Header picture: Trees by house, 2 December
3 December -
For Tracy, the Christmas knitting season is in full flow (a couple of recent projects are shown, right, but three larger products are currently on the production line).
The beginning of Advent also marks the start of the pre-Christmas events. A neighbouring church has joined with Tim's church choir to produce Den store stjerna (the big star - we're talking Christmas here, not rock stars) — a Christmas cantata written in the 1970s by a local composer. Tim was organist and a friend conducted. The music is a bit corny in places but surprisingly good, and the benefit of this kind of local work is that the church was packed out with an audience that had been brought up with it (photo). And so the week continues with highlights such as the funeral-directors' christmas party (Tuesday), a Christmas gathering for female refugees (Wednesday), schools services (Thursday and Friday), and pre-Christmas service-events at Tim's and Tracy's churches (next weekend).
It's hard to get up in the morning in time for school. Not that either Katie nor Thomas Andrew have ever had trouble with that. But some of Katie's class were evidently caught on the hop when it came to the day of the class photo. See the result here.
Comments
|
6 December -
As Jon pointed out the other day, Norway is a bit ambiguous about Father Christmas, who is referred to as the Christmas "nisse",
which is the same word given to the rather mischievous elves who live in cowsheds and require bribery with the traditional rice pudding/porridge so as not to get up to pranks.
Needless to say, in our media age, these "nisser" are tending to get themselves captured on photographs, and we include a photo (left) in the spirit of the season.
A lot of snow has fallen ready-melted. It's become so normal this year that I haven't bothered commenting it recently, even when the river has overflowed its banks, main roads and railway lines have closed and threats of calamity have been sloshing around, but I include a couple of pictures today (right) largely as an excuse to mention that a car ferry got flooded on the way over a fjord and had to be pumped out by the fire brigade on arrival. When it's even too wet for ships we really are in trouble!
Comments
|
10 December -
At least the snow has been the genuine sort for the last few days; deep and crisp and even, with temperatures of minus plenty.
Katie took the camera out around the garden (pictures, left) before coming in and baking for Christmas.
Sunshine on snow does wonders for the landscape - even the rather prosaic Sandnes church looks enchanting (right).
Comments
|
Tracy's pre-Christmas service at Norkirken -
Time for the annual pre-Christmas carol service at Norkirken (click picture, below right, for photos)
14 December -
Although we don't have problems getting around in the snow ourselves,
there's an increasing number of foreign lorries on the roads that are not equipped with the right tyres and that just get stuck as soon as the snow starts to fall heavily.
Today Tim set off in plenty of time to play for a funeral in Sandnes. A couple of hours later he was still stuck on a road that was closed due to dozens of lorries decorating it at artistic angles.
Nothing for it but to wait for them to be towed out of the way and then come home again (fortunately, an assistant was available to play). (Road photos, left).
17 December - eating a gearbox for tea - In the finest bartering tradition, Thomas Andrew and we have swapped a gearbox for half a sheep, the first installment of which we've just eaten as a most delicious stew; perfect for a cold and snowy day (view from the house this afternoon - click and scroll left-right). The ski centre opened yesterday, so lots of tourists have made their way at least to the other end of the tunnel.
21 December - addresses and the Beastly Bedehus - One of the pleasurable things at this time of year is reading all the Christmas letters (there's never been a tradition for English-style Christmas cards in Norway — you can't even buy them, which if you've wondered is why you don't get one from us — but there is always a flood of illustrated descriptive letters to look through). It's nice to catch up on the joys and sorrows of old friends and to express wonderment that their children (who are supposed to be 5 or 6) are now being pictured with their own children. An extra job the past couple of years has been updating people's addresses. As we've mentioned previously, Someone In Charge has decided that every house in Norway should have a proper address (as opposed to just the name of the village, as earlier) and these addresses are being allocated on the slightly bizzarre principle of how many hundredths of a km the house is from some fixed point. That's why out of three houses in Hovland we've ended up with house number 852 (our "fixed point" being this end of the tunnel into Ørsdalen). One of the high points of this process was when a "bedehus" — evangelical church building — in our neighbouring district protested about being allocated house number 666. "We didn't think of that", said the Someone In Charge. It ended with a bit of cheating with the tape measure and house number 664.
23 December - annual outing -
Our annual pre-Christmas outing takes us to Stavanger and the carol service in the cathedral. This service has become something of a Rishton colony — Matt and Katie both sing in the choir, Tim plays the organ and Tracy is the bouncer. By tradition we all go out to dinner in Stavanger first. Over the years we've tried a Chinese restaurant, the excellent Indian, a slightly dodgy Mexican-or-something and, last year, a really great Asian restaurant incongruously tucked away behind some plastic plants in a corner of a shopping centre but with wonderful food. This year they've moved to proper premises and we thought to try them again. Luckily we emailed them in advance to check they were open and received a message that the chef had slipped away to spend Christmas in — of all places — Yorkshire, so we ended up in the wonderful Thai restaurant in Sandnes. The Cathedral was packed full (people standing). The choir conductor was new and unfamiliar with the place and in our brief rehearsal she was almost having a nervous breakdown because the organ (and organist) is not just out of sight but at the opposite end of the cathedral and up fifteen turns of a spiral stone staircase and along miles of dark corridors, which means that communication is just about impossible ("send a postcard, please"). But all went well and even extreme weather Birk (whose turn it is this week) didn't put a damper on things. So home to decorate the tree (click picture, left, for photos).
Comments
|
24 December - Happy birthday, Tracy!
 |
26 December -
Our Boxing-Day visitors — friends from Vikeså — had trouble getting over the mountain to Ørsdalen because of the snow, so we drove over and collected them.
But once here, we settled in to turkey and bacon pie and an excellent European railways board game (a Christmas present from Matt to Katie, so thanks to both) and had a very pleasant evening
(even though Tim's eye looks like he took Boxing Day literally, due to an unplanned high-speed meeting with a floor).
All in all, a lovely Christmas here. Hope it has been for you too.
Comments
|
29 December - The year's last lake picture -
The final lake picture of 2017 is thanks to Auntie Pat,
whose timely telephone call made us stop the car near Ivesdal church and admire the landscape anew.
As we have done many times before! (Click photo, right; click it again to enlarge it and scroll left-right as usual).
31 December - The year's last Norwegian lesson -
In our last lesson, back on 8 June, we talked about the word "huskapping" (referring to the act of chopping your neighbour's outhouse in half while he wasn't looking), along with other useful vocabulary.
Today's word is "gravlysautomat", which means "graveside-candle-vending-machine".
You see, there's no end to the useful words available in Norwegian.
The background to that particular word is that Norwegian tradition dictates placing a light by the side of graves on Christmas and new-year's eve.
When, however, the Christmas rush has got to you** and you've forgotten to buy one, where can you get one on the last minute?
So some imaginative entrepreneur has invented a gravlysautomat, which apparently is doing good business.
**(That's an excuse to mention another Norwegian saying: "komme som julekvelden på kjerringa" (arriving like Christmas Eve for the housewife).
This saying is used when someone is caught on the hop for an event for which they should have been prepared.
The phrase has been in use since at least 1688 when it was included in a collection of sayings, but no-one quite knows where it came from, or who was the original unready woman.
In any event, 2018 is coming, ready or not. Happy New Year!
Comments
|