Hyttetur

The title is a tribute to the song "Hyttetur" and I think all Norwegians knows how it goes. It wasn't any sister who was sour, but a grandma who was complaining. But that was mostly because her equipment didn't hold together.

My brother is at a folkehøyskole (some kind of school in-between high school and uni. Voluntarily.), called Bjerkely Folkehøyskole, where they focus on photography. And this Saturday they had all the families gathered to see what the young, aspiring artists had done during their excursions abroad. Mum wanted to go there, and dragged both me and Grandma with her. Since the school is much closer to the cabin than home, we slept over there from Friday to Saturday. The only problem was the 1 meter of snow we had to conquer. At least Grandma. It's been over 15 years since last time she used a pair of skis, and the last one to use her shoes was me some 3 years ago.
We didn't really plan anything, just packed some food, clothes for one day, skis and the key. Called aunt Astrid to get the code to a gate-lock, and we all took for granted that everything was ok - only worrying about Grandmas skiing skills.
A mistake.
Her shoes started to fall apart the moment she put them on at home, but we only realized it when we got out of the car 300 m. from the cabin. (That was almost 3 hours drive from home.)
As a result: we spent a few hours to get from the car to the cabin.
We left Grandma's skis in the car, and let her walk instead. Mum left us to find some snowshoes that should be at the cabin (according to Grandma, who hadn't been there for some years), and I stamped my skis into the snow so the old woman would have somewhere to walk without disappearing into the whiteness. It was not really successful. Sometimes I heard "Noooo I don't want to" behind me, turned around only to see her falling SLOWLY into the snow. Tilting, is probably a better word.
Mum didn't find the snowshoes, but Grandpa's old-old skis. They didn't fit, of course, but at least they had a string Grandma could have around her shoes to keep them from falling off.

Finally inside, a cozy fire in the fireplace, soup in our stomachs, tea and burning oil-lamps made the effort worthwhile.

Saturday morning, mum and I woke up with the smell of coffee in our noses. Grandma had gotten up with the sun, heated up the house and came up to the attic with sweet buns and coffee. It was such a nice morning!


Grandma, the early morning bird.


I just woke up - but the coffee was nice and strong :)

After breakfast it was time to pack, wash the dishes and figure out how to get down to the car again. It was still a lot of snow, or more even. After a lot of searching around, we found a second set of keys. They led to a shed mum didn't open yesterday - and what did she find in there? Snowshoes!
I gave Grandma my shoes and skis, and took her old, broken shoes and the snowshoes. Both mum and Grandma fell down a few times (mum due to a heavy backpack, Grandma because of not practised her skiing for a while but blaming the equipment) and we had great laughs at it. I felt like a rescuing party.


Snowshoes!


Grandma on skies, and my footsteps next to her.

To get to Bjerkely, we had to drive through Elverum centrum. It was really crowded everywhere, lots of people - and animals. A market! Every year there is a market there, but we didn't know what date it was (didn't check) so we missed it. Arrgh!
But I'm very happy we didn't miss the show at Eivinds school. It was great! Quite long, but so many fantastic images. How I wished to have enough time and money to go to Cuba, Venezia, Kambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Amsterdam.


This is just some of the rubber Grandma's shoes left behind in the shop...

Location: Mums livingroom
Eating: Dinner, soon
Drinking: -----
Listening to: Grandmas adventures of the day.
Mood: ok

Walk to ... eh, forgot what it's called. But it's very cozy!

Yesterday Mamma and I walked to . It is one of two nearby which you can reach without skies during winter season. All cottages around has their own speciality (of food or beverage) and this one has buns (sweet bread rolls) with "blue sky" (caster sugar, coconut and blue color) - and bread rolls with herbs and cheese.
It is really cozy in there, and we grabbed two chairs under the elk - in front of the window. I think the elk is really cute from below!



Maybe not as cute as the cats -and the rabbit - outside. All animals can go wherever they want :)
One of the cats were really cuddly, but I don't think it liked to be photographed....

First walk with new skies!!

It is still snowing in the south-east part of Norway. The temperature is just below 0 but I hope it will be colder again soon. Then we might keep the snow for a while...
Since it was such a snowy morning, Mum prepared my skies with glider and wax while I made breakfast. (I don't dare to use a hairdryer on my new skies...) After breakfast (or lunch) Mum and I took the car to Solli Gård, and walked down to "Myggheim" (Mosquito home). We had spent only 15 min. until then so we decided to go down to Sandungen (a lake). I couldn't see anything downhill because of all the snow getting in my eyes, but it was such a nice experience anyway. My feet were warm!!!
The wind were so strong down at the lake that we turned immideatly. Back at Myggheim we bought a cup of hot cordial (solbærtoddy) and 4 doughnuts (because the guys in the cottage didn't have any change). Mmmm!


Mum in the track


We left the carpark around 3.30 and headed back home for shower, soup and 1 performance of "Lightfoot".
The whole thing (for us stringplayers) lasts for about 2 hours (for percussion and brass even shorter. Lucky dad!), so when I write this I've already done the dishes and eaten the rest of the soup.

I'm sure the performance was great, the audience were laughing, gasping, clapping and in general of really good spirit. I felt great too, possibly because of the little exercise earlier on.
The best thing, though, is that I really enjoyed it - despite the weather and the unpredictable waxing conditions (lots of people had trouble). My feet were warm and I had control of the skies - and I could brake down easily. Dad, I'm ready for you!

Location: Mums sofa
Drinkin: Rosehip tea
Eating: The "matpakke" from the walk (which we didn't eat)
Mood: Happy, but my thoughts are nagging me a bit with "go and practise!!"

Det snør, det snør, tiddelibom

Directly translated: it snows (is snowing), it snows, tiddelibom. (Winnie the Pooh sings this song together with Piggy when they are building a house for Eore. Yup)

When I had come at peace with the idea of a cold winter without any snow, had bought my skates and was ready for my challenge on the ice - it started to pour down like cats and dogs. Well, not really, since it is snow and not rain, but I'm not aware of any English saying that fits. I guess they don't really have this amount of snow anyway.

I had my daily practice when Mum and Grandma went to visit Granddad, our dinner were simmering on the stove (pinnekjøtt (stick-meat. haha), we're trying to eat the last remains of Christmas out of the house so to say), and the snow were starting to pour down. Eivind had left for Vietnam a few hours before (around 12.30) and then the ground was completely bare. When Mum and Grandma came back, there were app. 10 cm. of fresh snow. Grandma shoveled the courtyard. Then we ate our precious west-coast Christmas food, watched the news and then it was time for another round with the shovel. I'm not kidding - there was around 30 cm more snow! Eivinds car had changed colour - AND shape... Well, at least it got washed ;)


Grandma, the caretaker. She's a heroine!!


Our courtyard


And the high voltage mast

Location: My room
Mood: Happy
Eating: Apple from when the Opera were in Sandefjord
Drinking: Nada
Listening to: Nothing, but I've heard the high voltage mast in the corner of Mums garden

Skating like the Swedes do!

Amazing!!! It was great to be out on the ocean today. The ice was hard, quite even (though somewhere there were humps and bumps to make the walk more exciting...) and with 5 cm of snow to stabilize us beginners. Mum and I had a great walk from Strand to the Henie Onstad Art Museum, where we had a coffee and a muffin, and back.
We met quite a few people who were asking about our skates, some people fishing, other skaters and kite-users. The weather was "tjukt tåkeføre" -really thick mist, quite cold but not freezing. We experienced one fall, hosted by mum, and a lot of fun trying to understand the dynamics with our new skates.



At home, I found my brother who had lots to tell about his school - and he got the whole walk in words...
Robi - you'd have loved this!



Location: Mums livingroom
Mood: happy
Eating: Chocolate and licorice (our proviant, eaten at home)
Drinking: Not yet.

I'm so excited!!!

I have bought skates :D
They are what the swedish call "långfärdskridskor" - which means long distance skates. I needed to buy some shoes that fit them too, so i had to buy skiing shoes for mountain skies. And since they had a campaign for buying shoes with skies, I ended up buying mountain skies as well (quite short, but with iron edges).
Tomorrow (actually today, but..) I'll test either skates or skies. Depends of the amount of snow outside. Just now it seems to be better conditions for skies, but that can change overnight.
Now - bedtime!
Just came home from a long bustrip to Skien with the opera orchestra. Last New Years concert was a great success! Full hall, great audience and humorus conductor. Think I'll sleep good tonight!

Location: Mums livingroom
Eating: Hot curry made yesterday
Drinking: Uten (alcoholfree beer)
Listening to: silence
Mood: smiling, tired

Picture gallery 1

Tromsø:



Doughnut-making with Grandma:


Christmas at Dad's:

Slovakia:

Oslo, by Akerselva where the beaver is living:


My "artistic"cellocase: