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

Ending 2008 / eXit

With a fresh photo of my grandchild, Helene, I thank her and you all for the various memories from 2008.

I wish you a Happy 2009.

Just found out that it was Wednesday today, buy that only made it possible to say X = eXit

Important and less important blogposts. Memories from 2008

At the end of year 2008 it is interesting to return to my almost 360 postings and see what I covered during all these 12 months. Some of them may be more important than others, and others again should not have been posted at all. By clicking on the name of the month, you may see all posts from that period.

JANUARY:In January we took a trip to Ålesund for fetching a painting by Terje Fagermo which I bought last summer. Meeting with family and friends from the old-gang was nice. The peak Romsdalshorn seen from Åndalsnes when returning to Oslo covers the photo activity.
The important posts from January are the swapping from Norwegian to English text on January 31st and the one about Annonymity in the blogworld January 20th

FEBRUARY:"530 km x 2 during 6 hours x 2 car-driving, 2 nights in a hotel bed, italian food, strolling up and down streets, over bridges, up and down shopping escalators, subway traveling "= a short visit to Stockholm, Sweden, but perhaps the introduction of RuneE´s Building Bridged was most important in this month.

MARCH:The shocking news from Ålesund on Thursday March 26th must be the highlight this month, but the photo coverage of Arne Ekelands Exhibition at Høvikodden which can be found at MY Gallery, is a strong number two.

APRIL:The opening of the new Opera House in Oslo and walking the roof (like here together with Gerd and Arne), was given much attention in March, but in this month Spring is here to stay and Tullarbo activities take increasing time during weekends, when the weather makes that possible.
By the time that April arrives, the frosty weather has almost disappeared, thanks in no small part to the warming air arriving from the Gulf Stream and the Atlantic. Daytime temperatures in April generally stay above 10°C / 50°F and quickly rise towards the end of the month, sometime reaching as high as 15°C / 59°F or more on the sunniest days.

MAY:Our trips to Portugal and Wales must be the highlights of this month, but the annual moving to Solvang and breakfast in the garden, is also an important event.

JUNE:I used this first summer month to scan some old photos from my paper-picture-life, and show many spectacular situations from our life in Asia. I also used the ABC Wednesday = T to pay tribute to my beautiful wife.

JULY:This Summer holiday month started with a lovely week close to the western horizon and the North Sea together with Asbjørn and AnneKath. The return was through the Geiranger fjord.
After coming home to Oslo we continued to Copenhagen for a few days, and was shopping and eating the excellent Danish Breakfast (heavy). Blogging in this month was also related to scanned photos, but my own painting activity increased during the stay at Tullarbo.

AUGUST:August is the last month every year at Solvang. Harvesting takes place and we are prepared to return to Frogner for autumn urban city life. I was all the summer waiting for admittance to Diakonhjemmet hospital for an operation according to the health guarantee, but the month went on without any welcome call. Tullen took a short ride to Wales and visited also the city Bath together with Davids mother and family. My blogposts show "historical" photos from travels to: Paris, Provence, Cote dÁzur, Barcelona, Salzburg, Austria, and Rome.

SEPTEMBER:In September Henrik Isak celebrated his first birthday, and big sister Helene is proud of her brother. Our own activities was limited, but we did some reconstruction works at the cottage. At last I got the promised operation with excellent results. No malignity found.
Other posting themes worth re-watching may be I am grateful and thankful and the one about myself Portraits with hats or Headgear

OCTOBER:In this month of October the first snowfall of the season normally cover everything in Oslo, to the greatest surprise for any car-driver. But for the majority bloggers, this is the month for autumn photos. We opened the Lutefisk season, and went on a Sunday trip to Drammen.
The trip abroad had Berlin as destination, and I made several posts from the urban life in Berlin on both sides of the "fallen" wall.

NOVEMBER:I am a Scorpio and for several years we have celebrated my birthday outside Norway. This year we had the intention to visit Rome because it was ten years since we celebrated my successful simultaneous Heart / Kidney Transplantation in 1998 by visiting this beautiful city. We ended up in Paris, had a wonderful extended weekend, and made several posts from this metropole.
15 years prior to me being the first combined Tx-Cor and Tx-Renis in Norway, the Team 83 (picture) performed the first Heart Transplantation in Norway and Scandinavia. A 22 years girl, Bente, received a heart from a 37 years old man, and she is still well and working. The donor´s heart has performed well in 25 years, and the donor´s family can really be proud of their decision the 5th of november in 1983.

DECEMBER:I feel that the events in the last month this year is in too short distance when writing this blogpost to make any priority between them. It has been only hospitalization, preparing for operation, sent home and same procedure again and again. But at last it was my time.
It had to be a different christmas celebration, as people all over the world are doing, but the result is however that my abdomen is better for every day, and the Laparoscopy has been defined a success by the surgery practitioner.
I am well and now the news about Truls` condition also seems optimistic.At the end of this blogging cavalcade I want to thank all my visitor for the old, great blogyear, and may you all have a HAPPY 2009.

How to sell a President

During the President election campaign in 1972 I remember we thought it was crazy and out of any democratic "rules" that a candidate could sell his image for money. The Nixon $3.00 Bill Coffee Cup is now on sale at eBay for $35.00.

I remember this when reading that B.Obama spent $740.6 million (5 241 700 000 kroner) to become the most powerful man on earth.
In this so called financial crises with all the dark future messages we can expect from Jens S. in a few days, may we all remember that there are always money out there - for some.

Christmas activities

I don´t know if Good Friday or Christmas Day is the most "Holy" day in the year for christians. On Good Friday (Easter) when I was a boy, we often went up in the mountain for skiing, but we always stayed at home on Christmas day. Everything was closed, almost no traffic outside the windows, friends could not visit each other, and the news on the radio were short and uninteresting. We read books and cartoons (Knoll og Tott), and if we had received (as normal) a Board Game as christmas gift (i.e. Monopol), everybody in the family had to participate. I never won.

Today the TV channels are full of movies, concerts or shows and the TV-news cover death and war, catastrophes and dramas all over the world. The times they are a-changing

One of the christmas gifts I received this year was the book "The art of reading pictures"I have just opened the book, so no recommendation can be given, but I thought the members of NorskNettfoto should be aware of the book and thus get a possibility for quality improvement and maybe add some interesting aspects when making comments to each others photos.
For those who only want to look at pictures (paintings or photos) maybe the book can give new ways of interpreting my works from 2008 or some of the best from my total production

Single in Christmas

As posted two weeks ago I cancelled the Season celebration this year. In and out of hospital, not knowing when operation could take place and the condition afterward, made it impossible to book tickets to Wales.
In addition I had some bad bad experience with the Cymric Medical system almost two years ago, so I did not take the chance to go over there in my presently post operation condition.

But, that gives also the possibility to post some thoughts about the situation many single persons have every Christmas.
First: How I made the best out of a situation.
My photo shows my small-Christmas dinner yesterday. Leftover Pinnekjøtt with all necessary ingredients except no beer and akevitt but red Italian Barbera-wine, and some shortcuts in utensils. Instead of using candelabra and our Rosenthal Chinaware and silver, I chose the V&B Alpina and kitchenware from Ilovan. Straight forward, no fuzz, but delicious. My company this evening was TV and the old movie from 1990 "Pretty Woman" (seen it many times before), and text messages and iPhone photos from Wales where my better part could read Calvin and Hobbes (Tommy og Tigern) christmas cartoon together with Helene.
Please do not feel sorry for me. I am fine. Tonight I will have a great Christmas Eve Dinner with my daughter and her family-in-law. I have chosen the situation myself and have all the resources available to make the best out of the situation.

But there are single persons out there who are in such a situation every year, and may be all the time. There are also many persons in hospital beds unable to make any of my choices. I am privileged, and could even use the situation to make a blogpost about it.

I just had to be reminded that Merry Christmas and a Happy Season Celebration is not to be taken for granted.

Natural urban Christmas tree

Firs, Silver firs or Pines (as we always had in my child home) are the traditional Christmas trees in Norway. For ten years we have had Nylon tree, to the dislike of my children.
This year no tree is raised and decorated in the living room, but looking out the window the neighbor´s Birch is glittering in the returning sun. Culture and/or Nature, your choice as ever.

To all of my Old friends: Arve / Liv, Anton / Grethe, Asbjørn / AnneKatharina, Erik / Kirsti, Harald / Solveig, Helge / Astrid and Per Cato / Vigdis,
To my family: Trine / David /Helene /Henrik, Rikke / Tor-Marius, Gerd / Arne, Brit and Turid with all hers, Felicity / John and Edel / Arne
To all Blogging friends from 108 countries (including the last visitor from Guatemala two days ago) and especially my daily visitors and commentators,
Other friends, co-transplants and medical personnel, previous colleagues all over the world and those of you feeling not mentioned by name like many others

MERRY CHRISTMAS!