1 April - Apologies to Katie for this morning ... The rest of her day wasn't much better, either. Today's English test specified what Katie regarded as the most pathetic story title ever: "write about a magic guitar". A magic guitar!? However much she turned it over in her mind she couldn't think of anything to write on that topic that wouldn't be, as she said, "utterly cheesy". So, when in despair, you write about a dog. Story here.

Comments joanna - April 1st, 2014 Katie where do you get your ideas? Another brilliant take on a boring english topic! Only one comment isn't it a Golden Retriever ? Being pedantic the dogs are yellow lab. and golden ret.!! Tim - April 2nd, 2014 Thank you Joanna! And yes, of course you're quite right about the dogs (though it seems there is something called a Golden Labrador); the retriever on the picture though is editorial licence (guitar-playing labs were in short supply!). Katie - April 2nd, 2014 Yes, Kakkashi is a lab, however Dad was the one who found the pic and it would seem that was the closest he could get! joanna - April 2nd, 2014 You learn something every day. Trust the breeders to cross things and give them posh names, we would have said it was a cross breed or even a mongrel!! WWHAT was your April Fool? At least living on my own I don't get 'spond' these days!! Tim - April 3rd, 2014 I'd perhaps better not tell you - then I can use it on you next 1 April!

5 April - Saturday lunch in Ørsdalen (left - click for larger helping). Fresh prawns and bread straight from the oven. Mm.

Thomas Andrew tells us that the "what does the farmer say?" video (see last month) has had to be removed from the internet following protests from the Sony Corp, who own the rights to "what does the fox say?" Impressive that they got to hear of it! The people who starred in that video are also the occasional music group at Tim's church, so they've promised to do a special number just before the sermon one day, entitled "what does the vicar say?" Don't tell Sony.

6 April - Double birthday - Matt was Best Man at a wedding yesterday - but apparently the couple are now safely married. So it was that Matt and Hazel (Tracy's mother, who is here for a few days' holiday) were both here for lunch today. As both are celebrating birthdays this month, there was a (lemon drizzle) birthday cake and candles on the table (photo, right - click for enlargements). We were also welcoming Katie back after a couple of days away at a camp, where amongst other things she was taking a self-defence course. So that's your warning: don't mess with her!

One of the great luxuries of living here is the wonderful heat of the log fire. This warmth doesn't come easily, though. Each year means cutting down some 40-50 trees, which then need sawing up into 2-foot lengths, splitting and carefully drying. Another problem, though, is moss, algae and mould that grows on the wood. If you leave these on the firewood it rapidly spreads, leading to rotten or so-called "sour" wood, which burns badly and with an unpleasant smell. The best - though hugely time-consuming - cure is to scrape each of the thousands of logs with a wire brush. There's not time to do such a fantastic job on every bit of wood, but we do our best. It keeps us out of mischief and in the fresh air. Click photo, left, for pictures.

Comments joanna, April 7th, 2014 You could probably turn at least some of your scraping to good use, lichens are used to dye fleece!!

16 April - Knitting Apologies for a long silence - life has taken over, rather. But we've not been idle. Tracy has been busy knitting (click photo, right, to see some recent products), Tim has been recording (click below for some Bach), Katie is presently out on a long bike ride to Vikeså and back, while T & T have just returned from walking the dogs in the sunshine (photos here).

Comments Jon, April 19th, 2014 Great recording Tim. That prelude has a great propensity toward "snordom", but not your version! Any chance we'll get the fugue too? It's my all time favourite and I'd thought about playing it for Easter morning, but decided to spare the baptism party any further extension to the service. Thanks and Happy Easter for tomorrow. Tim, April 19th, 2014 Thanks, Jon! I'll add the fugue during the week. I always think of that prelude as Easter music (the ascending scales, and the "Halleluia"-like sequences) and the fugue as Pentecost (the rushing wind/flames). But perhaps I'm imagining things. Great pieces, though!

18 April - Good Friday - Priest in petrol station Just returned from Vikeså, where Tracy and I visited two petrol stations in a search for a disreputable magazine. Not, I hasten to add, for afternoon entertainment, but as a prop in an Easter labyrinth that Tracy is setting up for this evening. We needed something "a bit sleezy"; something with a negative and jaded view of humanity. There was a magazine with a relatively-lightly clad female on the front cover, but it turned out to be full of knitting patterns. Otherwise we were quite unable to find anything remotely negative or disreputable. So our quest was a complete failure, apart from enjoying an ice cream in the sunshine outside the petrol station. Not being great buyers of magazines, we hadn't realised that there was such a gap in the Norwegian market.

Katie, in the meantime, was riding a neighbour's horse over the mountains at Stavtjørn.

Coffee crisis - The news reports that an 80-year-old woman near Bodø (where Matt is) rang the police emergency number because an electrical fault prevented her from making her morning coffee. The police helped her find an electrician. "No, we weren't cross about her ringing the emergency number", they said. "Quite reasonable, when she couldn't get her coffee".

As we returned, late this evening, from Tracy's excellent Easter Labyrinth at Vikeså, there were lights in all the cabins up the mountains around the ski centres. We remembered the "real" cabins of the past -- without electricity, a solid walk from the nearest road, and an outside toilet with a dodgy door were compulsary ingredients. The cabins around here are just a bit too civilised to be regarded as "real". But this evening's news reports from the area where we used to live, where a lady's screams were heard coming from the outside privvy at someone's cabin. The official police report reads: "A badger had taken up residence in an outside toilet [that is, the earth variety, of course]. A woman in the household has just taken her last-ever visit to an outside loo".

19 April - We sat on the balcony at home this afternoon, occasionally moving into the shade when the heat of the sun became too much. There was a brilliant blue sky, snow on the tops of the mountains around the house, and the almost artifical-looking luminous green of the forest with its new spring leaves just coming out, and daffodils in the garden. And complete peace, apart from the waterfalls on the mountainsides. Such bliss. We've experienced it dozens of times before at this time of year, but somehow it's new every time.

20 April -You can say the same for Easter. We've had dozens of Easters before, but it's new every time. Happy Easter! He is risen!
Easter morning service in Bjerkreim Church (picture of the church here, together with recording of the hymn singing), dinner with a guest and afternoon in the sunshine.

And Happy Birthday, Matt! (Photo, right, showing Matt demonstrating hat-making during one of his camps - click for an even larger demonstration of the phrase "mad as a hatter"). Matt has also provided a photo of Bodø by night (click here to view).

Comments joanna, April 18th, 2014 Hi all of you. Wishing you a happy Easter and a big blessing from Our Lord God Bless! Norah, April 24th, 2014 Belated happy Easter wishes. My computer is misbehaving & I have been unable to find your web site, the last time I tried Spider Man came up, so it was a relief to find you now. There have also been several disreputable magazine type horrors! It seems I have been invaded & a spy catching operation is now in progress.

Comments (about the Easter colour scheme) Jon, April 19th, 2014 Wow, what a colour scheme!!!! Have you read the new Norwegian regs on this kind of thing? Tim, April 19th, 2014 I found it difficult to read them because of the lurid yellow paper they were printed on. Happy Easter! T

26 April - mountain fires - We're enjoying hot, dry, sunny weather. The only drawback with this is that there are a number of mountain/forest fires around, including a major one on the moors just this side of Ålgård. Even here in Ørsdalen there was smoke rising from the mountainside opposite today (photo here). Fortunately, it's on the other side of the river so it's not going to affect us.

27 April - breakfast outside - It's actually so warm that we're eating meals outside - even breakfast! Click photo, left, for enlargement.

The disadvantage with this kind of weather is that it's so hard to settle to any work. This (click for photo) was my office at home today - how are you supposed to concentrate?

One job that did require concentration today was the oven door. The glass dropped out of it the other day. Fortunately, Tim's brother and sister-in-law, Bob and Pat, were due to visit and they helpfully brought some special high-temperature adheisive specially designed for gluing glass panels back into oven doors. So far, the operation seems to have been a success.

Five years today since we signed the contract to buy this place!

28 April - walk to the mountain lake - but what is this? - This afternoon, Tim and Bob had an hour or so spare in Vikeså, so they chose to drive up a mountain track, from the end of which it was a pleasant walk to a remote mountain lake. Both were struck by the absolute silence there. A few interesting moorland birds and ducks were available for watching, but a couple of large and particularly glossy ravens provided the best entertainment. But we were puzzled by the object on the small photo, left (click for three pictures of the lake, the third of which is a larger picture of the object). This, remember, is by the side of a mountain lake, miles from anywhere. Any ideas what it is, or what it is used for? Our best guess was as a stand for cocktails at sundown, though we couldn't see a waiter or even a bar. Suggestions, please.

What is it? suggestions Jon, April 29th, 2014 The object by the lake is obviously an ash tray to help prevent forest fires.

Driving back down past a couple of farms, we were started to see three obviously tame rabbits in the road (photo of one of them here). We stopped at the nearest farm in case they were escaped children's pets, but we were assured by the farmer that they were supposed to be there and that they would come home for their tea when hungry. "They are a traffic-calming initiative", he told me. "They make people drive slowly past".

Katie took part in an exhibition at her school to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the drawing up of Norway's constitution and its independence from Denmark. It was a pleasant evening, with lots of people milling around in the sunshine and admiring both the newly-completed school extension and the various exhibitions and events - including a display of ancient historical things like the kind of telephone you and I are used to (with a dial) and other such things that looked all too familiar.

Andrew, however, has had a very bad day. His car caught fire outside school (something overheated) and was completely destroyed (photo), which is a terrible blow, especially as fire is not covered by insurance.

30 April, 6.50 am - Katie has just left on the school bus for the last day this week (tomorrow is a bank holiday, so Friday is also a day off from school). She likes to take some light reading for the hour's journey, and today's choice was Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones' (admittedly excellent) book King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE. (Click here to see inside). They're such a worry, aren't they? Having said that, Katie does like to sleep on the bus, and history books were used in ancient Persia as a cure for insomnia (see here), so perhaps that's the connection.