Moving

I have had problems with the photo posting here, so I am moving my house in the woods over to typepad.
http://brittarnhildshouseinthewoods.typepad.com/brittarnhilds_house_in_th/

Back home.

I am back home from my week in Oslo and will post a few of the birthday pictures I promised you.

This has been a beautiful and sunny day. It is Saturday, but since I have been away all week at had to go downtown to my office in the morning. Worked for a few hours, but was very happy when I could close the door and activate the alarm. Took a short walk in town before taking the bus back home. Nothing is like sunny spring Saturdays in Trondheim. The town is brimming with life. I opened my mind and enjoyed it all, even sat down on a bench in our main street, Nordre gate, for a short time with a cup of coffee and a "vaffel", sold my students to raise money for Blue Cross.

Back home Terje was busy changing the car tyres from winter till summer tyres, and also cleaning the car both outside and inside. I have told myself that this spring there will be only a minimum of garden work for me, because of the upcoming exams. But since I have been to school all week I gave myself two hours. And it really made a change in the garden. I loved sitting down afterwards enjoying beds, birds, sky and life.

Birthday and Studies

I am in Oslo all week for studies. Flew down Monday morning, and will return by train Friday afternoon. I had hoped to keep up with my blog during the nights here, but last night I discovered I didn't have to program on my laptop for downloading photos. So all my photos from the last week will have to wait till I am back home again.

It was my 47th birthday on Sunday, a perfect day :-) I woke up early and had almost two hours by myself before the rest of the family could be heard. I love the quiet time, and really didn't mind. Had breakfast, read, and opened the gifts from my penpals - mostly books, which I always LOVE. When Terje and Marta woke I got my present from them, a mp3 player, which was on top of my wish list. Øystein helped me to fill it with music, so I now have The Barber of Sevilla by Rossine, Vivaldi's 4 Seasons and alot of Verdi arias with me. Great.

In the morning I took a long hike in the forest. It was snowing quite heavy, and I loved being out all by myself, and decided that big snowdrops in my hear on my birthday must mean good luck for the year to come.......

Here in Oslo I stay with a cousin of my mother. She is really spoiling me. Breakfast is on the table when I woke up in the morning, dinner is on the table when I come home from school, and later in the afternoon we have coffee, we watch television, we knit and we listen to music. I am knitting on a pair of very fancy summer socks for Marta, much like the ones I knitted for Ingrid during Easter but much brighter colours. They will be a surprise for her when I come home. Tomorrow I will meet a friend after school She is a knit artist, so we will have alot to talk about.

Clean and tidy. 

"Real" mountain climbing. 

Marta has reached the top. 

Britt Arnhild, Marta and Terje halfway to the top. 

Spring cleaning and mountain hiking.

We have spent the week-end at our cabin. Saturday was for spring cleaning. We usually do this one day during Easter break, but this year it was no time for it so we decided to go back this week-end to "do our duty". Marta and a friend of her also went with us.

The cabin is not very big, so spring cleaning only take a few hours. Marta and Elisabet played outside while Terje and I worked. Three bedrooms and a combined kitchen and livingroom / diningroom. I actually love the cleaning / tidying part in this little doll house of ours. So much easier there where we have so little things. There are very few cupboards or wardrobes, so it is always important to throw away whet we never use. This year this meant a few old pairs of shoes, some old colouring pencils and papers and a couple of worn out board games.

Saturday it was a little coudy and also some light rain showers. So it was great to woke up this morning to a blue sky, hundreds of birds singing and very mild temperatures. We had breakfast and packed our backpack for a mountain hike. We have a favorite mountain where we love to hike. Hadn't planned to go there this week-end actually, we were afraid that the paths were too wet so early in spring. But Marta had told Elisabet so much about this "huge" and wonderful mountain where you had to do "real mountain climbing" to reach the top. And with two motivated girls we couldn't say no of course. And it was GREAT. Not wet at all, and the view from Høvikfjellet (The Høvik Mountain) is absolutely gorgeous. Marta ran most of the time, Elisabet had to struggle a bit more. And halfway Terje and I were afraid that we wouldn't make it. But after a rest Elisabet was fit again, and wher we reached the top everything was great.

I discovered halfway that the battery in my camera was dead, so the pictures are from two years ago.

Enchanting. 

Marta and Ingrid at Piazza Navona in Rome. 

Beautiful Italy. 

A Traveler's Notebook

For Christmas I got a traveler's notebook. The giver know my love for travels and for diaries, and this was the perfect gift. I use it whenever I travel, write a few sentences, or a whole page. And know that this will be a wonderful keeper.

On top of every page is a quatation from a famous man (or woman) and listen to what is on top of the page where I am writing right now:
"What I most regret in the particulars of my life.....is not having kept a journal of my travels" Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

I can not say that same. For more than ten years now I have kept journals from my travels. I use spiral bound hardcovered book, and I write in the right page during the travel, and keep the left page blank for photos, tickets, bills, postcards and so on. I have a wonderful collection of such travel books.

A couple of years ago I was asked by the church of Norway to go to the UN General Assembly in New York as an observator for two weeks. A wonderful opportunity, and of course I had the most wonderful time. More than 40 years ago my grandfather was asked to do the same by the Norwegian government. One of my brothers still has his passpost from that travel, and also a Bibel he was given by the youth group in the Norwegian seamen's church in Brooklyn where he preached at least one time during his stay. I have been thinking alot about whet my grandpa did over there during his stay. Oh, what if he had written a travel diary! What a treasure it would have been for the family today.

I write the diaries while I travel, but it sometimes takes a long time to finish with the photos and everything when back home. But it really is part of the fun. Last summer we spent three weeks in Italy, and a coupld of days ago I finally finished the travel diary from these weeks. Please enjoy a few photos with me.

A spring miracle. 

The student is enjoying the spring sun! 

Student.....and a little spring sign.

I am a student for four years. Studying for a Master Degree in Valuebased Leadership. I do this on top of my regular job, and I do it because I like to study and this special study looked so fascinating. I started in August 2004, and will be finish, if I follow the line as I plan to do, in June 2008! I go to Oslo four weeks a year, the rest I have to do at home alone.

Not easy to sit doen with thew books when there are thousands of other things to do. But now ever I have to realise that the exam in May is coming close. I will have one exam in late May, three days working at home, and then I have an essay which is due in the beginning of June.

So now my days are filled with as much reading as possible on top of my ordinary everyday life. I've had a very good and restful Easter vacation, so I feel I really have alot of energy, and right now see now problem in this. And what is better than to sit out in a sunny garden studying. Since we are on summertime now the afternoons are longer. Terje and I ate our dinner out on the terracce when we came home from work today (Marta was with a friend, Øysten had gone fishing with a friend and Ingrid had already eaten). Then right after dinner Terje drove Ingrid to handball practice. I made myself a pot of coffee and brought it together with a mug with my favorite Jan Vermeer painting (The Milk Maid) and my book out on the terracce. Ha, if there will be many days like today I will have no problems when the days of the exam come :-)

And before coming in I found a tiny little spring miracle, the very first primula flower. Praise to God, our creator. Spring will come this year also.

Spring is still a dream here at Huseby. 

New life hidden under the snow. 

Waiting for spring.

Spring is my favorite season. With all its anticipation, with everything coming to life, with its longer days, with hope for a long and warm summer!

There is still alot of snow in my garden, but with the sun and mild temperatures we have had these last days it has been melting fast, and the first signs of new life can be seen. The weather is overcast today, so my plan of sitting out to enjoy the sun will not come true. But my plan of bringing out a few of my garden books from the shelves can nobody take away from me. Four of my favorites are laying here in the table close to my computer while I write this.

Traditional English Gardens - Published in Assosiation with the National Trust. A treasure chest of beautiful photos and information about beautiful English gardens. Victorian Flower Gardens by Andrew Clayton-Payne, where one can only dream one self into one of the paintings, feeding the hens, playing with the cat, smelling the lilacs.An Englishwoman's Garden by Helen Penn, a favorite for many years, not at least due to the beautiful front photo of an old garden bench with a basket of freshly cut flowers and a lady's straw hat causually hung on the bench. And the last one my all time favorite, Tasha Tudor's Garden Book.

So with the sun hidden behind white clouds I will still have a little sunshine indoors enjoying a few of my garden books.

(By the way, today I have showed you only English garden books. My Norwegian ones must wait for another day)