tiny happy

stripy knitting

Each day as the snow melts a little more, the children and I have explored a bit more of the countryside around our house. Our walks are somewhat limited by Keira's 'tired legs' but I have noticed that she is able to last a little longer each day. Today we discovered Norwegian drains along the side of the road (quite different to the ones we're used to) and also several varieties of bright green, velvety moss growing on the rocks along the path.

And, of course, another luxury of quiet days spent at home is working on my knitting. I finally finished a hat for Keira that I had started an embarrassingly long time ago and squashed in the top of my suitcase before leaving NZ. It's a tam-style hat from this book by Erika Knight.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed knitting.

 

delights

Finding this piece of forest behind our house, now that most of the snow has melted. And finding this pipe in the middle of it...

Discovering this amazing jam, that was given to us in a box of groceries when we first arrived here. It's strawberry and rhubarb. It's because of this jam that I've learned the Norwegian word for rhubarb: Rabarbra.

Listening to this song by Sufjan Stevens. My favourite of his yet.

'Helping' Keira with her paper dolls, and having one those blissful but rare times when I felt I might have slipped back into my childhood for a moment. We were given these paper dolls when I bought K a hat from this shop in Copenhagen airport. I secretly wanted to spend all our savings there. That would have gotten us into trouble, but at least K and I would have been dressed well.

a sad thing, and a good thing.

A sad thing that happened yesterday was that the snow bear.. well, changed:

It's interesting stuff, this snow. One minute it's everywhere, magical and crisp, and gleaming in the daylight. And the next, with just a slight change in temperature, there are slushy puddles everywhere and snowbears lose their facial features. Another new thing for me is falling snow. Yesterday I learnt that huge clumps of it can slide down from the tops of trees and buildings. With apparently not much warning.

We've a lot to learn, because this is our first experience of living with snow. The town we come from in New Zealand is known for being the 'Sunshine Capital' of the country. So I'm not sure if we'll ever need all this excessive snow gear when we return home again one day. I had no idea that children needed two different kinds of gloves for snowplay- regular snow gloves, and then another, extra-waterproof pair over those?... For kindergarten, Arlo needed a special hat that is waterproof and clips around the chin. And a special type of zip-up neck warmer thing instead of a scarf. All that under his double-layer snowsuit. You can see why we've been teasing Arlo about dressing like an astronaut lately.

Something very exciting that happened yesterday (apart from snow falling on my head) was that I won Shannon's competition. Thank you Aunty Cookie! I am pretty excited about that. I don't think I've ever won anything before, and quite frankly I can't think of anything nicer to win.

small comforts

When we woke up this morning (ahem, at 4am) we discovered that it had snowed heavily overnight. A thick covering of fresh snow was caught in the branches and clinging to the house. I love the feeling of stepping into knee-deep snow: the brightness, the clean crunch of it.

It feels like we have landed in a Hans Christian Anderson story. Perhaps those naughty, early-waking children will be carried out on the fjord in walnut shell boats tomorrow?  ;)

Realising we had a whole day to stay at home by the fire, we decided to do some baking. I had remembered to buy some very basic baking supplies while at the shops the other day, so our options were limited.

 

Somehow, I thought of this recipe for raisin cookies, using only a few plain ingredients. I'm surprised we had raisins, actually. Should you find yourself in a snowed-in house with two small children to entertain, and a few jars of things in your cupboard, I have written the recipe below.

Funny how a small domestic act like making cookies can make everything better.

Raisin cookies

about 4-5 tablespoons soft butter (i used a kind of oil/butter mixture meant for spreading, but I'm sure about 100 grams of 'real' butter would be even nicer)

1/2 cup sugar

few drops vanilla essence

1 egg

1/2 cup raisins

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together. Mix in the egg. Fold in the raisins, flour and baking powder and mix well. Put small balls of the mixture onto a baking tray at bake at 180 degrees celc for about 8-10 mins. 

a few things

This was the view from our kitchen window this morning, just as the sun came up. I don't think I will ever get tired of it.

Thank you for your welcoming comments and emails after yesterday's post- I love to think of my friends reading this blog, cheering me on when things are a bit tough. I feel so lucky to have your support! I am feeling quite nervous about some of the challenges that lie ahead, but am trying to take deep breaths and face them one at a time.

I've been listening to this song by Joanna Newsom quite a bit.

And, today a lot of fresh snow fell all around. Which meant we had perfect conditions for making snow-bears.

northern light

Hello from our new home in Norway!

We arrived here two nights ago, after what seemed like an obscenely long time sitting on various airplanes. The trip wasn't too bad, but there were definitely moments when I wondered exactly why we had set off on such a long journey (50 hours, altogether) with the two littles. Let's just say we won't be travelling on any more planes in the near future. But all in all, I think they managed pretty well, and they were excited to find their new Norwegian bedroom had bunks to sleep in. All was well once we finally arrived.

Thank you for your kind emails and comments on my blog, wishing us luck on our travels. They were so appreciated! I hope to reply to them sometime this week. It's a wonderful feeling to know that people are thinking about us and wishing us the best.

We spent our last week in NZ saying goodbye to family and friends, swimming in the sea and drinking up the bright sunlight. I'm glad we did. The light here is very different, much darker most of the time, and the short amount of daylight is filtered through thick grey cloud. It has snowed every day so far, so we've taken a few short walks outside and investigated the different trees and birds in our garden. But then we've rushed back inside to the warmth and cosiness of the heated floor and woodfires.

We are lucky enough to be renting a really nice house on the edge of a fjord, surrounded by pine trees and set away a bit from the centre of our town. Because it is a summer house that is rented out to tourists in the warmer months, we will be looking for another place to live before summer arrives.

But until then, our current preoccupations are working out how to get the children to sleep through the night (jetlag), finding a car to buy (and a sewing machine!) and starting our weekly routine (work and kindergarten.) And, making snowmen in that delicious Norwegian snow.