Sea Glass

My growing collection of sea glass
got its own little "house".

I find walking along the beach looking
for these pieces of glass rounded by the sea
very relaxing.

Some kind of meditation where I am
completely present in that moment.

Most of the pieces I find are green.

When I find sharp pieces of broken glass
I now think of it as raw material for future
sea glass. :-)

Bouncing back

Success is how high you bounce
after you hit bottom.

General George Patton

Alby

In the past, many stones were pulled out
of the fields, especially after the winter,
so it was natural to use these stones
as fences.



Alby in Jeløya, Moss, used to be a manor.
It is now a well-known gallery.
But the general public also has the
opportunity to enjoy the beautiful nature.



Walking through the forest towards
the Alby beach recently, it was clear that some
spring cleaning was being done.
Some trees have to be cut down.



Both people living in Moss, but
also visitors, like to go for a walk at Alby.

The view from the New Opera House in Oslo

Last week I was in Oslo and had to wait
45 minutes for my train back to Moss.

That was a good opportunity to cross
a pedestrian bridge going from the central
railway station Oslo S to walk on the
roof of the new Opera House.







A roof with a view.



The yellow building in the background
is the old railway station, now part of
Oslo S.
You also see the bridge I was mentioning
earlier.



And this is how it looks when you approach
the Opera House on the end of that
pedestrian bridge.

Worth a visit!

The roof of the Opera House in Oslo

Some photos taken on the roof of the new
Opera House in Oslo.

A doll bed with some history

Kate, now three and a half months old,
is inspecting three of her dolls in
a new-old doll bed her parents bought at a
church rummage sale for 5 dollars.



As for the bed itself, it will
remain a mystery who owned it before,
when it was made etc.

But as to the bed linen, that is a different story:
It was made by my Swedish maternal
grandmother for me when I was a baby.

I felt that Kate should have it when I visited
the family in January.

So it felt very good to look at these two
photos, spanning , in a symbolic way,
five generations in our family.

Around 1921

This is an old very dark family photo from
the beginning of the 1920's.
A friend of my grandmother whoo had emigrated
to the States was visiting Norway.
She had brought a camera and took this picture.
When she came back to the States she made
a print as a small postcard at Mandel's who
added "Positive Process. No negatives".
At the bottom it says "Copyright 1911 by
the Chicago Ferrotype Co."



But here we are back in Oslo - my grandparents
and their five children.

Sea Glass

Moss is next to the sea.
Sometimes I forget that.

Till a few days ago I had never heard the
expression "sea glass".
But when you walk along the beach and see
pieces of glass washed ashore, you see that
some are new sharp-edged pieces, but others
have spent so long time in the sea they
have been rounded and turned into small gems.
Sea glass.

So twice I have been down to the beaches of
the Oslofjord looking for treasures, using it
as an opportunity to move around physically,
but also as some kind of meditation.

Checking the internet, I found that some
colors are very rare (orange and red) and the
three most common colors are those I have
found - green, brown and white - but the
issue of rarity of color is not important for
me just now.
I want my sea glass to have rounded
interesting shapes and be comforting
when you hold them in the palm of your
hand.

Sea glass.

Lesson from my greatgrandmother

My greatgrandmother Selma died when I was
nearly six, I think.
I remember her sitting in her apartment
upstairs in my grandparents' house.

When something gets lost in our family,
my mother will use Selma's saying:
"Everything will be found /recovered
that has not been burnt up or stolen."

And it works!
Because most of the time the lost objects
have just been misplaced.

Difficulties as God's gifts

A wise man once said,
"Whatever came to me,
I looked on as God's gift
for some special purpose.

If it was a difficulty,
I knew He gave it to me to struggle with,
to strengthen my mind and my faith."

That idea has sweetened and helped
me all of my life.

(anon)

Thanks, Jerry!

Hemmets kokbok with a website

After writing the blog entry about my
mother's cookbook, I googled around a little
and found that Hemmets Kokbok had started
back in 1903.
From 1903 to 1946, they had printed
half a million paper copies in 40 editions!
Remember, Sweden is a small country.

But then I found that in the spirit of
improving cooking skills and enriching
recipe collections and updating
information regularly, the Nutrional
Department (IKV) at the University in
Uppsala now has a website called
Nya Hemmets Kokbok.

The website is only in Swedish,
but it has several sections:

Recipes
Search Engine
Cooking School
My Page (where you can save your recipes)
About Us


In the memory of my Swedish grandmother
who bought the book and in honor of my
mother who has used the book a lot,
I have decided to try to use that website.
http://www.ikv.uu.se/kokboken/index.php

For me, this is a good example how the
internet is a much better alternative than
a book when there is a lot of information,
the information is changing all the time,
and I , as a consumer, only need part of
the information.

Lessons : Women and cooking

Hemmets kokbok.
The Cookbook of the Home.




P.A. Norstedt & Soners Forlag
Pris 7 kronor

Price 7 Swedish crowns.


My grandmother, then 48 years old,
was marrying off my mother, who was 18.
So she bought the cookbook seen above
and sent it with the young bride to Norway.
The young bride used it.

My second grandmother, 65 years old then,
and my two aunts, 39 and 35 years old,
heard about the cookbook and found it , well,
amusing.
Cooking with a cookbook?
After all, women were born with the
knowledge how to cook.

Two families, two attitudes.

Kate three months old

Going through life

Jerry is my quote-supplier.
This time with the following:

"How far you go in life depends on your
being tender with the young,
compassionate with the aged,
sympathetic with the striving,
and tolerant of the weak and strong.
Because someday in your life you will
have been all of these."

(geo. washington carver)

Light and shadows

Some time ago I decided to catch
some shadows.
Here are four of the results.

What to do with your money

As a child we had to save money in a plastic
container with one slot with some springs to
prevent coins falling out, a small hole to
push in bills and a lock impossible
to open. Frustrating!

I don't remember ever going to
the bank to empty that unfriendly plastic
container.

In my childish way of thinking
I dreamt of a ceramic saving bank that I
could physically break the day it was full.
And perhaps wriggle out a few coins now
and then, if I needed them. :-)

And what was the purpose of saving money?
It seemed like a sneaky way to take away
the possibility to use any money we had
received as presents. :-(

Today I heard about a different kind of
saving bank - a cow bank with four tummies!



Imagine, here I have lived a fairly long life,
and suddenly this cow bank helped me
think in a different way.
Though it is intended for children to learn
about money, I am seriously considering
buying one for myself.

Check out
ttp://www.msgen.com/assembled/moolah.html

Kate is three months tomorrow

Holidays

Holidays are made for sharing with family
and friends.
That becomes crystal clear when you live
on your own.

Service

Three short stories to make you think.

SLOW.
Going through the official health system,
getting to a cardiologist would be a matter
of waiting three to four months.

SLOW AND THEN FASTER
Once there was a dry cleaner where it took
three and four weeks to get your clothes
back.
Then a competitor started, and suddenly it
only took a few days.

FAST
Late Monday night I ordered some labels
on the internet. Tuesday those labels were
printed and sent out by regular mail.
Wednesday morning they were in my postbox.
Less than 36 hours.

A voyage inside oneself

For a voyage to a destination, wherever it may be,

is also a voyage inside oneself;

even as a cyclone carries along with it the center

in which it must ultimately come to rest.

At these moments I think not only of the places

I have been but also of the distances I have

traveled within myself without a friend or a ship;

and of the long way yet to go before I come

home within myself and within the journey.

And always when the curtains are lifted,

the night is without, peering in steadily

and constantly, with the light of the stars

far beyond.

--- Laurens van der Post

Thanks, Jerry, for sending me this!

Rich Nut & Chickpea Chili

While visiting my son and his family
in the States, my daughter-in-law
made this vegetarian dish as
it had been presented in the
September/October 2008 Hallmark
Magazine.

In my opinion, for whatever that is worth,
delicious.

I kept a clipping of the recipe,
and even made it once here in Norway,
but now found that the recipe is online on
http://www.recipezaar.com/Rich-Nut-Chickpea-Chili-344956

In other words, I can dispose of that
paper clipping.
Not only that, but the online version
allowed me to change the recipe to
metric and decide how many portions
I would make.

Bon appetit!

Glasses

Starting school as a seven year old,
it turned out I could not read what was
on the blackboard.

That is how I found myself with these
uncomfortable and ugly glasses.
The children teased me.
I was called "brilleslange" and "professor".
The frames pressed behind my ears.
On my nose.
And it really did look ugly.

Through the years I have used many
different frames for my glasses.
Now I even have a hard time seeing
myself without glasses.

But those first pair of glasses
I detested.

Kate's father

When he was born he had a lot of very
dark hair.
Then it became blondish, like this,
or even more blond.
As a grownup his hair turned dark.

Will the same happen to Kate?

Color from the lady in black

Just scanned two postcards in order to keep
part of the images as reminders that
things can be colorful.