A Sunday Walk

We as a family are doing our best to be more active about taking more family walks/hikes on the weekend.  

Last weekend was such a weekend, but our time was really cut short so we drove to a fairly easy route - a gravel road that follows the power lines into the wilderness between where we live and Bergen.  It's a very popular route as the road is flat and well maintained by the city, and has enough hills, dips and turns to provide exercise for all ages and skill abilities.  This weekend that we were here, we met an awful lot of people - other families such as ours, seniors out for their daily walks, hard core trainers running with headphones attached to their ears as well as those new to exercise who were obviously working up their strength and endurance.

We park our car at a parking spot just off the highway.  It is here that many park their cars before taking buses into Bergen.  We then cross the road and make our way to the pedestrian over cross.

Here is the view to the left of the over cross.

And here is the view to the right.

And of course my kids need to take the opportunity to be really tough and sit for a few minutes high under the overpass, with the cars passing directly over their heads.

But only 20 meters from the overpass the gravel road starts.  We can hear cars driving pass us for about 15 minutes.  But after that we have moved far enough away from the main highway that we only hear the birds and the last of the summer insects buzzing.

As mentioned, a nice terrain for all types of people to walk/cycle/run/train on.

My son insisted that I take this picture because he was convince that the possibility that this hole led to a magical underground kingdom was better than average.

Nice scenery.

Nicer scenery.

Open spaces.

Secret places.

Must make a mental note that the Heather is getting ready to harvest.

Another beautiful scene. Here we stopped to eat some apples and let our kids splash in the water.

Small corners of the forest that look like fairy tales where trolls live.

And where princesses collect their flowers and herbs.

And knights in shining amour train.

After walking for an hour, we reach a nice meadow.  It was here we rested and had a bite to eat before heading back.

Another Painting in My Collection

Well, I've purchased another painting. I hope it doesn't become too addicting.


This one was purchased from a used store not far from our cabin. At the moment it is hanging in our bedroom there. However, I plan to repaint the living room next year and then make place for this piece.

I purchased it for one basic reason: The first because I really am trying to keep with the traditional theme of Norwegian cabins (and my husbands traditional family) but add in some of my modern wishes and likes.


The style of the painting that you see is pretty abundant in Norway: a picture of a cabin of some sort by water, trees and with a mountain or two in the background. Usually however, the colors are incredibly subdued or even dark and depressing in nature.


However I really liked the colors in this painting. When I first saw it, it was hanging really high on the wall of the used store.



After the work was taken down for me, I saw that the buildings were made three dimensional with matchsticks and some sort of thick paper. In the windows the artist used gold foil to simulate candle light shining outwards through the glass.

I did write the name of the artist down to research him/her when I came home, but have misplaced that note somewhere. The woman who sold us the painting (and who would not give my husband a discount of any kind even though this work only cost us about 50.00) said that the artist was famous locally and that many of his works were in many houses in western Norway.

Regardless of the truth of this story (which could be completely true for all I know), I in any case liked this piece enough to think that 50.00 was well worth the price. I will be looking forward to giving updates on my research of this piece in the near future.