2 November - the hymn book - This week, the congregation at Bjerkreim church is singing its way through all the 900 or so hymns in the Norwegian hymn book. Tim was volunteered to be organist for this evening's 4-hour slot. The astonishing thing was that hundreds of people came for the marathon — and it was apparently the same each evening. Not everyone stayed for the whole 4 hours, although some did (photos, right).

3 November - off to Cambodia - Tracy is now in the air on her way to Cambodia for the autumn's 10-day visit. You can follow her doings there on her Cambodia blog.

In order to keep a record of what we do at the flat in Germany - and to serve as a "things to do" guide for visitors there - we've been copying and reorganising relevant bits of this blog into a page of its own, which has been a lot of fun.

Comments Norah - November 4th, 2017 This has been like a visit to the theatre! I have enjoyed the tour of your new home in Germany and the fascinating history. Beautiful pictures.Of course, the best part was returning to Andalsnes and seeing dear Dagfinn and Haldis again. I remembered the views so well. Good to see Bethan, is she living in Andalsnes or Alesund? Tim - November 4th, 2017 Dagfinn and Haldis asked after you and I said that you'd be pleased to see their picture. Yes, it was lovely to be there again. Bethan is now living neither in Åndalsnes nor in Ålesund, but in Molde (hence our stay there).

5 November - Katie around Ørsdalen - An overcast end-of-Autumn day, so Katie took the camera out and about in the valley to get a bit of "Wuthering Heights" atmosphere (photos, left).

6 November - While Tracy is doing open-air teaching in Cambodia, home is 30 degrees colder and woke to the winter's first snow up behind the house (small photos here).

8 November - Returning home late at night after a meeting, the welcome committee was waiting ...

10 November - Changed over to winter tyres today, and for once got it just right (30-second clip of the journey home).

11 November - Tracy safely home from tropical Cambodia (photo: arriving at Copenhagen airport) — to be greeted by snow-covered roads!

15 November - soggy moors - When we're driving from Berlin and we leave the motorway at Oranienburg to head along the country road towards Neustrelitz, the first village we pass is called Nassenheide, which I suppose translates unappealingly as "soggy moors". Today, though, on the way home from Sandnes, I pulled over on an impulse and walked a few yards up the forest track that leads out onto our — dry and pleasant — moor. Not this time. After a summer of continuous rain much of it is still underwater and its best feature was the many little streams trying in vain to drain it (photos, right).

21 November - Happy birthday to Thomas Andrew!

This morning's lake.

24 November - The party - It's not a great idea to have your birthday on Christmas Eve; even worse to then go and live in a country that celebrates Christmas on the 24th. Tracy has a "round-number" birthday this year (30 or something) and decided to have an "official" birthday party exactly one month early. Plenty of dinner and cakes, plenty of entertainment — and fancy dress on a theme of characters from the books of Norwegian children's author Thorbjørn Egner. A really memorable and great evening! (click picture, left, for many photos)

26 November - Outing with our friends Jon, Sarah and Hannah (click picture, right, for photos)