Hello from Norway!

A quick note from Norway... a short 4 days stay to see H. and the cats (oh Szpulka has grown!! she hasn't forgotten me in a month! she is sooo affectionate!- but no time to make photos). I am drowning under work so this will be a real quickie.
On Wednesday, my flight was at 6am... what an idea! I had to get up at 3.30 and when you work and pack till 1 am, you can basically forget being efficient the whole day, I was a zombie. I walked through the new terminal in Warsaw (just a couple years old), it was basically deserted at 4:15 am: 

The old terminal was full of life, though. There was a thick fog over the airport and just as we were about to be redirected to another airport, the pilot landed, with no visibility almost. He informed that the fog conditions were just slightly above their landing minima. I didn't check the weather before leaving, and it had been +19 C in Warsaw last Sunday. I couldn't believe my eyes upon landing: winter has arrived to Norway! Only -4 C but a substantial amount of snow. WINTER. Here's what it looks in front of the house:

Apart from a short trip to the shopping center to buy some Christmas gifties, I kept working *all the time* which isn't funny but sometimes you don't get to choose. I'm flying back tonight, landing in Poznan this time, for another stay at my aunt and Christmas cooking/baking preparations.

Last Saturday I attended a workshop on baking and decorating gingerbread cakes, it was just fabulous!!! The teacher was Slovakian and knew everything about the subject and within a few hours, she taught us so much!

Each of us got a few already baked cakes to decorate with also a little bowl made of gingerbread as well. Sorry I don't have a picture, but decorated in the same style, these bowls are sooo beautiful!

Enjoy your week-end! I'll return with photos of lovely gifts I received from Ela and Julie :) (I thought I had them on my hard drive but it looks like I haven't copied them yet from the card)

My friend Nathalie in France received her two end-of-summer gifties, so I can show them now. First, an Atalie little piece, it was my first time to try my hand on spider roses and I must say they are both very easy to do and very decorative. I played with colors so this is not the original version Atalie designed.

Atalie - Cassandre

stitched with my choice of silk threads

Then, one of my first medium-sized tatted pieces, which I sewed onto a hand-made red little pillow.

Summer came to an end so fast, but I still try to enjoy the nature around here in Norway, already thinking of my return to Warsaw at the end of the month.

One walk we did was just a few minutes from home, close to Stallerud, a local farm, but we used a path I haven't yet been to and Hakon hasn't walked since many, many years. As it turns out, it is very much used by locals, we met peoples walking, biking, jogging, bathing... Funny, because it's a pretty much secluded place out in the forests.

I picked this season's last raspberries - there are plenty of them growing wild on the sides of the streets, old abandoned gardens and lots in the forests around. They are smaller, sometimes much, much smaller than the ones you buy, but quite good nonetheless! :)

The funny part of the walk was to discover this bathing spot floating on water, with a large area with bonfire places, benches... quite lovely!

Happy made sure to explore the shallow waters this time. He is terrified of water usually, never goes in unless he is very very thirsty during a long walk, but even then he is so scared and behaves like water is attacking him at the smallest move. We usually have good fun of it :)

 Nature is preparing for the winter sleep. Norwegian woods are filled with big rocks, something I am not used to at all in Poland.

Dear H. will be at hospital for a couple of days to remove a lump on his ankle. The operation will take place tomorrow at the Radiumhospitalet, the largest cancer center in Northern Europe, as Wikipedia affirms. They chose to do it there because of where and how it is located, but there is no fear of finding cancer cells in it. They have to do a big and deep cutting and take care of nerves and muscles, from what I understood. Otherwise there were lots of preparations to make his blood thicker, he hasn't been taking his blood thinners (which he's taking after his major heart surgery in 2005) and it's been controlled many times the last three days. So the scare, if there is a small scare, is not really the lump on the leg, but more his heart/blood issues but I feel the staff at the hospital has been taking it very serious and all has been prepared well :)

In August, H. was at a normal hospital to operate an aggravated bursitis, but only under local anesthesia. He showed me that picture later:

and I commented - how could you sleep with your leg that high up? To which he replied - I told you I didn't sleep for three nights, didn't I? I can well imagine! LOL

He's been very busy the past days to finish lots of garden works in preparation of the days he won't be able to walk too much.
As for me, I am making plans for the fall and winter, thinking about packing my flat in Warsaw for the big move to Poznan, booking plane tickets in between several cities, summer is over, it is going to be a very busy few months for me.
I will be reducing my stash greatly so I will offer some charts here as well. I think I have enough lovely stitching and tatting projects to keep me occupied for a long time so it's no sense I keep dozens of charts I won't stitch. The only thing I wish I had more of is silks, overdyes and Lakeside linens! I am positively addicted to them! LOL But a big part of my charts collection has to go. What do I do with the old ones noone would buy and which I would hate to trash? What do YOU do with them?

By the way, someone had the good idea of repainting the main building of the Polytechnical School in Warsaw, I live across the street from it. Take a look HERE for a photo - they carefully analyzed samples of the old yellowish paint that was used 34 years ago but it turned out pink! Light pink, okay, but pink! The result is so awful that they stopped halfway and from what I understood, it's being repainted using a different color. I am anxious to see the result when I'm back! LOL

An evening walk...

Through the fields...

and through the woods...

Preparing to leave...

Days have been just *so* busy. I am sorry I don't have time to leave comments on your blogs, but I read them (a lot of them!) while sipping morning coffee and later during the day!
This stay was supposed to recharge my internal batteries... but I'm leaving very tired. I usually have zero work till the end of January, so my plan was to stitch a lot, read, have walks, enjoy life, enjoy nature... Turned out quite the opposite. I worked insanely much, slept little... We're taking the plane on Saturday and I will only have Thursday to pack and clean the house, so we can possibly have half a day out somewhere on Friday. I'd love to do some shopping too... not sure how much I'll be able to squeeze it till then.
So, big changes will start in Warsaw on Sunday. Some of you already know what and why... others will have to wait for the news a few days more, too pooped to write this evening! :)
On Sunday, I got up with an unhappy face and while I munched on my breakfast, I commented to H. that I simply don't seem to have the brain resources to work - and I have dozens of pages to produce! Dear H. looked at me and said: 'Why don't you have a walk with Happy?'. Hm. I looked outside and the day was grey and uninteresting, but I'd have done anything to kick my brain into gear. It was snowing lightly, just -12 Celsius, I decided to go. H. had to drive somewhere so he left me halfway to the nearest village and I walked back home. Turns out the idea was perfect, it cleared my brain completely!


Just so you don't think I don't stitch ;-), here is a WIP I didn't finish in time for Christmas. This is a Mary Garry pattern I decided to stitch as individual pieces meant as ornaments for a Christmas tree or branch. That said, I'm showing the idea for the finishing, but I will add beads and some other decorations where the ribbon is sewed.

I thought you might like to see why Happy got the name he got :) (and a new collar!)

Just in case you're more interested in cats ;-), here is an older short movie of our cat-boys!

My Norwegian Christmas in pictures...

Christmas dinner at H.'s mother... her tree, though artificial, was splendid and I smiled seeing at least three ornaments I made for her during the years hanging there too..

H. got us a lovely assortment of traditional Norwegian Christmas cakes... for your enjoyment, I added their names...

After dinner, my H. distributed the gifts... a lot of joy and smiles!

Back at home, we continued celebrating with a tradition we have in my family, introduced by my father when I was a kid... the tailed part of the family gets a gift too! When it was only a dog, a double sausage was hanging directly on the tree :)

Happy the dog got a gift as well but he was very quick at eating it, so - no picture! LOL

Answering questions: Toska stayed at my aunt... it was no sense to stress her with a plane trip just for 6 weeks.
The cat-boys names are Felinek (black and white boy) and Lucky (grey and white boy). I liked your suggestions around Loki and similar names, but H. wasn't fond of it... close to it, we chose Lucky - because he is lucky, isn't it? :)

Over the next days, we relaxed A LOT! Just the way we wanted it...!

We got tons of snow and low temperatures... -23 Celsius yesterday (9 Fahrenheit?) Here's what H.' mother neighbouring little house looks like:

Our garden looks idyllic but I could only take that picture as the rest of the land is inaccessible because of all the snow :)

Happy enjoys it... moderately...

He seemed to say - 'Am I a seal or what?'

More later....

(I kindly ask you not to zoom on this one - who looks good after a 3 hours ride?? LOL)

We're back from our vacation in the (cold) wilderness since so many days, but days have been busy and maybe also I didn't have the inspiration to write. And since I fully subscribe to the idea of blogging without obligation... :)
I'll post photos and write more about the vacation in the following days after I have delivered a job for tomorrow, tonight I shall spend the evening typing away...


However, I just couldn't resist showing this last finish. I made three major changes: 1) I replaced the year with Jul (Merry Christmas in Norwegian), 2) I extended the red bar to the right in the window with the pine tree - a part was missing on the chart, I am not sure if it had a meaning I didn't understand or if it is an actual error but trust me, it looked weird the way it was. I mean the bars under the two red bells - see photo up.


and 3) I didn't use the brown linen included in the kit. I used 32 ct Belfast Planinum Pizzaz from Zweigart - see the blueish opalescent elements! It is just marvelous and I plan to use the half yard I got for many future works, especially ornaments. Just love it!! It played so well with the Crescent Colors floss from the kit. I wasn't so fond of the previous yearly kits - but now I see I might stitch them again on something else than the brown linen included in the kit - anything looks better than its sad color!!


This was such a fun stitch, like with all PS charts!! I especially love this finish... plan to turn it into a bigger pillow one day, but not very soon - Christmas gifts making has to happen first.
Till later....

Oh, I was about to forget - if you have nothing, I mean really nothing better to do after reading me, check THIS LINK to see our furry friends in real life. There are 4 more short movies uploaded (More from...). The quality is not so good because I filmed with the new iphone and the light was not easy. Some were made in the cabin and some in the old room the kiddos are using here downstairs. Enjoy!

Isn't he beauuuuutiful? :) How could anyone, really...

They are staying!!!!!!

THEY ARE STAYING!!! Can you hear my joy, my relief, my excitement? A couple of weeks before I even expected approaching H. with any definite plans regarding the kittens... the decision was made unexpectedly easily, smoothly and joyfully on Friday.
Surely being being away and relaxing from home and the usual daily stuff helped... :)
Seriously, I didn't have much hope.... no expectations.... I didn't push my H. (I mean not too much LOL!)... I let things happen by themselves.... and the little fellows knew how to find a way to his heart... Oh that's maybe not precise, H. loves them a lot! But keeping them, well... only a few days ago he was saying "no, I don't want cats now" (meaning problems when he travels for work etc.)....
But then Felinek (H's favorite, the sweetest, softest one), the black kitten, put a whole plan into action... He started sleeping on H., waking him up by walking over his face and licking it softly till H. woke up to see a pair of tiny black eyes observing him... He developed a system of jumping on H's knees and purring, looking him in the eyes with love, presenting his belly to scratch, miowling distinctively to get water/food/go out etc. And giving so much love...
THEY ARE STAYING!! Both, together, not separated (how could we?)... in Norway. We'll do the whole veterinary procedure anyway just so they can travel abroad in case of emergency.
The plan is the following. I and H. will fly to Warsaw with Happy and Toska on Sept. 14th and lots of my luggage, H. will return to Norway in some days, the kittens will stay at a nice cat pension for the few days. I think I'll only stay in Warsaw one-two-three weeks, then I'll travel to my aunt+++ for a month or so to help with my grandma (if nothing wrong happens till then, what can you know at the tender age of 100,5 - her condition suddenly worsened recently). And then to my father for Christmas... after that I'll be back in Norway for a couple of months.... spring in Poland... back for summer 2010 to Norway... :)
As you see, I'll have to be particularly careful with giving the right addresses for exchanges and such! LOL

We still don't have a good name for the grey kitten - Huggy doesn't seem to work well, because Happy comes immediately :) We'd like a name that is funny but warm at the same time... If you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments... I promise I'll read all!! Any name related to his grey color is not nice enough (charcoal, smokey, cashmere etc.) and I can't seem to be able to find the right-sounding name at all! He's smart, courageous, strong, lovely... and beautiful! :)

Now, how did we end up with THREE cats and a dog?

I tell you. Miracles happen. But then, these kitties are really, really special.

Want to see the two brothers on vacation here in the wilderness? Scroll down :)

Exploring barns and all sorts of weird places is very important.... How did he get there?? There is no floor or stairs leading to the upper floor of this old barn...


Told you, lots of weird places...


Happy did his best to control what the cats were doing...


But sometimes dogs weren't allowed in!


Also sometimes, they found really scary things in the fields...

But generally, things went fine, the exploration went on for many hours each day....


They also learned to climb....


Yup, they're having a good time here. Still two days of vacation before we all return home...