King Winter is back

Last Thursday we had no snow at all here in Oslo. This weekend King Winter decided to come back, and this morning I am happy that my car is in a garage.
In the garden the trees are like sculptures, but my neighbors are hunting for their cars in the middle of "nowhere". She found it, started digging OUT and got free after 20 minutes.
Some minutes later another car is searching for a parking place, and after 10 more minutes digging IN, this new cardriver could leave the car ready for her job in the city.
30 minutes of live theatre.
All the world is a stage, as Trine said playing the melancholy Jaques in Shakespeare´s As you like it.

New Painting / New car

Too much sport on TV today. Have to disappear into my studio to finish a painting before the snow is taken over the nature. Outside snow is falling from the sky and very soon covers the ground with a white carpet.
In Ålesund Helge is celebrating his birthday, and in Wales Trine is buying a new (used) family car.
Congratulation to us all.

Photo Safari at Sognsvann

Normally the area around Lake Sognsvann at this time of the year is full of snow and ice with children playing, skiing or skating.
I am very happy that there is no snow in the center of Oslo where I live, but for those longing for the winter activities, the brown and snowless paths must create abstinence.

For my pregnant daughter walking around the lake makes her keep up the conditions required, and a short break in the 2 x 5km stroll is only taking place to honor the photo safari blogging.Tullen are here close to the frozen lake, and the birches are bended by last season heavy loads of snow.

Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss is dead

Norwegian philosopher, writer and mountaineer Arne Næss, best known for launching the concept of Deep Ecology has died at the age of 96. The deep ecology concept is promoting the idea that Earth as a planet has as much right as its inhabitants, such as humans, to survive and flourish.

His philosophical work focused on Spinoza, Buddhism and Gandhi. He earned a doctorate at the University of Oslo at age 27 and was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo.

Næss argued for abstaining from the following to make discussions as fruitful and pleasant as possible:

1. Avoiding tendentious irrelevance
   Examples: Personal attacks, claims of opponents' motivation, explaining reasons for an argument.
2. Avoiding tendentious reciting
   Reproductions should be neutral regarding the subject of the debate.
3. Avoiding tendentious ambiguity
   Ambiguous arguments may be easily adopted to suit criticism.
4. Avoiding tendentious use of straw men
   Assigning views to the opponent that he or she does not hold.
5. Avoiding tendentious original research
   Information put forward should never be untrue or incomplete, and one should not withhold any relevant information.
6. Avoiding tendentious tone of voice
   Examples: irony, sarcasm, pejoratives, exaggeration, subtle (or open) threats.

For many years these points were part of the two compulsory courses in philosophy taught in Norwegian universities ("Examen philosophicum" and "Examen facultatum").

I first became aware of Arne Næss during the Mardøla protest in 1970 and through his activity in "Fremtiden i våre hender" and his book "Økologi, samfunn og Livsstil" (1974).

I will recommend his book Life's philosophy: reason and feeling in a deeper world where he in his preface states:

The book (text found her at Google), is based upon his Norwegian version from 1998, the year of my transplantations. This book "Livsfilosofi" meant a lot for me in my recovery process.

Parts of the book is written at his cabin Tverrgastein under Hallingskarvet and I visited this beautiful place (seen uphills behind me) in 2002.

Making a baby.

Yesterday I received an email from Mrs. Nesbitt, and just had to post it. There is not one dirty word in it, and it is funny!-- 


Take your time:The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, 'Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon.' 



Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale. 'Good morning, Ma'am', he said, 'I've come to..' 

'Oh, no need to explain,' Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, 'I've been expecting you.' 

'Have you really?' said the photographer. 'Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?' 

'Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat !.


After a moment she asked, blushing, 'Well, where do we start?' 



'Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.'
'Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!' 



'Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.' 

'My, that's a lot!', gasped Mrs. Smith. 

'Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be In and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that.' 

'Don't I know it,' said Mrs. Smith quietly. 



The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. 'This was done on the top of a bus,' he said. 

'Oh, my God!' Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat. 

'And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with.' 

'She was difficult?' asked Mrs. Smith. 

'Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look' 

'Four and five deep?' said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement. 

'Yes', the photographer replied. 'And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in.' 

Mrs. Smith leaned forward. 'Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?' 

'It's true, Ma'am, yes..

Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away.' 

'Tripod?' 

'Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big to be held in the hand very long.' 

(Mrs Smith fainted)

Day of Tulips

Today we can celebrate the Tulip Day here in Norway.
The day marks the start of the tulip season and most flower shops will be full of fresh Tulips in beautiful colors. Tulips are my favorite flower.
The Tulips are probably most believed as coming from Amsterdam, but it is originally a flower imported to north western Europe in the middle of 1500 from Turkey. Its origin can be found in the Persian Empire which is where nature evolved into culture and it all begun almost 10.000 years ago.
Buy yourself or give your partner some nice Tulips today. It makes a god start of this week.

Organ transplantation vs Medical Needs in Gaza

Two Norwegian doctors have been working in Gaza since New Year. They have been one of the important sources for information about what is going on in this, by Israel, sealed off area. Their working conditions in Gaza are incomparable to their work in Norway, where we as patients at Rikshospitalet have the possibility to get advanced high quality surgery and life saving procedures like Organ Transplantation.469 organs to 425 person was transplanted in 2008. More than last year, all time high.
At the same time 192 patients were on the waiting list for operation.
The gap between reported potential donations and realized donations has more or less been the same last ten years.
People saying NO to donation in 2008 was 42 0r 29%
There is still a lot of work to do in the information and motivation area, and part of this challenge was up for debate in the Parliament this week.

Leaflets and images the day after

The leaflet above show why many of us cry out our protests against the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. The use of massive force against civilians and children is completely out of proportions.
Stop the Gaza war and the occupation of Palestine!
Yesterday´s demonstrations in Oslo made lots of broken windows in the city center, but in this shop we saw no reports of stolen watches. You can still buy your Patek Philippe.

In the neighborhood of the Israeli embassy, an owner has put the following plea in his windows:

Please, do not breake more windows (Hurray Palestine)

Red skies for peace in Gaza and the middle east

Heavy demonstrations in the street of Oslo tonight.
Ten thousands of persons joined the torch parade, but prior to this peaceful demonstration fighting in the main streets and close to the Israeli embassy took place between activists and police forces. News papers and media are covering the development of the demonstrations. We have not seen actions like this in Oslo since the 80s.
The demonstrations, fighting and tear gas are contradictory to the peaceful sky an hour after sunset and before the turmoils started.

Norangsdalen once more

In My gallery I present some nice photos from the summer holiday July 2004. The photos includes photos from "Union Hotel" and the Queen-route through Norangsdalen.
To the right of this gate or cattle grating under Smørskredtind – 1631 m ( to reach the summit there is some rope-climbing, but according to Asbjørn : Not too difficult), on the photo above, you may find the Lygnstøyl Lake made after a huge landslide in 1908. The old houses, road and apple-trees are today a spectacular diving treasure. See the video from a scuba diving tour in this clear water.
But the other old houses in the valley not hit by the landslide, represent a similar fascinating view of the old mountain dairy farming huts.
Places where nobody believe people can live, but still do.

Y is for Yummy, Yin and Yang

Y is for Yummy.
Tuesday I made Fish-cakes for dinner. Put 500gr Cod, 500gr Pollock, chopped Leek, salt and pepper, mace, corn-flour, some butter and milk through the food processor to wanted cream of fish. Fry and serve with vegetables. Yummy.
On New Year Night I saw sir Cliff in the Royal Variety TV show. With his companions "The Shadows" he performed a grown-up version of Move it, and I got an idea for the first ABC Wednesday in 2009.
The symbioses of the actors in this group compared to the antibiosis between me and my Queen. Because the letter is Y, that makes: Yin and Yang.At least we share some interesting outfits in our wardrobes.

Y is for Yin and Yang

For orher ABC Wednesday fellows, go to ABC Linky and sign up.

Cold and Warm Photo Safari

PETUNIA made me the honor to be represented in her New Year Photo Safari Cavalcade.
She used a flower photo from my summer residence "Solvang Hytta" and mentioned that I have been active in taking my visitors to some of my many destinations abroad.

I will therefore today at Trettendedagen or Avfaredagen on this first Photo Safari of 2009, follow up the same, and give you photos from the cold (-10C) garden, but also at the end give you some photos from the warm Kenya.

There is no snow at Tullarbo at the moment, but the frosty air has given the tree trunks, lawn and hedges a beautiful white cover of snow crystals.
A real Safari (with camera) was sent me from my daughter after her visit to Africa. The photos of the Elephant family and the Gazelle is taken near the Tanzanian border and Mount Kilimanjaro

"Bridges" continues in 2009

Hopefully will the "Broer som binder"-meme continue during 2009.
RuneE has not indicated any termination although we have had some conflicting interests between this meme and e.g. Monday odd shot.

We started the first of February last year and I believe that the meme at least will be in operation for minimum one year. Join us and visit the Builders located in RuneE´s blog.

My bridges this first month in 2009 are from the Spanish city SEVILLE.
The first photo is of Barqueta Bridge crossing the Guadalquivir River taken from the Hop on Hop off bus,while the second is an example of one the other bridges in Seville, the Alamillo. Can you see the similarity to the Ypsilon in Drammen, Norway.
One of the small but spectacular bridges in Seville can be found at Plaza de Espana. It looks old, but is from 1929. I include this bridge in advance to Helge´s birthday January 18th, and hope we once more together can visit Andalucia.

Stop the war in Gaza

The never ending story. I made the painting based upon a photo in a newspaper when Israel armed forces made their aggressive attack on Lebanon summer 2006 and Qana July 30.

The conflicts in the Middle east have got a new page of shame. The war escalates through Israeli aggression across the Gaza boarder, and civilian palestinians are suffering. Political leaders around the world make statements like our own Foreign Minister: “We are extremely concerned about the precarious humanitarian situation in Gaza” , but The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
The key to any solution can only be found in the Oval Office.

In the streets protests are taken place, and that reminds me of what we did many years ago when singing Pete Seeger´s song Where have all the flowers gone in this youTube video performed by Peter, Paul and Mary

Saturday Urban Life - Oslo

As you can see, no snow in Oslo at present. The cold weather has however, made the lawn in the Royal Garden grey or some shade of white if you want snow to come. The low sun makes it difficult to see when driving your car, but that is no excuse for not strolling the city on Saturday.
The Royal castle balcony still has its Christmas tree, so the season celebration for the royal family has not yet been brought to an end. May be they still are up at Kongsseteren where the weather is not influenced by the cold fog near open water.
There is no open water in Spikersuppa in front of the Parliament where people can have fun at Narvisen.
The financial crises have not made a significant influence of the Sale Season, but bankruptcies have increased. The lingerie shop mentioned in my post from December 7th 2007 is no more in operation, and in Paleet we found this note in a window yesterday.

Back to normal - almost

After days with eating and drinking, this morning an ordinary breakfast could take place in front of our kitchen fireplace.
No more herring in curry, smoked and marinated salmon, Fenalår or Spekeskinke, fat cheeses or/and akevitt. Back to Bacon and Egg and Grovbrød med Spelt. It is almost back to normal conditions. But it is Friday, and only hours till an upcoming weekend. Still some leftovers in the fridge, closed at Cafe Christiania, no Tour de Ski on TV, so we plan for a short stay at fru Burum´s later this afternoon.

The dawn of a New Year

From our Dining room and Library we wish all our visitors a

HAPPY NEW YEAR