2 August - WATER! Eight weeks to the day after the well started to go dry, a new pump was installed this morning and once more we have water in the tap. The washing machine, now working overtime, is the only member of the household not celebrating.

4 August - July temperatures in Norway have completely smashed every record; not only was it the warmest July since records began in 1900, but it was the warmest by far: several degrees warmer than the previous record in 1937 and, as pointed out earlier, frequently hotter than Italy and the Mediterranean in general. Some cranky Norwegian apparently tried to claim a holiday refund on the basis that the weather had been better back home. Following a record-breakingly dry and warm winter, it's not surprising that the well gave us trouble. But we're now enjoying clean, fresh water on tap again, and it's good.

Comments joanna - August 6th, 2014 I do hope that the new pump does not require a foot on it on a permanent basis!!! Tim - August 7th, 2014 Just a firm hand, hopefully

Apples, plums and berries season (photo, right, of one of our apple trees with early-morning mist on the mountain behind) - Ørsdalen's famous blackcurrants have completely failed this year owing to the drought, but the blackberries and wild raspberries are wonderful.

6 August - Katie and Tracy are off to Denmark today for a 5-day swimming-training event at a centre near Ålborg.

"Life at your place just gets more and more bizarre", said someone the other day. And that was someone relatively local. For many years Tracy has harboured a desire to live somewhere tropical, which of course is why we came to live in Norway. Quite apart from this year's weather, one current development suggests that maybe she's getting her way. And that is ...
No. I'm not going to tell you. It's just too ridiculous.
OK then, if you promise not to laugh, you can click here to read about it.

7 August - Speaking of rain, they keep forecasting lots of it, but as each new sunny day unfurls itself it resolutely declines to arrive. This morning, too, is dry and bright. In Ørsdalen, at least. However, I've just seen on the news that "extreme rain" has caused the police to seal off the whole centre of Vigrestad (near the coast, just twenty miles west of here). "Stay at home", say the police, "It can be dangerous to try to move around on the streets". All main-line trains on the Oslo-Stavanger line are cancelled all day, main roads 131, 141 and 144 are all closed and the police, fire brigade and military reservists are all in full action. Photo here. As I'm writing it's been clouding over and it's just started to drizzle a little, so perhaps our well will get a top-up after all.

8 August - New computer has arrived to replace the one blown up by lightening. Trying to get to grips with it!

9 August - crop circles - Aliens trying to get at the rain forest? What has caused the rings of flattened grass around the trees? Click photo, left.

10 August - Normal sight on the road out of the valley this morning (photo, right - click for enlargement). Anyone who has time stops to pull the rocks out of the way, so they never stay there for long. But there'll be a new little heap somewhere else tomorrow.

Have you ever felt you'd like to go waterskiing, but when it comes down to it an afternoon on the settee sounds better? Then here's the answer. Click here for a short film clip.

12 August - Autumn - Tracy and Tim are back at work, Katie goes back to school on Monday (but not Thomas Andrew, of course!) and the weather has suddenly turned autumnal, with rain and wind. Prior to the first staff meeting after the summer at Tim's church, the church administrator sent Tim a copy of official the health-and-welfare questionnaire that was to be sent out to all the church staff. It was the customary dull and irrelevant questionnaire, asking things like "Do you feel that you have time to finish everything you need to do before the end of the day?" (the obvious answer being "not if I have to fill this in as well") and "If you are feeling a little unwell do you still come to work?". Tim expressed his opinion of the form by making some minor "improvements" to the questions and sending it back. Today the form was handed out - in the "improved" version. "You did realise that I wasn't being entirely serious?", asked Tim. "I didn't read it", said the administrator. "What did you write?". The two questions mentioned above now read: "Do you feel that you have time to finish everything you need to do before eternity begins?" and "If you are feeling a little unwell do you still come to work or do you expect divine healing first?" The other questions were along the same lines. "Oh dear", said the administrator.

Comments joanna - August 13th, 2014 Really Tim I would have thought people would have cottoned on to your sense of humour by now!! Tim Yes, she really should have known better. Must have just caught her out after the summer holiday! joanna - August 14th, 2014 Happy Birthday on Thursday Tim. Love from Me. I do hope you have had some rain, we are colder and windy but not much precipitation! Tim - August 14th, 2014 Thanks, Joanna! Yes, we've had gallons of rain, all of a sudden, so lakes, streams and even the well are all full. But just turned sunny again so we're able to enjoy it, too!

14 August - deer - Autumn is also the prime time for deer in the garden, and today we had the first callers of the season (photo, above left - click for enlargement).

Fudge has been less active than the deer for a day or two. In fact, he's been lying around, feeling and looking very depressed. He had a nasty case of whiplash caused by falling out of the plum tree, so it hurt every time he moved his head.

16 August - carrot harvest - We're enjoying having Matthew at home this weekend (he's been running a big camp near Sandnes and has come to Ørsdalen to wind down afterwards). To go with the lamb for dinner this evening, Tracy has been harvesting carrots. These were planted as part of a church service earlier in the year, so they were a bit close together and therefore a bit thin, but they look tasty! Just in case you're wondering why they were reverentially planting carrots during a church service, they'd been reading the Latin text of 1 Corinthians 13:13 "haec maior autem his est caritas" (but the greatest of them all is carrots).

18 August - back to school - For the first time in almost a couple of decades, there was only one going back to school this morning - Katie. Everything is back to normal routine this week, including swimming training this evening. At the swimming club, Tim has been promoted from assistant shouter to fully-authorised shouter (but has to go on a shouting course, as well as on another course for pulling sunken swimmers up from the bottom of the pool). School mornings arrive too early (before 6am) but are very beautiful at this time of year, with lingering clouds giving the impression that the mountains are steaming (picture, left; click for enlargement).

22 August - Autumn by the roadside - Coming home today, there were more and more signs of the Norwegian summer turning into autumn. Rowan berries, a determined final fling from the roadside flowers, and thick clouds gathering. Still lovely, though.

26 August - visitors in the garden - Some of Katie's friends can be real cows at times ... see photo here.

27 August - The husbands of Ørsdalen have all despatched their wives (Tracy included) to Poland for a few days (photos here). Naturally, both parties believe this was their own idea and are now enjoying a peaceful few days of sightseeing/shopping or tractor-driving/sheep-counting respectively. Katie has also had two outings today - though not quite as far as Tracy's. She spent her school day with the rest of the class, walking the mountains (which naturally also involved swimming in the river). Just a passing thought there - I wonder how much paperwork would be involved for a British school to allow its pupils to swim in a fast-flowing mountain river a couple of hour's walk from the nearest road? But needless to say they had a great time. Then this evening she was out with the young farmers' equivalent - kayaking and (of course) swimming in a mountain lake. Luckily, the weather has been perfect for the past couple of days. While waiting to collect her from this evening's mountain, I had a quick stroll on the beach (and a dip of my own in the sea) - click left for two beach photos.

30 August - At an important cycle race in eastern Norway this weekend, various sponsors handed out samples of their products to the competitors. These included a sports product from OMO (picture, right)- Six competitors ended up at Lillehammer hospital after drinking what they thought was a sports drink ...

31 August - Photos from Tracy's Krakow trip here.

Today's service at Bjerkreim church included the presentation of this year's confirmation candidates - the whole of Katie's year group. Excluding Katie, who has chosen to be confirmed at Tracy's church, Norkirken, instead. At the end of the service, after coffee, there was a dedication ceremony for the new churchyard extension (photo here). (Tim had helpfully suggested that to save time, people should be handed their coffee cup at the church door, on a "drive-through" principle, on their way to the churchyard, but this suggestion was not acted upon. The church administrator has clearly learned something.)

Comments Jon - August 31st, 2014 The lawn looks lovely on your new churchyard. It'll be a shame to dig it up. Or, maybe, following up on Tim's doubling up and "drive-through" ideas, someone creative could combine the nice graveyard grass with a novelty "pitch and putt"? Tim - August 31st, 2014 So that will be "a hole in one" instead of "one in a hole"? Nice idea. Tim

Nice hat? You may have heard of the ice-bucket challenge. Click photo, left, to watch.