1 March - Matt is busy in Nordland. One of his tasks there is to organise youth camps, which are held in the village of Nesna. We know Nesna well - it was our nearest village when we lived in Lurøy; in fact, it was the point on the mainland from where we took the ferry to our island - so it's rather fun to think of Matt there after all these years. In order to prepare people for coming on camp with Matt (if being prepared for such a thing is possible at all), he has made a series of short films. These are well worth watching, even if you're not intending to take part in one of his camps (click photo, left, to view).

Comments Norah - March 14th, 2014 I watched the film from Nesna with great interest, remembering getting on the boat there. Is Matt considering an acting/film career?! Sorry I could not appreciate the dialogue. Tim He's been acting up all his life ...

We've spoken often about all the interesting things that you can get from the local "items given away" website. One of the more bizarre ones was on offer today (perhaps one month early?) If you want one, you can see it here.

Finally, life would be so much easier at this end of the lake if we had one of these cars (right - click for enlargement). Any idea where you get them from? (The photo is entirely genuine and unmanipulated, by the way. The explanation is that this is one of the many lakes that freezes over so thickly each winter that you can drive across it; this very unusual winter it's rained so much that there's a layer of water hiding the ice, so some joker has parked there, seemingly in mid-lake).

Comments joanna - March 2nd, 2014 Great set of films from Matt's end of Norway, even without the requisite Norwegian I got most of what was going on!! Well done all of you; Tim re the water car, only in your dreams I think!!

Many countries have had an unusal or extreme winter this year. In Norway's case it's been the warmest winter since records began some 160 years ago. In Svalbard, for instance, average temperature has been 16°C (29°F) warmer than usual. In most of the south it's been far wetter than usual (again, the wettest December/January on record), which means that we've had almost no snow, while higher and more inland areas have got tens of feet of it, while parts of mid- and North Norway have had "a record that will never be broken" - literally 0 precipitation, which caused all those fires in January.

4 March - "School camp was fine, but they gave us shop bread", complained Katie after her week away last year. Over the past five years we've only bought three or four loaves of bread in total (made the rest). One of these was this last week, and the last slice or two went out onto the bird table, together with a crust of "real", home-made bread. Twenty-four hours later I went out to fill up the bird table with seeds and collect in the remaining crumbs, and just look what I find. The birds are as fussy as the humans around this house.

8 March - It's spring! The fields are green (click photo, left, for evidence) and in the absence of a water car like the one a few days ago, Katie and Tim took the rowing boat out on the lake (click photo, near right, for evidence).

12 March - a day at school - On a normal morning, Katie has to be up well before 6 in order to walk down to the lane before an hour's bus ride to a school that starts at 8am. This morning we all got a lie-in, because the school came to Ørsdalen instead. Or at least, to the ski centre by the Ørsdalen tunnel. "There's a mountain - go and have fun" was the instruction for the day. So they did, in glorious sunshine. Click photo, far right, for pictures.

Then this evening we actually ate dinner outside on the balcony for the first time this year, enjoying the warm sunshine, complete with ice cream!

Comments joanna - March 12th, 2014 Hi can't see health and safety allowing something like that in this stupid rule-bound country!!! It looks great Tim - March 12th, 2014 Yes, they had a fantastic time. It's an annual event, but as you say it wouldn't pass UK school health-and-safety rules!

Speaking of bird tables (as we were on 4 March above), NRK television has set up a bird table with live webcam. Norwegian birds expect coffee, of course. If you want to look at it, it is here (click the large picture above right to watch the live webcam).

13 March - Although we were glad not to have to get up before 6 yesterday morning, it's a lot easier at this time of year, when it's light: even if the early-morning mist does lie heavily over the fields until the sun gets higher in the sky!

Oh deer, here we go again with animal stories. Drivers heading up the main road from Bergen, on the west coast of Norway, inland towards Oslo, face a sign saying that the road is closed for an unlimited period - "due to reindeer on the road". The road has been closed for over a day so far and there are no signs of it being re-opened any time soon. The two thousand deer (you can see the long line of them on the photo - click picture, left, for enlargements) are apparently in no hurry to cross over to the other side. It has not been possible to establish contact with negotiators for the reindeer, but it is thought that they might be having a sit-in protest about Christmas overtime rates.

Comments joanna - March 13th, 2014 they are more of a problem than our Toads crossings!!!

14 March - Strong winds in the north (where Matt is) have caused a few incidents today. In one, a van was pulling a trailer over a bridge at Narvik (photo here) when the wind ever-so-gently picked the trailer up and deposited it at 45° against the railings. Television station NRK happened to be right behind and filmed it happening (click the photo at the top of this page to watch). The reason that no-one was in a hurry to drive past the scene, and why the bridge is still closed, and why the fire brigade sat and looked at it for quarter of an hour before even going to suggest that the van driver might like to get out, is that the trailer is full of explosives. This seems to happen quite a lot - we've reported similar things a few times over the past couple of years - so I can't help wondering just how many vehicles we pass are highly explosive, and why quite so many things need blowing up?

Some Norwegian group had a worldwide success recently with a song entitled "what does the fox say?" Some of our neighbours, including our friend Nils Olav, have replied with a music video called "what does the farmer say?" - directed at the government and promoting more farm-friendly policies. It opens with an arial view towards Vikeså, before showing the farmers in their daily activities (including Nils Olav chasing a runaway cheese). You can watch it here.
It's just been played on the national news, along with a report showing some 4-year-olds visiting the King, who they greeted with a cheerful "Hi" before tucking into blackcurrent squash and buns.

Comments Pat - March 19th, 2014 Nils Olav is one of the king penguins at Edinburgh zoo. Adopted by a Norwegian regiment he is now knighted, Sir Nils Olav! Tim - March 19th, 2014 I'd noticed he kept popping off for a few days in his dinner jacket. Will have to remember to call him by his title in future.

This customs officer (left) looks pleased with himself. As he should be. He has just confiscated and destroyed 4404 fake vegetable cutters at Kristiansand docks. According to the report (click picture to see it),

"Customs officers are constantly stopping fake goods and products. Many of the copies smuggled in can be lethal. A year ago, the Customs Office at Grenland confiscated a large consignment of fake Justin Bieber products in Larvik. 1200 framed pictures of Justin Bieber, 1200 Justin Bieber wallets, 300 belts with pictures of Justin Bieber and a number of other fake products".

24 March - The sun is shining, and according to the weather forecast we're just going to have to get used to it, for the next 10 days or so at least. The daily dog-walking route was looking its best (today's version of two very familiar Ørsdalen scenes here) and logs are spread out on the gravel to dry for next winter. To celebrate, I've put a representative selection of 15 scenery photos here. Nearly all of them were taken in Ørsdalen during the past year (a couple are from Vikeså or from the year before).

25 March - Thomas Andrew, who is always on hand with worthwhile news stories from the Norwegian press, has come with two and a half contributions today. The first story concerns a young man who was stopped in Stavanger city centre for carrying a machete with a 16-inch blade. As we've pointed out before, in most places there's no problem with knives - children are often told to bring a good, sharp hunting knife to school if they're having an outing to the forest or similar - but a large machete in a city centre is going too far. When stopped by the police the man apparently said something along the lines of "well blow me down, guv, I hadn't noticed that I had a machete in my trouser pocket". They didn't believe him, and confiscated it.

The second story is in two parts (so it counts as one-and-a-half). Both parts of the story show that, however tolerant and easy-going they may be about minor matters, you can't mess with the Norwegian people when it comes to important issues. Both parts concern coffee and the Norwegian oil company Statoil. Statoil announced recently that after lower than expected profits in 2013 it needed to save a few billion on running costs and therefore proposed to cut out free coffee for certain staff. This monstrous suggestion naturally had union officials leaping in a cafiene-induced frenzy and has now been withdrawn. Statoil executives are going to spend their next coffee break discussing how else they can cut the operating budget by the required billions. In the meantime they've put their foot in the coffee in another respect as well. Look inside any Norwegian car or van and you'll find, strategically placed in the cup holder, a thermal mug bearing the name and logo of some oil company. It's the favourite customer-loyalty scheme: at the start of each year you get a new cup (which costs a few pounds), which you can then fill with coffee as often as you want, free of charge, for the remainder of the year, at any petrol station in that chain. Norwegian drivers are extremely skilled at driving while brandishing a cup of coffee in one hand - something that is not illegal in this country. This year, Statoil have introduced a new design of thermal plastic cup, with a screw lid that you're supposed to be able to half-way unscrew and somehow push with your mouth in order to drink from it. This keeps the coffee warm longer and prevents spillage when you do that sudden swerve to avoid the moose in the road. The change has not been well received in Norway. Tens of thousands of people have subscribed to a Facebook page "down with the new Statoil cup" and there has been such a general uprising in the country, such a mobilising of public opinion, that once again the executives of Statoil have been forced to back down and are now planning a new, re-designed cup for next year. When it comes down to the key issues in life, the Norwegian people expect certain standards.

26 March - Happy Birthday, Bob! Tim's big brother has a big birthday today and is wished every joy from us all!

For someone who has had a less successful day today, see photo, right (click for enlargement). The fire brigade was called out to get a cat boy down from the top of a very large tree near Trondheim. "Under the circumstances, he was surprisingly laid back about it", said the fireman after rather a tricky operation with a lot of heavy equipment.

Comments Jon - March 27th, 2014 Is that a trampoline under the tree? If so, surely there is some Norwegian regulation about the safe minimum height between the canvas and overhead branches to prevent exactly this kind of tragic accident with children bouncing and get stuck in trees. Or is the boy in training for the Olympics? Or maybe he was just trying to escape rampaging hoards of Justin Beiber fans.

28 March - Happy 25th Birthday, Beth!

Fire - It's that time of year when all the hillsides are on fire - not accidentally or out of control, but in order to burn off the moss and stubble to encourage new growth. We too have been joining in (click photo, above left, for enlargement).

Katie reports that as the school bus was leaving from the bottom of the drive this morning, several deer were crossing the field, and she spotted more on the way home. Tracy, on her way home from Sandnes in the car, saw yet more deer, white (Arctic) hares and a badger, while on Katie and Tim's way home from swimming training, we had to brake hard and do a quick swerve to avoid a family of deer that was crossing the road near the ski centre. Lots of wildlife around.

29 March - What's that owl doing here? It's going to snow next week. I hasten to add that it's not the weather forecast that says so (far from it); the only reason it's going to snow is that I spent this afternoon changing all the wheels on two cars, from the winter's studded "pigdekk" to summer tyres - three weeks or so before the law requires me to do so! It's always such a pleasure to get rid of the clattering studded tyres and once more drive normally - but it inevitably snows immediately afterwards. The owl that is supervising the work is called Eulalia. Katie and I (Tim) spend eight hours a week in the car between home and the 4-times-a-week swimming training in Egersund. Katie is learning German at school and has been appointed official interpreter for future concert trips there, so we've been spending some of the journeys listening to the excellent German audio course provided by Deutsche Welle, of which Eulalia the owl is our favourite character. She is "klug und weise" (wise and ... wise) so she comes up with apposite proverbs and words of wisdom when required, but admits that "ich weiß nicht alles" (I don't know everything) and therefore asks suitably grammatically-interesting questions. So it was that one of the first sentences we learned to say in German was "was macht die Eule hier?" - "what's that owl doing here?". So, Pat and Bob, or Joanna, if you need a translator for any nocturnal bird-watching expeditions to Germany, you have two volunteers here with all the requisite vocabulary.

Andrew hard at work felling trees; the heap of logs outside is growing steadily. Lots of work to do over the coming days! The weather forecast is ideal for it (except that it's going to snow because of changing the tyres), so it will be enjoyable!

Comments Jon - March 30th, 2014 Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now you've changed your tires it's finally snowed enough to go skiing! Tim - March 30th, 2014 Delighted to be of help. Enjoy your skiing! Tim