Walking from the library up the hill to Myra

You walk past the library and turn in the direction of the new  walking bridge over the river.

You pass Mikrobryggeriet and turn to the right, before getting to the walking bridge.

Then it is climbing up this cobbled street behind the museum.

Many of the old mills and factories now have new functions.

The Danish prince Christian Fredrick (1786 - 1848) who for a few months in 1814 was the king of Norway, had been fitted with a face mask.

The crow has only recently been replaced on Moss city's coat of arms, but just like the king from 1814, he has also become a sculpture. 

Morsa or the Moss river is, I have been told, the shortest river in Norway, bringing water down from the lake Vansjø to the Oslofjord. 

The waterfalls from the lake to the fjord became the beginning of industry in Moss.

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The dam built at the top keeps the water in the lake under control.  

Nowadays the waterfalls only show their full glory for part of the year, and today was not that time.

This is the part of Vansjø closest to the dam.

In celebration of Moss 300th anniversary in 2020 (yes, what a year for celebrations!), a walking trail was built up here, with this cute  bench for a little break.

You can bring your picnic because there are  tables and benches, and even two outdoor grills.

In the distance, at this point, you can see cars driving into Moss.

This is where I turned to the right and walked back to the center of Moss.

 I could have continued walking towards Mossehallen.

Perhaps another day....

 

The Heddal Stave Church in Telemark in 2014

In 2014 we visited the Heddal Stave Church in Telemark.

Imagine a wooden building standing for 700 years!

My talented daughter-in-law  Cheryl took these photos of the magnificent building with its wonderful wood carvings.

You can read more about this stave church

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heddal_Stave_Church

In addition a new special website is coming up for the Heddal Stave Church.

https://www.heddalstavkirke.no/

Something to look forward to!

As children, I remember my late father telling us that we should imagine a viking ship upside down and then it became a stave church. Perhaps so?

Here are some of my own photos from that visit.

Now in 2021 I did a very interesting course about the stave churches and their preservation on FutureLearn - a course I warmly recommend.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/norwegian-stave-churches

Walking from Roed (Røed Gård) on Jeloy (Jeløy) down to the Oslofjord.

 On our island Jeloy, one place to visit is Roed Gaard (Røed Gård).

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The Mamen family who owns the farm lives in this yellow building.  Here seen from the front.

The big building to the left has a cafe and many speciality shops, now closed because of Covid. You could order from the cafe and sit outside, so many took the advantage of that on this sunny April 2nd.

In 2010 the big building went up in fire, and in addition to the building itself and the art work, four horses, two pigs and several rabbits died in the fire.

I was visiting  with two friends for a walk through the forest behind the farm where we found a little memorial to the animals who perished, next to the path.

First we walked past some fields with old stone fences.

Imagine building such stone fences.

The next part was through  the forest, a natural forest where your fantasy can work freely imaging trolls and mystic creatures.

In the end we arrived at the western part of Jeloy, where you can see Horten on the other side of the Oslofjord.

The first signs of spring were there to greet us in that forest - Blåveis.

Just saying that word in Norwegian brings me back 65 years to the wonder of seeing Blaaveis around Moss as a very young child.

Does the English word Liverwort  give that same feeling to children growing up with English as their mother tongue?

PS. The word Blaaveis can also be used for a black eye you get when punched or falling. Luckily that use of the word was never needed in my childhood.