A Walk in the Park

A city park in Bergen.  The daycare is nearby, and after a day of care and play, we fed the ducks on the way home. It is 4 PM and raining unusually hard.  

Perfect for ducks!  They were appreciative of bread...

And a comparison picture can be found here (taken 6 months ago).

At 60 degrees north latitude, it's really dark BUT on a rainy day, it's darker…  Here's an example:

A day with direct sunshine is seldom, and possible for only 2-1/2 hours a day (at this time of year) so you have sunsetting

because the sun travels sideways… in a slight arc… into the next mountain, about 2 PM on January 9, and moonrise at 4 PM 

while it's still light.  Look at that blue sky!

A repeat...

In case you missed the big "two year" celebration, I'll redirect you to a previous blog.

If you didn't miss it but are just SOOOO taken by my grandchild and you can't get enough, I'll redirect you BACK to my previous blog, which now has MORE pictures in the slide show.

By the way, the weather has been behaving itself!  Sun and no rain for 3 days!!!  (Not NM sun, for sure, but Norway sun.  Teehee...)

More about knitting tomorrow!

Previous Birthday Blog

The Days Get Busier!

Out of Town Guests from Florida.  What a treat!  Let's serve up some "weather"--- like a good portion of hail:

 Or let's serve up a good portion of food!  ---like ONIONS.  This is the beginning of a fantastic French Onion Soup.  (Can you smell 'em?)

 Let's sit back when they are gone and .... start something new!  Mystery garment.

This afternoon I discovered I should be short 2 grams of yarn... to make the other one.  Grrrr.

The LYS

How far would you go?  to your LYS, to fall off your Yarn Diet?  For lunch with friends?  
How about 65 miles?  Yes, it's about that to the nearest REAL local yarn shop.  I go to Yarn in Durango.  Closer are the chain craft stores, but for a real LYS it's a pilgrimage.  And a very pleasant one too.
There's the drive up:

What could be better than that?
What about the store?

Great variety

The table with items to be shelved

And Jonni, who was posing in her Dale of Norway

Then there's the trip back:

Yep!  That's the color of the sky...
The damage to my diet?  Eight skeins of lovely pima cotton pulled out of storage in the back room.  (Who knits with cotton in November?)

Meanwhile, as I fret about the temps...

I'm going to fret, about the temps... It's going to be cold here for the rest of the week,

then...  Hege happened!

I just read one of my favorite blogs called "Cloudberry", named after my favorite berry, and I dare not complain fret anymore.  In fact I'm going out for a walk this morning!

Hege lives at the top of the world, where it's dark most of the time during this part of the year, yet she and her family, certainly led by her, enjoy it all.  I love her photography, and her creativity.  See if you don't want to be a follower of her blog:

Click HERE.  If this link doesn't work, use the one to the right under "Heges..."

OK.  I have to show you what our predicted temps (in Fahrenheit and Celsius) are:

Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
45/11	38/5	40/13	49/22	44/20
7/-12	3/-15	4/-11	9/-6	7/-7

Keep in mind that there is no precipitation in the forecast, and that Sat and Sun are normal for this time of year.  Also, the coldest days (Thurs and Fri) are pure sun! Ten hours a day.  I love the SW.

Last Days at Sea

Somehow a month has gone by and we are sailing the roughest part of our trip. Around the southern end of New Zealand and across the Tasman Sea.

The waves have been rough and we are proficient at stepping sideways.

Juju is now sipping water from a straw, feeding herself great gobs of scrambled eggs, riding a mini tricycle with foot/wave power, saying "mama" and touching her nose on command. (on command doesn't sound so nice but that's what we do...)
We, adults, are still speaking civilly to each other and haven't given up on forming a winning Trivia team.

New Zealand was very beautiful even in the rain. After being on a tropical island cruise it was shocking to need layers of wooly clothing. P and I gladly shopped for yarn. I quickly knitted up a head band/ear warmer which I used on the south island.

Current conditions and position:
Thursday October 21
Traveled 9507 naut miles since San Francisco
670 NMiles to Sydney.
Rough seas waves 7.5 to 12 feet
Traveling at 17 knots per hour
Wind is 45 knots at 90 degrees across the deck.
Position is 39 degrees south 163 degrees east
The air and sea temperatures are 53 degrees F.

Swimming days are over! Hot tub, maybe.

Party TIME!

Norwegians love to party!  Well, don't we all?  They love Summer! And again, don't we all?  And when it's Summer and Party-time, how can you resist?

We went to two parties on the last day we were in Bergen.  Both were birthday celebrations.

Party #1:

C is holding the birthday baby, and M is holding Juju.

Party Facts:

• Noon to 3 PM
• Grilling outside (Steaks, chicken, some Croatian meat patties, shrimp, burgers, hot dogs, I'm sure I forgot something)
• Raining
• 55º F
• Baby's First Birthday
• CAKE!  with Lady Bugs.  

• TONS of food
• Conservative alcohol use
• 4 happy babies!
• 1 not so happy toddler

Between parties we returned to finish the final clean out:  Bare shelves, which were totally laden last week!

Party #2  (Sorry, no pictures...)

Party Facts:

• 6 PM until we left at 5 AM
• Outside party tent attached to garage
• 40+ people
• Lots of alcohol
• Extra clothing available and lap blankets for all
• Windy, rainy, and 40º F (but, hey, it was light outside!)
• Nacho Soup and Nacho chips
• Lots to drink (including my favorite, Pims and lemonade!!!!)
• Multiple cakes
• Loud music, loud voices, speeches, and cold
• Truly the Viking experience: Drink and cold weather!

I slept through some of it, until the alarm went off at 4:30 AM.  The maxi-taxi arrived at 5 AM and we took two of the revelers with us who had NOT slept.  They cracked jokes in the back of our 10 seater bus.  They pretended to be our children and we were going away on holiday.  They made us laugh, even at 5 AM when they wanted to stop for ice cream!

There we were at the airport, and suddenly on the plane, and 4 hours later we were in line for a rental car in Spain.  The "year-off" for C and H had officially begun.  How about that packing with mother-in-law in tow?

See Hal.

See Hal study Spanish.

See Hal eat a chocolate donut.

See Hal write with the world's tiniest pen!

(Click on the pic to see the world's tiniest pen.)

Weather

Why I like New Mexico weather in March:

• Blue skies
• When I look at the 7-day forecast and 6 of the 7 days mention sun, sunny or sunshine, what's not to like?
• Snow does occur: 1 of the 7 days says "Chance for morning snow showers"
• Snow doesn't last
• I've lived here 20 years and maybe 3 times we've had a patch of ice on the north side of a building that lasted over a month.
• Special this year: Normal precipitation year to date is 1.56"; This year to date is 3.71"
• Normally we get 7.3" per year.  I can live with that!

Downside:  Body lotion is a necessity! (And the wind is not blowing at this moment...)

Baby needs....

Baby needs a new... bonnet!  Baby, it's COLD outside.  With our evenings turning to the teens, my knitting is put to the test:  My third baby bonnet is complete.  Tonight my granddaughter, unwillingly went out after dark.  She's here from Norway, 5 months old, and resisting the adjustment to our time zone.  Tonight we tried to push a few more hours towards MST, but the cold snap has us wondering why we have to roam around at the river's edge, following a trail of paper bags glowing with candles.  One reason is to hear the carols and the Trumpet Geezers; another is to visit with friends; hot chocolate isn't bad either, in fact that's a necessity!  It really is beautiful:  the city has bonfires for warmth, but babies adjusting to time zones don't care about those things.  

Three days ago I went to Ravelry and looked up the yarn, needles and number of stitches cast on so I could recreate the Lilac Bonnet I made for my granddaughter when she was 2 months old.  Now at 5 months, I bound off a little earlier than I anticipated to make tonight's deadline.  She wore it proudly, with warm head and ears, carried up and down the river's edge, trying to sleep.  We met several people who know her mother, so we were stopped and she looked out from the warmth of her mama's chest wondering about the craziness, and probably enjoying the exclamations of the adults at her perfect-ness.