RUBY THEFT

Gunnar shot the summer hut picture some weeks ago, while we were visiting relatives from Jaeren and Montana.
I fiddled it to ruby,by tossing and turning in photoshop.
I also once more give you my favorite autumn poem.

When the white eagle of the North is flying overhead,
And the browns, reds and golds of autumn lye in the gutter dead.
Remember then the summer birds with wings of fire flame,
Come to witness springs new hope, born of leaves decaying.
And as new life will come from death,
Love will come at leisure.
Love of love, love of life and giving without measure,
Gives in return a wondrous yearn for promise almost seen.
Live hand in hand and together we'll stand, On
the threshold of a dream.

Graham Edge The Dream lyrics

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.

HANSA MUSEUM IN RUBY

The Hansa museum tells about how the mighty first European trade organization, The Hanseatic League, dominated all trade in Bergen and all Western Norway, and for that sake the rest of Europe, from about the 13th to the 17th century.
The young apprentices, Die Gesellen, came up from Germany and were not to fraternize with the tempting young Norwegians. They were simply locked in their beds at night.
Red evidently was both popular and cheap. Most of the interior was painted in a more or less ruby color. This stationary probably originates from 16th century.
One wonders, what's behind the locked and barred red door? The modern hearts evidently are there for air supply. The design obviously are some four hundred years old.
The young Hanseatic' dreams were more realistic concerning the natural female body, than those of today. No lipo suctions nor breast implants. Even so, the maiden of their dreams were so far away.

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.

FALL IN PINK AND RUBY

The fall is creeping in on us, whether we like it or not. I embrace the sunshine days of September with a passionate "carpe diem" attitude.Never know when the rain and chill will win the ongoing battle I found these flowers in the woods by a salmon river.
The last clover and probably also the the last butterfly of this summer enjoying the moment home in birth town Sauda.
The boat houses seem to be decorated for Ruby Tuesday.
Outside my mother's house a chestnut mare and her daughter are grassing. Gunnar, the horse-whisperer in action. The mare being the alibi for this Tuesday has turned her back to us.
The hut of the angle fishers is abounded for the season. Now is hunting time in the mountains.

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.

FIVE LITTLE WORDS

1. HERITAGE
2. SEA
3. TRAVELS
4. FRIENDSHIP
5. LOVE
Trish has sent me a five words challenge. Actually I was the one, thinking it might be fun to play along, reading Trish's 5 word post. Guess I knew at once what to write. Worst job was searching out the pictures to go with the words.

1. HERITAGE
I am rich.
Not in money, power or fame, but in spiritual heritage.
My parents gave me a spiritual foundation and a spiritual home. Not through so many words, but through their lives.Saying grace before meals, praying together every evening of my childhood,going to Sunday school, lots of hymns singing, my dad reading the Bible as a daily routine, also asking all kinds of tricky questions (the name of Zelofad's daughters? Higla, Milka, Tirsa). Indeed, knowing that I could always place all my needs and burdens in every aspect of my life on the almighty Lord; that's what have formed the essence of my world. What a mighty heritage!
2. SEA
I'm "dwelling by the uttermost parts of the sea".
Just 5 minutes walk to meet the mightiest and most wonderful elements of the earth.I'm getting renewed by walking along the sea in all kinds of weather any season and any time of the day.
The song of the waves will overwhelm any negative thought or trouble of my mind. Collecting seashells, stones and driftwood is a challenge to my creative side, as is also photographing.The summer is not complete if I haven't had a salt bath.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there would Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand would hold me.
3. TRAVELS
We have named our home pages The Exodus/Ulysses years ago.
That about states the importance of traveling in my life too. When, lately, my health has made me stay much at home, even small trips inspire and renew me.
I don't travel to relax or escape life. I travel to live and broaden my horizons.
4. FRIENDSHIP
Friends are the family we choose.
Unlike family they don't necessarily stay that close or that long in our lives.
I've always found that bond strengthened through sharing tears and laughter remain the longest.
This year I've been blessed with reconnecting with long lost friends both from my childhood and youth.
I've seldom felt richer.
I've also made precious new friends through my blog-life.
They have broadened my horizon, made me feel richer, wiser and happier.
Indeed the kind of friends making durable footprints in my heart.

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.

I 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.
H W Longfellow


5. Love

1 Corinthians 13

Love

¹If I speak in the tongues^a]">[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^b]">[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Ruby crowns

Bridal crowns


The Bridal crowns are photographed in a black room, behind glass and wires in the West Norwegian Museum for arts and crafts in Bergen.
They are all made of silver and some gold.
The foliage, the hanging leaves are special for our crowns and also for other bunad jewelry.

The bridal crown can only be worn by a virgin, and only together with a Norwegian bunad.
Only few families possess a bridal crown of their own. Most museums will rent the bride to be a crown for a fair price. Even in America there is a museum where one may rent a genuine Norwegian bridal crown.


bunads
The 19 Norwegian counties each has its special bunad . Rogaland, my county has at least 8 various bunads . Here a Rogaland collection from Serina's confirmation. My mother has made both hers and Serina's. She also has made one for me.

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.

RUBY HARBOR

Bergen is surrounded by 7 mountains which make a perfect sheltered harbor on the windy west coast of Norway.
Gunnar walking in the boarded alleys between the old Hansa buildings. The lens louse to the right remind in the picture because of his bold pink & lemon green clothing.
A viking ship replica is anchored side by side of a tall ship outside the coast culture building.
Cobbled stones and the ancient town gate to the right.
Close to the old fish market where one still can buy live fish. Tourists from all over the world are mixing peacefully.

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.

BAROQUE RUBY

From the visit in St. Mary's Church neighbor city Bergen. The church became Lutheran with the rest of the Norwegian churches in year 1537. The pulpit, or "sermon stool" we call it,stool, as in chair, dear John C, was central in Lutheran churches till the 1970ies.
The pulpit of St. Mary's Church was made in 1676. It has so many interesting details and is so skillfully made, it's worth a visit to Norway in itself. The baroque joy of life and surplus in decoration and colors is no less than breath- taking. The smiling poster at the entrance door, "Yes, you may take pictures", made us stay in the church for a long, long time.
The stairway to heaven.
These are cherubs, not angels. They have genitalia and bellybuttons. They angels have neither, according to my theological guru, brother Ole.
People must have had other ways of thinking and judging than we have. I hardly can imagine a new church with a bare-breasted woman. None has ever been offended by this one.
The heaven over the pulpit. I haven't studied that closely, but the figures shall be the twelve of the Zodiac. The round brass globe is then the sun.
A closeup of a sunflower on the pulpit.

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.

SEPIA DAYS IN BERGEN

The church of St. Mary was built in year 1130 and extended after a fire in year 1245.
Building material is mostly soapstone from 4 different quarries. It's a basilica church with most interesting sideships.

I let this old crucifix be original.I doubt that sepia can enhance the glow in the old wood carving dated from the origin of the church .
This gentleman can vaguely be spotted under one arch of the left side-ship. Three hundred years before Michelangelo this was the way to paint the ceiling.
The ship is a protestant symbol,I think.Probably a Hansa ship bringing goods to Bergen.
The ship symbolizes our journey through life and is often found in Norwegian churches.
Also the main church room, where the congregation is seated, is called the ship.
Almost hidden on the right hand-side of the entrance door another reminiscence from Catholic times. The place for the Holy Water.
I doubt people even think about it, when entering the church.
Times, ceremonies and people change, but God is from eternity to eternity
Old baroque priest Petter Dass wrote in year 1698:

GOD is GOD,even if all land lay desolate,
GOD is GOD,even if all men were dead;
If People giddy, in LOrd's high heavens
Innumerable swarm GOD's crop.




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St. Mary in gold, blue and ruby

Bergen is our second largest city. It also was our capital for a long time, and already an established city and a center of commerce in the 11th century.
After the black death the Hanseatic League made Bergen their Nordic base. They were in control of the city till midst of the 18th century.
The Bergeners and the German Hanses went well together and such formed pillars of the Bergen of today.
After Martin Luther had revolted the Northern European Churches with his reformation in 1517, most churches were stripped for reliquary, St. Mary altars and saint's shrines.
The silver were sent to the king in Copenhagen, the rest were burnt.
Not so in Bergen's oldest church St. Mary's.
The Bergeners and Hansas were conservative and traditionalists; they still are.
They also possessed the power following huge wealth.
Therefore the ancient triptych and even elder wood sculptures remained in the church from the 12th century.
Till this day they overwhelm the visitors.
Gunnar and I spent some memorable hours there last week,... and we will be back.

Originated by MaryT, check hers for today.