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2 February - Tracy has left a chilly morning in Ørsdalen, past banks of snow alongside the road (photo, left, of Nils' neat snow clearing from the road by the ski centre on Friday), and is now (10am) as far as Frankfurt on her way to Cambodia, where it will be some 40 degrees warmer than when she got on the plane. Outside an icy 5am airport she had to take off her warm coat and boots and put on sandals and sun hat ready for the journey. As we mentioned earlier, you will be able to follow her adventures on www.pastornorkirkirkensandnes.blogspot.no.

Here, we've had one of those glorious sunny winter days, with the snow glistening like ... like the sun shining on snow. You know. Photos here.

On 31 January, we mentioned that Tracy and the dogs had been sledging. There were some photos there; now you can even watch the film.

3 February - Tracy safely arrived in Phnom Penh. When she left here it was a temperate -9°; since then, the temperature has been dropping sharply (see my car this morning), while Tracy has been lazing by or in the pool and searching for factor 50 suncream (she only has a few hours of leisure before getting to work, by the way).

Just in case you've been wondering what it's like, there's a picture of Tim's new church here.

4 February - What time of day were these photos (right: click for enlargements) taken? Although we've experienced it many times before, it still makes me just want to stand and look. I took these pictures from the house at midnight (which at the beginning of February means it "should have been" completely dark). Snow-covered ground, a full moon, an absolutely clear sky full of bright stars at a temperature in the minus teens, makes it look as bright as day. It's hard to stop looking, and just go to bed.

Like night and day - Just by way of comparison, here (left: click for enlargements) is Ørsdalen twelve hours later.

6 February - A couple of weeks ago, Katie wrote a story for a Norwegian exam. As we mentioned at the time, the teacher specifically prohibited a new Uncle Bob story, so Katie's revenge was ... well, read it for yourself here (now translated into English). The following day Katie took a currant bun as a present for the teacher, but the teacher was off sick that day - mercifully not with food poisoning, which might have caused awkward questions - so Katie had to leave the bun. Katie found out later, however, that when the teacher actually returned to the school and glanced through the exam scripts, she read Katie's first (because they're always entertaining) and was horrified to find that she had been killed off. Just at that moment, the deputy head arrived to give her Katie's currant bun, so the whole staff room was soon in uproar.

7 February - Happy 15th birthday, Katie!

Comments joanna - February 5th, 2015 Katie a happy birthday, there are a couple of dragons en-route to you, hope you enjoy them and don't find them too young, I didn't!!! Lots of love Katie - February 6th, 2015 Thank you very much, Joanna. I will leave a note for the postman to warn him not to burn his fingers - unless they're flying over by themselves? Katie - February 13th, 2015 Arrived safely and will now be flying with me to Bodø. Thanks - they look great!

13 February - Half term at last! Katie is off to Bodø tomorrow for a week's work experience at Acta together with Matt. This entails the 250-mile flight to Oslo followed by a 500-mile flight up to Bodø, so it will be an interesting journey for her - as well as a good week with her brother! Tracy, in the meantime, also sets off at almost exactly the same time on her even longer flight from Phnom Penh to Singapore, Amsterdam and then home, arriving just in time to take the 11 o'clock service on Sunday morning at Norkirken. Assuming she can stay awake to do so. Other than running an airport shuttle service, Tim will be having a much quieter weekend.

Although the days are getting lighter, February tends to have a lack of colour in the landscape so Katie has provided some for us here. Enjoy!

14 February - All up in the air At the time of writing, Katie has just taken off from Oslo on the second stage of her journey to Bodø, while Tracy is just landing in Singapore at the end of the first stage of her journey home. It all seems to be going well so far. Only Tim and dogs still have feet on the ground - more than just feet, in the case of the dogs. It's the first really warm and sunny day of the year, with an unexpected feel of spring, and the dogs are lying full out in the garden enjoying the moment (photo).

15 February - All arrived - Tracy safely home (and even took the morning service at Norkirken an hour or so after landing); Katie enjoying life in Bodø.

Comments Norah - February 16th, 2015 Welcome Home Tracy, Your account of the visit to Cambodia is very inspiring. Tracy - February 16th, 2015 Thank you Norah! I had a fantastic time and feel that what I have been part of will benefit lots of people for a long while to come, too.

18 February - the noise in the night -
“What's that noise?”, asked Tracy suddenly in the middle of the night, months ago.

“Ueughwah?” I replied. “That noise?”, she repeated.

I tried to wake up enough to listen. “Sheep? Waterfall? Avalanche?”. I couldn't actually hear anything out of the ordinary so thought I'd give the usual suspects a go.

I strained to hear anything. Other than the three things I'd mentioned there's never any sounds in Ørsdalen at night, unless it's a passing lynx dismembering a deer on the drive again. “There's nothing there: go back to sleep again”.

Over the next few days I occasionally found Tracy standing quietly in the corner of the bedroom, facing the wall, or trying to insert herself into the narrow crack between the wardrobe and the wall. I put this down to normal eccentricity, but it seems that she was trying to locate her mystical noise, which apparently was much quieter and more persistent than animals or natural phenomena and seemed to reside somewhere in or beyond the corner of the room by her side of the bed.

Although I could never really hear it (or just caught a vague sense of it once or twice), the funny thing was that I started to hear a similarly mystical noise in the corresponding corner of my office, which is the floor below the bedroom but built out beyond it. I found myself standing quietly in the corner of my office, facing the wall, or trying to insert myself into the narrow crack behind the sheet music file. Though still a vague and distant sound, it was louder there, and very disconcerting. It sounded like an underground stream trickling gently and persistently inside the wall, or an army of very hungry ants munching steadily but discretely at the insulation. The oddest — and most worrying — thing was that if I opened the window and put my head outside, the sound vanished altogether. So the sound was actually in the walls.

I got Katie to have a listen. She repeated the same experiment with the window and expressed herself completely baffled. The problem is, I couldn't think of an explanation that didn't involve the house being in danger of falling down (underground streams in the walls or armies of hungry ants are unwelcome in a wooden house), so with customary decisiveness I've spent the last two or three months considering whether to ring the builders. But what would I say? “Would you please come all the way to Ørsdalen to listen to a noise in my wall?”

Yesterday I was sitting in my office when Thomas Andrew started up his tractor outside and then popped his head round the office door to say goodbye. “Have I ever asked you to listen to the noise in the wall?”, I asked him. He rewarded me with one of those looks that the children spend their teenage years rehearsing. “Noise in the wall?”. I pointed to the relevant corner of the office. He went over, picked up a little electric clock off the window ledge and gave it to me. “There you are: noise all gone now”.

The trouble is, he was right.

Comments joanna - February 19th, 2015 Hi Tim, don't you just love your children when they take delight it showing they are ahead of the game!! It makes one feel older and slower!!! Glad the noise is solved, son-in-law Matthew is fiendish when it comes to chasing down electric clocks!! I can't hear them any more!!!