Feeling thankful - #100happydays

Day 3 #100happydays

Today I am feeling thankful that our prehistoric dinosaur of a lawnmower still works.  It is over 30 years old and it is getting incredibly difficult to source parts for it when it has a breakdown.  We were lucky this year that my husband was able to find substitute parts to fix it. In the future we may not be so lucky.

To replace this beast will require a lot of money - somewhere in the region of NOK 50K .  So, as you can imagine, we'd rather not be burdened with that expense any time soon.

To cut the lawn (tamed meadow) takes over 2 hours, so this isn't a luxury garden toy, but an essential one. Here's hoping we have have a couple more, trouble free years of grass cutting.

Looking for the "Perfect" Christmas Tree.

We had a little trip into the forest on Saturday looking for a Christmas Tree.  We are usually looking for something with a max. height of 3.25m / 10ft.

We headed off just after lunch with a flask of cocoa, clementines and biscuits, as well the essential tools -ax and saw.  Due to the fact that the weather forecast had been wrong the previous night ( we had rain instead of snow ) :-O, the track was slippery so we couldn't take a trailer with us.  Also, we only have one 4WD car, so contigency plans were made and it was arranged that Nils' father would drive up and pick me, Oskar and his friend up, whilst Nils would drive back with the Christmas tree, once it had been found and chopped down.

When we stopped and got out of the car, it seemed that we'd come to the wrong place...nothing looked "worthy".  So we decided to let Oskar and his friend do a bit of sledging before heading for another location.  Athough it was only early afternoon, the sun was barely above the horizon and the air was decidedly chilly.

The rain that had fallen the previously night had frozen in the trees, so any slight breeze sent hail like drops from the trees.

We'd just about decided to give-up our search and have the cocoa etc, when Nils spotted "our" tree and then we saw another!  Decisions, decisions!  Actually, it didn't take too long to decide because by now my Father-in-Law had turned up and the boys were devastated to find out I'd forgotten to bring cups for the cocoa :-0  We were all ready to head back as quickly as possible.

Boys with toys: Nils with an ax, Oskar with the saw.

Now the job was done, we headed back home to the warm house...the warm cocoa was perfect :-)

This is how our Christmas 2013 tree looks :-)

Nesbrua

1.6km / 1 mile from where I live is Nesbrua. The bridge stretches over a narrow part of Gjerstadvannet (lake). We have to drive/walk over the bridge to get to where we live.

This photo I took this afternoon around 2pm whilst waiting for the school bus to drop off Oskar.



At the moment, tree pollen is everywhere...our cars are covered. Here you can see some pollen that has fallen into Gjerstadvannet.




A view of the bridge from the side we live on...it was taken last week. Oskar has his rain cover on his rucksack! He's on his way to catch the school bus along Gjerstadveien.



How it looked at the end of Winter.

1st three days of Summer @ Mo!

It has been a wonderful start to the Summer, here in Southern Norway. Nice warm temperatures and lots of sun! To Oskar, this means that we are only one month to his 7th Birthday! For me, it is refreshing to be able to natures' greenery, after a long Winter.



Yes, it was 22 degrees Celsius at 11am on 1st June! Okay, to most people, the fact we reached a high of 25 degrees Celsius that day isn't by any standards special! But to us living in the temperate climes of Northern Europe, it is welcome and long overdue;)



Forget-Me-Nots growing wildly in the garden!!



Although we love rhubarb, it isn't good for people who have joint problems....so we don't eat any :( Therefore, we just let it flowers in its own unique way!



Since the snow melted, I walk Oskar down to the bus stop each day (unless it is raining). It is 2km from our house to where he picks up the bus on the nearest main road. In a morning we walk half the distance, as that is all that time allows. This morning, we saw more signs of Summer:



I love the scent of Lily of the Valley and the delicate white flowers.




Beautiful Violas.



The flowers of the Wild Strawberry.....Oskar loves eating the fruit when ready!


Lastly a picture of one of our apple trees. It is now hiding the huge Magpie penthouse style nest. So now, as the tree looks so pretty, we re-named it the Magpie Love-shack!!

A view from the dining room window!

A roedeer wandered into the garden looking for food....it found some apple to eat!