once learnes it stays in your hands and fingers,

and soon the garden had new inhabitants, a snowman daddy, a snowman mummu and three snowmen kids, with sunflower seeds as eyes, tiny twigs as arms.

We are freezing, the dad and the youngest kid cried, and I was sent indoors to knit scarves for them.

A White City

@brittarnhild

After a night of heavy snowing, the world was so beautiful, I had to leave the bus one stop early just to be able to walk a little more in the fresh, white before spending hours inside, working.

This is the kind of winter I love. When snow is snow, not slippery ice. When everything is clean, when you wake up and the world is all new.

Welcome to Trondheim.
Welcome to my world.