Blessed Day

Living with chronic diseases in two towns has made our little family exhausted, vulnerable, but also thankful for the many blessings other may take for granted.
Last week was no exception I had a doctor's appointment, aa physiotherapist appointment, Serina and I went to stay with my Mom for three days and sought things out about her health and house. We had a great time together, went out to a confectionery and met with many of Mom's friends.


We drove home through a blizzard to reach my physiotherapist. Small, curvy Norwegian winter roads along a steep fjord side are not for amateurs. Serina is luckily no cowardice snail, but a very skilled driver. Surrounded by angels in front and after, we came home whole and healthy.

I use my refrigerator door as a memory board. I'm collecting GOOD memories. Like yesterday when we were at an art exhibition, the first this year. A video installation picturing the life of an elderly window, her memories from a long life both in Norway and America.

Serina offered to make us dinner. After living 4 years away from home she has developed into an excellent cook. Darwin would have loved her; "Survival of the fittest. "
.Salmon baked in oven with potatoes, red pepper, garlic,cheese, yoghurt and leek. Yummy.

We had double espressos and ice for desert in the living room. Serina came up with the marvellous idea of reading loud from Tolkien's The Hobbit. She got the novel for Christmas and was very well aware that neither I nor her father had bothered to read the book.
Besides Christmas Eve we hardly practice loud reading much nowadays. It made great fun, and while the ice was melting, our minds were blooming.

Serina and Gunnar alternated reading while I sat fiddling with my camera. Serina is headed for studies in Ireland next week, and needs to practice English pronunciation.

Gunnar also found it easier reading from the ipad after awhile. The letters in the Hobbit pocket book are very small indeed. Imagine, it's 75 years since it first was published. One of Serina's favourite actors is busy filming the book on New Zealand these days.


Meanwhile I sat admiring a lithograph I bought short time before Christmas. I like the mix of figurative and abstract expression. My head was filled with hobbits, wizards, trolls dwarf and elves, and after two chapters I know for certain this is a novel I'm going to finish on my own. I cannot imagine why I haven't read it earlier. Maybe it was recommended by the wrong people??

It's been a long time since I have been enjoying the peace and togetherness of our family this much. Even my telephone call to my mother was relaxing. My best friend from my childhood and her husband were paying my mother a much appreciated visit. I just felt how my tense shoulders were relaxing. Other of my best friends are living in our books, they are stacked in every room of our home.


My old Remington Portable is accompanying my PCs in the library, decorated with a postcard from Dublin Writers Museum.
I bet Serina will repay the place a visit during her one semester stay at Griffith College. I know parting will be tough. The only thing worse, would be her not being able pursuing her dreams making a future for herself.

Magical Mystery Teacher is hosting Ruby Tuesday 2 together with Gemma Wiseman

THE GREAT COOK BOOK

I bought the most read cook book in Norway, Henriette Schønberg Erken's Great Cook Book, on a recent fleemarket for a farthing.
The book has a leather binding, gold letters and a remarkable flower decoration on the section side. It's a special edition from 1938.
I've never seen anything like it before. picture # 1 is in sepia. Picture # 2 has natural colors. I wonder, is this decoration made by hand?

Visit teach Mary for more Sepia Scenes

Happy Easter

What have we been doing lately? Not much. Weeding straw, moss and- weeds. As you will see, Mrs. Mac; there's enough moss left to feed a heard of rein deer.
This beautiful card came all the way from India, inspiring me to make this post. I haven't sent one single greeting card this year either.
Thank you so very much both for the card, and for taking the trouble posting it, dear Amrita.
I know these things are much more troublesome for you to get done, than it would have been to me. Even so you took time to do it.
I am very grateful.

The five kittens are taking much of our time. Gunnar spent a day teaching them to use the cat toilet. He has patience and will to make it work.

Now Ms Kitty has taken over the job.

Last year I used totally wrong words my Easter decorations. I've later learned that the proper words are twigs and rooster.
Whatever has happened to the English language since I went to school?


The Easter parade on our kitchen table.

Me taking a swing in the garden. More moss and snow drops.
Picture by Serina.

Shy crocus.

The most beautiful book in my collection. A cookbook from 1938
which I bought last week.

A congregation on the island, Karmøy, is selling books to raise money to build a new church after the old burned down.

We have been buying for a good cause.

And for our own pleasure.
Happy Easter to all of you.

RUBIES OF FEBRUARY

February first came with more light powder snow but also more light; 2 hours 6 minutes since winter solstice.
Every season has it's flowers, also at the florist's. Primroses are flooding in January. Last week they were two for 2,5 dollars. I bought eight,- food for my soul.
For the sake of Ruby Tuesday I placed them on terrace while the powder snowflakes were dancing from the white sky.

The author Ludvig Holberg (double click to read more) was born in Bergen in 1684, a child of the era of Enlightenment and the baroque. His plays, mostly comedies and satires, are well known, performed and loved even in the new millennium.
His most famous role figure, Jeppe, has a drinking problem. Holberg described Jeppe's dilemma in two sentences ; "Everybody's talking about Jeppe's drinking, but nobody's talking about why he's drinking."
This quote has helped people asking the important "why," searching for an underlying cause instead of condemning.
I think those few words alone have made us a more tolerant people.

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.

RÙBY WRITINGS

I've had a life long relationship with the Peanuts. Amazing what Carl Schultz could communicate of familiar thoughts, situations and emotions in a just few words and simple, but thorough worked drawings.
Ever visited Crete. One of it's many treasures from the antique is The Phaistos Disc (double click to read more. Many have tried to decipher it's text. Amongst the more famous is a professor from my birth village by the name of Kjell Aarthun. We bought this replica on Crete ten years ago and placed it in our library.

Here we go! It's Ruby Tuesday again!