Our Highland Fling

Day1

We went on a long weekend trip to Edinburgh with Reidar's amateur theatre group - 40 of us in all. On the first day we were turned loose to explore the city by ourselves. We had Sissel Sjølaas with us. We strolled down from the castle along the famous Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace, past more kilt-shops and pubs than you can shake a stick at. We stopped at the Tollbooth Tavern for lunch. The bar was dark and reeked of sour old beer, but the dining room was brighter and the food good. It's been a tavern since 1820.

We also stopped at a second-hand bookshop which sold childrens' books and comics, some of which were even older than me! We didn't buy anything (steep prices ) but it was fun to look.

We decided to save Holyrood Palace for Saturday, and instead, tired and footsore, got onto an open-topped tourist bus, which took us for an hour's tour of the city.
In the evening we all went to the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Centre for dinner. We had a private dining room, which was probably a good thing because Nordbygdarevyen can be an enthusiastic group when they've had a glass of something and feel more at home. We started with potted ham, had lamb rump as the main course, and finished with a chocolate dessert that was so rich that some people were defeated by it. I ate mine - well, it's only good manners....

Another installment soon.

Jumble ducks and jewelry

While at the jumble sale (english) flea market (american) loppemarked (norwegian) I bought these pretty shiny things for very little money. Also, incidentally, the red velvet skirt they're sitting on, which, incidentally, fits perfectly. So when I get old and die, my one and only daughter will inherit these as part of my extensive and priceless jewel collection. Lucky girl!

Would you believe we went to a similar event the day before. I didn't really find anything I wanted, but had planned to buy something to support the cause, so opted for these two little chaps. Cute, aren't they?

Fleamarkets and flowers

We went to a local village hall that was holding a flea-market to raise funds. I found this large and very sturdy handbag, and some random clothes that I may or may not use, and it cost me 30 Kr, or 3 pounds or 4 dollars.It's just what I've been looking for, with lots of pockets inside, and room for a book, a spare pair of shoes, my camera, an umbrella or whatever. It will be perfect for our forthcoming trip to Edinburgh.

I was really on the lookout for some eggcups for Tamsin and Nick, because their home doesn't seem quite complete somehow. I eventually found these, which I thought were nice. I also found a rather unusual glass which appealed to me, so I bought it for Jeremy.

On the way home we drove through the country lanes, and the banks were spangled with pretty white wood-anemones (hvitveis) which are Tamsin's favourites, or at least I know she loves them and misses them. I didn't have a camera with me, so today. on our way to work I stopped and took a picture of the blue variety. I hope she enjoys seeing these.

What a fun day! After getting lots of bargains, eating lovely waffles with raspberry jam and sour cream, and seeing our first hvitveis, we stopped off at Arild's house and chatted about the Scotland trip. We also visited some neighbours, so spent a whole day doing frivolous things! Fun!

Easter

Today is Easter Sunday, and true to tradition I have done my famous Easter breakfast table, using as much yellow as possible. the tablecloth has a pretty yellow border which doesn't show in the picture. the napkins have cute hens.

When I was little and lived at Roseveth Farm, we had boiled eggs every Sunday morning, and on easter Sunday the eggs were decorated - maybe with faces drawn on, maybe dyed or with funny hats. My granny knitted little woolly hats to keep the eggs warm. We were also given chocolate eggs, quite big ones filled with chocolates. When I moved to Norway my mother soon discovered that these eggs do not travel well in the mail, so instead sent Lindt chocolate figures - bunnies, kittens or butterflies. When I got children of my own I kept the tradition going, and decorated the table with as much yellow as possible (my mother never bothered) and gave them small gifts instead of chocolate eggs, because they were just about impossible to get hold of in Norway. Their granny always sent Lindt figures and maybe a little book, so Easter breakfast was like a little Christmas. We had a large cuddly toy rabbit who sometimes posed as the Easter bunny, and once I even made a treasure hunt, so Jeremy and Tamsin had to solve a series of clues before they found their stash. We always have a Kinder egg in the egg-cup ( chocolate with a small toy inside) and the boring white supermarket eggs get brown by adding papery onions skins to the boiling water.

Easter to me is mostly about the celebration of Spring. The frozen land is waking to life again, and the yellow symbolises the sun. Chicks and lambs mean new life - and we always have a roast leg of lamb for Easter Sunday dinner. We did today, it was sprinkled with rosemary and studded with whole cloves of garlic . The potatoes were par-boiled then lay in the roasting pan, soaking up the meat juices for the last hour of cooking. Yummy!

Happy Easter everyone!

Back on track

Despite having my parade rained on (someone that thinks reading blogs can allow viruses to creep in )I've decided to carry on regardless, even if my fanclub is tiny but exclusive. Both computers at home are still very tja... skeptisk... about blogspot, but I can use the one at work, and look - it's outside office hours.
I was very flattered to hear that Karen has visited my humble blogsite (Hey, Karen!) and wish I'd got to meet Stepper when we were neighbours for three weeks. Give me your blog addresses so i can learn from the experts. My Tam does a pretty good job though...
Have a nice day, what's left of it.

Problems

Why is this happening to me? All weekend I've tried to log into Blogspot without success. The little box that gets filled up with a row of dots never gets more than half full no matter how long I wait. We tried installing Firefox, but thar didn't help. I tried to sneak in via Tamsin's blog, but it wouldn't let me - it wouldn't even let me comment on her blog. Now I'm at work, and I can waltz right in. What am I doing wrong? Advice please - apart from stop whinging

Desperate from Løten

Finding my feet

I've realised how I can use this blog. Instead of writing Dear Family letters, I can just write this like a journal and give the address to my family and friends. That way they can see how I'm getting on when and if they want to.
For instance, I could tell them how we've still got plenty of snow, although it's beginning slowly to melt. We had some very cold weather in February, with temperatures under -20 C. When it did creep up to a few minus degrees we got snow by the truckload, so there's plenty to get rid of. We're enjoying balmy days with 3 or 4 plus degrees, but it freezes rock-hard at night. The sun comes up and goes down around 6.30, giving us 6 1/2 hours more daylight than we had on the shortest day. There was a picture in the paper today of a little girl clutching the first wildflower of the year - something that makes us all feel optimistic. Easter is coming pretty soon, and after that we should be free of the white stuff for a few months.
I've been invited to be in the 17th of May Committee again this year. We'll still get to lead the National Day parade again, but most of it is practical hard work. There are 1200 children, each of which will get ice cream. We have to bag the ice creams according to school, classes or kindergarten.
We serve hot stew to the choirs and bands after the parade, and are responsible for hoisting flags and traffic control, as well as organising the actual parade. We also provide to speakers. I will not be holding a speech this year.
The revue group has already held a couple of script-writing meetings in preparation for the revue in the autumn. There will be a revue festival near Trondheim in July - two of Reidar's sketches have been submitted. we plan to go even if they're not selected. We're pretty excited about the trip to Edinburgh. 40 members of the revue group will be going, and we each pay just £100 towards expenses, otherwise the revue pays for everything - flight, hotel and just about all our meals. We'll be gone from Wednesday 6th to Sunday 10th of May, so I hope Robert, Claire and Sophie will still be able to come.
Oops! it's after midnight, so I'd better stop for now.