The Old Year Now Away is Fled...

Thus begins a new years song to the tune of «Greensleeves».

January/February:

Having moved just before Christmas, the first months of 2012 were spent adjusting to a new home, new neighbors, a new job for Husband, a new road to work for me, and exploring the immediate surroundings on walks with the dogs. Father-in-law came to visit and see our new home as well as introduce husband to relatives living in the area.

On January 24th my ex, the children's father died of cancer, and the children came for the funeral and stayed with us, the girls from England, Tormod from Texas. Audun and Annina were caught up in the planning of the funeral etc but came for a weekend at the end of February. It was a painful time for them, but awfully good to see them and to be allowed to share in their grief. Though I had little contact with their father in the last years, the time I shared with him were among the most important years of my adult life.

March:

At the end of March we all gathered in New York for the 160^th birthday – Mother's 80^th, Ilian's 50^th, and Beren's 30^th. We came trickling in during the course of a week. Roland was already there when we arrived and the first project that he and Husband plunged into was installing the dishwasher that Roland and Mother had ordered the day before. We had several meetings at Ithaca bakery during the week to greet first Audun, then Irene and Ingvild, and finally Sharon. The big day was celebrated on March 31^st as a typical Willwerth event: starting with a waffle breakfast as people arrived: first Beren with Audun, Irene, Ingvild and Crystal; later Adam and Jane with Hanna and Ben. I love standing there baking waffles and listening to the happy banter of the cousins sitting around the kitchen, while the older folks visited in the living room. In the afternoon we had a lasagne dinner all together before going to the concert of German Lieder from the Romantic period that Mother had sponsored for the occasion. We had hoped that Ilian would make it in time for the dinner, but her flight had been rerouted due to bad weather and she landed in Syracuse, and hour away, and a couple hours late, instead of Ithaca. Luckily she got a ride with someone and only missed the first song of the concert. We had a longer visit with her the next day, before leaving the day after that.

April:

Spring was early this year. Already February had seen unseasonably mild weather and all the snow melted off. Still it took ages before it was dry enough for spring planting. Meantime Husband and I built planting boxes, but couldn't fill them with compost before it was possible to drive the tractor onto the fields. And that turned out to be May.

In the meantime however I ran some orienteering races, running for our new club: Moss OK. Norwegian Spring was fun! Finally we lived close enough to the venue to take part. It is the first major event in the spring and kind of kick starts the season.

May: a month of holidays and celebrations.

May 1 – the first agility trial of the year. I had concentrating on foundation training since the debaucle of the midsummer trial at Stav where Lucy took walked off the course to sniff the grass after 2 jumps. In fact I had done zero agility training until April when I started training with 2 jumps and some weave poles here on the farm. The only actual agility training with equipment was the last 2 mondays before the trial when there was suddenly room for me at the club's training evenings. And the foundation training paid off: though we disqualified on the agility course, she placed 37^th (of 70) in the jumpers course, thus meeting my goal for the year on our first trial: namely to complete a course without disqualifying.

On the first weekend of May I drove to Trondheim with Lucy to visit Audun and Annina. I had been too late ordering train tickets to get a ticket for Lucy - the places reserved for dogs being limited – so I drove the whole way. We had a great time. Went with Audun to the indoor pool: pirbadet, and out to eat in the revolving restaurant atop a radio tower.

May 17, Norway's national holiday. I joined other members of the agility club for an informal trial and bbq. It was the most fun I've had on May 17^th in years! Hope they do it again next year.

My birthday, May 22 we went out to eat at my favorite sushi place, and then to a movie, though I don't remember what we saw. The day was otherwise a bit of a flop, as I spent a lot of time waiting for the phone or skype to ring, but recieving no calls from friends or family that day. However Audun and Annina gave me Carcasonne which started a new era of game playing in our household.

Our wedding anniversary is also in May, and we celebrated it with italian ice cream at «La dolce Vita» and a show (Lillebjørn Nilsen songs) at the Oslo New Theatre.

Whitsun weekend at the end of May was a hot and sunny weekend with an agility trial at a stone quarry on the outskirts of Oslo on Saturday and Sunday. It was a wonderful weekend. Lucy did well, on saturday we reached my new goal of completing both the agility and the jumpers courses without disqualifying (20^th and 25^th place of about 50). On sunday she disqualified both courses, though the second was her best run: she began to run off course and I when I called her back she reacted so immediatly that she knocked over the long jump thus disqualifying. Still I was hugely satisfied with her reaction and we took the rest of the course perfectly, only having to restart the weavepoles twice and going through the collapsed tunnel without hesitation.

June:

I planted my boxes with onions and carrots; corn, beans and sunflowers; broccoli, kale, lavatera and cornflowers; turnips, radishes, spinach, lettuce; and 8 zucchini plants on the piles of compost that were left over after filling the boxes. This became the best veggie garden I have ever had. I used up all my old seeds. The only thing I bought was the broccoli and kale plants, the onion sets and carrot seeds.

Ingvild came for a visit and we went on some of the walks that Husband and I had explored in May: Slottåsen and Gaupesteinen.

For the midsummer weekend we went to Beitostølen to the Orienteering Festival there. We stayed in one of MaryAnn and Nils' summer farms, had a nice visit with them. Received a visit from Father-in-law and his new lady friend, and ran 3 wonderful and challenging races. Actually I didn't really like the first one, which went through a “cabin town”, but the second which was above the tree line, and the third in a challenging forest area were fun!

July:

Irene visited in July. We explored the oldtidsveien together. A road along which can be found stone carvings, stone circles and other prehistoric monuments.

We also said goodbye to Topsy, our border collie companion of 12 years this month. She seemed to be in more pain, and was already taking a maximum dose of pain medication + special food and joint supplements.

Shortly afterwards, I took a sheep herding course with Lucy. The main goal was to improve her self confidence. It was amazing to see Lucy going from having to be dragged into the pen to lying down relaxing with the sheep. Then, when they moved around, getting up to keep them between herself and me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

August:

I did a 5 day cleanse while we were at the summer farm at the mountain lake in Valdres. Surprised both myself and Husband with my determination and persistance. Although, I have to say it wasn't a total success. You always hear that fasting makes you feel so full of energy. It didn't do that for me, on the contrary, it took weeks before I had my energy back.

At the agility trial in August, Lucy placed in 3 of 4 courses with a 10^th, a 9^th and a 5^th place. We actually brought home prizes, something I hadn't even dreamt we would achieve this year.

September:

After the last trial I decided we had to work on our weave poles. Lucy's course faults are always in the weavepoles, and that's also where she loses the most time. It all paid off when she got a third place in the Trial our club hosted in September, with no course faults and only 5 seconds time fault. It was the first time that she completed the weave poles on the first try in both runs.

The 8 zucchini plants started bearing fruit in august. We gave zucchini to our neighbors, and to anyone coming to visit. I made zucchini cake, zucchini hummous as a dip for vegetables and we had zucchini for dinner every day for 3 months.

The hospital where I work has been in the news daily, since a report by the surgeon general was made public about the critical state of things during the first 9 months of 2011. Apparently at least 9 people lost their lives as a consequence of insufficient staffing. The media however make it sound like it is happening right now. People are worried, family members are suspicious. One patient asked a colleague of mine: “tell it to me straight, what are my chances of surviving the first 24 hours here”!

October:
As the days became shorter and the weather rainy the farmyard, fields and even woods became a sea of mud. Actually it had been an exceptionally rainy spring which is why spring planting wasn't finished until the end of May. Everyone had complained about the rainy summer as well. To tell the truth, I kind of expect rain in Norway in the summer, nor do I expect much in the way of heat. It really didn't get to me though until the fall, when the combination of grey, wet, mud and dark plunged me into the worst case of S.A.D. I have yet experienced. I've said it for years: I must get out of Norway in the winter! So when we went to Crete on vacation we took a day to rent a car and look at some properties.

The week in Crete was a respite, an island of summer: 30 degrees C, sunshine, warm ocean. We visited Chania, took a boat trip around an island on which the Krikri goats live and where octopuses live in the water. We explored cretian cuisine. 

I also spent a weekend with Ingvild in London. She took me to a food market and Camden Lock market. We went to see a Musical (Scrooge) and the newest James Bond movie.

November:

At work I have a second year nursing student. It is a lot of fun, though exhausting, and I find I love teaching!

Audun, Annina and Mother came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. It rained the whole time, but we played multiple games of Carcasonne and went swimming at the indoor pool.

I also returned to Crete to start the purchase process for one of the houses we had looked at.

December:

After the bad press had died down my hospital is back in the news. Several wards have sent letters of concern to the surgeon general because the hospital is overfull and understaffed. The corridors are full. One day there were 90 more patients than the hospital could take care of. The ER is critically full (40+ patients at any one time) more often than not. We have 130 to 160 patients coming through the ER daily. The staff is getting tired. More and more are ill. And it's not just the flu. Young nurses, in their 20's and 30's are getting chest pain, palpitations, syncope or brain hemorage. The situation is worrying.

During Advent I spent all of my days off baking, and preparing for christmas. We visited the in-laws in Folldal for a few days during the 3^rd week of advent. On the friday before christmas we went to hear the Oslo Gospel Choir's Christmas concert. Other than that we had a quiet christmas, with just the two of us. I had to work Christmas Eve, Christmas day and boxing day. Husband had to work a good bit as well. All the kids were in the US to celebrate Christmas with my mother. I talked to everyone on Skype on the 23^rd and again on the phone on the 24^th. Though I couldn't be there, my thoughts kept reaching out to them. I know that as I write this, they are all gathering in NYC to celebrate New Years Eve there, while Husband and I went orienteering this afternoon, and are watching movies at home.

Happy New Year!!!