It's the white roof over there.....

Maisie and I are on our last night together before kath and ned join us for the rest of the week, and we then head back home again on Sunday and back to .....don't say the W word! 

So far this week I have undertaken the very important tasks of setting up the woodshed, by neatly stacking the wood I could find ( there is still about a tonne in the barn to shift), reinstalling the barn window which had blown out since we were last here in august ( when we viewed) and just generally tidying and sorting all the stuff in the house.  Not sure if I said before,  but we bought the house and all it's contents which includes everything from furniture and a 30 year old bag of coffee through to an amazing old loom and telegrams from a wedding in 1947! 

Anyhow, today I met my new best friend, Jan, ålens finest electrician, to discuss getting the house rewired and such things as the best location for the new distribution board. Given he doesn't speak much English (albeit infinitely better than my norwegian of course)  and my Norwegian is boarder line at best, we did pretty well and even had a joke together......at least I think we were laughing about the same thing! 

So after agreeing a plan, he told me I needed to strip the old electrics out so he could do the rewire, and that has been today's task. So I now have sore fingers, aching arms and a pile of old cable on the from garden / field. The old fittings were mostly Bakelite so exploded into pieces  when you tugged the wire hard enough! 

Anyhow,  when I said goodby to Jan, I asked him if he new anyone who could help me with the drainage and he gave me a couple of names including harald who is the farmer who cuts the field ( yet to speak to him! ). I asked jan if he knew Arvid. ( the person we bought the house off) and of course he did - his brother in law bought some land off arvid a few years back........brother in laws name - harald of course! So the joke we shared, I think , was the fact that ålen ( or maybe it's the whole of Norway as there are  so few people here, which is in the top10 highlights of this great place) is actually identical to north devon where everybody knows each other or is related......

And what of the white roof, well so far this week when I've asked whereabouts someone lives,  it seems to be normal to point out the persons  house on the valley side and say 'over there, next to the trees, with the white roof'. Who needs addresses anyway!