My husband left tonight to go to the airport so now I have walked the dog by myself and put on some more laundry. It's an extraordinarily warm evening and right before the sun set the breeze played with the curtain by my porch door. I have planted some flowers in a pot to take to my father's grave tomorrow. I am not at all interested in sitting inside watching TV so after this post I'll go back out on the porch, maybe I'll bring my knitting...



Here's a photo of my entrance...



Since my husband spends so much time trying to have the best lawn in town, I took my shoes off this evening and walked around the house to feel the grass under my feet.



Got to admit: it was heavenly... and not weed in sight. In the flower beds however: I need to clean them up a bit..




But not tomorrow- I'm looking forward to go to the flea market. Maybe I'll find some interesting furniture or vintage fabrics. This vintage table cloth comes from my grandmother, however. Cute, isn't it. The coasters sitting there was picked up at last year's fleamarket!

Paroxysmal hemicrania

So I went to se the neurologist and he was pretty certain I had a rare form of headache called paroxysmal hemicrania and I had to be put on a certain medication that will take my symptoms away. So now I have started taking them and they seem to work. I will see him again in six weeks. I'm relieved in a way that it's nothing serious that will debilitate me for life since there is medication for it, on the other hand it may become more or less cronical and that is a grim thought since all anti-inflammatory medication has side effects in the long run. So I'm hoping I'll have long periods of no symptoms- or none at all in the future... I'm choosing to stay optimistic.


The previous post showed some of the presents I got. I tried to take a photo of the pearl earrings I got from my sister and her family, but it did't come out well--- so I'll just have to show my best one....I'm not good with close-ups yet.








Here are the flower arrangements my oldest made for the tables, though:











It's a very warm day today- getting close to 30 degrees Celcius.. We are about to have some barbequed chicken wings and corn on the cob here






Afterwards we are having some cake and cookies with our coffee; it was my husbands birthday last week.









He is going to Greece on a business trip and his flight leaves tomorrow morning. That means he have to leave home tonight, to sleep at the airport hotel tonight. He has spent the day cutting and watering the lawn, ironing his clothes and packing his suitcase.











I've been at my mother's for a while helping wiht the floors in the basement; she had clogged drains and had a plumber come in and open them yesterday afternoon.

Rerun of trip today

I am again making a trip to the neurologist today, it's a two and a half hour drive from here- this time I got the right time and date!!!! Have been pretty much pain free the last 5-6 days but last night I had to take a pain pill. This morning is good however.
I have hung some laundry this morning. Dew in the grass, sunshine and appletrees in full bloom. Can't get much better!
Concerning knitting:
I have not been very happy with the beginning of the first sleeve, so now I went down one size in needles and started again- now one size up on the pattern. Mom also wanted to help me knit which I appreciated. She knits so evenly you would think she used a knitting machine! BUT: I have to knit something too, so I cast on on the circular needle to start the "body" itself

A good weekend- and it is still not quite over

It's been a good Sunday with warm, sunny weather and we have enjoyed it at home for the most part.
Yesterday I had my birthday party with family and one friend from childhood.
So here's some of the stuff I brought home from the store on Friday afternoon.















And here's how it ended up being served on Saturday:
Buffet with chicken wings, baked pork sirloin,roast beef with avocado, onion, olives and feta cheese,a potato salad, a pasta salad, green salad, scramled eggs with smoked salmon/cured ham,cheeses with grapes and nuts.




















The dessert table: Merengue nests with berries and whipped cream or ice cream, brownies (from my sister's kitchen), carrotcake and the Norwegian "lefse".

















Here are some gifts and flowers I got:













Am looking forward to this one! A thousand splendid suns is the title in English.My good friend gave it to me (she is herself an avid reader), together with a big flower pot with flowers she has grown from seeds. They are not flowering yet- will take a photo once it starts! Her biggest hobby in the spring/summer is her garden (and it shows!)















Here's the other book a got, a GEM for any knitter. Will beon the couch/in the garden swing enjoying this again and again in the course of the summer!
My sister got me this together with a knitted item of course; she knitted this bowl and felted it.














My niece- who is graduating from hogh school this month painted this and gave it to me yesterday. I have bugged her for a painting for my fiftieth birthday since last year! I have to posess one from before she becomes famous, I always told her..







My aunt and uncle knows a man who manipulates photoes on his computer, mixes photoes and changes the context,(if that's a way to say it in English...?) and in that way makes a new expression in form of a picture. They gave me this one:

Birthday

It was my birthday yesterday and I turned 50. I can't believe it. But it is true.
Here are some flowers that I got that day:




















At work they gave me this since they know I love these plants and had to throw out the ones I had kept in my basement all winter because I obviously fetilized them too much when I brought them up in to the livingroom in March.





My husband gave me a new digital camera a while ago since I said that's what I would like for my birthday. I'm getting better at taking photos with it don't you think? My mom bought me the spring coat I wanted ; i've used it for a while now- just love it.
In the morning I was woken up by my two girls who came to my bed with a tray with a coffee, a card, a tulip in a vase, singing loudly -and in a rock-and-roll-way the birthday song! Hilarious and lovely! Lucky me!!!

I have a ferocious cold that makes me sneeze all the time,and I really don't have much energy right now. I have however cleaned the bathroom tonight. Now my nose is stuffed up- yet it runs once in a while. Have no idea how it's possible to be unable to breath and have a runny nose at the same time, but that's me right now.

A trip to no avail

I'm glad I had an MRI taken of my head- and that it's already established that there's nothing wrong with it because today I took the aforementioned long drive in order to see the neurologist and turned out it was the WRONG TUESDAY!! I 'm supposed to show up next Tuesday.
Pretttttty embarrassing since I had to get a sub for me at work and everything.

On my way back- and after I had sort of gotten over that fact that I must be somewhat stupid- I tooks some photoes along the lake and a shot of the mountain towering over our town and surrounding area. Nice, eh?

Slow morning

I'm having a slow, quiet morning by myself after the girls went to school. I have to take the day off work because I have to see a neurologist in a town 2 1/2 hour drive from here. My appointment is at a time that gives me the opportunity to have a slow mornig before I get in the car.
The MR photoes I went for last Tuesday showed nothing wrong in my head- thank God- but a jaw problem that has to be explored further- hence the appointment today. I have experienced enormous pain in my jaw, teeth and head for months now, for a while fysiotherapy seemed to help, but i'm currently on fairly strong pain killers in order to function in my daily life.. I hope something comes out of today's appointment!
Anyway; my slow morning consists of these lovely activities:













Breakfast with bread out of the oven (half baked from the store I must add!!)

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Good coffee in a favourite cup
...

















my new knitting project. It will be nice this jacket I think. only wish I knitted more eavenly than I do.

















My favourite interior decorating magazine.


















And the last daisy from the garden in the window.
When I get in the car I will enjoy the drive alone with the radio on- something I kind of like at times...
HAVE A GOOD MORNING!

new project starting soon

Yes , I do have my needle point to keep working on- and I do. While watching Tv (half heartedly) at night. This is how far I've gotten:
The colours on this picture got really DULL for some reason- I'm still a long ways from understanding my new digital camera! But this is how far I am on the craft anyway!
I'm planning a new one: got some yarn samples to take home on Friday: My daughter is going to wear this patterned jacket with a long skirt in the same fabric as we use for our national costumes- this will be for her confirmation next spring- I will sew the skirt and hopefully find some matching velvet ribbons to add to the bottom of the skirt. This is to replace waring a national costume since she doesn't have one or can borrow one that fits well, and a lot of people wear knitted short jackets with traditional brooches (om has several that are from my great grandmother) and long skirts with or without ribbons near the hem.
This is the pattern:



..and I think we have agreed- my youngest and I - that this colour combination will look good on her:

Can't wait to start. You know - if you visited me here before- how I loooove starting new projects.. I'm also very ready for a bigger knittig project instead of little hats, scarves, sitting pads and other stuff along those lines.
Today I have to figure out the gauge and how much you can knit from one ball. This is not the suggested yarn in the pattern, you see, and I better know so I can buy the right amount of the same colouring batch.

We have had good spring days the last week, nice, sunny and fairly warm days spent outside. Here are some tulips from my garden,facing the mains street

Yesterday was National Day in Norway, flags out, school children and marching bands in parades, the kids graduating from high school partying all night and disrupting people's sleep on purpose, dressing in red, acting goofy- and being accepted for it this one day in their young lives. Ice cream and hot dogs and national costumes. And another sunny day would have been good- instead we woke up to snow laying halfway down the side of the mountains surrounding this village, cold air and rain on and off. What can you do...?
You can bring in some of the tulips and the flowering hedge and make the best of it anyway!














My oldest simply loves special occations, national costumes and traditions that are to be heeded and followed. So she wore my mother's national costume from the western part of Telemark:
















Over to crafting (although if you click on the photo of the national costume you could see some real excellent needlework)
See these tiny scissors? I bought them for cutting pictures out of magazines to use in my collages.. in itself a very soothing activity that enables me to mentally float away from the humdrum of a busy day.

"Pinse" weekend

It's a long weekend now, Monday is off as well (pentecost). Yesterday was gorgeous, sunny and warm. I spent a good part of the day on our own porch or my mother's. I'm working eagerly on my crochet curtain these days. Have also seirously started reading "Love in the times of the Cholera". Had already read about a hundred pages, but my priority was the digital book I mentioned earlier, so reading was put on the back burner for a bit.
Here's how far I am on the curtain today:

The pattern doesn't show very well because my bedspread is the same colour more or less, but there are earlier posts on my blog showing that..
I figured I needed to repeat the pattern 11-12 times before it is finished and now I am at the sixth, so I'm only half way.
This morning I washed the floor on the upstairs balcony and got it ready for the summer. A lovely place to spend time with a book, a craft and the radio at hand!
I access it through the master bedroom. The weather has been fairly good today too although there were a few clouds and not quite as warm as yesterday, but I've been outdoors most of the day.



I do have a knitting project in my basket too, but it's been laying there unattended for a while, it's a neck warmer (definetely one that can wait till fall...)

Next Saturday is Norway's National Day which means I won't get any preparations done for my birthday party the following Saturday. I have already made a carrot cake out of these ingredients: It's in the freezer. I made a roast beef too, and cut it on my mother's slicer. I am also going to make a filet of pork with sundried tomatoes and cured around it but that has to be done the same day. Potato salat, waldorf salad, pasta salad, a cheese tray and other little dishes will be prepared the day before.. Tomorrow however I'm going to make little merengue nests (like mini pavlovas) to put whipped cream and a mix of berries in. When you make merengues, you're left wiht a lot of egg yolks that is excellent for making home made ice cream. I am also planning on gettin some more windows cleaned tomorrow.
Today I only spent a few minutes in the kitchen making supper; a wok with thinly sliced pork and lots of veggies. Yummie and healthy. Unfortunately the photo didn't do much justice to the colours! I'm still figuring my new camera out..

On Tuesday I'm going for an MR. Luckily the hubbie is coming with me. it's a two and a half hour drive to the hospital where they do it,and I might have to take pain pills; it is NOT a good idea to drive when you take them, so I'm really glad he is coming.

Here's the teddy after I finished it.

I'm listening to the digital book no.3 in the trilogy by Stieg Larsson. What a great invention the digi-book is! I can walk and listen to a book at the same time!