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1 October - Fridge rushed to burns unit?
We're mildly puzzled by a news story on the NRK website this morning (picture, left).
The headline reads "Fridge caught fire - sent to hospital" but the story doesn't give us information on how the fridge is feeling or whether it is expected to recover.
We can only hope for the best.
A few days ago (27 September) we described Nordagutu, a village in Telemark that consists of a railway station and not much besides.
There are, of course, a lot of similar villages (but most of them without the benefit of a railway station).
At one such, some 50 miles inland from here, in the direction of Nordagutu, a man ambled into the police station today.
"Look at this grenade that I've just found in my garden".
Most of the village is now cordonned off until the bomb squad arrives from Oslo.
In a statement this evening, the police have said:
"When you find that sort of thing, don't just stick it in the car and pop along to the nearest police station.
We're not really equipped to deal with them".
8 October - At Lyndsey's wedding in Scotland.
Also enjoyed a family day out with Pat and Bob, exploring some of the coastal villages around St Andrews (click photo, above right, for short picture sequence).
9 October - Safely home ...
and there's snow in Ørsdalen (photo, above left - click for enlargement).
Beth points out that those who experienced and remember our old home in Måndalen may enjoy the latest advert for the Norwegian airline Widerøe,
which is filmed just behind the church in Måndalen.
It's a good advert, too. Click photo, right, to watch.
11 October -
From past stories taken from the front page of our regional newspaper,
you will be familiar with Egersund as a lawless place in which teenagers kick lamp posts and people throw kebabs at tractors.
The top headline in today's paper (left) is that someone in Egersund has been fined for calling their neighbour a fat goose.
It's good to live in Ørsdalen, out of the way of such wicked tongues.
Katie has been shooting this evening (photo, far right - click for enlargement)
but has now laid down arms to take the night train to Oslo and a day at the Oslo horse show (photo, near right - click for two larger pictures).
13 October -
Ørsdalen's annual flea market - one of the highlights of the social calendar (click photo, left, for 3 pictures).
17 October -
The shadows are lengthening as we get through Autumn - but then again, it's less than 10 weeks until Christmas! (click photo, left, for enlargement).
19 October - Four young deer were waiting for us in the garden when we came home today (photo, right - click for enlargement). We've only seen three at a time before, so we're not sure that they all belong to the same family. They watched us arrive in the car and ambled off to the edge of the forest, barely concerned at the interruption.
21 October - Tracy and Tim spent the whole day at Sandnes (services at Tracy's church morning and evening, with lunch together with a member of the congregation in between),
while Katie was at a youth event.
Thomas Andrew had to get to a farm just outside Ørsdalen so he walked over the mountains with the dogs.
The dogs were so exhausted when they arrived that he drove them home in a tractor with cattle trailer.
We need to slow the lad down.
25 October - click photo, far left, for a short blast of today's weather here.
click photo, near left, to see Thomas Andrew's response to it.
This evening, Katie was setting up her stall at the annual exhibition of 4H projects
(4H is a "young farmers"-kind of organisation in which its members have various activities including one individual project each year).
This year Katie has being doing "cow and calf", including milking, butter making and other things - and her exhibition reflected this
(click photo, right, for enlargement).
26 October - early morning.
Andrew has been out with the new tractor since 4am, snow clearing in the village and keeping the road open.
It's snowed heavily: there's six inches or so on the ground and it's showing no sign of stopping.
Click photo, left, for some snowy pictures this morning. The tractor that's outside the house is a spare one -
Andrew's still out with the big one.
27 October - driving to Vikeså today, the road was particularly beautiful, the sunshine glittering on the snowy trees
(click photo, right, for 3 pictures).
28 October. All around Europe, the news this year has been dominated by words such as "crisis", "alarm" and "fear".
Norway, of course, is no exception. The same words are to be found in our news as well.
Just to take a sentence out of this morning's NRK (national) news we find the following attempt at reassurance:
"Hansen mener forbrukerne går en god jul i vente og synes snakk om smørkrise skaper unødvendig frykt"
(Hansen is of the opinion that consumers face a good Christmas and that talk of a butter crisis creates unnecessary fear).
The article goes on to say that Norway is importing some Irish butter - but warns that its consistency is a little different from
its Norwegian counterpart, so those all-important Christmas biscuits should be baked at a slightly lower temperature if using the imported variety.
So perhaps Norway will survive after all.
29 October - Tracy's home-made fishcakes for tea (click photo, left, for a bigger portion),
while we watch CNN news, hoping to catch their interview with Pat (congratulations, Pat, on your US television debut).
We've written before (see 3 April) that whenever Tracy decides to visit somewhere
it seems to be hit by a natural disaster.
But even she's been outdone by Pat, Bob and the girls, who have chosen to spend this weekend in New York.
As a collaborative project, many Norwegian schools simultaneously performed a dance one day this week.
Katie's school joined in and here (click photo, right) you can see a film from the event.
Out in the school playground, in the snow.
31 October -
A concert in church yesterday evening featured a musician from North Norway (Tim enjoyed hearing his accent and chatting about familiar places and people)
who played a variety of traditional Norwegian instruments such as the goat horn and the lur - the long horn shown on the photo (left - click for enlargement).
If you recall the story about the Scottish "invasion" of Norway, described on 4 September, a girl called Guri
warned the locals of the approaching Scots by blowing on what I described as a horn. This was, in fact, a lur, so it was particularly interesting to hear one in action.
Matt is home on a visit in Ørsdalen this evening - but back to Bru tomorrow.
