An old geography book from 1916, part two

Couldn't resist showing this map of Germany


and "the temporary arrangement of borders
after the war on the Balkan Peninsula in 1913".

An old geography book from 1916, part one

Another present I received:
A geography book printed in Kristiania (now Oslo)
in 1916, a book that once belonged to my late aunt.

It was made for pupils in elementary school.

Interesting to read in the end of 2008!

My First ABC

Today I received this book as a present
It is the same kind of ABC I used back in first grade.


In the beginning the book only introduced us to
singular letters.
Å for "åker" (field)
P for "postmann" (you figured that out yourself! :-) )



Then there were short texts.

Here is Per
at grandpa's.
Grandpa, can Per go for a ride?
Yes, come here,
so you can ride
together with grandpa.

(Far-far, today written in one word as "farfar", shows
that this grandfather is the father of the father,
in other words the paternal grandfather.)



Further on in the book when the stories get longer
and the letters smaller, this drawing shows
the children's parade on May 17th,
Norway's national day.

This ABC was published in 1954, nine years
after the Second World War had ended in Norway,
so I imagine this was an important subject to
teach Norwegian school children.

MAIDEN NAMES

When I was young, we girls "practiced" writing
the family names of boys we fancied, after our own
given names. We knew our own family names would
soon be history. Imagine!

Then there was a period when women often used
a double name that incorporated both the family name
they had before getting married and their husband's
family name, often hyphenated.

Now, I am told, women often just stick with their
original family name when they marry.

But in general, the naming rule for women in
Norway just now is that ---- there is no rule.
The important part for the government is your
ID number, not your name.

To remember, in case I am still around

Two people have told me what they want
to have written on their gravestones.

The lady said:
Din stund på jorden
(Your Time on this Earth, title of book by Wilhelm Moberg)

The man said:
Mangel på ambisjoner.
Det bare ble sånn.
(Lack of Ambitions.
It Just Turned Out That Way)

What do you want on your gravestone?

Just your name and the years of your life?

But it gives me great pleasure to know they are there

More or less:

"It's been many years since I last
touched any books in this bookcase,
but it gives me great pleasure
to know they are there."

Storm P. was a Danish cartoonist, well worth
knowing more about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_P.

Generosity and Pride

"Generosity is giving more than you can,
and pride is taking less than you need."

Kahlil Gibran

Old Norwegian recipee pamphlet

Unfortunately the year this recipe pamphlet

was published here in Norway is not mentioned

in the publication, but my guess is it was

around 1930.

Freia still exists as a firm.

Their baking powder (bakepulver) still can be

bought.

The baking powder is "better than those from

abroad" says the ad.

Norwegian Heritage : St. Olav's Rose (Olavsrosa)

To learn more about Norwegian Heritage, you can

check out the following website

http://www.olavsrosa.no/en/

They use St. Olav's Rose (Olavsrosa) as their symbol

http://www.olavsrosa.no/en/redaksjonelt.aspx?id=85691

If you use the Quick Search on the website

with Østfold in the County window you will get

eight sites approved with St. Olav's Rose

in this part of Norway.

None in Moss so far .........

"Trendy food"

Who would have thought that food could become trendy?

Here is a list of some food that supposedly is
trendy just now, and of some food soon to be trendy.

In any case, food for thought....

What have you eaten?

TRENDY:
Sushi,
ruccola,
balsamico,
smoothies,
functional food (with added nutrients),
chai (black tea with milk)

SOON TRENDY:
Flexitarians (eat vegetables, grains, fruit, but also lean meat, poultry and diary products),
yumberries from China,
ethnic Korean food,
local organic food,
ancient grains like amarant, quinoa and teff,
gourmet frozen food
functional water (with added nutrients)

Trendy or not trendy, grandmother would talk
about a balanced diet. I think that still is true.

Bloodtypes in Norway

According to a magazine article I read,
the percentages of bloodtypes in Norway are:

Type O 39 %
Type A 49 %
Type B 8 %
Type AB 4 %

15 % are RHD - negative
85 % are RHD + positive

The Pareto Principle

Just to remember:

80 % unfocuzed effort, generates only 20 % results.
20 % focuzed effort, generates 80 % results.

Worth studying the Pareto Principle further.....

January - here I come!

I have ordered my tickets.


It started out with two weeks off work to visit
my family in America - a little granddaughter
to be born in the beginning of January and the
granddaughter's parents.

Living in Norway without many of my books and files,
I have decided to send some more of them to Norway.
To do that, I will visit my second country for a week,
before going to America.

That means I will use three weeks of my
vacation for 2009, already in January.

The song about Norway, around forty years ago

Hasse and Tage were some wonderful Swedish
comedians. I remember them with a smile.

In yesterday's Norwegian newspaper I read
part of a satirical song called "Norgesvisan"
they performed around forty years ago.
I googled it and found the whole text, but here
are the four lines cited in the newspaper:

Man borde ge en riktig smäll åt Norge som nation,
för att dom har så fula fjäll och taskig folkpension.
Dom gör ju inga bilar och cyklarna är kass
och deras ende store skald, han heter Peter Dass.

Some explanations seen with my eyes:

This is written at the time Sweden was
the richer "brother" - Stora bror.
Swedish money was worth more than
Norwegian money.
Swedish industry was more developed than
Norwegian industry.
Sweden produced both Volvo and Saab cars.
Norway produced bicycles.
Norway once tried to produce a car named Troll,
without success.
Peter Dass was a priest and poet who lived from
1646 or 1647 to 1707.
Dass is a rather vulgar Swedish word for an outhouse,
a primitive toilet.


A very free translation:
We ought to give Norway a blow in the face
because their ugly mountains and their old age without grace.
They don't produce cars, and bad bikes are not for us,
and their only big poet - his name was Peter Dass.

Being half Norwegian, half Swedish,
I remember when Norway was the "little
brother "- Lilla bror.

And then came the oil......

Good News: New Glasses

Thank you!

" Courage is not the absence of fear,
but rather the judgement that something
else is more important than fear."

Ambrose Redmoon

A roundtrip?

In January my plan is to go to Chicago to visit
my son and daughter-in-law, and the little baby
that should have arrived by then.
It looks like a little girl.

As I started to look around for tickets for that trip,
I also started to phantasize about visiting
my second country for a week.
I was actually dreaming of doing this between
Christmas and New Year when we work
some of the days, but it turned out I would only
get a clear yes or no in a month's time,
and that is too late for ordering tickets.

So then came the new phantasy:
Doing a roundtrip!
One week in my second country and
straight on from there for two weeks in
the States.
That would mean three weeks of my annual vacation
time for 2009.

I hope that within this coming week I will have
the definite answer if this dream can come true.

In the States I am visiting three persons, all
living in the same apartment.

In my second country there are many friends
in many different places, so I know I can only visit
some of them within one week.
I am working on that list.....

I hope this roundtrip works out, because I miss
my friends.

Simplicity

I appreciate Jerry feeding me with some good quotes.

"Simplicity is an exact medium between
too little and too much."

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Loneliness and Solitude

" Language. . .
has created the word "loneliness"
to express the pain of being alone.
And it has created the word "solitude"
to express the glory of being alone."


( Paul Tillich )

Made in the USA with Norwegian Parts

We still do not know if the little baby to be born
in the States in the beginning of January will be
a boy or a girl, but this cute handmade sweater
and matching socks should fit.
My friend H. knitted this.
It was a wonderful surprise!
After I received this, my mother found some
matching mittens too.



The white small Vs on the sweater are called "lus"
in Norwegian; lice(!) in English.

The headline refers to one of the products geared at
Americans with Norwegian roots.
It turns out there are quite a few!
Both products and Norwegian-Americans.

Urtehagen (The Herb Garden) in Rygge in the end of October

Welcome into the world of plants for an experience
of fragrances and quietness, says the sign at the entrance.



Visiting Urtehagen (The Herb Garden) on
Pålsrød farm is something I occassionally do.



Summertime is for me the ultimate season
in Norway and in this herb garden.
But last Sunday with my mother and
a friend from Oslo was special in itself.
Autumn is here.
Winter is close.



One can only be gratedul that a private person ,
Anne Sofie Pålsrød, will share this wonderful corner
with the general public.




The herbs themselves are preparing for winter.
Welcome back in the spring!

This Herb Garden's homepage is in Norwegian
http://www.urtehagen.no/

Art exhibition in Son: Part Two

Tommy Blom, born 1966, presents some of
his art work at Rammemakeriet in Son
this month.


Here are three of his pictures I particularly liked.



After chosing them without thinking why,
I wondered if my choice had something to do
with my interest in genealogy.

You start out with an unknown "shell",
and as you proceed, the persons you find
come out of that shell,
growing taller and taller.
But still needing more work to become
individuals.

Art Exhibition in Son: Part One

A friend brought me to this house in Son,
a little north of Moss.
Son prides itself in being
"The-Place-Without-Mondays".


From the sign in front of the white house,
I could see that this was both a place
to frame your art work and to enjoy -
hopefully - the art presented there.


Inside the cosy room wished us welcome
to the present exhibition of artist
Tommy Blom from nearby Rygge.

Lutefisk

Lutefisk is now served at my local cafe.
I must have eaten this Norwegian fish dish
back in my childhood.
But fact is that the name itself - lutefisk - doesn't
sound pleasant to my ears.
I have seriously considered ordering lutefisk
at that cafe, or even trying to make it at home.
At least in theory.
I mean, I am here to rediscover Norway.

Today I found a text on the internet that
1. made me smile, chuckle, laugh, laugh out loud
2. made me decide that lutefisk is not something I will eat

Sorry!
But if you want to laugh, read this
http://www.davethefox.com/words/0112lutefisk.htm

Checking Images on Google, you will find some
humorous versions tucked inbetween the photos
of plates with lutefisk.
Enjoy!

A tiny bit of snow

After last Wednesday's shortlived snow,
and after talking to a friend who loves snow,
and knowing that I myself fancy snow from a distance,
and that Moss has very little snow,
I thought about Denmark.
Denmark!
They have very little snow too.
Perhaps like Moss?

I have already mentioned Piet Hein,
a Dane who wrote wonderful short poems.
Poems he called "gruk".

One of his gruks is called Dansk vintersport.

The Danish version is of course perfect,
but here comes a simple homespun version
by a non-poet like myself.

Danish Wintersport.
Written when the first snow fell

The first snowflake I can see,
then number two, then number three.
Fast by the door, my skis and me.
Oh, wintersport, this year to be?
And as the tenth flake falls - yes, please!
I hurry out to use my skis.

The First Snow

This is what I saw Wednesday morning
Oct 29th 2008 when I looked down on
the street.
The neighbor had driven off to work,
leaving his parking spot free of snow.
A few cars and bicycles had driven down
the street.

The first snow this year in Moss.
Not very much.
Till the end of the day it had become history,
at least where I live.

The first snow.
As children we would wake up in the
morning, the ground covered with much
more snow than you see here on my photo.
Our familiar surroundings were covered
with a white blanket.
But the strongest memory is of that
special quietness that comes with the first
snow.
As if the world stands still to look at the white
wonder.

On Wednesday morning I felt that quietness
again.

Snow in Norway is part of the deal of living
here, but I like the fact that Moss does not have
that much snow in the winter. :-)

Trying to run away from your debt in 1887

Imagine that you were born in a Norwegian
mountain village around 150 years ago.

A few years after you were born,
a small local bank started to operate in that villlage.

In your midtwenties, you took a loan from that
bank, and friends and family had to cosign your loan.

But paying back the loan was not as easy as you
thought, and now - either desperate or totally
ignoring what will happen to your friends and
family members who cosigned the loan, you
look for a solution to your problem.

This is the same time that many Norwegians
emigrate to America.
Leaving your village, and the loan, is tempting.
Your life in America may even be a big
improvement compared to living in your little
Norwegian village.

But what about the loan?
Taking responsibility for his actions was
not what this particular man did when he travelled
to Oslo, then Kristiania, to go to America.

One of the co-signers, hearing about the man
running away, wrote a letter to the bank:

I allow myself to inform the bank that NN fled
our village last night in order, as far as I was told,
to go to America. He has travelled down the valley
and will probably leave on the Tingvalla line the
coming Friday. He is probably travelling with XX and
his family.
He was dressed so-and- so, age 27, black hair,
pale complexion.
As I will have to pay 52 kroner for a loan he has
taken in the bank, if he runs away, I beg you to
take any necessary action to make him pay before
he leaves the country.

The bank added a note to the police chief in Oslo:

It is not so much for the amount of money,
but for the example for others, that it is important
that this person pays what he owes.

The police reported back to the bank that
the would-be-emigrant had decided to go back
to his village.

What happened after that?
We don't know.

Based on a story in an old book documenting the first
75 years of a small local inland bank.

The Weekend Storm

I took this photo of a restaurant boat in the
Moss Canal in March 2007.
Unfortunately I have never seen it in use,
but friends told me it was great when it was
working as a restaurant.
As you may see from this photo, it did not
look its best, but I had hoped to one day
photograph the transformation of a slightly
rusty duckling into a white swan.

Instead, this last weekend, during a fairly
heavy storm, something went wrong and
the boat now looks like this:

So now we will wait and see what happens.

The local newspaper Moss Avis put a video
on their website. I don't know how long it will
be there, but you could try clicking on this

http://moss-avis.no/section/VIDEO/&id=549

Summertime. Wintertime. Daylight Saving Time.

A week ago Norway changed to Wintertime.

Using the EU system.

• I decided to check into Daylight Saving Time on the internet.

When I was a girl, there was great excitement

when we started Summertime in Norway.

The whole concept of changing the time on all

the clocks at home, seemed very strange.

• It was of course an added difficulty to remember what to do with the clock. Forward one hour or backward? Still some problems with that!

• OK, remember: Spring forward. Fall back.

It turns out that Benjamin Franklin had

already in 1784 proposed using Summertime

and Wintertime, but it stayed an idea only.

• Then in the First World War Germany, France and Britain started to use Summertime and Wintertime. More hours for active warfare? Some other countries also tried it at the time, including Norway in 1916.

Between the two world wars, the system was

abandoned, but reintroduced during the Second

World War in several countries,

including Norway.

• Then Norway took a break till it was used again between 1959 to 1965.There seems to have been a lot of discussion around this and in 1965 the Norwegian Parliament decided to stop it.

In 1980 it was reintroduced once more in Norway.

Following the EU system means that on the last Sunday

in March at two o'clock in the middle of the night

the clock is put one hour forward.

On the last Sunday in October in the middle of the night,

at three o'clock, the clock is put one hour

backward.

• Source, in Norwegian: http://www.timeanddate.com/norsk/omsommertid.html

• For the big picture, in English: http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/g.html
• About Franklin's essay: http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin.html

Just autumn

Norgesglass

When I talked to my mother about her
tyttebærsyltetøy, she warmly recommended
preserving the jam in a glass jar called
Norgesglass.

Norgesglass were, according to the
Norwegian Wikipedia, produced in Norway
from 1908 to 1978, in a staggering number
of around 75 million jars.
Even dividing that number by the presentday
population of Norway gives you around
15 - 16 jars per person!

Despite the fact that Norge (Norway) is clearly
written on each jar, the invention actually
came from Yorkshire where John Kilner & Co
Glass Company invented and produced
such jars from 1842 to 1937.

But other countries and producers copied
the idea, and as already mentioned, it was
produced in Norway for seventy years.
For the last twenty years (1958-1978)
it was produced at Moss Glassverk,
a glass factory that has now become
a residential area of Moss.

There are at least six different sizes of
Norgesglass.

You can still find Norgesglass at the local
fleamarkets and at charity sales.

In general , the number of Norwegians
picking berries and mushrooms,
and preserving meat etc.
has gone down drastically, in particular
after the fridge and the freezer became a
common household appliance.

The glass jars can last for a long time,
if they don't break, but there is usually
one part you to buy new, namely
the rubber rings.

A Lesson from my Mother: Tyttebærsyltetøy

Source of this photo: http://www.bioresurs.uu.se/myller/fjall/lingon2.htm

Tyttebær in Norwegian.
Lingon in Swedish.
The following names in English : Cowberry, foxberry, lingberry, lingenberry, lingonberry, mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea).

As children playing in the forest, the blueberry was what we picked to eat while playing.
The taste of "tyttebær" was not a favorite. It is quite sour, as I remember it.
But my mother picked a lot of tyttebær to make tyttebærsyltetøy or Lingonsylt as she called it.

Blueberry jam, still my favorite, was for pancakes and sandwiches and cakes.

Tytteærsyltetøy was for eating with meat!
I remember eating meatballs and reindeer meat with tyttebærsyltetøy.



I don't eat meat , but in September my mother gave me some homemade tyttebærsyltetøy, and by now I have eaten half of it!

Her recipe for making it, is one she read many years ago in a Swedish magazine called ICA Kuriren. She insists that this Swedish recipe is more gentle with the berries and that after two weeks you get natural jelly on top of the jam.

Here comes the recipe.

2 1/2 kg of tyttebær = 5 liter of tyttebær
1 liter of water

Cook this for 10 minutes. Be careful - it easily cooks over.

Take the casserole to the side and mix in 2 kg of sugar till the sugar is completely dissolved.
No more cooking.

Pour the jam into clean, preferably warm jars and close tightly at once.


Tip from my mother: To keep your jam in an airtight Norgesglass with rubber rings is the best way to preserve your jam.

Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur

Just read a newspaper article about an Icelandic
filmmaker named Baltasar Kormakur.

So now I should make an effort to see one of
his movies.

101 Reykjavík (2000)
The Sea (Icelandic. Hafið) (2002)
A Little Trip to Heaven (2005)
Jar City (Icelandic. Mýrin) (2006)
White Night Wedding (Icelandic. Brúðguminn, 2008)

Here is one article from 2001 after the release of "101 Reykjavik"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2001/may/25/culture.features2

Here is a review of White Night Wedding
http://www.nordicfilmandtvfund.com/index.php?sid=59&ptid=3

Finding Your Biological Mother on Facebook

In 1990 in Bogota, Columbia a seventeen
year old girl had just given birth.
She made the decision to give up
her newborn daughter for adoption.

A Swedish couple adopted little Angelica
and brought her to Sweden,
two months old.

According to the law in Colombia,
Angelica, like other adopted children, can,
at the age of 18, get information
about their biological parents.
The biological parent cannot get help to locate
the child they gave up for adoption.

So, in principle, Angelica could have
traveled to Colombia next year to find out
where her mother lives, and if she was still
alive.
The exact name of the biological mother
was always known to Angelica from
her adoption file.

But now Angelica will probably go to Bogota
before her eighteenth birthday, because she
has already found her mother!
Through the internet.
Through Facebook.
She just clicked in her mother's name on
Facebook, and voila!

She now corresponds with her biological
mother through the internet.
It turns out she has two younger brothers
and a younger sister, a maternal grandmother
and a maternal grandfather in Colombia.

What will happen when they actually meet?

How will the adoptive parents help their
daughter cope with this situation?

Source:
http://sydsvenskan.se/lund/article377994/Mamman-fanns-pa-Facebook.html

Autumn near Amfi

What a blessing that old trees



were protected



when old houses were pulled down
and new houses were built.

Another Prayer

Help me, O God, to find still moments,
quiet spaces within to refresh my soul;
cease my questions, my inner debates,
and let me meditate on Your goodness.

Help me, O God, to nurture my courage,
recalling moments of strength.
Let me remember days of fortitude
and the certainty of Your regard.
Help me, O God, to turn to the light,
to feel the warmth of Your touch,
my own face and fingers outstretched alive,
alive in Your sight.

Lend us the wit, O God, to speak
the lean and simple word;
give us the strength to speak
the found word,
the meant word;
grant us the humility to speak
the friendly word,
the answering word.
And make us sensitive, God,
sensitive to the sounds of the words
which others speak
----sensitive to the sound of their words ----
and to the silences between.

PS Thank you,Jerry!

Gudes gate, Moss

I love walking up this old street leading to the public library, to the local museum and to the cinema.
Lately the iron posts and the concrete seats were added, a bonus for us pedestrians.

Lesson from my Grandfather: Repair your own Shoes

What is this?
I wouldn't have seen it in the secondhand shop if my mother hadn't exclaimed: "Your Norwegian grandfather had one like that under the kitchen stove!"
"What did he do with it?" I asked.

My mother then explained that he used this for repairing the family's shoes - and he was not a shoemaker by trade!
I do not intend to repair my own shoes , but I do want to know more about how you use this piece of iron, even though I didn't buy it.

Prinsens gate, Moss

When I came to Moss two years ago, I remember this little side street as a building site.



Now it looks like this.
I don't know which prince was the reason for naming this Prinsens gate (The Prince's street), but it does look much nicer this way than it did a few years ago.
Moss also has Kongens gate (the King's street) and Dronningens gate (The Queen's street).

Present owner, past owner

Having both Norwegian and Swedish roots, I sometimes enjoy seeing how these two mix.

Here f.ex., after coming to Moss two years ago, I found out the mills downtown had been bought by a Swedish firm.



The firm was earlier called Moss Aktiemøller.
And now the Swedes had taken over!
But looking up on the tower a stubborn artistic window still showed off some local patriotism -
MA, if you look closely.

Joke: A successful divorce

Lady A:
I heard you got divorced.
Lady B:
Yes, that is true.
Lady A:
So how was the divorce?
Lady B:
Well, first we had some really ugly fights,
but then we let the lawyers take care of
everything.
Lady A:
And how did that work out?
Lady B:
Great.
His lawyer got our summer house by the sea
and my lawyer got our villa.

The Vigeland Sculpture Park: Sinnataggen

Among all the sculptures in the Vigeland Park,
this fairly small sculpture called Sinnataggen
in Norwegian (the angry one, perhaps,
in translation?) is the first sculpture I remember
as a child of four or five.

I was quite convinced for several years that my
younger brother had been the model!

The Vigeland Sculpture Park: Inner Gates, around the Monolite

Young women.
Men.
A few simple lines translated into iron.

I have loved these gates since I was a little girl.

Photographs: My daughter-in-law and/or my son

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo: One of the Main Entrance Gates

Photographs: My daughter-in-law and/or my son