LAST WEEKEND, IF IT ONLY COULD HAVE LASTED A LITTLE LONGER

BERGEN AUTUMN

Since we moved back to BERGEN in September the weather has been UNREALISTICALLY good, at least WAY better than I had feared. In 2012 Bergen had 269 days of RAIN.. also meaning 96 days with no rain.. which is not a lot, so my expectations were accordingly. My experience from this JULY (it pretty much looked like THIS the whole time we were here) did not help either. Even though I am a fairly optimistic person I have to admit that I like to go into situations with LOW expectations, because I function a lot better when positively surprised than the other way around. Like this autumn in BERGEN, which in my eyes have been absolutely DELIGHTFUL. That does not mean that we have had no rain... it means that it has not been raining all the time, like on the day these pictures were taken, right around the corner from our apartment. As I have mentioned earlier; I really like my neighborhood. And I LOVE having all my clothes in one spot again, like this coat that used to be my mom's. She used to wear it with a pair of flared trousers ..made in the exact same fabric. The pants stopped fitting me when I was around 10 ..so I guess we will never really know if I would have been able to pull off that look.. (at least in a more serious context than the dress up sessions my sister and I would arrange in the basement of our house). But one thing is for sure; my mother did. I think I have to ask her the next time I see her if she has a picture of it, I have a vague memory of having seen one a long time ago.. or maybe I am just imagining it. If there is a picture ..I will try to persuade my mother into having her blog debut.

MY NEW NEIGHBORHOOD

These photographs were taken a couple a days ago, close to where I now live ..in BERGEN, more specifically; in SOLHEIMSVIKEN, close to DANMARKSPLASS. I can not begin to explain how HAPPY I am, not only with our new apartment, but also with the area where it's located. Moving back to BERGEN made me realize how I really only knew very small parts of the city. I suddenly feel that the only part of Bergen I ever really knew was BØNES (which is where I grew up, a suburban area situated about 10-15 minutes outside the city center) as well as the immediate city center, where I lived as a STUDENT. 

The last time I lived in Bergen, seven years ago, it would have been UNTHINKABLE to live where we live now. When some friends moved out here I remember thinking that their life was basically over and that they were LOSERS. I guess I got OLDER, but I also got used to living in much bigger cities, with longer distances to cover. I remember the feeling of not wanting to go to another bar because it was situated on the opposite side of the city center- so it would take something like 5-10 minutes to walk there. Maybe I was particularly LAZY, but I honestly remember this as a collective idea. Of course it has to do with the weather, all the RAIN, but mainly I think it just has to do with the distances you are used to. Anyway, it feels good to be back and now feel that everything is so CLOSE and easy to get to. It also feels good that so many things have changed in the CITY, and not only with me.

So, the area where these pictures were taken is an example of an area that has changed a lot since the last time I lived here. It used to be the home of a big shipping company, BERGEN MEKANISKE VERKSTED, that produced iron steam boats here between 1855 and 1991. Today they are changing the area by putting in office buildings, apartments ..even a cafe; KRANEN (more about this some other time). I guess what is so charming about the area right now is that you still have the some of the old elements, as well as all the new. Like this wooden pier with the fancy buildings in the background. To me it is just also really nice to live by the ocean again, something I really missed living in BERLIN.

MOUNTAIN FLOWER CROWN

Totally exhausted, but also very happy, after spending all of yesterday photographing the beautiful wedding ...of the beautiful couple ANETTE and WESLEY ...here in beautiful OSLO. I think it's such an honor as well as a nice experience getting to spend the entire WEDDING DAY with a couple like that ..but it also makes my entire body hurt the day after. Their wedding was wonderful from beginning to end and I can not wait to show you some pictures, but today you have to settle with these photos that I took at the cabin while making a FLOWER CROWN. Realized when I put it on that I can't really wear one with that  kind of flowers because of my ALLERGIES; putting it on made my eyes and nose itch and run immediately ..well well, I guess that just means that if I ever want to make one again ..I'll just have to make it for someone else:)

MOUNTAIN FLOWERS

I know I haven’t been that good at posting lately, but this LAST WEEK my lack of posting has not been because of having nothing to show you ..BUT a lack of internet. I have spent the last week at our family CABIN in the Norwegian mountains ..and it’s been absolutely WONDERFUL. A full week of SUN and warm temperatures. Norwegian summer at its BEST. The nearby lake has now reached the amazing temperature (I am being ironic) of 17,5 degrees (we started at 13 last weekend). I have not had the pleasure of taking a swim in it yet... simply because I do NOT think it would be a PEASURE (for every year that passes I become more of a WUSS when it comes to cold water) but I  have been spending a lot of time in a much smaller, totally IDYLLIC, POND that is not that far from here ..where the temperature is now 22.  I will not post pictures from that today, instead I will share with you some pictures from the night we arrived here... when I took a walk to pick FLOWERS. Something I have loved doing ever since I was a CHILD. 

SUMMER NIGHT, BØNES STYLE

This weekend I experienced what I felt was the first SUMMER NIGHT since I arrived in BERGEN. I was wearing shoes with open toe AND an open jacket ...without getting COLD as I was walking home. Yes, it's all about ADAPTING ..or else you will get DEPRESSED. The whole evening was really nice, mixing things I used to do while living in BERGEN (it's been 7 years) with new things. As E and I was walking from the BUS STOP to my parents house, a stretch I've walked a THOUSAND times, I decided that I for once would try do a thing that I have wanted to do many times before, but never have done; try to CAPTURE some of that mixed feeling of walking these streets; filled with happiness and life from an evening filled with good FRIENDS, drinks and food .. at the same time as being surrounded by the quiet street of suburbia, so obviously stating that the evening is over, making me wish it never had to end (E on the other hand was at this point of the evening (as usual when I am all fired up) ready to crash into bed ..so we had to make a quick stop by the house to pick up some POTAPO CHIPS as BRIBE before he was ready to take some pictures). 

I have to say that it is in some ways strange suddenly spending all this time in Bergen, knowing that we will soon move back here. Right now I am truly in TRANSIT, living in the house where I grew up surrounded by so many memories  ...but this time being here with my husband, trying to plan a LIFE that I HOPE will have in it all that was GOOD the last time I lived here ..but at the same time be so different. It feels like some sort of time travel where I am living my life in one time... the present time, while by brain is running all these different narratives from past times parallel with that. What can I say, it's kind of confusing, but I am sure it will all fall into place ...when it does. 

NEW FAVORITE TREE

This is the THIRD year in a row that we spend time at CASCINA COLLINA in PIEMONTE. We started going there because my sister's boyfriend's family had a connection to the vineyard, and this third summer it almost felt like coming back to our SUMMER HOUSE. I think especially since we have been traveling so much ..and not really had a real home in almost a year, a place where you have spent time two years in a row, almost feels like HOME when you return the third time. In some ways I actually almost think of GUNVOR and JOAR, the couple running the place, as some sort of aunt and uncle. I think that part also has something to do with the fact that when I was growing up in BERGEN we only saw my dad's sisters and their families during the summers. They all lived in TRONDHEIM where the weather, at least the way I remember it, was a lot nicer ..and we drove to visit them there every year during our summer break. Thinking about it now, only seeing them during the summers was actually kind of nice because then I associated them with great things; SUN, strawberries, ICE CREAM and holiday; basically almost every child's favorite things. So I guess these last years Cascina Collina has become the grown up version of that, just with wine and delicious food ..instead of just ice cream and strawberries, but still with the sun and the time off.

Last year when we visited I fell in love with an APRICOT TREE that is situated right at the end of the pool. This year when we were there it was not bearing fruits, either because it's just too early ..or because last year was this tree's last time to shine. It had not been bearing fruits for years, but after a really hard winter where it almost died it suddenly last summer came back to life.. in a big way. But so yes, this year I found myself a new favorite tree, a CHERRY tree. It's not quite as magical as the one with the apricots, but still, I really liked it:)