Early Winter Goodness

I have been working like crazy this week. Came home late last night after 48 intensive hours at the library. Was met with a pristine, cleaned house, wool clothes laid out for today's swimming and incense burning in the hall. Happy me, and happy husband (though equally exhausted.)

the last autumn table. look at those sunflowers! saved in from the snow and blooming!

Building Day 1. Kids and Lunch with Dad.

Our view.

small glimpse at our outer facade. will publish the digital 3D one asap.

Today was a day off. Recuperation for all of us. A lot of sleep, swimming, warm lunch and books. It now gets dark already at 16.30. A wonderful adventure, if you just embrace it. The children and I made hot Roiboosh Lion Tea, packed the cashews and headed to the playground, in the pitch black. We all have our own headlamps, so the night is as as light as needed, wherever we turn out head. Wonderful. Sometimes I feel like we are living on Svalbard or somewhere more arctic than here.

Jasmin's doll Cecilia had a birthday earlier last week.

Jasmin silk-foot.

Purple girls on purple Monday. Jasmin is kind enough to show Lea her "glansbilde" collection. (Thanks to Bestemor) An old Norwegian tradition.

help with dishes.

Autumn winds

first signs of autumn.

We love couchsurfers. Baz from Australia and Kate from Utah have been with us three nights, left today for Voss. For all the lovely families out there, opening your home for the world is an amazing concept, and works great with kids. They get to practise their English, communicate and feel the importance of opening your home to travelers and strangers.

Baz came back from hiking up Folgefonna glacier, and out of the blue, whipped up an apricot souffle. We had been in a Tiramisu experimental phase, which has now been replaced by souffles. Raspberry today. Tomorrow...

Greenness all around

Spring nature table.

The small flower children.

I received these beautiful wooden Sprites from Syrendell on Etsy. They are wonderful! It is Jasmin's job to run out in the mornings and fill their hands with fresh flowers.

Felted bees.

a few glimpses into what we have been up to lately:

My WIP project now is cloth bags to hang by their beds, to find their clothes for the days, no questions and less mess. Jasmin made hers together with me, making the twisted rope and stitches along one side. She realy looks forward to finding out what she is to wear, now I just have to make sure I don't forget...

We did a lot of watercolor painting a while back, everyday, and did a whole wall feature, all of us painting our own side.

We celebrated whitsun (or pinse in Norwegian) with the kids Sunday morning a week ago, with paper white doves and washing, making everything clean and fresh.

The dandelions have sprung into seed, covering the hills in fairy-dust. Our garden is coming along, the days have been hot and dry, which requires a little more watering then I had expected, I was of course hoping mother-nature would take care of the watering situation. Pictures to come. Am slightly immobile as of yeasterday, on a hike up the mountain here with the family, I seriously sprained my ankle, have to use crutches, and am off to get an x-ray tomorrow.

our garden flag. handmade flagpole, just a little crooked...

Our greenhouse on the porch is an ingenious food-cart from and old ship Anders came home with one day. Not the most beautiful/ aesthetic piece of furniture, but very effective.

The tomatoes seem to like it at any rate, and the baby-salad is thriving.

To sum it up, Noa's tractor love. I made up a blue tractor lullaby special for him (I sing them all their own good-night song). A couple weeks ago we were at a great local small cultural happening, and they had put out this gorgeous little old blue tractor which WAS HIS tractor! He was amazed! Stunned.

Gardening in the snow

These past weeks have passed in a blur. A little one sick, another cranky. Anders was gone last weekend, and attending a seminar in Oslo this one. I don't mind being alone, I use the time usefully for all kinds of good Waldorf fun, crafts, baking and GARDENING! Yay! Finally, we are stated. The seedlings have sprung out, and until yesterday, I thought we were going to start transferring outside, but then the weather changed.

Lea last week in moments of sun, watering her tray of sunflowers, and sweet-peas.

I am no gardener, nor do I have green fingers, BUT I do believe it is possible to create soemthing out of nothing, despite lack of skill. All you need is time, inspiration, and packets of seeds. Oh, and children help, I admit I would not be so excited without the little helpers, and Root Children stories and wonder of watching things BECOME, all pushing me on. Spending time outside just took on a new meaning. I really recommend a book "Gardening with Young Children" It's one of the Waldorf Early Years books.

I had decided to mainly plant in pots and boxes, as we are only living here temporarily. Then it dawned on me, that we indeed will be here till Christmas, long after the season is over, and any vital strawberry plants I wish to take with us, I just do. Well, here goes then. First stage has been digging out weeded areas that havn't been touched in years. We are going for full kitchen garden herbs, including parsley, rosemary, thyme, peppermint, basel, coriander. After that we got tomatoes, various flowers, sunflowers, radishes, baby salads, argula and maybe potatoes, if I can get the dirt turned in time. Now I just need the snow to melt. Again. And I need to get some sleep.

Spring?

King Winter returns, with a blast of snow and ice.

In these volcano times, it makes you wonder. Though it is most likely simply unstable April weather, warm and dry one day- considering planting out the sweet peas, cold and snow the next.

Taking this opportunity to show Anders' massive wood benches/ work areas for kids. Amazing what you can do with a bench!

SPRING!!

Photo courtesy of Jasmin.

Spring Nature table.

Mother Earth was beautifully done by a wonderful needle felt artist in New Zealand. Thank you Marie!

Nature Awareness Month

Living in Norway, going outside everyday is as natural as any other rhythm of the day. We have a saying: there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. In Norwegian it's a nifty rhyme! Well, inspired by a blog post through a blog post, I heard about something called Nature Awareness April, and thought that would be a good idea, and inspire me to post a little more often, and take a few more photos!

We cook outside for lunch as often as possible.

New sandbox up and running. Water and sand is all one needs, more photos to come!

First signs of Spring

Snowdrop down, crocus up

Head held down, and head up

Down to Mother Earth

And up to Father Sun

Winter is over, and Spring has begun.

- Candy Verney

I found a tiny snowdrop blooming in the cold.

I'll share with you a secret, the little flower told.

Though Winter still is here, he hasn't long to stay

I came across to tell you, that Spring is on it's way!

-Christina T. Owen

Winter is stil very much a fact. It is raining bitter cold. We were at a playground today, the little ones have been asking for so long to go, so I decided to try and see if we could find the swings. The snow had melted enough to barely swing above ground. It was pounding rain, and foggy. But Lea loves to swing, and we found some buried tractors and shovels where the sandbox used to be, so Noa was set for an hour. So nice to be back to that.

Signs of Spring

This last week Winter has been pushed aside by rain and melting snow, blazing sunny days and melting snow. Spring is right around the corner. The seasons this year are timely and exact. Now we are preparing for Easter, birthdays and planting. The snow is still deep, so no signs of buds or tulips, but we have dug out one area for early planting, AND the sandbox has been located and we have begun to dig it out.

Mrs. Thaw ( Tante Tø) has been on the Nature Table for a week. Made by Haddy2dogs.

:::WIP Wednesday:::

The work in progress this week is crocheting a rug for jasmin's small toes when she wakes in the morning, and preparing for easter.

This one is super easy. Long ripped strands of old pieces of bedsheets and curtains at the used store, "Plant et tre" (Plant a tree) here where we live. I have a great hook made out of holly, got it at Nøstebarn a year ago. Size 10 I think.

Green grass in baskets. Ready to bloom.

White Sunday

Picture of "The White Bear: King Valemon" fairy-tale on the Nature Table

Candlemas and snow, snow, snow

For all you in Norway, I looked up Candlemas to be "Kyndelsmesse", originally the same festival of shining lights, when Marie brought Jesus to be purified to the temple 40 days after his birth. Now, at least in the Waldorf tradition, it is a day of cleansing, spring cleaning, rolling/ dipping /lighting many candles, making apple pancakes for breakfast, (the circle a symbol of the sun.)

And most important for Jasmin today:

If Candlemas Day be clear and bright,

Winter will take another flight.

If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain,

Winter is gone and will not come again.

Blue sky and crispy. Perfect.

The sun arose over the mountin at 9.30 in all its splendour and continued to shine and melt the day until the very end. Winter is here to stay. We have dug our paths and hills and caves in the yard, we are out several times a day for hours, in to to eat and rest and out again before nightfall.

Preparing the apples for pancakes.

Watercolor painting after lunch.

Snack at 2pm was "Apemad"- a Danish Monkey Dish with cut fruit,

whipped raw cream and vanilla and shredded cocoanut. Beautiful.