monochromatic

The weather here recently has been very stable - cold and dry. We haven't really had any serious snow for a few weeks now, but because of the temperatures it's stuck around. We've also had a lot of hoar frost.

I was thinking the other day when I was walking around how monochromatic everything was looking, I'm seeing the outside world in greyscale. I thought I'd take a few photos, these are all taken in our neighbourhood.

It really accentuates the shapes of all the trees. It's very pretty although I think I'm ready now for a bit of colour - I can't wait to see the first shoots of green on the trees. (the person in blue is David pushing Frances by the way).

snow

I thought I should give a quick update - the predicted snow did come. I think we had about 15cm, although it's difficult to tell as the storm was quite windy as well (and thundery in some parts of Espoo). Some of the snow had fallen before David got home with the tarps, but he battled the snow, wind and dark to better cover the piles before the rest of it fell.

So that's a good start - our neighbour tells us it's too soft for skiing, but if we have a bit of rain and then some more snow it should be good. At least it looks more like what we expect Finland to look like this time of year, and it's so much brighter outside now which is much better.

wood

The changing seasons see us using our outside space in different ways. Where we'd previously had tomato plants is now being used to store fire wood.

This isn't our only wood pile - after 3 cubic meters was delivered yesterday we've now hopefully got enough wood to keep us going this winter.

We haven't had a lot of snow yet, but it's definitely colder than this time last year and there is snow forecast for later today (hopefully after David comes back from work with more tarps and we get the piles properly covered).

I have my fingers crossed for the Finnish winter experience we missed out on last year with it being too warm. Items at the top of my list include seeing the sea freeze over and the ice breakers in use. I'd also like to have a proper white Christmas - an occurrence which so far has been lacking from my life due to the southerly or temperate climates I've lived in, or from sheer climatic bad luck (in the case of our time in Norway).

skitur

We went to try out the cross country skis we bought in the sale last week. We went to Malvikmarka - there was still a bit of snow, although it was pretty wet snow and a bit patchy in places. we went about an hour each way and ended up at a lake with a public hytta. The hytta wasn't open, but we sat there and ate our sandwiches before heading back to the car. It was quite a nice experience - although I think we could probably do with having a bit of a lesson with someone, if for nothing else than to tell us how to stop and steer! This is us at the end of our trip:

Just to prove that spring is sort of here - these are daffodils I picked from the garden.

I also started sock number 2 - keep the momento going before I fall on a different play.

I matched the start to sock number 1, which I think is probably the right thing to do, I'll just now have to figure out another join somewhere down the sock - I think it will end up being somewhere just past the heel.

Spring already?

Not sure - but maybe spring is here?

This is the snow man I built with Jo two weeks ago - it's just about melted. It's sad. Maybe there will be more snow and I can make another one. Fingers crossed.

About bloody time

Snow has finally arrived and it's started to feel more like winter than spring. Although we do have our first snowdrop out....

we're looking to playing with our snow shoes (hopefully tomorrow), or at least be able to make some snow angels.

2007

Happy New Year!

Instead of relating what we did for Christmas and New Year, we thought we'd write a list of Christmas and New Year firsts for us:

• Had our first Christmas and New Year in Norway (obviously)
• Cooked and ate Ribbe (thanks to one of the list coming up)
• Looked after Pusur the cat
• Moved my first project from the ikke ferdig to the ferdig list - I guess Lille Bamsa is better at finishing things than me!
• Tried aquivit
• Had a goat on the Christmas Tree - which remains unburnt
• Suspected twitching siting of a White Tailed Sea Eagle
• Paid 66kr to cross a bridge
• Went to a Norwegian farm shop
• Played canasta
• Saw first dragon movin in Norwegian
• Visited skydsstation in Baklandet and had fiske suppe
• Made and ate Norwegian waffes (twice as they were so good)
• Acquired our first cookbook på norsk

And here's a piccy of Pusur now that she's calmed down and completely chilled out.

Christmas

It's nearly Christmas. We have our fingers crossed for snow but I'm not going to hold my breath. I was hoping I was going to be able to add a photo of a nice snowy view of the fjord, but instead here's a photo of our first Christmas decoration - I should probably have used a tripod, but I kind of like the fuzzy lights.

We're busy trying to figure out what we're going to eat and also where we're going to visit while David's parents are visiting us from Spain. We'll obviously be eating brown cheese, and we were hoping to take them to Røros as it's meant to be pretty and have sleigh rides etc, but with no snow we're not sure it's worth going.

Had our final Norwegian test of the current class yesterday, so last class on Thursday with pub afterwards.

Sunday evening curry fest

The nights are definitely getting darker and longer - we're nearly up to the shortest day, or as they call it here the mørkester dag. We've spent this afternoon making chocolate brownies, curry and sitting in front of the fire. David is writing songs, but I don't think he's going to south America just yet to preview his new material like coldplay - hopefully he'll get the studio up and running soon and he will start recording - maybe we can preview some of his songs in the brown cheese chronicles? So the curry is nearly ready, we're having hot and sour pork curry from Madhur Jaffrey's Illustrated Indian Cookery, which sounds nice and smells fantastic. We've informally invited our neighbour round for some food at some point and have promised them "English food" - so we're thinking we're going to have to make them a curry.