no worries

Our best friend Ludo practicing the art of simple living, or simply living, one might be tempted to say -

covered in snow

I live in a country where we are used to snow, some even say we are born with skis on our feet... 

But my hometown, Stavanger, is an exception. Its location by the North Sea and The Gulf Stream has normally secured us relatively snow-free winters, but not any more! Last year we had snow for three months, this year doesn't look any better. Right now its pouring (maybe not the right word when it comes to snow???) down. Here is what it looks like from the window of my study:  

I must admit: Taking picture of snow snowing isn't the easiest of task for an amateur photographer ... The temperature is minus 4 degrees centigrade.

Maile Meloy

I'm in the middle of an unbelievable hectic and chaotic week. 

The only place to seek some relief is in literature. But time is sparse, still - I have managed to spend some minutes now and then with Maile Meloy, and her book Half in Love. Its fantastic! I'll come back with some additional and more meaningful comments on her authorship when time allows... I already know fore sure I'm gonna read all her books. 

Liu Xiaobo

As readers, writers and human beings in a relatively free world:  - it is important to care!

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the “fraternity between nations” of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.

Liu Xiaobo is a renowned literary critic, writer, and political activist based in Beijing. He served as President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center from 2003 to 2007 and currently holds a seat on its board. Liu Xiaobo was a professor at Beijing Normal University and has worked as a visiting scholar at several universities outside of China, including the University of Oslo, the University of Hawaii, and Columbia University in New York City.

Liu Xiaobo - Amnesty

second-hand

 I got hold of the most beautiful knitting patterns at Fretex (second hand shop) today. I can remember sweaters like these from my own childhood - these models must be the same age as my parents.

Maria fell in love with this lady's helmet - TK with her eyelashes... 

time to tidy up!

 We had a great party for TK last night, so no surprise the house looked ... well; let me put it this way: very well used ... this morning. After tidying living-rooms and kitchen I continued into my study

The main problem in this room is lack of shelves. To give myself some more space I removed all the books I have review this year into a shelf in the hall

As you can see the desk isn't quite cleared yet. I feel like my head is clearing up as I sort out my books and notes - giving room (physical and mentally) for new thoughts

My reading-chair looks ready for new hours with me and my books

To get some peace and quiet I've put a warning sign on my door, it says: Hush! Work in progress. Visiting hour 12:00-13:00. Please do not disturb. The line in the middle says: new brewed coffee welcome at all hours (professor TK has become an excellent barista lately)

On a second note, just underneath my own, my son has written: April fool - hm... (seems like there might be a slight authority issue here???)

the joy of strawberries in the winter

celebrating!

someone's turning 50 - and its not me!

happy birthday, TK!

(and no; he doesn't usually go to sleep wearing a bow-tie, not yet ...)

november

My very local Walden Pond

pure magic

this is what an ordinary day might look like in my part of the world. fantastic, isn't it?!

pure nature - pure magic

the best of friends!

I start every week eating/drinking breakfast at Sandnes with Henriette. (she used to have a lovely blog ...)

Yesterday morning she brought me this - for me to enjoy all the rest of the week ...

Homemade biscuits with lots of different seeds. English marmalade. Vanilla and cinnamon for my oat porridge & English breakfast tea.

early evening at Ogna

going abroad

first frost

Vera gave me a great tips yesterday, and while waiting for Mr. Birkhead's The wisdom of birds to arrive I am studying the first frost.

This morning there was frost on the Dogwood bushes, I hadn't brought my camera so I have to borrow a picture from the net, but this is absolutely what it looked like First frost on dogwood

dogwood |ˈdôgˌwoŏd|

noun

a shrub or small tree of north temperate regions that yields hard timber and is grown for its decorative foliage, red stems, and colorful berries.

ORIGIN so named because the wood was formerly used to make “dogs” (i.e., skewers).

into the wilderness

While Thoreau is taking me into the wilderness, you can try joining Mr. Dorokhov:

Russian North, Part III, Kenozero National Park

Try watching it as a slide show, here are some fantastic shots!

working too much

I have been writing far too many critiques this month, I need to cool my heated brain with some reading - my own chosen reading

I'm continuing my quest for writings on reading, and, strangest of strange, I've started to read H.D.Thoreau (1817-1862) (I'm really surprising myself these days!)

I'm starting with Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, which is an excerpt from Walden, reading it together with The Portable Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life . . . and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Walden, the place of Thoreau's cottage in the woods, the setting for one of his most famous books: Walden

Thoreau regarded his sojourn at Walden as an experiment with a threefold purpose.

1. First, he was escaping the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution by returning to a simpler, agrarian lifestyle.
2. Second, he was simplifying his life and reducing his expenditures, increasing the amount of leisure time in which he could work on his writings (most of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers was written at Walden). Much of the book is devoted to stirring up awareness of how one's life is lived, materially and otherwise, and how one might choose to live it more deliberately.
3. Third, he was putting into practice the Transcendentalist belief that one can best "transcend" normality and experience the Ideal, or the Divine, through nature.

To my knowledge I'm not an environmentalist, and I'm not into simple living... My purpose reading Thoreau is, I believe, to find or become more aware of life as a happening here and now. To feel alive - to be here - as my life unfolds, in its small scale, the only scale that really matters.

"I’m tired, and all I want to do now is read"

I enjoy my work more than ever, but must admit that I, in the rush of exhibitions and new books filling my autumn days, long for peaceful hours with my favorite authors, e.g.: Annie Dillard

Pulitzer winner Annie Dillard’s second novel, The Maytrees, came out in 2007. She’s written over ten other books, but she says The Maytrees, her first book in eight years, will probably be her last. “I’m tired,” declared the 62-year-old Dillard, who says that she won’t be doing any more touring, public readings, blurb writing, or letter answering. “I worked so hard all my life, and all I want to do now is read. I’m glad to go out on this book,” she says. (The Maytrees tells the story of two married artists in Provincetown, Massachusetts, after World War II.) She did mention one, possibly tongue-in-cheek idea for further work: “To take all my never-used metaphors and just throw them up in the air for other writers to use.” Grab Bag, by Annie Dillard? “I like the title Free-for-All,” she says.

(Dillard has told Publishers Weekly that the first draft of The Maytrees was 1,400 pages long and that she ruthlessly cut the manuscript down section by section, character by character, syllable by syllable, until only 216 pages - nothing superfluous - remained).

in the sky

The sky over Ogna, seen from bed, early Sunday morning.

becoming nun

i have some writing to do. the next week i'll be doing it from here