Happy birthday, Norway

I have done something I haven't done for years - I donned my folkdress and went with some friends downtown Oslo to see the parade, and the king and the queen. For those of you that doesn't have folkdresses - I can tell you it involves a lot of work.
Yesterday it was ironing the linnen shirt and polishing all the silver (and try on the darn thing to see if it still fit!). Then this morning getting up at 7 to get dressed and meet up with my friends. It is not easy to get this thing on my yourself, I can tell.

After watching the parade up to the royal castle, we walked around downtown and ended up on the roof of the new national opera building. It is a strange building.... But as you can see, we had lovely weather. A good day was had by all. And all my freckles has made an apparance:)

In the park

I go through the park at the castle most every morning, and it is fun to watch the changes that happens almost daily now. They started filling the ponds the other day, and now the ducks are settling in.
They don't really care about us mere humans.

He barely opened an eye while I was crouching by him to take a picture.

She did not even look at me.

I got an almost Japanese feeling:) but I am in the middle of Oslo, Norway. Oh, and that little stair you see there?

It's for the ducks! How fun is that:) Duckstairs...

Easter breake activities

Norway in on Easter breake. I have six days off! Lovely. And it is spring. Almost all snow is gone. The important parts at least, just a few big heaps left in shadows here and there.

I have ventured into a more adventurous balcony gardening this year, having had different seeds in my refrigerator for three months. Stratifying, it is called. So far... not a lot of result. Except this one:) It's Jacaranda! Yup, I am growing trees on my balcony. In a country where it would not survive outside in the winter time. But it is worth a try:)
I went to IKEA the other day, for something completely different, but I saw these beautiful boxes. Have to love IKEA:)

They are perfect for these:

These are from this not-quite-finished flimsy.

It's been bothering me for a while. I just did not like the big ones when I put them all together. So I am redoing them into 'normal' grandma's garden. Each one gives me three flowers. I have lots more fabric to use, too. I have so much left-over Japanese fabric, I need to use them for something:) This one will eventually be a wedding anniversary gift, but hush-hush for now.

People keep walking into me

As spring arrives and the days are longer and more sunny, I start looking at things quite anew. It's like I am waking up from hibernation, shaking of the snow and ice and start looking around me. Problem is that I keep looking up.... I love the old curlyque architecture in the older part of Oslo, and I keep finding new things to see. And I stop and take pictures... and the people walking behind me bumps into me...
Yesterday I saw this one. I have passed that house so many times, parked my car there when I go to my training studio. But never have I seen this.

How wonderfully imaginative! How fun:) His eyes are yellow, even!

And would you look at that blue sky!?

Permission to leave!

I hereby give winter permission to leave! We have had permanent snow on the ground since November. That is a long winter, even for us Norwegians.
However, new sounds are cropping up. The drip from the roofs, the birds chirping. It's like it suddenly jumps in, all that sound. One day it is quiet, the next day there are sounds.... We went walking by the beach on Sunday. It is wonderful to see the snow melting away. It makes for new patterns.
The ice on the fjord is breaking up. The seagulls are sunning themselves on the rocks.

The fjord looks like a puzzle yet to be finished. But this time, don't finish the ice puzzle, please. Just break up and leave us with open sea! Should only take a month or so.... Sigh.

In like lion, out like a lamb

Sometimes spring in the eastern part of Norway waits until May... late May. We have had snow on 17 May, our constitutional day, though not as a norm. No matter how cold or windy, however, when the snow has left us and green life starts bursting out of the ground, this little guy shows up.We call it Hvitveis, though I found the english name to be Anemones. They grow in the forest, covering the ground like a big green and white carpet. As kids we would pick huge boquetes of these to bring home to our mothers. They don't last long inside as they are made for the slightly chilly outside. I can't think of a more wonderful sign of spring - walking through the forest in the evenings as the sun goes down and see how the anemones lifts its head towards the sun to drink in the last drops of daylight. They are almost like sunflowers, following the sun through its journey over the heavens.

Hvitveis and spring reminds me, every year, why I choose to live in Norway, even with the darn winters we have....

Norge, mitt Norge

I guess everyone loves their own flag:) For me, the Norwegian flag goes perfectly with the colour of nature in spring. Today is our Constitutional Day, and everyone is celebrating, except me. I have a bad cold and am spending the day on the couch, watching old 60's english crime on DVD. Oh joy...

May 17th 1814 was the date our forefathers signed the constitution. Our independence did not last long, as we soon afterwards were forced to enter into a union with Sweden (this after having been under Danish rule for hundreds of years). Norway is actually a very young state, we celebrated our 100 years in 2005.

May 17th is a very big day here, with children being the center of attention. We all have the day off, all schools have big children's parades and all the icecream and soda they can eat. It was not a perfect May 17th unless you were sick from eating too much icecream. So contrary to other countries - no armies, no state officials and no politics (usually:))

So no matter how the weather is, we are all outside most of the day. Last year in Oslo it was cold and almost snowy, today it is a beautiful summer day outside.

Explosion!

Seeing how the trees and flowers are exploding outside these days, I am sooo happy I am not allergic to pollen of any sorts. I just react to certain strong smells, like Lilly of the valley and Lilacs. The first one is no problem, the second is a huge one as that particular sort of trees are all in abundance around here I live. A week or so with closed windows. Oh well.

I went for a walk today and found this explosion of flowers. I have no idea what it is, but it fascinated me.
Look how the flowers are crowding the branch! Amazing how they all fit.

Back at the farm, I have now found back some old UFO's and considering their worthiness of being finished. I started sewing together some of my blocks in english paperpiecing that I had done. I was once thinking about making it into a quilt for my own sofa. As I have not yet made myself a quilt.... I am using all the Japanese fabrics I got for my sister-in-laws quilt last May. I may actually finish this one, one time...

Signs of spring

I have just finished Heddas Garden, but since I don't want to spoil the surprise I will not publish the final picture until after Sunday - the big day. She will be confirmed on Sunday, which most kids at 15 chose to do here in Norway.

I also promised her mother I would be using my bunad - the national costume. I have not worn it for at least 10 years, so I had to dig it out and look it over. And I started looking at the craftmanship of the whole thing. My aunt embroidered it for me, and she is just an incredible artist with the needle.
This is the shawl, silk on silk. Look at the details! I could not do it. She is so neat in her sewing.

My bunad is from Østfold, from where my family can be traced back a few hundred years or so. It is a simple one compared to many in Norway, but it has its specialities, among others a Mourning Rose which makes it suitable to be worn for funerals. I wore mine for the first time at the funeral for my grandfather.

This is the silver we use. I wish I had the specific history of these things, why they were chosen and were the originals comes from. All bunads in Norway are reconstructed from pieces found in each different county.

The airing of the bunads are a typical signs of spring in Norway. This month is filled with confirmations, weddings and May 17th, the day of our constitutions. When I got confirmed about 30 years ago, only one of the girls in my class had a bunad. Today almost all of them have one. And most of them wear them on May 17th. I love the fact that the bunad has become a thing that most people wants to have and use.

So even if I haven't used mine for 10 years (it is incredibly heavy and warm, all made of wool and linen and not very flattering:)) I do appreciate the work my aunt did on this one for me so many years ago. It is a piece of art and a piece of heritage. And you always have something to wear for big days:) I will try to get you a picture of the whole thing this Sunday.

Personality test

I am up to my neck in white dustbunnies and fluff from a batting that is NOT good! My whole apartment is dusty after just two days of machine quilting! Argh. To get into the appropriate zen state of mind needed to finish:) - I went through my pictures from my last weekend in the woods. And I realised that I had a personality test among them:

Taking your dog for a walk, you arrive at a crossing. Which road would you take? This one?
Straight forward, the end of the road clearly in sight. Or this one?

Curvy and bendy, not knowing what is behind the next curve?

I found that walking the straight road, while good enough when accompanied with my aunt and uncle and we could talk and talk, was incredibly booooring when it was just me and Tika. She doesn't hold her end of the conversation very well.

I grew up on a farm next to a big forest and spent my childhood roaming around in them, finding new paths, going off into the darkness... no wonder I am afraid of the dark:)

Conclusion on the personality test? I, for myself, prefer not knowing what is around the corner. Because you never know, do you? It could be a fairy tale castle, or the pond of the water troll:)

So though my stomack is in a twist not knowing what my future is at the moment, I will remind myself of the curvy forest path.

This particular forest path had this at the end of it. Beautiful.

I love spring, the colours of the green. The blueness of the sky. I passed this white stone church on my way, and had to take some pictures.

Look at the stone wall! Amazing workmanship.

I'll be back! in a few days with the final conclusion of Heddas Garden:)

By the lakeshore

I am dog sitting for the weekend. Just me and Tika in a big house in a big forest by a big lake. Not scared or anything! Though watching a movie about a haunted house might not be the smartest idea... well, she will take care of me, I am sure:)
We went for a long walk down to the lake. It is so quiet today, the lake was very tranquil. No sounds to hear. Just us and the birdies.

Tomorrow we are exploring the forest. Good to have a guide. She will find the way home:)

Roaring in

We have spring in Norway now, at least in this part of the country. It is quite a complicated process to get rid of the enormous amount of snow that has accumulated over the last months. And it happens in different ways. Like yesterday, I stumbled over this little dribble of a waterfall coming down the hillside.
A few feet away, the main river is floating downwards, deceptively quiet and sluggish...

.. until you get further down....

And it all ends in this magnificent waterfall! This river was the main source for the iron foundery of the city, and it is still allowed to go in the old tracks. I find the river and the waterfall fun to follow, all year around. It is always something new to see.

Another sure sign of spring - birds. Ducks in this case. I kept watching these three for a while. Her all quiet and serene, just floating along, and the two guys all circling around her. And I figured; go for it, girl. Why can't you have both of them?! Ah, spring:)

Bubbles!

I am done! Knitting, that is.... My friend's new skisocks are done. She will turn heads when she swoshes down the skislopes with these!
There are many, many of these bubbles all around the socks. It is what makes the socks different, these bubbles.

And each of these beautiful bubbles have two ends...

I might not have mentioned it before, but I dislike and hate fastening ends..... I am afraid it might not be until next winter we can see her in these socks... Sigh.

Other than that, to update life in general:

1) Spring

2) Unemployed (still)

3) Spring

4) Snow melting

5) SPRING!!!!