Friday, February 06, 2009

WINTER HIKES

Hiker girls strikes again!
After opening year 2009 with three weeks in bed, I was finally able to join the group last week Tuesday of January. This is how our scenery is nowadays. Frozen, but no snow. The Rhododendron, queen of the coast, is already out of the start pit. Buds ready for blooming..in May.

Three days ago we were walking round the Stakkestad water. Drinking water reservoir of Haugesund.
The brooks were not entirely frozen.

Tilly is explaining how her mother used to wash clothes in this brook, summer and winter as well.
I should like to know - For Ruby Tuesday- which tree has red branches.
This red boat belongs to the hut Happy-side.
In the back-garden I found this old gate.
Snowdrops in the sun close to the hut.
Liv and Tilly playing Jesus & Peter. Walking on water.
Underneath what we call steel ice. Thick, but transparent. The bass singing of the ice was actually quite frightening.

Tilly's grandchild has made the wooden heart dangling on her rucksack.
Nobody makes modern art like our God.
From the January hike. We started out from a group of Menhirs. They are so fascinating, mighty, yet we know but little about this pre historic stone monuments.
Menhirs in a half circle. Me dressed in four layers of wool and windproof material. Wind and ice craves polar equipment.
We were outdoors for four hours. Walking where no path was visible. The red dots painted on stones were the only signals that we were on that right direction.
I do admire the Free air councils. They are public and provide marking of paths all over the county. We did not meet a single soul that day. If not for the red markings, we would easily have been lost.

No hike without a tea/coffee break.
Stones piled in a varde/ cairn mark the end point of our walk a cod in a fjord. Cairns are used as marks on hilltops and viewpoints from the early viking ages. In times of war bonfires were lit on the cairns. This way the signals went rapidly miles and miles from coast inwards the long fjords.
The men were organized in ship groups, each responsible for arms and equipment, assembling places and also passing the message on.

This is a wooden lavvo, also for free common use.

Inside there's a fireplace, wood and benches. the smoke goes out in an opening in the roof.
kindergartens, scouts and hikers are free to use the lavvos. It's evident that everybody takes care of the hut, put out the fire and close the door before leaving. So far I have not heard of any ravage.
People walking this far have a natural respect for common property. It might, in need, save life.

Monday, February 02, 2009

RUBY HOME OFFICE

My office is situated downstairs, which to times is a bit impractical. I therefore gradually have developed a second one in my kitchen, the heart of our home.
My kitchen dresser is horseshoe shaped.
So convenient to turn my back both to the sink and the stove when I write or surf.
Downstairs I'm reading, painting,
thinking, creating stuff from odds and ends.
Both places music, read: i-pod and loudspeakers, is essential.

I guess this is the last time I go for a tile composition. I just had to prove to myself I could do it on my own. Please do double click to enlarge and get the pix sharp!
A Happy Ruby Tuesday all over the world.


This poem by H. W.Longfellow has been much loved by both my father and me.
It also kind of describes the situation of a blogger.

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

It breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend
.
Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.