Hot in the city....

We were blessed with some very warm days last week (though today it is raining again....) and I was able to take Friday off and get out of the hot city. I wanted to go to Drøbak, a small coastal city a little outside Oslo. I am a fan of Nemi, a Norwegian comic strip about a goth girl growing up. The artist is wonderfully insightful and slightly wicked:-) You can see her new exhibition at Avistegnernes Hus in Drøbak until August 28.

More information about the exhibition is found here.

They call Drøbak for The Summer City. And it is, truly. There seem to be something about the sea air in Norway, because every little village along the southern coast seems to be just overflowing with roses and beautiful gardens.

I fell for this idea. How wonderful to incorporate the sea in your garden like this:-)



On one of the houses near by the harbour, they had this lady mounted on the wall. Isn't she regal? 



The details are just magnificent. She has two golden rings on her right hand, and very fashionable red nail colour:-)

Norway is a maritime nation of old, and these ladies were made to reside on the bow of a ship, plowing through the waters. I always found it strange that ships could carry the name of a woman, be referred to as a 'she' and have a woman as a figurhead, but it was considered unlucky to actually have women onboard. If you talk to some of the sailors today, they still think the same.... some of them.

I have always thought the women had the hardest job of all in areas where the menfolk were out sailing - to have to sit at home and wait for them while trying to make sure your family would survive while the breadwinner was gone for months and sometimes years. Never knowing where he was or if he would ever come home.

In some coastal areas in Norway they have set up statues for the sailors wife. A very good idea:-)