doings

October-November 2011

1 October - October has begun with sunshine and higher temperatures than we've had all summer (photo of �rsdalen today, left - click for enlargement). Around Norway, the hunting season is in the news, as usual. Last year (7 October) we reported that a town hall in Eastern Norway was closed for the week because everyone had gone hunting. At the time, the mayor was just trying to talk to the policeman, but "he's out in some forest area without mobile coverage. But we know where he is and we can always find him in the forest if we need him. And after all, it's not every day we need the policeman", said the mayor. This year we'll make do with a rather unkind signpost on a public footpath (photo, right - click for enlargement): "Warning. Moose hunting in progress. Shooting and high-speed moose should be expected".

8 October - Last year at this time we wrote about traditions that are starting to get established. One such is that all children are desperate to go to the annual agricultural show in Vikes� and that it pours down on that day. This tradition was yet again generously upheld this year (photo of the agricultural show, below right - click for enlargement).

It was also about a year ago that Thomas Andrew set off into the mountains together with his friend Kjell Arne for a long walk and overnight stay in a cabin - probably the last opportunity to do so before winter set in properly and made the mountains too snowy. When they woke up the following morning it had snowed hard and - given they had not taken skis or other equipment - they had a hard journey back down. They took their corresponding trip yesterday afternoon in order to beat the bad weather. Late yesterday evening a text message arrived from up the mountain - "it's snowing!"

It was reported on the news this morning that two men in their 20s from Sandnes had gone for a walk in exactly the same area yesterday, but unlike Thomas Andrew and Kjell Arne they were neither properly equipped nor entirely familiar with the area. At 1am they rang the police to say that they were lost, and at 3am they were located and brought back down, apparently rather tired and cold.
A neighbour has just popped in who had been on a helecopter ride from the agricultural show and up over the mountains, and reported seeing Andrew and Kjell Arne outside the cabin there.

An autumn activity for Tracy is knitting, especially Christmas presents (if think you're the intended recipient of knitted presents, please don't click photo, left, to see enlargement). She'd been looking out for a knitting machine for a while, and when a friend rang to say she'd seen one in an auction, the deed was done. It's now installed in Tracy's office upstairs, and is working very well.

13 October - There is a reason why there's been so little news so far this month. Tim, who writes nearly all of it, has been rather busy and time has been short. There's all the usual stuff as well as preparing two books for publication, but on top of this there's a commission to write a chapter for a book to be issued by a Norwegian university and revising the text for an entire book for the Bergen Museum. Then there's a concert trip to Germany (where Tim is at present). But in addition to all that, there was a very odd phone call a couple of weeks ago. "Are you interested in a job? No? Well, come and see us anyway". The job involved research and development for the Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound, which holds one of Europe's biggest collections of historical music recordings. Amongst other things the brief was to get more European universities to use the resource, to increase the amount of research based on the collection and to organise lectures and conferences. Tim chose not to apply for a job with them, which is why he's now working there half time for this academic year. And why not a lot has been written on these pages.

Moose envy and super-intelligent sheep. We wrote earlier in the month about the moose-hunting season. An article in today's NRK news (photo, left - click for enlargement) reports with some patriotic pride that moose in the north of Norway are bigger and tougher than moose in the south, at least according to the northerners. A sub-heading further down the article speaks of "Misunnelse i s�r" - "envy down south". But a reader to NRK's news has added a comment, suggesting that the reason is that the northern moose are suffering from depression due to the dark winters and have been "comfort eating". There's something about this story that reminds me of a report in the Welsh newspaper Y Cymro years ago. The background for that report was that the sheep in Snowdonia had learned how to cross cattle grids by - wait for it - walking on their knees and that Arfon Borough Council, in a moment of idiocy, had bought a number of plastic sheep dogs and stationed them next to the cattle grids in the hope of scaring the sheep off. The experiment was not successful. Needless to say, a patriotic newspaper such as Y Cymro couldn't possibly suggest that a borough council in the heart of Welsh Wales was anything other than reasonable, so the focus of their article was "the extreme intelligence and abilities of the Welsh mountain sheep", in contrast, presumably, to their wooly-brained cousins over the border.

As you've realised from over two years of these "doings", things happen in �rsdalen that could happen no-where else. The tunnel into �rsdalen functions as a border - the far side is Norway, and subject to Norwegian law. This side is �rsdalen. Everyone knows that if you drive through the tunnel and into "Norway" your car then requires number plates, insurance, road tax and MOT, and in an ideal world someone with a driver's license at the wheel. There's a saying in �rsdalen that if the police ever did decide to come through the tunnel and hold a roadside control, all they'd need to do is to stand by the roadside holding out a bin for everyone to throw their driving license into as they passed. But a number of people in �rsdalen in years gone by have forgotten themselves sufficiently to fall foul of the law on the "Norway" side of the tunnel - even to the extent of serving a few days "inside" (it's not necessary to be many miles an hour over the speed limit or many drinks over the alcohol limit to achieve this). All of this inspired a local character to come up with a bright idea. There are various times of year, goes the argument, when the sheep are safely up the mountain and there's not a lot else going on. Why not go down to the police station, he suggested, and volunteer to serve a few days then, when it's convenient? That way, if he ever found himself in trouble he could just use up some of his "credit". He suggested a "clip card" system (photo, right). It is said - I don't know how reliably - that he made this suggestion at the police station and that it didn't go down very well. If we're not careful they'll be posting plastic policemen at the tunnel entrance to frighten us away from trying to get out of the valley.

14 October - Mystery in Vikes�. This morning's news reports that Vikes� woke up this morning to find a large pig in a cage positioned outside the entrance door to the Coop. No-one knows who is the owner or what the pig is doing there (and the Coop has denied that it is expecting a bacon delivery). The police are keeping the pig under observation.

21 October - Tim arrived safely back from a good trip to Germany to find lots of weather in �rsdalen. Storms and high winds (in which the tampoline made a brief and unsuccessful bid for freedom (photo, left - click for enlargement)) were followed by snow (photo, right - click for enlargement). We did have snow on the mountains on 8 October but this is the first snow that we can see from the house - and it will presumably be with us now until the spring.

Fishy. Whilst away in Germany, Tim received an email from Thomas Andrew containing a secret "tip-off": "I'm not supposed to tell you, but thought you ought to be prepared ...". The tip-off was that Katie had acquired some goldfish, Thomas Andrew had adopted a puppy and that from the "give things away" website that we've spoken of previously Tracy had got a horse ("being delivered tomorrow"). There are quite often horses on that website, and we do have stables here that are empty apart from hedgehogs. Tim replied that it will be like coming home to Noah's Ark. The goldfish are swimming happily in Katie's room, their splashings keeping her awake at night (photo, left - click for enlargement). On his return, Tim was led off to the stables ("come and look at this") to find ... some improved hedgehog accommodation. Turns out that the email was a plot: the rest of the family was sitting there composing the "secret tip-off" and waiting to see what sort of response would arrive! So no horse or puppy after all. But the fish are real.

Earlier in the month (8 October again) we reported that a couple of walkers from Sandnes had got lost in the mountains at the top of the valley. Thomas Andrew contributes the following story. He told it me in Norwegian, in which it works rather better, but we'll do our best ...

A walker had come several hours up into the mountains when he realised that he was lost and it was going dark. Just as he was getting worried he saw candlelight in a window and realised that he'd arrived at a remote cabin. The cabin was only occupied by a man and his dog and the walker was invited inside, told he could stay the night and presented with some supper. The walker was very grateful for the food, but quietly concerned that the plate obviously wasn't very well washed, because it still bore the remains of some previous meal.
"Has this plate been washed?", he asked. "Oh yes, as well as cold water can do it", replied the owner.
The following morning, breakfast arrived on the same plate, which now showed traces of supper as well as previous meals.
"Has this plate been washed?", he asked. "Oh yes, as well as cold water can do it", replied the owner.
Once it was properly light, the walker was given directions to find his way home. He thanked the man for letting him stay, while the dog scratched at the door to get out. "It's a pleasure - no problem at all", said the cabin owner. "Just let Coldwater out of the door when you leave - he seems to want to go out".

Speaking of staying out overnight, a new bible translation has been published in Norway this week, the first new translation since 1978. When it was officially released at midnight, there were queues of youths camping out on the pavements to get their copies (photo, right). We've said it before: Norway is not quite the same as other places.

Stowaway. The crew of a Norwegian boat watch in some surprise as an univited guest seems to be trying to hide away on board (click photo, left, to watch very short film).
See better photo of the stowaway (below right - click for a bigger bear).

22 October - The hungry goat. Sounds like the title of a children's reading book, but actually it's an ever-present danger in �rsdalen. This time it's our new post-box stand that proved just too tasty a snack for a passing goat, which has had a good nibble around the edges, finished off with a piece of roof (click photo, right, for enlargement).

23 October - Harvest Festival. Today was the annual harvest festival service in �rsdalen, with Tracy as the vicar. Like last year, instead of having an indoor service with tins of peas we visited each farm in the valley in turn and had a little presentation of what each has done this year, followed by a prayer and blessing. Click photo, left, for a picture sequence).

The last stop was here, where our production on display included (lots of) wood, cheese, apple juice, jams and so on, in addition to more unusual items such as books and music (written here this year) and soap made by Tracy. The soaps are quite fun - click photo, right, for a larger picture.

Collecting. It's also the annual national charity collection today, in which hundreds of millions are raised each year for a good cause (this year it's for clearing mines). Here (photo, left - click for enlargement) are Tracy and Katie with collecting box.
The collecting was very successful - amongst other things, Katie managed to raise a hundred pounds or so from tourists at Stavtj�rn. Across Norway as a whole the average donation was about �5 per person (i.e. per individual from newborn to pensioner).

28 October - The Lonely Planet guide has been rating the "world's best viewpoint". The Victoria Falls and the Grand Canyon were contenders, but the overall winner was our local "Pulpit Rock" ("Preikestolen") (photo, right - click for enlargement). Although it's just "round the corner" (less than 20 miles from Tracy's church, as the seagull flies) we've not actually been there yet. Must make the effort, if it's really so good!

1 November - Last November was the coldest for the best part of a century; this November looks set fair to be the warmest. We're enjoying temperatures of about 20 degrees - and long may it last!

5 November - Tim played at a concert this evening in Egersund, together with a local orchestra. Slight panic because it was impossible to see the conductor from the organ, but a bit of improvisation with an old bathroom mirror from the attic saved the day (photo, left - click for picture of the concert).

Someone else who had a slight panic this evening was a teenager, out "on the town" with a friend. They discovered that the police car parked by the harbour was unlocked and one of them climbed into the arrest cage to see what it was like. His "friend" closed the door and left. After quarter of an hour or so the prisoner (having tried to escape, naturally without success) rang the police on his mobile and asked to be let out. He reports that when he described his situation over the phone there were gales of laughter from the police station.

6 November - Katie and Tim took advantage of the weather (still very warm and pleasant) for a little walk on the mountains above �rsdalen (photo, right - click for enlargement).

7 November - Spectacular sunset this evening (click photo, left, for two pictures taken from the house this evening).

Valiently resisting all temptation to make quips about the sun outside and the son inside, here (click photo, right) are current pictures of Thomas Andrew and Katie.

8 November - Christmas play. A play is to be performed in Stavanger in the lead up to Christmas, to which all the schools in the area are invited and which will be well attended. It's a re-telling of the Christmas story, with current topical references. Although it's a long way from here, Katie ended up with a role in the play and went to her first rehearsal last week. Second rehearsal was tonight. The person who was to play the lead role in the play (that of a girl called Emilie) has dropped out and the part has been offered to Katie. Although she didn't want the part, she has accepted it, so there's suddenly a lot of lines to learn! Not a lot of moves to learn, however, as Emilie/Katie is lying in bed throughout the play.

9 November - The warmest weather station in Norway last night was Sirdal, 15 miles from here, with 15 degrees at midnight. It was roughly the same here. Very strange to have such temperatures in November - last year at this time there was snow on the ground.

14 November - It's only 5 weeks off the shortest day. We're now enjoying those clear nights with millions of stars against a perfectly black sky. We've tried again and again to photograph it, but it just doesn't work. It's not just that the starts don't show on the photograph, but perhaps you have to experience the stillness and magic of it all - and those things don't show on a photograph either. But here (left - click for enlargement) is the house in the moonlight.

Making lolly. In both senses of the term. Katie and Tracy made some lollies one day. They were good and Katie put one together with a present that she took to a birthday party. Everyone wanted one and Katie started taking orders (charging �1 each). Business expanded from there and she's had an overflowing order book for a couple of weeks, requiring substantial production.

16 November - Withdrawal symptoms now the "Hurtigruten" programme is finished and you've watched all those episodes you downloaded? Here (click photo from our old home in Lur�y, left) is a series of ten television programmes exploring the whole coast of Norway from north to south.

Tracy has set up a church blog (in English) at Sandnes and is keeping that updated with her daily activities there. There's also a link to it from the main "addresses" page here.

Adopt a cod? Now that you've had a 10-episode dose of the Norwegian coast (see above) you've got a chance to adopt your own cod (see poster, right). Only 100 kroner (�11). See the website here, but it's all in Norwegian. It's an organisation called "People's action for an oil-free Lofoten and Vester�len" which is opposed to inshore exploration. Apparently, if you adopt a cod you get a series of updates on its progress from hatching onwards (presumably until it arrives in a little cardboard box with "Findus" on the side). Unfortunately, as they can't identify individual fish it has to be a general description and you can't follow the fortunes of your very own cod. To see some genuine and realistic Norwegian fishermen, who are evidently excited about the arrival of this year's cod, click the picture, right.

As the dark period sets in (many places in the north of Norway have now lost the sun until early February) it's time for the northern lights. We don't really see them so far south, especially because there's a big mountain right behind us in the direction they would be seen, but this (film clip, left - click to play) is what we used to see when we lived in Lur�y.

20 November - "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace" (Romans 10:15). On 23 October we showed this photo of Tracy modelling the latest fashion in clerical dress. Fashion changes quickly, and in the blessing at the end of this morning's service she demonstrated another new style (photo, right - click for enlargement). A small child who'd been sitting at the front with her had taken off her shoes and (accidentally) placed them so that the velcro fastening stuck to Tracy when she got up to do the blessing. "I thought I could feel something wrong", she said, "but didn't know what it was".

It was a very successful weekend, with the church packed out for four meetings (Friday, Saturday and two on Sunday) - see her church blog for more details.

21 November. Congratulations to the 17-year-old, here (photo, left - click for more) shown unpacking a birthday present using a pair of salad servers.

24 November - As Advent approaches we get all sorts of pleasant invitations. Today Tim received an email containing an invitation to an "open house" ... with "demonstration" ... at the local undertaker's. A demo?? They're lovely people but we might be busy that day.

What are the mysterious lights in the forest? Extra-terrestials? Click photo, right, for answer.

"Berit" is the name of our neighbour and of a friend at Tracy's church - the latter being the namesake for Katie's black lamb (which led to the lady becoming known as "the black sheep of the Norkirken flock"). It's also the name of a less-welcome visitor at the moment - a hurricane that has been affecting the coast of Norway for the past 24 hours. Berit has blown busses into ditches, led to the cancellation of nearly all ferry services, swept buildings away into the sea and the 100-foot waves have even made the Hurtigruten ships take shelter in dock - something that's almost unheard of. The island of V�r�y (where we have friends) is completely isolated because both its ferry port and its airport have been wrecked by the storm (click photo, left, to see V�r�y airport this morning - some flights may be delayed). We've got a layer of snow this morning, but we were sheltered by the mountains so were more or less unaffected.

27 November - We did get a visit from Berit after all. Very strong winds even here, behind our mountain, and huge amounts of rain (snow on the mountains) - enough for the river to claim a few extra fields. And this evening, helecopters were out searching in vain for the director and a member of a film team from a top-budget film which is being made near Egersund about a Norwegian village at the time of the Black Death. The two men, both in their 20s, went down to the seashore to film the 70-foot waves for a scene in the film, but were caught by a wave and swept away. The search has been called off. (It was resumed the following day without success).

There are a few programmes on Norwegian television that have achieved national popularity. One is the weekly magazine programme "Norge Rundt", which makes short reports from interesting local trivia from around the country. Another is called "Der ingen skulle tro at nokon kunne bu" - "Where no-one could believe that anyone could live". This programme, which by the way is presented by someone from M�ndalen where we lived through the 1990s, visits remote and unlikely homes throughout Norway. Each home gets a full hour's documentary, showing the way of life of its inhabitants. Nearly all of them are miles from the nearest road and the people who live there have evolved all kinds of interesting solutions for coping with life. Tonight's programme features a family in a wildly-remote farm in the next district to us - but includes a section showing their old home which was abandoned because the ferry boat that was its only means of access was stopped. This farm was one of our "neighbours", about half-way along the �rsdalen lake. The ferry that was stopped was the boat that was replaced by our wonderful tunnel. I'm having some trouble building the programme into this website, but for the moment you can see it - with good views of �rsdalen lake (such as the photo, left) - by clicking here - the relevant section of the programme is the five minutes from 07.55 to 12.55 (move the little slider straight under the picture to just under two-fifths of the way along and check the number on the right-hand side when the clip starts playing). The old man on the film died a few months ago; Tim was organist in the funeral.

28 November - Someone's just noticed another casualty of Berit. Rather an ironic one, really - a windmill which seems to have blown away and disappeared without trace. If you see something large and white flying past the window it's not a goat this time (see story 1 January this year). It's a curious fact, but the worst government minister for church affairs (the state church gets its own government minister in Norway) in living memory was a man called Trond Giske, who appeared single-handedly to be doing everything he could to disadvantage the church. He was recently replaced by someone far better and moved to be minister for trade and industry. One of his very first acts in that capacity was to open a new and high-tech windmill - the one that's now gone. His skills don't seem to be improving.

Beth reports from Skodje (M�re and Romsdal county was quite hard hit by Berit) that her house was being badly shaken in the storm and she drove into �lesund where it was a bit more sheltered. But all ended fine.

30 November - The sociable season is beginning. Katie had a class pool-and-pizza party last night and is off on Friday for a weekend's residential Advent camp (making things and having fun - she's been the last two years and enjoyed it very much). Tim and Tracy celebrated surviving a busy few weeks by visiting our favourite restaurant - the fantastic Indian restaurant that opened this year in Sandnes.

Having seen the forecast for the weekend Tim changed the tyres on the car today to spiked snow tyres - probably the latest date we've ever changed them over. And that's it for a warm, wet and windy November - the very opposite of last year's dry, sunny and bitterly-cold month.