doings

December 2012

1 December - We're all away this weekend, apart from Thomas Andrew who's looking after the house and animals until Sunday. Matthew and Katie are away at an Advent camp (Matt as a leader and Katie as a participant!). This is an eagerly-awaited annual event, with both crafts and outdoor activities. Tracy and Tim went off to a cabin together with some friends from church. The cabin is set in a forest in a remote spot about three hour's drive (including one short ferry ride) north of home, passing Prekestolen (Pulpit Rock) on the way. There were a couple of mountains to drive over and quite a bit of snow had fallen, so we were pleased to get there. Once there we had a pleasant and relaxing time, including a walk (with the customary sausage barbeque without which no Norwegian walk is complete) in the forest (click photo, left, for picture of the cabin and walk.)

4 December - Sylvanian family We don't normally talk about "stupid sheep" because we try to avoid tautology, but the three that got stuck up our mountain last night really excelled themselves. We heard the clanking of sheep bells somewhere up amongst the trees and eventually spotted three wooly shapes picking their way amongst the rocks a couple of hundred feet up. A foot of snow fell last weekend and with the temperature stable at about -10° it's not going anywhere, so it's not ideal weather for sheep to be wandering around on a mountain. We (Katie, Matt, Tracy, Tim) all put on snow suits, boots and wooly hats and gloves and set off to try to chase the sheep down. It's not easy climbing up over the snow-covered rocks, but we reached them eventually. They were sufficiently cold and depressed that they didn't even bother putting up much resistance, so Matt and Tracy spent an hour and a half chasing them down into the valley where they can be picked up by their owner. (No pictures of sheep chasing, but here - right, click for enlargement - is another cold and lovely morning at home, the moon shining over the crunchy snow).

5 December - We wrote yesterday that there's a foot of snow here and the temperature has been keeping at a steady -10° since the weekend. It's now heading rapidly downwards, however. This evening, Tracy was out with some neighbours, Katie playing at a music school concert in Vikes� and Tim (after the concert) at a church meeting. On the way home from Vikes� this evening, the temperature was a chilly -17°C (1.4°F), which is distinctly low for the time of year here in coastal southern Norway. On the mountain passes they've been talking in terms of -30°C (-22°F) and warning people to remember to take snow suits and blankets with them if going on car journeys - except around Bergen, where if the evening's TV2 weather forecast is to be believed it's going to be rather warmer (see copy of weather forecasts here). But they're forecasting heavy snow here for the weekend. (Some chilly pictures, left).

7 December - Friday night was celebrated with a family outing to the cinema to watch the newly-released re-make of Reisen til Julestjernen (Journey to the Christmas star) - a bit of Christmas feel-good escapism. We also enjoyed some of the wonderful scenery - all the mountain shots were filmed around �ndalsnes.

The cold and lovely weather is apparently set to continue, so we're enjoying the contrast with the rainy November (weather forecast, right).

11 December Christmas letter - Over the years we've tried to stay in touch with many friends and family by writing an annual letter in early December. Some years we've managed this better than others. Last year, for instance, was not one of our better efforts! But we've been hard at work for the past few days, writing dozens of letters, which hopefully will get sent in the post before too long. In the meantime, here is a selection of Christmas letters covering the past 15 years. If some of them seem to start and end abruptly it's because the names of recipients and any personal comments have been removed!

12 December A snowy day - It's snowed another couple of feet today - and the forecast is for another 2 feet before morning. Another day like this and we'll have an octopus. According to the news on the radio this evening, "a lone low pressure has decided to sit over Rogaland county and empty its full load of snow over us". (Click photo, left). We set off this evening to go to a meeting at Tracy's church, but once we got as far as the ski centre we just turned round and drove home again - even in the big 4x4 we were concerned that it would be difficult to get home later. In the event we were quite right. We heard later that there has been chaos on the roads - it's taking car drivers 4 hours to drive the last 9 miles towards Vikes� from Sandnes and the road is littered with stranded lorries. (Photo, right, from the webcam on the E39 just outside Vikes� - click for enlargement). So we came home and had hot chocolate and snowball fights in the garden. And there's a chance that Katie might get a "snow day" at home instead of school tomorrow.
Stop press - according to this evening's news, the police have sent out snow scooters, which are patrolling the main road to help hundreds of stranded car drivers. Even the police are abandoning police cars and walking home. They are describing the situation as "relatively serious" - and this in a country where no-one's normally worried by a foot or two of snow.

13 December, 6.10am - The bus driver is not sure yet whether today is happening, but Katie's getting her "snow day" at home anyway. The house this morning, left - click for enlargement.

It seems that over 3 feet of snow has fallen in some places during the past few hours - more quickly than on any single occasion in this (not usually so very snowy) part of Norway since records began in 1925 - which is why there's been so much trouble on the roads. (We see from the bottom of the page of this blog from Christmas 2009 that we had an even greater depth then, but it didn't fall quite as fast). We're all used to having lots of snow - but it's supposed to come a bit more gradually. According to the met office, the weather should currently be clear (in fact it's snowing slightly outside at the moment) but will cloud over and snow some more this evening. In addition, there is "full storm" forecast for later on Friday, which will blow the existing snow into deep drifts. Their cheery message is, however: "You think this was bad? Just wait until the weekend". Apparently it's due to get, in their words, "quite interesting", with more heavy falls of snow. Tim's about to try to get out of �rsdalen to pick up Thomas from the railway station at Egersund (his school is closed today and tomorrow) - but we'll see how that goes!
Later - Successfully collected - the lad is now out with his tractor, busy clearing snow! Click photo, right, for picture series from journey. He's cleared half the village, as well as doing a fantastic job on our drive.

Comments:
Jon, December 13th, 2012
So sorry to hear of Katie's problems. Maybe she should consider a move further north - it's quite balmy in the arctic!
Tim, December 14th, 2012
Quite fun, really. Just wait - it's your turn next!
Joanna, December 14th, 2012
Tim reminds me of some of the early winters at the farm, when the back roads drifted over and we were stuck in the house for a few days!! We saw a strange family walking up the fields at the end of one spell- it was the milk tanker driver taking his family to see the stuck in tanker on the very back road! It was never quite as bad as you are getting, only part way to 1947 conditions. Enjoy the enforced rest!!! Have I pray a good Christmas Love to you all.
T&T, December 14th, 2012
We love a bit of drama at a distance. Told the kids to remember it as this may never happen again (I hope). Will try to post some pics tomorrow.

14 December - Only snowing a bit today, but as expected, strong winds have blown some formidable drifts over the road. Tomorrow's forecast is for 25 cm of new snow, together with "wind, increasing to easterly full storm, severe storm in the mountains. Much snow and strong winds will create drifting snow and difficult driving conditions". To anyone we had invited to the picnic and swim in the river tomorrow - it's probably cancelled. Katie did go to school today, but the school bus from �rsdalen had to be escorted by two snow ploughs, so it was half an hour late arriving. Also Tracy made a trip to Vikes� this afternoon in order to get essential supplies for Thomas' tractor and was only able to drive in convoy with tractors - a very dramatic journey. Thomas Andrew came in at 6pm after a whole day's snow clearing - and then only because the road was being closed for the night. In typical �rsdalen style, the team of snow clearers rang round every family in the valley to check that everyone who'd been out had got home again, and only closed the road once the last person had got back. According to this evening's television news, every road in the county is now closed apart from the two main trunk roads. This evening - only a couple of hours after Thomas Andrew had driven his tractor up the drive - we took the dogs for a walk down to the road. The snow was already knee deep on the drive, with drifts as high as Tracy (not that high, then). The wind was blowing the snow high into the air, so that we could barely see where we were going and even the dogs were less than enthusiastic. Good to be back inside now!

We see from this evening's news that even the E39 (the main road through the county) is now closed at Vikes� - the snow clearers gave up at 10pm. There is, according to the newspaper, "zero visibility in the area and both cars and lorries with people in them are snowed in along the road. These people are being rescued by snowscooter by the Red Cross, one car's worth at a time, and driven to �lg�rd."

Just some advance warning - if the weather really is as bad as forecast this evening, then we're likely to loose our internet connection and therefore telephone and email - and probably won't get either back for a few days. But we'll be fine! We've got good stocks of food and firewood! If necessary we may possibly be contactable by mobile phone (see numbers on the main page).

15 December, 7am - We're still here! According to this morning's news, all the passangers on the night train from Oslo to Stavanger have spent the last 7 hours in a snowdrift and will hopefully be rescued as soon as anyone can get to them. (1.15pm - the passangers have now been rescued and were returned to nearby Stavanger at 1pm - 14 hours after they'd left it). And 500 cars, lorries and buses have been stuck all night on the main E39 road past Vikes� - and it's likely to be mid-day today before the road can be cleared sufficiently to start removing vehicles. We have some friends who tried to come to Vikes� from Stavanger on the Oslo Express bus yesterday afternoon. When we went to bed last night, their bus was still stuck at �lg�rd and every now and then, they reported, an ambulance turned up with cold people who were put on board the bus to warm up. They arrived home at 5.40 this morning. A snow-blower had managed to get their bus through - but apparently the snow that it was cutting through was higher than the bus on each side. According to the news the Oslo-Stavanger Express bus (i.e. the same bus but in the other direction) was stuck for 9 hours. Thomas Andrew went out with his tractor at 6-ish this morning to try to open the road through the village, but he took an hour just to get half-way down the drive (his tractor is still there). It doesn't matter about the village road, though - apparently tractors are "strewn" all over it so it will be a while before contact is re-established with the outside world.

9am - The snow that was promised for today has started to fall.

11am - We've just managed to dig the tractor out (click photo, left, for pictures), so Thomas Andrew is now working on opening the lane in the village. While we were working, our kind neighbour turned up with his tractor to lend a hand.

2pm - Snowing thick and fast. The road out of the valley is still closed and it seems unlikely that it will be re-opened today, or indeed in time for church tomorrow. According to the news, the banks of snow on each side of the E39 road out from Vikes� are now over 13 feet (4 metres) high.

While we've been having drama here on the west coast, in Oslo there's been an altogether different kind of drama. Eight fire engines were sent to the royal palace this afternoon when the fire alarm went off. On closer investigation, it was found that the royal kitchen was smoking fish. our fire alarm occasionally goes off when people are too enthusiastic with the toaster, but they never send eight fire engines here.

16 December - Against all expectations, we got out today. The snow clearers have done a fantastic job (Andrew included). The road was opened for Tim (or rather, he was told to lift the "closed" barrier and close it again behind him) so that he made it to church by only 10 minutes after the service should have started. When he arrived he found that they'd waited for him - and the verger had turned on the organ and put a mug and flask of coffee by the organ bench. The road was respectably cleared by afternoon so that Tracy was able to get out to her early-evening service - which was a Christmas carol service (for which Tim played) - and Matt came home with us this evening. So now we're all re-assembled in �rsdalen.

That's enough about snow and weather - but just as a final fling, here's a very short film clip which shows a snow clearer opening one of the roads leading to Vikes� (the Bue road) (click photo, right, to watch film clip).

18 December - We've often mentioned our local mayor, Marthon, who is generally the person you turn to when something needs sorting out (or on whose desk you throw dead foxes). We were all surprised, however, to discover a new talent today. The NRK news for this county is running a "who's today's celebrity singing a Christmas song" competition and today's "celebrity" was none other than our mayor. So here he is (click photo, left, to hear him in action). The song - rather appropriately for us this year - is about a family of mice settling down for Christmas and hoping to avoid the moustrap. The backdrop is from Stavanger city centre.

21 December - Only term that ended. As expected, no apocolypse but the end of term. After the school service in the church, the children went home - except for the �rsdalen children who all went off to a nearby craft centre and ate r�mmegr�t and generally had a fun time before coming home. In the evening, the annual local Christmas concert was held in a full-packed church.

22 December - No coffee before bed. Norway was fairly early in introducing sorting and recycling of rubbish. Twenty years ago it was well established that all milk cartons had to be rinsed, squashed and folded into packs of ten (a "lottery" has been running all these years: if you write your phone number on a bundle of ten milk cartons you might just win a million-kroner prize) and other sorts of rubbish are to be kept separate. Children's television twenty years ago had a regular competition in which a couple of young hopefuls were faced with a stream of rubbish moving rapidly on a conveyor belt and had to place each piece in the correct category of recycling as it went past. And so a generation has grown up in which putting a piece of paper into the general household rubbish would be as unnatural as throwing it on the floor. In fact, there's so little "general" (unrecyclable) rubbish that one black bin bag lasts us six weeks, while every fortnight on bin day we put out our bag of paper, bag of cardboard, bag of plastic, bag of milk cartons and so on. One category is "anything compostable", which includes food waste, tissue paper, used tea bags, coffee filter papers and so on. These are collected in a little plastic bin on the work surface and emptied regularly into a larger holder kept out in the stables. Yesterday evening, after we'd all come back from our respective activities, Fudge the dog just wouldn't settle. He usually enjoys a quiet evening on the rug in front of the fire, or better still cuddling up to someone. But yesterday evening he would get up, walk around and then sit down again, before repeating the process. Then ask to go out, come back in and start the same thing again. Five minutes after we all went to bed he was barking to go out again. And ten minutes after that. And ten minutes after that. We've not had much night. But we don't need to empty the little plastic bin today. Someone seems to have done this for us while we were all out yesterday. A four-footed someone who has eaten several filter papers full of coffee and quite a few tea bags. A dog that overdoses on coffee in the evening is no fun!

Comment:
Joanna, December 22nd, 2012
A dog that over doses on anything is no fun, Sam (labrador) stuffed on dog food one afternoon, the sort that expands when wet!!! He couldn't settle either and didn't eat for 3 days until he retained his old figure!!! Happy Christmas all round

23 December - The days are getting longer (officially, at least, and that's a good start). This evening we're all off to Stavanger Cathedral for the annual carol service. Tim plays the organ, Matt sings in the choir and the rest enjoy the service; but we also use the day to wander round the Christmassy streets in the old city centre and have a dinner out somewhere. I have promised not to talk more about the weather this month, but it has to be mentioned that it's snowing very hard this morning, together with very strong winds (up to full storm again), so assuming we get to Stavanger we might have trouble getting home again! But the forecast for Christmas Day is more snow, so the White Christmas looks fairly safe!
Later - We got to Stavanger fairly easily and had a very memorable drive home through a heavy blizzard and gale, which regularly reduced visibility to nill - a "white-out" (which is difficult when you can't do emergency stops due to the deep snow on the road). Once again, the night train is apparently stuck, with 100 passangers stranded. During the last snow crisis last week, when hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the main E39 through Vikes�, the police rang the owner of the petrol station in Vikes� at 2 in the morning and asked him to get out of bed and open his petrol station. The place rapidly filled up with people trying to keep warm and use the facilities - and by morning every edible item in the shop had been bought and consumed (they have a little cafe/burger bar as well as selling chocolate, biscuits, bread products and so on).

24 December - Happy birthday, Tracy!
As we're still not talking about the weather, we won't mention that another foot of snow has fallen overnight and it's still snowing hard and steady. Thomas Andrew is out with his tractor, clearing snow from the drive and keeping the road through the valley open. Tim's just off to play for three Christmas-Eve services.

25 December - Happy Christmas, everyone! We've enjoyed a lovely family Christmas (pictures, near right) and hope that you've had a good day as well!

27 December - Some post-Christmas activities (click photo, left, for 3 pictures from this evening).

A dyslexic Santa - From Sandnes comes the story of a man who was asked by a neighbour whether he would come to their house (number 68) on Christmas Eve as Father Christmas and hand out gifts to their young daughter. The sack of presents was to be found on their doorstep. At the appropriate time the man put on his red suit and beard and set off. Arriving at house number 86, he found a sack of presents, picked it up and went inside. There he was met by several children (rather than the one girl he was expecting), but he duly handed out the packages with the occasional "ho ho" before returning home. He rang his neighbour to check that everything had gone all right, but was told that they were still expecting him. He was very puzzled, but once he realised the problem there was nothing for it but to dress up again - and this time go to number 68 and do his job. He later found out that the family at number 86 had been surprised but pleased by his visit - and he's been asked back there as well next year.

Click photo,left, for a very short clip of Thomas Andrew's snow-clearing technique, when his brother is around.

28 December - A funeral in �rsdalen. For the third time in nearly four years there's been a funeral here in the valley - an elderly lady, some of whose family still lives here. The family asked Tracy to take the funeral (it's part of the sense of community and belonging here) so we both made the short journey down to the schoolroom where it was held. Yesterday evening there was some speculation because there was no sign that the gravediggers had been at the little churchyard here - and given that the ground is deeply frozen and snow-covered there should at least have been a heat mat there to thaw it out a bit. It's reported that as the funeral car was on its way to �rsdalen today it had to pull over to allow the gravediggers' lorry to hurtle past (the phrase "taking the bends on two wheels" was used) - so we're not sure whether someone had forgotten something! But after the service there was the usual procession the quarter-mile up to the churchyard (photo, above far right - click for enlargement) where the burial took place under gently-falling snow.

A text message arrived on my mobile phone this evening - from the insurance company, warning me of bad weather forecasted for Vikes� for this evening (we have a Vikes� post code so they assume we live there). The temperature is to go up by 10 degrees, causing a mass melting of snow, and there are to be strong winds and 4 inches of rain, making avalanches very likely. Even so - do insurance companies now provide local weather forecasts? This evening's news reports that the main E39 road is yet again closed near Vikes� due to lorries stuck in the heavy snow - and the police describe driving conditions in the region generally as atrocious, with heavy falls of wet snow. What a month!

29 December - In the event, the storm was cancelled, but the increased temperature is causing a lot of snow to melt. Our drive has turned into half a mile of pure ice, made worse because the stream that runs alongside the lower part of it is clogged up with wet snow so the water has broken through and onto the drive itself (photo, right - click for enlargement) - which means that there is a 3-inch-deep river flowing over the ice-covered drive. Makes driving the car (or even the tractor) a challenge! Andrew drove my car down to the neighbouring farm to get a bucket of milk. He returned safely but the car is now parked at the bottom of the hill. But safe inside the house we can just throw another log on the fire and laugh at the weather.

30 December - From the national news today, one of those headlines that makes you stop and wonder for a moment. "Moose falls off balcony in Oslo". No comment.

31 December - Happy New Year!