Corona summer – update #2

It’s October 13th, definitely fall, and while sitting here, thinking back on the last few months, I have decided to make yet another review on the summer gone. At this time, the termometer reads 3,7 centigrade, its definite, summer is gone, Its with mixed feelings, we will most likely go home tomorrow ( or maybe the day after, cant decide), it all depends on the weather.

We have seen the change of the seasons, starting with the spring with a very low level of water. We have seen the normal spring flooding caused by melting of snow up in the mountains, water level declining to normal when the sun started heating, then now having a second flooding because of lot of rain.

Just to leave you with a feeling how lovely it is up here, have a look at the picture below, from a sunny tranquil day. Cant be any better, just wish you all could be here.

So what have we done during this summer?

We have not been in an entirely solitude mode. We have a neighbour couple, our best friends over here, they have their summer house just up the road, have been our friends for many years, even been to Cyprus several times. Its just relaxing being with them, no stress (‘ikke noe pes’ as we say in Norwegian). Even managed a trip down to their neighbourhood to pick ramsons. There is a field down there with a size of several football courts loaded with ramson. Picture right below is just beside where it is, open sea outside.

Else, what do an elderly couple do to get the time going?

Birdwatching ?. Never, ever, thought I was going to say this.

During the spring season we saw loads of ducks of different kinds, fight and mate. Later they disappear then re-appear with chicks.

Also we have a load of cormorant that use one of our small island as a resting ground . The come and go, but are very shy and hard to get a picture of. This summer we have had visits on our birdfeeder from mr. and mrs. great spotted woodpecker. Later during the summer they came back with 2 chicks teaching them how to get food. They started by feeding them but in the end forcing them to eat by themselves. Have a look at the pictures below to see if you can spot the difference between mum, dad and the chicks. At the end of season they were quite tame, you could get as close as one meter to them.

During mid summer we were invaded by mosquitos. This is a problem we normally do not have here, occasionally a few now and then. However, this year… It was not just here, heard on the radio that there was an invation in central Oslo too. To get by the problem, I invested in a gas driven mosquito trap. Omg how well it worked. Best investment of the year. We must have caught millions.

Early July, restrictions were lifted and we had visit from eldest son Espen with spouse Milla, her children Estelle and Silian, Espen’s Elise and Julian. All well, not a single argue between us for close to 14 days. I can reveal now, that one of the reasons for going home now, is that Espen and Milla will marry on Oct. 23rd. I’m delighted!!!

Have a look at the picture of Elise below. I am amazed. She is determined to be a dancer and I have rarely seen someone training as hard as she does.

During summer, Tove and I also went over to Kristine and Stian’s summerhouse up in the mountains, in a place called Vaset. By then, Sebastian had stayed with us for a week in the summer house. While visiting them, we decided for a car trip to the village of Lom. This village has a famous bakery we wanted to visit. To get there you need to drive over the top of Norway, or it’s roof as someone calls it. The travel is quite scenic if I may say so. On the way over, we stopped at a place called Ridderspranget (translated The Nights Leap). The story was, if you’re a knight and in love with a woman that is bound to another knight, you grab her, flee away, getting chased with the other knight. Then they catch you up just by the the gorge, you take your beloved in your arms and jump over. Standing on the other side, facing your enemy on the other side, you emphasise that you mean serious, telling the other one what will happen to him if he jumps over by pushing one of your own men down the stream.

Another memory I will have from these days with Stine’s and Kristine’s family, is the bicycle trip I did with Sebastian and Stian. We were going to cycle around the Vaset lake. Halfway around, Sebastian clamed he knew a shortcut. Later we found he was not ready to go all way around the lake, just making an excuse. So we followed his advice, taking this new trail/path or what you like to call it, just to end by a cold mountain river. There had been a kind of bridge there, but this was taken by the spring flood. Gave us a good laugh when having to wade across and carry the bicycles.

Otherwise, I have to say my grandchildren are really tough, made of steel. While in Lom, the both of them took a zipline down across a streaming mountain river. Please listen to mums reactions on the second video, when Amalie forgets to grab the line ?.

Now, sitting her writing, another day has gone. We decided this morning that the right day to go, was today. It’s October 14, and we are home again. Checking my systems, I can see that the temperature up there is now 0,6 degrees, just above freezing point. There is so much more I could tell about regarding this magnificent summer. Weather has mostly been good, the exception this year was July, cold and wet. The good climate can be seen from the flowers we packed into the trunk of the car today, the trunk was completely full.

I just cannot continue, it would take to many pages to write. All the good food, all the good wine consumed, all good beer I have drunk, all mushrooms we have picked, all walks I have done with my beloved, all animals we have met, all trolls we have met, etc. etc