News travels fast

When you live in a small place  news gets around faster than you would imagine. Even before it was finally settled that I would move back and take care of my parents house while they live on Svalbard, i was approached by an old neighbour telling me how nice he thought it was that I was moving back home. Actually I've jet to meet an old friend or neighbour who didn't already know that I'm moving back. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, Hakadal is not small enough for everyone to know who you are, but Løvstad, the place were I live in Hakadal certainly is, and everyone who lives there seemed to know that I was moving home even before I did. This should make the hairs on my back stand up, strangely it don't, I love the idea of my neighbours taking an interest in my life. In Oslo I don't even know the name of my neighbours, I don't even remember the name of one of my roommates, she moved in just weeks before I moved out, but still.

Once when I was young one of our neighbours called my mum at work to tell her she had forgotten to turn of the stove before she left, he could see the light trough the window. That's caring for your neighbour, a bit creepy to, but still, kind of nice.

You see, that's what I want in a small town, not the everyone knowing who you banged last weekend or even worse who you wanted to bang but couldn't get, but the calling at work to tell you that you forgot to turn of the stove or the making sure nothing happens to your house while you're away for the weekend. That I want!




Check out the woodcarver workshop where my cousin is an apprentice!


BTW: I've been taking advantage of the fact that I live almost IN the woods.

Family love

I've been 3 weeks in Hakadal now. That of course was not the plan when I came here, I was going to stay for one weekend, but it's just so nice to be around people who love you and understand you. I argue whit my family of course, every one does, and we are any bit as dysfunctional as the next family. The thing is that no mater how much you argue whit your family, how mad you can be whit them, how sad or upset they make you. Even if you get into a fight and you don't talk for twenty years, they are still your family and you still love them.

Roommates on the other hand, roommates you don't have to love. Roommates can tick you of just by their mere existence. You can go weeks without seeing them, but still the sight of their shoes in the hallway makes you growl whit anger  just because they didn't place them the way they were supposed to. I'm not saying that family can't tick you of in the same way, mine sure can, but family you still love, roommates you want to squeeze hard around the neck.

Needless to say, I rather get in to a few beefs whit my family than end up in prison for strangling one of my new prissy little nineteen year old roommates.

"Min fremtid lå på restetorget!"

My future was on restetorget (a place on the web where the collages and universities  posts their vacant spots after admission)

Breakfast a few days ago, my first try at cooking eggs this way, don't know what this way is called.

On the train on my way to uni:

Home is where the computer is.

I am not supposed to move in for good before some time after christmas, but I'm spending more time here than home these days, so I have started moving some things already. There are two things I need to feel that I'm home, my computer and my coffee machine. Now they are both in Hakadal.

My baby

My lover

My mum has been making black crowberry squash today, after getting home from work after eight tonight, my mum is superwoman.

She has never made it before this autumn, but this is the second time this autumn. One should think that black crowberry squash wouldn't taste all that good, seeing how the crowberries themselves tastes rather bitter, but it tastes simply lovely. I think I might end up making some myself next year if I can get up to the mountains to pick the berries.

Fresh crowberry squash before it has been sifted.

Moving home.

My parents are moving, to freaking Svalbard. Yes, it's completely 100% true. They want to do something different, something exotic for a few years. If it had been me, I would probably have gone to some Mediterranean island, but it isn't, and it's their life long dream to go live on Svalbard, so who am I to stop them.

Stop them? There is no stopping them, and am I glad? You bet I am, I am ecstatic. My parents are moving to Svalbard, and I am moving home. You might ask why, why the freeking fracking warm place would you move back to your small town when you were one of the few lucky ones who got out?

I'll tell you why, fresh air, living right by the edge of the forest, a great big house, herbs, fruit, strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, all strait from the garden and no roommates.

I know it might still sound crazy, specially to those who know me and have heard me say that I'm never moving back there ever in my life, like a thousand times. I'm not all sure if it's going to go well, but one won't know until one tries. Maybe I'll end up staying for good.

It's not like it's at the end of the world, it's like 30 minutes away fro Oslo by train, and I'm going to the city center approximately five days a week, give or take a day. And it's not like it's among the smallest of places ether, and not like everyone knows everyone, even though sometimes it feels like everyone I meet knows who I am and I don't know them. All of Nittedal has 21.000 inhabitants and if my calculations are right Hakadal has somewhere between 4.500 and 5.000. So not all that small.


Simply moving back would of course be no challenge, I would just have to get up a bit earlier in the morning and to bed a bit earlier in the evening, and I would be able to live my life as normal. Therefor I am embracing the country life whit all it's pros and cons, I am going to find out if I can reap all the benefits of a life in the countryside as well as a life in the capital. I am setting out to prove that you don't have to chose, you can have the best of both worlds.

In order to test my theory I'm setting myself ten goals.
1. I am going to put the garden back in order, already we have a good herb garden, but it's overgrowing and I'm planing to put it back in shape. I will also grow potatos, carrots, tomatos, cucumbers and some other stuff.

2. I'm going to take advantage of the fruit garden, as it is now a lot of the fruit goes to waist and are trown away, the same whit the berris. I will make jam and other stuff so that noting goes to waist and I will have a full pantyr.

3. Keeping up whit the last point, during summer and fall 2012 I will go up into the woods and pick blueberris, lingonberry and mushrooms for jam and freezing.

4. I will go for a walk in the woods at least once every week, granting that the wether is not to awful.

5. I will go out whit my friends in Oslo at least once every month.

6. I will go for coffee whit my Oslo friends at least once every week.

7. During the winter I will go for at least tree long skiing tripps.

8. During summer I will go camping at least twice.

9. I will ceep up whit the life of my friends in Oslo (facebook does not count), and I will get reacquainted whit those of my friends who still live at home (facebook still does not count)

10. I will not watch TV other than news and movies and I will be a lot better at keeping up whit my crafts.

Last, I will keep score on this blog, as well as posting pictures and  food and craft recipes.

The challenge starts January 1 2012