Around the Homestead

 

I never made it into town. The husband was starting a very special project just for me so I thought I would stick around and supervise. I'm sure he appreciated my presence. For ages and ages I have dreamed of having a raised garden. Now I'm getting one! Here is the "before" picture.

The clearing out finished.

 

Progressing....

And that's all we have so far. He should have the walls finished today. Then we hunt for soil. Meanwhile I fantasize about my huge harvest.

Oh the stuff that dreams are made of........

 

Posted with Blogsy

Honey I'm Home!

 

That orange boat is bringing my husband home to Kristiansund after two weeks at sea. He phoned me from the boat and I ran out on our balcony and took this picture as they came through the channel. We waved but couldn't actually see each other as neither of us had our binoculars. So that was yesterday. Today ( our third sunny day in a row) I'm off to the Center or main part of town to shop for sewing supplies,visit the library, and take some pictures for you.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Drunk on the sun

This is what Kristiansund looked like today.......a bunch of crocuses open to greet the sun.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Coltsfoot

I haven't seen any rainbows yet but I did find " the pot of gold" . Coltsfoot or Tussilago farfara is another sign from Mother Nature that Spring is here. What did Louisa May Alcott say in LITTLE WOMEN, " sure as the seasons change will come "? I feel so lucky to live in a place with four seasons. I have Rhuematoid Arthritis so I take much shorter walks than I would like,yet here in Kristiansund there is so much beauty in even a five minute ramble. Spotting my first Coltsfoot of the season right outside my garden gate brought a smile to my face. I wonder how many people bend down like I do to pat its velvety stalk? An old name for Coltsfoot is " the son before the father" referring to its' flowers blooming and withering before its' broad hoof shaped leaves appear. Our first year in Kristiansund we arrived in June long after Coltsfoots' flowers had gone.I kept wondering what were all those big broad leaves I saw growing everywhere. My first thought was grape leaves but I knew that couldn't be right. The mystery was solved the following Spring.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Speaking of views...

Terrible photography,but this is the view from my dining room balcony. Hard to live with because it is so mesmerizing.....like a lava lamp. The cat is Thomasina and she is Norwegian. Also bilingual she wants you to know. Or maybe more like quadlingual as she is fluent in English,Norwegian,KittyKat, and the language of love.....especially love.She nursed me through the last couple of days while I suffered with migraines.She has four white feet and we call them her nursing shoes. So while I was migraining this was going on outside...

And then yesterday when I woke up it was all gone. Rained away while I slumbered with kitty. Today even the sun is making an appearance. Just maybe I will see something magical that I often see here in Kristiansund,Norway......

That's the view from my livingroom.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Failing at Origami and Changing Weather

After three hours of paper folding Friend R. and I admitted defeat. Our tulips just wouldn't inflate. Weirdly,only the first one I folded (pictured above) puffed out like a proper tulip. That's me in the orange hat praying for milder weather. It didn't work. I sat up all night listening to the wind and snow from off the Atlantic ocean slam into our bay window. With a view comes weather. And the views in Kristiansund,Norway are worth the weather.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Kristiansund,Norway

I thought today I would post a couple of pictures I took last summer as today is still gray and making my photos grainy.

This is our most famous statue,Clipfishwoman,by Tore Bjørn Skjølsvik. Clipfish are fish,usually cod,that were dried on the smooth rocks. Kristiansund has a lot of smooth rocks and wind,so the fishermen brought the cod here and the women and children did the work of laying them out to dry on the rocks. This product was then shipped to many places but especially Portugal who use it to make a lovely dish called Bacalao. They make it here in Kristiansund and it is quite tasty.

This is Kirkelandet church built in 1964 and the architect was Odd Østbye. It must have been shockingly modern when it was first built. In fact I have heard it described as Norway's most daring and modern church.I'm quiet fond of it and proud to say I live on the island of Kirkelandet.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Nordic Spring

Now my life on an island looks more like this......

 

Only the snow is sloppy wet and disappearing fast. This is a photo from last fall with the only snow I think we have had this winter in Kristiansund. I am doing this blog totally on my iPad and I just couldn't get a good picture today as it is a very grey day. And windy. That is our dog Lillie in the picture. She is a rescued Maremma/Great Pyrenees from the United States. She looks a little miffed because she wants Dad to hurry up and take her for a walk.

This is what I will be doing tomorrow,Origami.But not fish.My friend is coming over and we are going to try and make origami tulips. That is a picture of the origami fishes I folded,painted,and sewed into a large fish with one black fish as the eye. It was inspired by a children's book. It has been a long time since I saw the book but I think it's name was SWIMMY and the author was Danish,but I'm not sure.Anyhow,in the story the little fish decide to swim together like one big fish so they won't get eaten.

 

Posted with Blogsy

SPRING !....ALREADY?

A little more than a week ago, this is what life on an island off the coast of Norway looked like for me.

 

Strange looking "hamburgers" and branches with feathers and eggs stuck to them.....and calm seas in the background. It turns out that what I mistook for hamburger buns stuffed with way too much mayonnaise and who knows what on top are actually Fastelavnboller,my new favorite yummy. This is a not too sweet bun that is stuffed with thick delicious cream and perhaps some jam. I think I detected just a hint of cardomom in the bun but I'm not sure. I had two versions. One had a dark chocolate topping and was filled with some type of banana cream custard. Nirvana! The second roll had the more traditional cream and jam filling. Total bliss.....My husband and I cut the rolls in half so we could each try both flavors......I could have murdered him for the other half. But I didn't. Instead he chased me around the livingroom trying to whack me with the feathery egged twigs. Apparently, in days of old,infertile women were whipped with the budding branches to make them fertile. Good thing he didn't catch me!

This is the "offering" I made for Spring. More like a thank you as she seems to have come early this year to our island off the coast of Norway. I have crocuses,snowdrops,and even some small daffodils blooming in my yard. I just hope they can hold onto their petals as the winds have returned to Kristiansund after so many weeks of calm.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy