Header picture: First leaves on the road
2 September - Autumn jobs -
Time for cutting back the grass in the orchard and trimming the verges, as well as touching in those odd bits of paintwork before the winter.
Plenty to do! (Photo - no enlargement available)
I promised a link to Jon's photos of his visit to us a couple of weeks ago (his photos are always better than mine!). So here they are!.
6 September - Autumn creatures -
From insects in the peg bucket to birds in the garage rafters, the natural world continues to be all around (click picture, right, for photos. What's the insect, anyone?)
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8 September - Of course, there's something called the "natural cycle". It's never been there before, but I drove past it today, on the road into Ørsdalen. Here it is.
10 September - Speaking of creatures, today's news reports on how a Norwegian football match at the weekend was interrupted when an otter ambled onto the pitch and settled down against the leg of one of the players (see photos here). The local mayor came on to the pitch to help (it's one of the mayoral duties here) and the otter was removed with the help of a convenient net. Why, you might ask, did they have a large net just handy in the middle of a football match? Apparently it's for whenever the ball gets kicked into the sea.
17 September - Today's traffic holdup in Ørsdalen.
We seem recently to have been having a theme of animals, birds and insects, so it's probably time to move back to more normal topics. From tales of footballing otters (which we could have headed "Missed") to the customary autumnal lakes ("Mist"). Today's 2 pictures here.
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28 September - Apologies to Joanna and everyone else for a long period of silence. September has turned into a hugely complicated month for us, with much to-oing and fro-ing which I'll summarise later. (No problems - just trying to navigate various complicated circumstances). Now, though, it's business as usual.
I (Tim) flew to Germany today for the weekend in order to play a concert.
I'd booked a normal small hire car from Berlin airport in order to drive first up to the flat for a comfortable overnight stay and to enjoy the hot sunshine forecast for tomorrow,
before driving westwards on Saturday to the concert location, near Münster.
As often happens when you don't really need the extra space, the hire car company proudly announced an upgrade (which means that they'd run out of small cars).
The only car in the car park, though, was the hearse in photo, left (click for enlargement).
At something of a loss, I tried the usual technique — when in doubt, just hold the key high, press "unlock" and see which car lights flash.
It was the hearse.
If you think I'm joking, see this film.
Mine is the identical model, but with 7 seats rather than the lie-down-on-wooden-panels back.
Drives very well, though.
35 years ago, back in Holyhead, we had a vicar who was a very gentle, slightly shy type;
though he could afford to be, being 6 foot 6, with a leather jacket, huge beard and large motorbike on which he
used to race the local undertaker down the straight sections of the A55 over Anglesey.
The undertaker explained that their hearse had a 6-litre engine which didn't like driving at 10 mph all the time,
so they had to put their foot down from time to time, just to "clear the system".
Actually, I suspect it was the driver rather than the engine who had this need, but no matter.
I was thinking about that today, partly because of the hire car and partly because of one of today's Norwegian news stories, in which an undertaker was banned from driving for speeding in a hearse.
She explained that she was hurrying to catch a ferry (presumably clutching her coin for the ferryman) — and added that she did a lot of driving for the police and wouldn't be able to find anyone else to do it if she lost her license.
But she was banned for 5 months anyway, and nearly a thousand pounds in fine — for doing 70 in a 50-zone.
They take their speed limits seriously in Norway.
(The other thing I remember that vicar for, incidentally, was that whenever he went away for a few days he fed his three cats by
opening a dozen tins of cat food into a plastic container and freezing it all into a solid lump, so that they could chew off a set amount each day, as it defrosted.
I tried to think of some suitable bible verse to connect with this, and then realised that I couldn't think of any mention of cats anywhere in the bible.
Apparently it's because cats were associated with the Egyptions, who the Jews weren't — and aren't — keen on).
So it's suddenly back to T-shirt weather for a late-night stroll into the centre of Neustrelitz (click photo, right, for pictures).
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29 September - a hearse to Hannover; fair not set fair -
Warm and sunny in Germany. Tim inspected the local lake near the flat (still swimming temperature), then on to check on the kayaks,
enjoyed a 2-hour forest walk on the Lüneburg heath just south of Hamburg, before ending up for the night in a hotel (with pool - very welcome!) on the edge of Hannover. On to concert location tomorrow.
In Vikeså, however — well, it's the annual fair this weekend, so the weather is ... like this.
As we've reported before, the weather is always bad for this particular event; never more so than this year, when it is due to be entirely outdoors (because the big exhibition hall burned down).
1 October - Rheda -
Arrived yesterday at Rheda, in torrential rain.
If you ever want to see one of those lovely, well-functioning German towns, then don't come to Rheda.
Admittedly the rain didn't help, but it's not an attractive town.
In fact, the word "dump" springs to mind.
Sloshed around the main street looking for a cafe and having glanced at them chose to get back in my car and drive out of town to a petrol station to buy a sandwich.
The petrol station didn't have any food left.
I've been looking for somewhere for a haircut and expected to find this in Rheda.
There was a barber's shop offering a very cheap standard cut.
Nearly went in, but there was a queue of about twenty men, all leaning against the wall inside, all of vaguely middle-eastern appearance and all looking like a casting exercise for bandits in a low-budget knife-fight scene.
I remained uncut (in either sense).
Wherever I've been on this trip there have been political posters left over from the recent elections.
I made a point of looking, and all the posters I've seen have been for the mainstream parties; not a single one for the right-wing AfD.
All the posters in Rheda were for AfD. "Stop the immigration chaos". "More power to the police".
Today the sun has returned and I was able to explore a bit better.
Just outside the centre there are still streets of traditional half-timbered houses,
all beautifully restored and with expensive cars parked outside.
But abruptly the neat cobbles stop at a row of metal bollards and the scenery changes to 1970s nasty brick shopping-centre architecture,
which degenerates into a thoroughly tatty town centre (click photo, left, for pictures)
offering such delights as internet cafes with poker and spirits (alcoholic ones, I mean).
So concert this evening (the closing concert for an annual festival, on this organ) before heading back eastwards and flying home tomorrow. Concert got a good review, at any rate (translation).
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4 October -
Back home, the rain is continuing. The river is very high (photos, right) and people in Vikeså are beginning to look with concern at the overflowing lake and flooded fields,
with memories still fresh of paddling canoes down the main street just a couple of years ago.
Further down the south coast people are doing just that.
The main railway line and dozens of roads are closed, and the news is full of pictures of people rowing out to flooded houses.
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Our road is also closed. Maybe. But not because of floods. Rumour has it that the dearly-beloved Highways Authority is closing the road to Ørsdalen yet again - this time apparently from 6pm to 6am every night from tonight until the last week in October, for unspecifed repairs. At least this time they're supposedly doing it at night, although it will be awkward when we have evening meetings at work. Needless to say, they have not told anyone in Ørsdalen of their plans, nor have there been any signs out; they will presumably just turn up and close the road, as usual. Bad luck on anyone who happens to be out at the time.
Apart from stories of floods, the Norwegian news reports today on a British tourist who has cycled from Kirkenes to Bergen (the route taken by the coastal steamer) using a pedal-powered catamaran. It took 72 days. "I wish someone had told me how long the Norwegian coastline was before I set off", he said, rubbing his saddle sores. Now there's a solution for all these flooded streets in southern Norway. The other main story also concerns travellers at Bergen. A woman had bought a ceramic model of a grenade and put it in her check-in baggage when she flew back home. "I felt a twinge of guilty worry while the airport was being evacuated", she said, "and hoped it wasn't my grenade". It was.
5 October - the mousetrap - Despite the best efforts of our resident stoat, autumn inevitably means mice exploring good places to spend the winter. Our local mouse-trap shop this week offered something irresistible: a high-tech, multi-customer moustrap. We can't help thinking that the designer must have played that "moustrap" game as a child (you remember the one with all the querky gadgets and the descending net?) Here, at any rate, is how it works. If you're still curious, there's a "here's one I caught earlier" demonstration of it on YouTube.
The road didn't close last night, by the way, but heavy machinery has begun to flock like vultures in nearby laybys, so it's obviously going to happen.
6 October - maybe avalanche at last? - It's over 5 years ago — 2 June 2012 — that we wrote of stories of an impending avalanche close to where we used to live, near Åndalsnes. As you may remember, over 6 million cubic feet of rock is expected to fall on this occasion from the 4250-foot-high rock face adjacent to "Trollveggen", the "Troll Wall". Later, there will be a much bigger avalanche - up to 108 million cubic feet (three Empire State Buildings) - in the same area; which potentially could cause a flood that would wipe out Åndalsnes. The area is one of the most closely-monitored bits of rock in Norway, with every movement being registered by dozens of scientific instruments and immediately computer-analysed round the clock. The media flocked to the place and set up live cameras. One family even camped out and declared their intention of staying until the avalanche happened, so that they wouldn't miss it. 18 September the following year there was a new alert and once more the road and railway line were closed, and people and sheep evacuated. We suggested, however, that you shouldn't hold your breath. Five years on, the rocks are moving "faster than ever before" and the authorities — fed up of repeated alarms and mass evacuations of sheep — are now pumping water into the crack in the hope of helping things along a bit. Maybe within the next day or two it will fall at last. If you want to see it happen you can keep an eye on the live camera feed, though, of course the actual coverage will be available afterwards so you don't need to waste your time!
7 October - no avalanche yet? - It's started snowing hard and freezing, which means that they've had to give up pumping water into the cracks and they're coming round to thinking that perhaps the rock won't fall before the spring after all. There's a possibility that they'll cancel the "immediate danger" alert yet again. An endless saga and very hard on the people who keep being evacuated from their homes in the middle of the night and then moved back again.
8 October - first freeze - Here too we've had the year's first freeze: a very heavy frost this morning. But a lovely drive into Sandnes, with the sun just coming out around the lakes on the way - (or larger, alternative version here - wasn't sure which was better). (Panorama pictures: click on them to enlarge, then scroll side to side).
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Now well into her second year at Hogwarts Cathedral School,
Katie describes how her classroom is different from all the others.
There's the fragrent fruity scent in the room, for instance, and the gentle sound of clicking.
Katie had got into the habit of taking a mug of fruit tea into class, which seems to have started a class-wide trend.
And then she found that it helps concentration to take some knitting to do while the teachers are droning talking
(it's a very normal thing to do during meetings in Norway)
and now there's half a dozen different knitting projects going on around the room.
We vaguely wonder what will be next.
One of Thomas' sheep managed to get a selfie with its owner (left; click for enlargement).
11 October - guests - We've had 7 guests for the last week. They really belong with our neighbour, who keeps turning up to try to persuade them to go back to him, but they always return here within half an hour or so. Here they are, taking a bit of time out in the shelter of the garage.
Katie, though, is being a guest elsewhere — enjoying a visit to Uncle Bob and Auntie Pat, as well as Claire and little Ellie, who thus makes her blog debut in this picture.
14 October - the priest and the funeral visit - The coming week is Tim's regular monthly "funeral week": for the four days from Tuesday to Friday he plays for any and all funerals in Sandnes (generally between half a dozen and a dozen, spread over the four days) — but then doesn't have any more until the middle of next month next month. It's a great system as it provides enough predictability to allow for advance planning. Priests in Sandnes also do funeral weeks, though Tracy has hitherto not been a part of this system. Next week, though, she is doing her first normal Sandnes funeral week, making a rare T&T partnership at work. So it was that this evening she went to visit the family of the late Alv Eiane (how many surnames can you think of with four times as many vowels as consonants?). When we first came to Norway 3 decades ago, names were an unexpected minefield. Signe, Sigurd, Aslaug; were they men or women [f, m, f respectively, if you want to check your answers], and was TV presenter Odd Gran a male or someone's batty grandma? [man]. But these problems lie far in the past. Usually. Tracy started her pastoral visit to the family of the deceased with "tell me about your mother". They did, finishing up with "she died 15 years ago". Tracy then did an outstanding swerve-and-pick-up manoeuvre. "Thank you. I thought so, but wanted to be sure so as not to exclude her. Now tell me about Alv".
16 October -
Not just sheepish guests that we get here: click photo, right, for a couple of our other regular visitors (here seen browsing the orchard).
Item on this evening's national news. The headline reads: "Four people and a pair of sheep injured in collision between bus and private car". It is unclear which of the two vehicles the sheep were driving.
Our friends Jon and Sarah (ex-Earby, now near Tromsø) have a wonderful description on their blog of a boat journey southwards with their children's choir -
along with a recording and video, and some unforgettable photographs of the scenery. Not to be missed -
this is the first day of their travels
and this is the second day, in which they pass our old home at Lurøy (which straddles the Arctic Circle).
A different injury - Thomas Andrew is open for sympathy after breaking his foot.
"I dropped a cow on it", was his cryptic explanation.
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21 October -
T&T flew from Stavanger (this is what the departure gate looks like at Stavanger airport) to Berlin,
picked up a hire car (not a hearse this time) and have driven to the flat at Neustrelitz.
From there, it's on to Molde to visit Beth, then to Måndalen to visit old friends,
and then — for Tracy, at least — on to Cambodia.
22 October - On an 8-mile walk round a large lake (in warm sunshine) we watched hundreds and hundreds of geese coming in to land on a series of lakeside fields (photo, right, doesn't do it justice at all), before heading off to the Buffalo farm for a buffalo burger.
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Quiet lakes, peaceful autumnal days (apologies for yet another lakeish picture: click and do the usual)
and forest walks.
26 October - This is Norway - On our way from Berlin to Molde, we have a long wait for our connecting flight at Oslo airport. Now late in the evening, we've found a quiet, out-of-the-way corner and comfortable armchairs next to a bar that's closed until tomorrow. We were both struck by the same thing: something that stills sums up Norway for us and that you'd never find, I suspect, in any other country's main international airport. See if you spot it, too, on this photo.
27 October - But this is Romsdal -
View from our hotel window in Molde, looking out towards the mountains around our old home at Måndalen;
dinner with Beth and Gjermund.
28 October - Åndalsnes - We had arranged to drop in for coffee with and old friend in Åndalsnes. When we arrived, she had gathered all her family and even someone we know from near Bjerkreim! Click photo, right, for pictures. Note traditional Norwegian decor in lounge.
29 October - "Home" in Måndalen - Staying with our old friends Dagfinn and Haldis, looking out at the familiar old view across Måndalen, checking on the familiar old organ and the snow on all the surrounding mountains.
Midnight 30/31 October - safely home in Ørsdalen -
Newspaper headline today tells us that
"Katie Rishton is not irritated by delayed trains".
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A letter from Måndalen - Dagfinn has supplied this letter (which I've translated here) from one of his predecessors at Sæbø Farm. The author has such a lovely turn of phrase and — in my view at least — dose of humour that I had to reproduce it here.
31 October - Not Halloween -
Halloween has never been a tradition in Norway, but it seems to have crept in during the last few years.
To combat it in Sandnes parish, we turned our weekly Tuesday-evening family event (which normally includes the rehearsals for the various children's choirs and a family meal)
into a fun festival evening, with (non-scarey) costumes.
Great event: a few pictures here.