One Cozy Morning.....

The women in my family wake up early. It's always been this way, as far as I can remember. Even when attending parties and being up to the early hours of the night, I still don't sleep to later than 8.30 am.


This has continued into my holiday this year. Less than a week into my holiday and I have not managed to sleep later than 6.30 yet. But I'm working on it.


In the meantime, I had a very nice surprise yesterday morning. I was up and water was boiling to make coffee. And I thought I would take a picture or two of the water outside of where we are.





The water was perfectly peaceful, only interrupted by small circles made by feeding fish. It was so quiet...... with the exception of a little bit of insect activity. It didn't even appear that the birds were awake yet.


And then I heard a little giggle. I turned around and saw a flash of pink disappear around the corner and back into the kitchen.


I wish I could have reacted fast enough to get a picture of that. But as said, it was early and there was no caffine in my bloodstream yet.


So I too snuck back in the kitchen and found my favorite girl waiting for me with a big smile on her face. I made the two of us breakfast.

She was hungry! But while eating we had, for the first time since maybe Easter, a really good conversation - just her and I.

We spoke about Canada, about fishing, and swimming and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. She mentioned a dream she had a week or so ago, and I told her of a nightmare I had when I was little, that seems silly now. Even she thought so.

We spoke about the cartoons that we might be watching if we were home, and how neither of us really missed them.

And then she says: Take a picture of us together, Mom.

Well, my hair was not washed, and neither was my face. But this was here and I, right? So here is the picture, which she at least really liked:

And then it's time for posing.....

And Voguing.....

(with chocolate not yet washed off....)

And time to hang on the swing......

And prove that she can climb up all by herself.

Back.......

And forth.......

And then suddenly she's forgotten all about her mother and life opens up with all its possibilities....

A Little Piece of Paradise

There have been a number of people asking me my cabin by the seaside. While I of course won't go into great detail, I do think I can share a bit that will satisfy most. Our cabin lies between 1 and 2 hours north of Bergen, which covers an awful lot of ground. While the cabin itself dates back to World War II (due to short supplies building materials, another house was purchased, taken apart and transported by boat here), the stone foundations of the cabin, which can be seen in the photo below are dated to the 1600's.



The above picture is taken from the sea itself. To be very honest, it was taken my husband as he was bobbing gently in the water, lying in a yellow rubber dingy. Originally the cabin was only as wide as the top two windows. We have expanded it to the right (extended the kitchen, added a toilet [there was only a bucket when I first moved her 10 years ago] and a second upper bedroom). The windows we want are extremely expensive, so we will probably have enough money saved up to purchase our next window next year.

We do a lot of fishing at the cabin - here is a boat that the entire family owns together - all 18 of us. The one rule that no one is allowed to break is that any gas used by someone must be refilled IMMEDIATELY. No exceptions.

So far there has been no problems.

I for one prefer fish from the land. I'm quite good at it as well. It always gives me such pleasure to have my brother-in-laws tease me about what it takes to be a 'real fisherman/woman'. Then within an hour I've caught the above, and they come home as the sun is setting with nothing to show for their efforts.

Yes, life out in the country side can be pretty good.