Candles in the dark

At the darkest time of the year, we all need some

comforting light.

Kate December 2009

Some wise words from Goethe

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be,

and you help them to become what they are capable

of being."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

I feel this is particularly important in a teacher student situation.

Some light experiments

A big cup

Drinking something hot is important for me.

Some herb tea or a big cup of hot chocolate.

So I have been looking for a big cup or mug,

and it should be white.

So this may be it.

4 dl of hot beverage.

A present, nevertheless.

Thanks!

"Utedo" is outhouse and it is inside - in a museum

All over Norway you can still see such small outhouses,

though in most places I don't think they are in use any more.

If they are in use, it is probably for a summer house.

But I remember a few outhouses from my life, though not as

elegant as this one.

Place for two, a grownup and a child.

Old newspapers.

Sometimes old telephone catalogues, I am told.

My Norwegian grandmother had a summer house

next to the Oslofjord with an outhouse.

My Swedish grandparents moved to another farm

in the end of the 1950's. Till they installed a WC inside

the house, we used the outhouse.

Another relative has a summerhouse next to a lake.

Still now, visiting her, means using her outhouse.

To learn more about outhouses, you can visit the present

exhibition at the Municipal museum of Moss.

I will have to decide if I am going to share more of what I saw there.

:-)

Waking up. Falling asleep.

Last night I had a thought about myself.

I realised that in my whole life there have been

just a few days when I have been excited getting

up in the morning. Extremely few.

I get up, but no excitement.

On the other hand, my excitement starts from the

evening on, particularly after it is dark outside.

That is when I don't want the day to end.

I like to work in the evening and then continue

for as long as possible.

Evening hours are so quiet, calming.

The darkness outside, the light in my office.

Peace.

I can work undisturbed.

Weird?

Real work. Real journey.

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Wendell Berry, born 1934

PS. I had never heard about Wendell Berry before,

but found this on the Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry

Additional quotes on

http://www.gaia.com/quotes/Wendell_Berry

PS. Thanks Jerry !

From Anne Sofie Larsen's farm and stabbur

Enjoying what Anne Sofie Larsen makes

I bought some applemint tea with dried apple peel.

I could have chosen pepper mint tea or pineapple mint tea.

Perhaps next time...

So many products, made by one incredible woman!

This is just a small corner.

I also chose a jelly made from some mountain berries

I remember as a child.

Krekling in Norwegian.

Christmas cookies 2009

When I was a little girl, my mother would spend many

days in December baking all kinds of cookies for Christmas.

She still wants to serve her guests homemade tradional

cookies, but has decided she musn't necessarily make them herself.

I followed her to a Christmas market in nearby

Larkollen where inside a little white house, she was able to

buy all the cookies she would like.

We also ate a plate of rice porridge, another tradional

dish at this time of the year.

Often people here decorate their doors with similiar

wreaths.

The house itself, originally a private house, is now a

small community center where several organisations

hold their activities.

On this day they also sold knitted, felted and

sewn products to collect money for their activities.

Thanks for 12.5 kilos of vitamin C

Imagine my surprise when I went to the post office

to pick up a parcel and discovered that a friend had

sent me 12.5 kilos of red grapefruits and another

citrus fruit called Will Sweetie.

A full box!

Thank you, good friend!

On Monday I will let my friends at work taste some.

How to make a snow village - step by step

By chance I stumbled upon a tutorial on how to make a

little snow village. I am not sure if I will ever make one,

but it sure looks cute...

Check this

http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2009/12/heartshaped-moon.html