Friday, April 29, 2011
Planting the garden
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Agility competition
Monday, April 25, 2011
Easter
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Walking the dogs
Afterwards I walked with the dogs through the woods by the lake. I loved the way the sun fell on this green glade. Unfortunatly the picture doesn't show the colors right.
Lucy had been gone for a little while. Suddenly she comes tearing up the path with this huge backbone in her mouth.
She spent several days carrying it around. She'd leave it somewhere along the path, then find it again the next day and carry it some more. One day Topsy was the first to find it. As she stood sniffing it and deciding whether to pick it up, Lucy came running. There was a short fight which I translated as:
Lucy: That's mine. Get the hell away from it!
Topsy: But I'm the oldest. - Okay then, if you feel so strongly about it, you can have it.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
April showers and Spring Flowers
Then yesterday we had pouring rain all day. A perfect day for paying bills and cleaning. As the day progressed the downpour began looking suspiciously like sleet, until it started coming down as snow from about 6 pm. Luckily the next day it was all gone and another sunny day dawned.
The place where I work is about 100 km south of where I live and a bit warmer as well. There wild coltsfoot is dotting the roadsides.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Back in Norway
Monday, April 4, 2011
Cornwall - London
One of the things she'd discovered was a very posh glass shopping center right behind the cathedral. The amazing thing was that you could take a glass elevator up to the roof. The elevator looks onto the cathedral and from the roof you get a marvelous view of London.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Mothers Day in Cornwall
Today is mother's day in England. Irene and I spent the whole day in Falmouth.
First we had a Cornish Cream Tea. It consisted of a pot of tea, a pitcher of hot water, a pitcher of milk, and for each of us two scones, warm from the oven, full of raisins with cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam.
**************************************************************************
We visited Irene's favorite sweets shop, and bought an assortment of fudge: peppermint, blueberry and clotted cream fudge.
***************************************************************************
It was low tide when we got down to the harbor, and all the boats are at the bottom of the basin. Below is one of the pubs by the harbor with the casks of beer piled outside.
A little beyond the harbor we found the spring festival which has been going on all weekend. There was a market, and a few simple rides. No noisy tivoli with flashing lights and blaring music here. This merry-go-round is being cranked by hand.
***********************************************************
We met up with Jenny, one of Irene's friends at Falmouth, and together we walked all over Falmouth, enjoyed the park and looked at the house Irene will be living in next year. Finally we had ice cream made from organic jersey milk and cream at a local farm.
******************************************************************
After Jenny left us we still had over an hour to kill before going to the cinema. So we walked along a pathway from the beach in Falmouth to another beach further away.
***********************************************
Our day ended at the cinema. The Falmouth cinema is very cool in that it has armchairs for seats with a little table and a menu between each 2 seats. You can order snacks and drinks to go with your movie experience. We had nachos. The film we say was thought-provoking but a little strange: "Never let me go" - a science fiction film of a society where a class of people are raised for the sole purpose to become organ donors for the rest of society. The films weakness was that you didn't get any sense of exactly how these organ donor children originated. The ending was kind of wierd as well. You kept expecting them to rebell, but it never happened. They just accepted their lot.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Surfing in Cornwall
Lounging around in our animal onesies at breakfast: Irene's is a cow with little horns and ears. After breakfast Irene showed me around the campus of her university. The grounds were lovely: full of flowers and rabbits hopping about in the evening.
The surfing was fabulous. And the water didn't seem cold at all. Porthtowan beach too was a facinating spot, with cliffs, blooming gorse and abandoned tin mines dotting the heather all around. And who would have thought it was such a workout! I have muscles aching that I didn't even know I had.
We watched "My Sisters Keeper" this evening. I'd read the book, and the ending was changed in the movie, but it still worked very well. If Irene was crying when we saw "Earthlings", it was now my turn for the tears to flow. That movie is sooo sad!
Friday, April 1, 2011
London to Cornwall
Got up early this morning and went to Marjana's cafe for breakfast. This time I had a hommous, haloumi and tomato bagel. The metro station is a minute away, and Ingvild went through first. I however didn't have enough money on my oyster card. When I went to the machine it refused to recognize my card so I stood in line for the ticket guy. After the 2-3 people before me were done, he validated my card and sent me back to the machine to top it up. In the meantime, the cafe called Ingvild to tell her that I had left my suitcase there! My second travel blooper! If I'd had money on the Oyster card, we would have been halfway to Paddington Station before getting the call!