Building a terrace patio

 In this week we have planned for and started to build a terrace patio at our cottage. First we had to measure the area and apply for acceptance from the Solvang 4 Board to do the job.

 When acceptance was given the foundation and frames was made of solid impregnated material.

Then the deck and the rail followed. Tomorrow it will be finished and the garden furniture put back for a more stable position compared to the slope lawn we have used for almost 35 years.

Sunset

From my new corner at the balcony sofa, the sunset this Sunday gives me a lovely image of nature in touch.

Pentecost morning

Early in the morning on our way to the cottage after a babysitting activity down town. Mari is soon sitting in a small pool. Summer continues.

BBQ dinner

After the traditional "ventepølser" the main cource today was grilled trout etc.
Strawberry for dessert and still +28 c at 7 pm.
Time for another beer.

First Summer weekend at SOLVANG this year

Our renovated kitchen is close to be finished. 6 sqm and almost 20% of the cottage´s main area.
I am ready for BBQ.

Summer 2012 has started

With this photo of the Forget-me-not flowers from our cottage garden, I welcome everybody to another blog-summer from our cottage in the middle of Oslo.
This is our 35th summer up here, and after a larger outdoor repainting and rebuilding of our balcony and basement entrance last autumn, we have this spring got a new "kitchen", new furnitures in the garden and thus made it even more easy to stay longer periods of the coming months up here.
The header photo is showing how we cope with the + 26 C at the moment. Later we will open the Cava and celebrate the opening of summer 2012.

Happy 17. May

Lovely day in Oslo. Brit and Tullen at Amundsen Bryggeri og Spiseri

Preparing for breakfast on 17th of May

Still half an hour till the national emblem, our flag, is on the pole at our balcony, but the dining room table is on it´s way to welcome family members to a traditional 17th May breakfast. Seafood and Champagne added to more common Norwegian dishes.
Have a nice "syttende mai" wherever you are.

Approaching Norway´s Constitution Day

Happy 17. May to all my visitors

Happy birthday Maja

Three years young today. A very nice and smart girl even though she still not want to give me a hug when leaving.

The Copy

It it normal (I think) that the father is the main role model ( a person who serves as an example, whose behavior is emulated by others)  for a son. My grandchild Henrik is perhaps too young to have an awareness of this, but at any chance he imitates the style and behaviour of his father. Looking at them walking at the pavements is just one example of how he copy David when he is around. A lovely image.

Edvard Munch's The Scream - has sold for a record $US119.9 million

The Scream is not my favorite Munch painting, but I understand that the Iconic Pastel from 1895 has a high value in the market.
Edvard Munch created at least four versions of The Scream. He also worked out lithographs and other graphic versions of the motive. Thousands of "copies" or private versions have been made by other artists.

I have never made my own version of this motive except the photo of Tullen and her pimiento in 2001.

However some other paintings first made by E.Munch has been part of my painting education and here you will find some examples of these.
I do not believe that my versions can get any million auction price, but someone have once said that copies of new versions can be even better than the originals.

The Day After (E.M. 1894-5)

Lonely or The Voice (E.M. 1894-5)

Summer Day (E.M. 1904 - 08)

Red and White.(E.M. 1894)

Landscape or From Åsgårdstrand (E.M. 1904)

The Embrace or Vampire (E.M.1893-4)

Shame or Ashes (E.M.1894)

The red Suffragette or Madonna (E.M. 1895- 1902)

and my own self portrait as Hans Jaeger (E.M. 1889)

Book and sun protection

It is beautiful weather in Oslo. What else can you dream of than a new book and sun protection cream while sitting in our new furniture at the cottage. A cold Beer?

Sunshine at Bjorli

After a fantastic weekend at Bjorli we return to Oslo in sunshine. The snow is still about a meter outside Anton´s Balcony.

Bjorli last weekend April

Together with the Old Bunch at Bjorli. This is the Standal residence

5 years on FaceBook

In the beginning of April 2007 I wrote about Twitter in my blog. One of my blogfriends Rune Eide wrote as a comment "Dette må da være noe for deg: http://www.facebook.com/", and my daughter followed up with "facebook er stort sett knyttet opp i mot skoler og universiteter, nettverk for studenter/lærere/forelesere etc.". 
I followed up my interest for Twitter with another post on April 12th describing that Twitter was the "hottest" IT-product for the time being.


Two weeks later I signed up with FaceBook, and can today celebrate my 5th year anniversary as a member of this social medium. My FB-timeline shows very little of how I used this medium in the first years, and I believe that I was affected by the bad attitude to FB from "my generation", together with my heavy blog activity. 


Last year I started using FaceBook more active and was called "ungdoms-gamlis" by those who believed that FB only was for young people and that we 60+ had nothing to achieve by get friends here.
Then and today I advocate that everybody should be part of social media and wrote a blogpost about The Stream in February 2011. 


Now it is up to you to Dive into the Stream

Passing 100.000 unique visitors

Occasionally I present some statistics describing my blog´s communication level.
I celebrated my 7th year as a Blogger in March, and have totally now posted 1619 more or less interesting blogposts.
I passed the 100K unique visitors together with the seven years milestone.

My visitors are spread around the world and come from 177 different countries.
When I started in 2007 my text was in Norwegian and almost everybody was from Norway.
Today almost 64 % of my visitors come from other countries.

I have lately more and more been active in FaceBook and Twitter (jumped into the Stream), and that has resulted in reduced contact with people through my blog. The blog-world is not yet dead, and I will still try to reach visitors around the world with text and images of my way of living.
Life is still Great.

More Democracy more Openness

It is Sunday in the first week of the trial against the mass murderer from 22/7 last year. The slogan more democracy, more openness was fully shown in Oslo City Hall today. The "Tourist in own city" campaign  used the City Hall for stands and information, but we could walk around completely without seeing any security guards or men in uniforms. Maybe they were personnel guarding the venue in civil, but the feeling of an open house was paramount. Hopefully we have taken back our city from last year´s terror.

 In addition to visit some of the stands, we took the opportunity to walk around the different halls in the building including galleries and closely study the decorations and frescos.
The first one can be found at the beginning of the staircase from first floor and up to the galleries. It show St.Halvard and his woman.

 On the east side of the building we find the Banquet Hall with portraits of the royal family. Here our late King Haakon VII. I have posted from this hall earlier when we celebrated the first heart transplantation together with the Major of Oslo in November 2008

 The art-tour continuous out on the gallery above the main hall and Alf Rolfsen´s "Eventyret" (the adventure) on the north wall.

 From there we can enter the East Gallery decorated by Per Krogh (also known from the UN Security Council Hall). A strange room.

 Between the east and west gallery is the City Council Hall. The vast tapestry of Else Poulsson, one of the building´s architects niece is on the wall behind the Major´s chair. 
Central on the carpet thrones Oslo's St. Hallvard over the seven virtues, and the life in Oslo at the bottom. 
The artist's desire was that this design should remind the city's politicians on ethics and good governance principles in the decisions they make.

 Like the east gallery the Western Gallery is covered with frescos from floor to ceiling. Here is a section of Åge Storstein´s fresco with the Book of Human Rights

 The visiting tour for us this Sunday continued through the Present Gallery where different gifts from other cities in Norway and foreign visitors are shown. Here is the present from the King of Thailand.

 This room of 100 square meters on top of the staircase, is called the Munch Hall because the painting "Livets tre" by Edvard Munch is placed there. The previous owner was Thomas Olsen which son now is selling "The Screem" at Sotheby´s in New York.
In this Hall I was married to Tullen in 1977.

At the extension to the south of the main hall an interesting painting by one of my favorite painters from mid 1900, Reidar Aulie, has been given place for his work "Development of the Labour Class".
Another painter from the same period Arne Ekeland was refused when he wanted to decorate the other wall with the painting Sisters of Freedom. This painting is now part of the art at the Parliament.

These two sections are from the left and right corner of the painting. From poverty to social democratic life in the fifties. Looking as a place like my cottage at Solvang, and not yet an Oil producing country.

IWorld

Busy with IT tools and communicating with Apple-tv and Get PVR box, iPhone, iPad and macBookAir Internet and emails.
It is hard to be a gadget man

Missing my MacBook Air - Alternative eye-catching

 This afternoon I got my MacBook Air back after a few days extraordinary service with the professional staff at Eplehuset. I had to get a new top-case due to error in the shift function. Now it is working better than ever and my life is back to "normal". I have missed my computer during these days.

During this absence of my Air my time could have been replaced by watching the TV and the trial against the mass murderer of 22/7 last year, and I must tell that some time has been used this way. However, some time has also been used to look at the very interesting facade on the other side of the street from my house.
The beauty of the decorations recovered after the restoration and removal of old plaster on the building, tell me of how we built our houses before and around the millennial shift 1800/1900.
Take some time to look up when walking the street in Oslo (or other cities). There are many houses worth eye-catching in my neighborhood.