3 March -
One of a number of current knitting projects, Tracy has just completed this lovely Celtic cable neckwarmer (photo, left)
which those who understand such things will immediately see is quite involved!
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Taking a slightly different approach to life and still looking for a replacement for swimming, Katie was out in the snow last night playing rugby (if you fail to catch the ball you have to dig for it).
7 March - spring in the air -
Went for a walk in Ørsdalen today — without a coat!
Although there's still some snow on the ground, of course, the sun is now warm enough to make it feel as though spring is on the way
(click photo, above right, for pictures).
8 March -
Annual members' party at Tracy's church (click picture, left, for photo series).
Speeches (which Tim missed because he was doing a lecture elsewhere) and an excellent Thai meal (which Tim made sure he arrived in time for).
It's a long time since we had a caption competition:
any suggestions for this photo (also taken during the same event)?
(Click photo, right, for larger copy and caption suggestions received).
We seem — without any special intent — to have been running a series for a while on interesting styles of driving and parking in Bergen.
Here (click photo, left) is today's contribution.
11 March - Tracy is busy mixing something; but what? Photo here. If you can work out what it is, she'll send some in the post to you.
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17 March - Enjoying some of those idyllic days of clear-blue sky, hot sunshine and the snow melting fast causing the babbling of brooks and constant thundering of rockfalls off the mountains all around us. A heavily suncreamed Katie has headed off up the mountains here together with her school class for a 2-day long-distance skiing-and-camping trip (6-hour ski journey into the mountains with backpack, overnight then the same coming back).
Click photo, right, to see pictures from the trip.
We've written before about the joys and perils of travelling in Norway. As a good example of this, we can cite a lady who is presently on board the coastal steamer Hurtigruta a little further north (where the weather is not as perfect as it is here today). She set off from Tromsø towards Honningsvåg (i.e. North Cape — a simple overnight boat journey that I've done often) on Monday. The following morning they got as far as Havøysund, but bad weather prevented them from docking so they had to turn round and go back to Hammerfest. From Hammerfest they were offered a taxi to Havøysund, but due to bad weather and an accident neither taxi nor bus could get through. So the lady and other passengers got back on the Hurtigruta ship and went to Alta, where they spent Tuesday night on board. On Wednesday she tried to take a bus from Alta to Honningsvåg, but the roads were all closed due to bad weather. So it was back to the Hurtigruta ship, which is now heading back towards Hammerfest again — through "heavy seas", which are proving unpopular with the tourists who are on board. According to the weather forecast things are still not looking up for the lady because 29 roads are currently closed due to bad weather, including all those that could get her back home — and neither the highways authority not the met office cannot guarantee when things might improve. "I just hope I get home for Easter", she is now saying.
Some of these place names — Tromsø, Alta, Hammerfest — will be familiar to those readers who have travelled with us "up north", so I'll add another pair of familiar names. A baby was born this morning on a plane between Vadsø and Kirkenes (18 miles apart in a straight line, though much further by road). The roads were closed and the plane couldn't get down in Kirkenes so it just circled over the sea. All is apparently well, and the family assure us that the baby will not be called "Storm".
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18 March -
Katie safely home off the mountains.
The snow was a bit icy for comfort (due to the hot sunshine during the day),
which made the journey back down the mountain faster than it should have been —
but all well!
Passover meal at Tracy's church. Tracy points out that whenever there are photos of anything going on at church, people are always eating. So here (above left) are more mealtime pictures.
21 March -
Katie is on a plane on her way to see Uncle Bob (perhaps there'll be some more stories in due course) and Auntie Pat, so it's now the Old Ones At Home in Ørsdalen.
Here is today's photo of the lake; and no — we're not playing on the "oldies" theme by giving you a black-and-white photo:
this was taken in colour!
23 March - Enjoying a warm spring day -
Not quite as alone as we thought: an old friend peeped out at us this afternoon.
We strongly suspect that he helps with mouse control around the buildings, so he is most welcome.
(Click photo, left, for enlargement).
After an outing to Egersund we decided to celebrate the sunshine by carrying out our annual burning of the accumulated undergrowth on one of the bankings in the garden. We chose the day because the weather was good (so there was no hardship in standing outside to keep an eye on things), thanks to newly-melted snow the ground wasn't too dry and there was no wind (so no danger of the fire spreading). Despite all prognoses (and some buckets of water) the grass was dryer than expected, which meant that we did an unscheduled burning of one of the fields as well (Click photo, right, for pictures). But all went well. We rang our nearest neighbour, partly to reassure him if he saw the smoke and partly for moral support (or, as we said, "someone to share the blame with if it goes wrong") so he came round and watched it with us (I kept catching him encouraging it by adding more dry grass). As he said, it's the right time of year.
24 March - Last night I did a final round of the adjoining fields and forest to check that the fire really was out. And it was — apart from one mound in the forest that was still smoking gently. It looked like an old ant hill or something. I tipped a dozen buckets of water on it and poked it with a stick just to make sure it was thoroughly out, then went to bed. It has snowed overnight so the fields are white (and thoroughly wet). But the mound in the forest is still smoking like a little volcano (photo here) and the whole valley smells like a toaster gone amok. Interesting times. Curiously, the forest is largely snow-free, while the fields further down — and the mountain opposite — are white. Lovely when the silver birches turn red; it means the first leaves will come in a couple of weeks.
25 March - The snow has turned to rain, which has fallen steadily all night. But the little volcano resulting from our bout of pyromania the day before yesterday is still smoking merrily. Wonder if we've struck oil?
This morning's news in Norway seems to have a traffic-related theme.
- Bjerkreim made it to the national news because a one-hour police speed check on the main road resulted in 20 people (according to the headline; or 7 people according to the text of the article) losing their licenses and many more getting large speeding fines.
- In Stavanger a customer who refused to pay a taxi fare was driven by the taxi driver to the police station — on the roof of the taxi, at high speed. The police were more interested in the taxi driver, who lost his license, than in the non-paying customer.
- Near our old home at Lurøy, an ambulance on its way to Bodø hospital with a patient had the misfortune to collide with not one but two moose (I never quite know the plural of moose in English; mooses? moice?). Happily, the patient was no worse afterwards than before.
26 March - Happy Birthday, Bob!
A line from one of this evening's NRK news stories:
"The police believe that the man who cut the hair off the hairdresser was a dissatisfied customer".
But it's Oslo, so that explains a lot.
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27 March - HAPPY EASTER!
A little Easter-Day rugby in the garden (photo, right - click for composite picture).
28 March - Happy Birthday, Beth!
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