4 May - Header picture - The peace of a May afternoon
We've seen a lot of places, but the sheer peace and tranquility of our home on a May afternoon is ... unique. Join us for a moment on the balcony at home and judge for yourself.
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7 May - Summer has landed abruptly. The last couple of days have been hot — Mediterranean-type hot — cloudless and sunny.
The garden is looking lovely (right) and the lawn had its first cut of the year today.
It is hopelessly the wrong time of year to be cutting down trees (just when the sap is rising the fastest) but it's impossible not to be out working in the forest when the weather is like this, so that's exactly what I've been doing. Perhaps a tenth of next winter's firewood already lined up ...
We've been back in Norway for 7 years now (and if that sounds a long time, consider this — this summer it will be 30 years since my first concert in Norway and 29 years since we first came to live here!), but just occasionally some trivial thing or other reminds one of us why we live here. Apart from it being the only country I can think of where you can expect to meet reindeer practicing their stand-up-paddling on an iceberg in the river. My latest such trivial experience was a few days ago. I'd bought some edging stones from a shop in Egersund — far enough away that they don't know me. I have to be a bit more careful with heavy loads in my new car than with the old one, so I brought half of the stones home and arranged to pick up the other half next time I was in town. I duly turned up at the shop a week or two later, clutching my receipt (important as it was a different member of staff this time). She didn't look at the paper; just wafted at the stones. "Yes, sure. Just stick however many we owe you in your car. Should I fill up your coffee cup while you're doing it?". Which reminds me a little of when I'd bought my new car and was picking it up from the garage. I'd organised the finance somewhere else so I was supposed to show the garage a receipt to prove that the car was paid for. However, on the day that I was supposed to collect the car, a computer glitch meant I couldn't print out the receipt. I went over to apologise and arrange a new time to collect it. "Oh hi!", said the man at the garage. "Come to pick up your car?" "Well ...", I said. "Great", he said. "Did you transfer the payment?" "Yes", I said, "but ...". "That's great, then. Here's the keys. Hope it goes well for you!"
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8 May -
After Tracy's service this evening I took a slightly batty lady home.
Don't misunderstand — I'm not refering to Tracy, but to anoth a pleasant
but dotty old lady who I drove back to her house because she wasn't quite sure where she lived.
In any event, she was very pleased about this and went round telling everyone that "mannen til prestefruen" [the vicar's wife's husband] was driving her home.
Women priests still cause grammatical problems here and there.
10 May - Tuesday is a busy day at work, with end-to-end appointments from 9 in the morning until 9 in the evening.
Today was the fifth consecutive day of blue skies, sunshine and a temperature of 25° C (77° F)
and because — don't tell anyone at Sandnes church — I unusually happened to have an hour and a half free in the middle of the day
I treated myself to the quarter-hour drive from the church out to the beach and three quarters of an hour enjoying the gentle swish of the waves (click photo, above left, for pictures).
The pleasantest Tuesday at work for a while.
12 May -
When we bought the farm 7 years ago, a 2-acre area of forest immediately behind the house had just been cleared,
so the ground was completely bare.
Each year we've noticed the forest creeping back and growing up again, more and more.
The area is now thickly wooded, with an average tree height of about 12 feet.
I took some photos of the house back in 2009 and went out today to the same spot and re-took them.
Click photo, above right, to see the change since then.
13 May -
Continuing the enjoyment of spring I took a short drive a mile or so up the valley from home, staying more or less in sight of the house,
taking a series of pictures of the river and the trees (click picture, left, for photos).
They're all familiar things, especially if you've been here, or even if you've just been following these pages for a few years,
so don't bother looking if you're bored by seeing the same things again!
But somehow, it's new every spring and there's such joy in seeing such perfection renewed.
And there's thoughts of heaven for you ...
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14 May -
Matt has done a wonderful job today of chopping some of that firewood from last week (click picture, right, for photos).
22 May - A very wet weekend is giving way to a new spell of sunshine predicted for next week. And as often happens, the rain clouds seem almost to line up against the mountain, ready for departure (photo here, taken from the house).
Norway manages to cram nearly all of its bank holidays into May. 1 May is the labour day holiday and 17 May is, naturally 17 May (Norway's national day with processions, flags and what not), while Ascension and Pentecost Monday (both bank holidays) usually occur during May as well (this year on 5th and 16th respectively). Hardly a week goes by without a public holiday. Since the school year ends in mid-June, most activities (children's choirs and things) tend to finish for the summer in May so that they don't get disrupted by all the bank holidays, so there's a rather hectic end-of-term kind of feeling in the air.
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We don't get so many pictures of Beth on these pages (because she lives so far away), but here she is on 17 May (click picture, left, for enlargement).
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25 May - Katie today had her last written exam of her GCSE-equivalents (just one aural exam to go, a bit later) — cause for celebration. And Tracy is returning this evening from a week-long trip. So normality is restored. Speaking of normality and consistency, earlier today I needed to look up on the internet the "exchange rate" between stones and kg. Google helpfully provided me with a conversion tool — but is it just me or does something here seem a little odd? Is the exchange rate really so variable from one day to the next?
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The year's house painting is getting underway!