The start of something new

Merry Christmas / God Jul my Nordic Snø friends and chums :)..... (said in a Antoine de Caunes voice)

It's time for  a new blog post (cue the fanfare) and a slight change in blog title for 2017.

As our Norwegian adventure continues, this year has been slightly busy to say the least, and hence the slight slackness in blogging. For those eagle eyed you will note we are still having our Norway adventure, but have decided to take a slight detour via their/our favourite blue and yellow neighbours.

2017 is the year we finally depart England and head north on a full time basis! Why not Norway I hear you ask?   ...................Well I've landed a job in Sweden and we've decided to start our full time life up north in southern Sweden. I will be working for the people who we spend most of our time shopping with when in Norway! Thats right - IKEA.

Whilst we could change the blog title to maybe 'Adventures in meatballs', 'Allen key adventure' or possible 'Flat pack adventurer' our original Nordic Snø idea of a family adventure is still now even more true then ever, and the farm and barns in Norway live on and continue to be developed and we are still hopeful that we'll start welcoming more visitors. In the words of our 8 year old when she was asked if we should move to Sweden 'we've had lots of adventures of Norway daddy, why don't we start to have some in Sweden as well'..........ok! only need to tell me once.

So Happy New Year and lets hope 2017 continues to be full of adventure in both Norway and Sweden.

Apparently it's ok in Sweden to walk down the street in your dressing gown......

.......ah I see! they were going swimming!

btw. below is a post I wrote when I told my fellow directors and business owners I was leaving and at the time I didn't have a new job to go to.....funny how life turns out sometimes! Excuse the slightly more than usual train of thought ramblings.

(Wednesday 27th July 2016) It's 7.00 in the morning and I've been up since 5.30. The brown terracotta tiles of the waiting room floor provide a great surface for the very loud tapping of the business ladies shoes who's just hustled in looking rather stressed and clutching a very large coffee...'..maybe she should drink less coffee.....or quit her job and move abroad......Whilst I'm sat here looking relatively relaxed waiting for the train to birmingham, the honest truth is that my heart and head are jumping all over the place! 

And the reason? Well last week I handed my notice in (loud fanfare) and since then have agreed a timetable for leaving and methodology for selling my third of the business. So the road map, on which we started has passed a pretty critical stage! But why are you not full of excitement and happiness I hear you ask.  Well the honest answer is that I am! But the chimp on my shoulder is now tearing me apart saying what have you done (queue internal loud screaming). You see whilst we've pondered, planned and mused this scenario for quite some time, it's now finally here!* 

Having never had a run of unemployment or full time education in 43 years, the step, whilst exciting, is also making me feel a little nauseous to be honest! 

As one chapter comes to a very rapidly approaching end (about the same time as we could have a baby in and we all know how quick that happens....(btw I'm talking pregnancy, not conception ;) ) a new one starts to unfold. Albeit the new chapter is not fully planned out or written. 4 years ago when the olympics were held in London there were some often bleak times in our household, however, as a family we rose above those and got to where we are today.....and whilst I know/hope the nausea will pass I'm hoping it will be before the next olympics hit in 2020! 

Now,  on with the new chapter! 

*However, unlike Boris and Nigel we intend to see it through

Some pictures of the waterfront at Helsinborg, Southern Sweden to keep you interested...... there is surf nearby (or so the internet tells me!)

Hvor bor du?

Kath very kindly bought me a book recently about how to right the best blog and make a living from blogging......as you can tell so far I haven't had time to read it yet.....but hang on in there as the next 6 months are likely to be quite fun for us and anyone who is actually still following what we get up to! :)

We've just returned from our October half term trip and we are officially 2 years old (Gratulerer med dagen to us!). I can't believe it was 2 years ago that Maisie and I travelled to Norway, did the worlds largest shop in Ikea, Bilteema and Clas Ohslon and then tried occupying a house which hadn't been lived in for 30 years before the second wave of Ned and Kath joined us a few days later. On that initial visit there were 2 pieces of good fortune.....the first was that we hadn't been conned by some swindling major money scandal and we had actually bought a house and the key to it was really in the jar in the woodshed and secondly it didn't snow!

The first is that within 2 years, we now have running water (including hot water) thanks to our neighbour Kjetil, electricity thanks to Jan, the house now stands up straight again (thanks to Jon and his team (and some help from Mr B) and we now have some new triple glazed windows, an insulated roof, some bedrooms (thanks to Magnus and his crew), our neighbours and new friends in Ålen and Trondheim (you know who you are ;) ) for making us feel welcome and providing wood so we don't freeze to death and more importantly a home thanks to my crazy family. 

The crazies....

When we actually get to call it home will be for discussion (and the subject of some later posts i'm sure) but for now, at least, it is our little retreat from the UK and the hustle an bustle of city life.....oh hang on.... we live in rural north Devon....well retreat from the all the tourists.........oh hang.....its now winter and we are back to normal again! 

In perfect harmony

The second is that when we got the house for the first time, Maisie and I actually had lunch outside on the verandah.....well this time it was snowing! and for an English family from the south it felt like it was proper snowing! I do think however that for our neighbours it was just a shower and a probably just an inconvenience.....but whatever it was snowing!

The upshot of this was beautiful snowy mountains (until it melted on the lower slopes), our little beach and lake was frozen, and the edges of the higher mountain lakes were just starting to freeze over and as usual it feels a million miles from 'normal' life , whatever 'normal' life is!

Hessjøen just freezing at the edges

So we often get asked "where is your house / or where do you live (Hvor bor du?) so in true style, and with the aid of modern CGI techniques here's Kath explaining to grandpa roughly where things are. Speak soon - Vi Snakkes

FFS it's over there.......!!

Life's a beach

Our summer trip is now finished and we are back to the usual routine of school, work and making lists of things to sort out!

Our Norwegian summer was brief, but pretty amazing and enhanced by exploring some areas and places we haven't ventured to before and making some great new discoveries.

Having grown up by the sea, the lack of sand in our vicinity is always quite disturbing, (but for others who shall remain nameless and don't appreciate the feel of it between your toes or in your picnic) are less keen. As I mentioned in an earlier post we are due to start work on the barn conversion later in the year and prior to travelling we did a few bits of research on nearby properties, what available and prices. One of the nearby places, had some great photos of the cabin but also a shot of the beach in Haltdalen! I'm sorry......what!  The beach had golden sand, crystal clear water and back drop of mountains!

So from a photo and and what we thought could be a place name, we googled earth and consulted the map. There were 3 possible places in the vicinity, one of which was just off the main road, so we thought we would start there first.

On our first day we decided to find the beach and after looping back on ourselves and stopping along at a few different places we found a small right turning off the main road. 

How can you not find this place!!!

Driving the hire car down a dirt track we came to a clearing (with one other car in) parked up and proceeded on foot! The anticipation for me was building, but for  Ned it was just too much (he shares my love of sand and water) off he shot, squealing his head off, topped the ridge ) and there it was. An oasis in the middle of nowhere, not signposted from the main road, with free parking, a composting loo and rubbish bins which are kept are empty (see previous rants about our local beaches in the UK)

Ned's ability to immerse himself in any water he comes across was not lost on this particular day.  Despite rolling his shorts up he was soon quite wet, with me yelling 'noooooooooo'......it was at this point I noticed another family with 2 children looking slightly alarmed at Ned's efforts and my ignored bellowing fatherly instructions across the golden sand.

I needn't have feared though, as the gentleman in question proceed to strike up a conversation with us (it didn't take long for to him to realise we were english....we are very noisy!) ....and he was equally surprised that we lived nearby and it turned out his brother law (who had a cabin nearby) was British. We had a great chat for about 20 minutes about various things and then he asked if he could take our number so his brother law could maybe get in touch and say hi!

Now...... this is the point where your Englishness kicks in and you immediately think -"I'm not giving you my number you could be a murderer, con man or about to abduct my children....(maybe not a bad thing some times, although I'm sure they would be returned very quickly). After swallowing my English paranoia of strangers......after all this is Norway and people are still trustworthy and honest we handed over our number, said farewell and departed happy with our new discovery, vowing to return and then promptly stripped Ned of his sopping clothing so he didn't soil the hire car any further.

Fast forward 24 hours and imagine my surprise when Kath said we had a call from said brother in law, and an invite to their cabin for waffles and coffee. We met our hosts at their beautiful cabin near Glåmos which was beautifully set with a wonderful view thought the tress. The kids snaffled most of the waffles (the best piece of advice was given about waffle makers...........will share next time....there's a whole post coming on waffles), they were lovely hosts who gave us great advice and we arranged to give them a guided tour of our 'småbruk'' a few days later. 

More to come on waffles!

They also showed us around their adjacent family home (which belonged to the brother we met at the lake!) and was a beautiful timber house with blue shutters set in a tranquil lawn and worthy of the cover of Norske Hjem magazine.

So our trip to the beach was more fruitful then we ever thought and I can now rest easy that the beach is within short distance.......roll on more crunchy sandwiches, sandy toes and friendly chance encounters. 

Eurovision baby!

I love Eurovision. Unashamedly and only with a little bit of irony. Most years I watch the TV coverage and laugh loudly at Terry Wogan, and most recently Graham Norton's commentary.  Most years.  The last 2 have been different.

Rewind to May last year and we were camping at Thruxton race course. It was my birthday. We were listening to the radio commentary instead (not as good) and I made a random comment to Jim that the Swedish entrant was the favourite. He argued with me a bit, but given that I am a Eurovision nerd he gave up swiftly. So we made a bet. If Sweden won with Hereos by Måns Zelmerlöw Jim would take me to Sweden this year for my 40th birthday.

Måns won. Stockholm won the right to be the host city for this year.

I can hear you asking 'Did Jim honour our bet'?

I'll let you be the judge on that!

We have a plan......

Traditionally friday afternoons should be about a round of golf, a drink in the pub with work colleagues, networking with contacts.......well in fairness  i don't play golf, never drink with the office and networking....well that seems to mostly happen on twitter and Facebook nowadays! ......or there is the blog!

I/we haven't cranked out a blog post for a few months, not because we don't want to, but a tweet or a Facebook share sometimes to reflect what you want to say is just so much easier and quicker! Anyhow, i don't  believe the blog is dead, but Friday afternoons seem a good blog time! which, whilst I mention it, if you love Norwegian things and the joy of Norway then follow the Norway Times blog on here or their twitter/facebook feeds - It's written by a lady called Gill, who I have no idea who she is (hello if you reading this...now that's a test!) , but i do know one thing, is that she pretty much nails some of our own experiences on life in norway!.......so drop in and check it out.

Now, back to the plot......"there is a plot?" I hear you say, there surely is.......

I'm back from a father /son weekend away at the house, where I assumed the role of son for a change, albeit when my dad  accidently left a few things behind at security on the table before heading through the scanner and then apparently got locked in a toilet at the airport on the way home, it felt like I was being the dad again (in an eye rolling way)....... (i know my dad reads this ...so hi dad  and happy fathers day for sunday :) ) .

A photo taken from our trip to the lake at Øyungen

We visited because major works on the house are now pretty much now complete. We have water, drainage, electrics, a new roof, repaired foundations, a bathroom, bedrooms and a kitchen and rather excitingly some new windows! Now these aren't just any old new windows, but beautifully made triple glazed traditional windows made in Røros (from Røros vindu og dører) which were fitted by the gents at Bergstadden Bygg and look fantastic. But more importantly (and don't laugh) .....they actually open! Which is a big thing for our little house which has had sealed windows for who nows how long!

The master bedroom nearing completion;

The conservationist in me was quite against the idea of replacement windows and I have become a bit of geek on window repair and restoration over the last few months, buying a few books, looking at some new tools (always need new tools  for a new job right? or is that just a man thing.....a bit like always needing new shoes........; ) ) I even asked the builder to keep the old windows for when I get time to try and repair the others that are left.......we have 20 windows on our house, so it might be some time! ( albeit one of my favourite houses on the drive from Trondheim to Ålen has about 50 windows on so i'm quite glad i could never afford that house!)

We were also really pleased to be successful with our application to obtain a grant from the Norwegian culture fund for emergency works to repair the large barn. This included roof repairs and removal of the loose foundation stones and propping of the corners, where the large boulders have been removed. It's great that the country is actively seeking to promote the preservation of their built culture and realise it's importance. Our house and the large barn are on the Sefrak register for buildings of historical value, and whilst our little barn isn't, it forms part of the traditional 'Trondelag' layout of the central farm house with 2 barns perpendicular forming an open courtyard.

I'm glad I wasn't on the roof doing the repairs!

So with our efforts at easter and my dads help at the weekend, we now have a master ensuite bedroom almost ready for occupation and possible letting for guests in the future ;) and more excitingly and the reason we haven't blogged or done much else recently since easter, is that we  have pretty much bottomed out the design (and costs) for the conversion of our little barn to a hytte. We are super stoked that this looks like it will get off the ground towards the end of this year and be ready for use in 2017, because it means we then not only have the house for use, but quality accommodation in a fantastic location (on the side of our little bit of mountain) to  rent out for guests in Norway. So hopefully in 2017 will be Vilkommen til Nordic Snø for anyone who wants to experience this place also!  Watch this space............

The little barn in summer & winter;

Going on a bear hunt

We are 3 weeks back from our easter trip and amongst the usual DIY, yelling at the children and travelling malarky, there were some pretty exciting goings on going on...........well for us anyway!

It was a close call as to what constituted the major high point (when in fairness there has been so many).......but aside from buying and installing a new washing machine and a tumble dryer (even I was little excited to be able to wash some clothes whilst on holiday.....and the tumble dryer has a light inside which lights up your washing when  you open the door....no more lost socks....i really need to get out more...) we finally managed to hike up the mountain at the back of the house.

It was probably our fourth attempt to actually get up the mountain after many failed episodes;

Aborted attempt 1 - Ned was scared of the forest as there might be unfriendly trolls/the Gruffalo might be lurking.

No.2 - the above still applied + there were too many ants and the mountain was steep...he has yet to grasp the concept of a mountain.

No.3 - All of the above plus the resident cows were particular menacing and decided to chase me, who was chasing Ned, after Grandpa told us specifcially  not to run in a field of cows.....I was however impressed that my arm waving a yelling stopped the stampeding herd!

So attempt 4 it was.

We finally assembled the troops at about 10.30 on a Sunday morning after a good brunch of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup and Kath prepared her first ever batch of Norwegian dough for some bread making on our return (more on that another time ;).

It was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky, we made up a ruck sack of some  hot chocolate, sweeties and of course a couple of Kvikk Lunsj's for the adults we're still Maisie they are made with beer and not suitable for children. Fully suited and booted, we set off on our bear hunt.

The start of the hike was out the back of our house, past the neighbours and into the tree line and about as far as we had got previously.

The going was pretty steep, but the snow underfoot was quite easy going. On previous excursions, we have always had trouble finding the route, but this time I had done a bit of a pre trip reckie the night before and we quickly found and then followed a snowmobile ("don't call it a skidoo as thats a brand name...."...i  was once told off  in Norway for calling it a skidoo!)  trail.

We were soon stripping off layers as we climbed higher and higher and up through the trees. Ned managed to forget about the trolls, there was no sign of the gruffalo,  and despite the moaning form the kids they seemed to forget about how steep it was!

After about 40 minutes, the tree line started to break and eventually we started to head onto the mountain plateau. The snow mobile trail eventually finished and we came across the snow mobile happily parked unattended with a cross country ski trail leading from it further up the mountain. It's always hard growing up in the UK trying to imagine leaving things lying around unattended without someone taking off with them!        ...... Welcome to Norway :)

When we broke out of the tree line we of course had to stop for snack.....well it had been at least 10 minutes since the kids had eaten something and there is only so much you can take of ......can i have a snack!

Whilst the kids were feeding I headed up further and then persuaded them they should definitely make the effort for the last 10 minutes. We headed up to follow the winter trail marker posts and just took in the beauty of the plateau and the 3 summits which led off. Sadly these weren't reached for this trip but we had finally made it - to the top of our mountain.

... and how did we get back down..... well after making some quick snow angels, having another snack and staring open mouthed at how beautiful this place is.....when your come to Norway, you realise you do that a lot!......we did the only thing any sensible family in our situation could do...zipped up our jackets and snow suits and slid down on our bottoms! - that's right 45 minutes up and less than 20 back down.....oh and despite billing it to the kids as 'going on a bear hunt'....not  a single bear in sight......we'll have to save that for another trip ;)

...never a dull day ticking away..

The second Christmas Jim & I were together (back in the mid nineties!) he made me a clock. It was beautiful & moved home with me regularly (I was a student). On it was written lyrics from a Pink Floyd song 'Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day'. We were living apart, and I think the words were meant to comfort me......

It was repaired regularly as it was made of perspex & was often damaged in transit. However one day it was deemed beyond repair.

I have specific ideas on what I want in this house and my kitchen is in dire need of a clock! I searched for ages, only finding a Danish clock which satisfied my criteria. Except, as is the case with many things I covet, it was widely expensive and so the search continued.

This Christmas, my search was over as Jim made me another clock.  It is made from driftwood we've collected as a family & a heart shaped pebble I found on a beach. It is beautiful. 

And as I sit here (when i wrote this post a little while back), by the log burner writing, the delicate tick tock-ing is no longer ticking away moments that make up a dull day, but is now inscribed "never a dull day ticking away".... and with 2 kids, 2 houses, in 2 countries and far too much to do....no words were  ever more truly spoken!