Trish – Page 5 – Patricia McLellan's Blog

2021-12-31

2021 – A Summary

The second year of the Covid-19 pandemic is coming to a close and I would like to make a short summary of how the year 2021 has been for me. I always have a problem with the dark time of the year and thinking about the summer and the bright time of the year helps me get through the winter months.

Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced a lot of the year 2021, putting restrictions on out-of-the-country travel as well as how much contact we have with others. My husband and I got our first two vaccines in April and May, and a booster vaccine in December. My son has also received his two vaccines. My husband and I have also received the regular flu vaccine, which we get every year in the fall. As a result, we have not been sick in 2021.

My son started a new job in January 2021, but as home office was required at the beginning of the year, he has had his home office at our house most of the year. From August to November he commuted to his job in Oslo but also had some business trips to other cities in Norway. At the end of 2021, there is again a requirement of home office where possible so he will be staying with us into 2022.

With both my husband and I in a high-risk group (over 65 years of age), we have reduced the amount of contact we have with others and have been avoiding large gatherings. We have social contact outdoors (in the summer months), restrict the number of people we meet regularly, and enjoy our own company. My husband, who is a lot more social than me, will also join online meetings and has contact by phone with those living in other parts of the world.

Crafts

I always have more than one project on the go and I have been good at finishing the projects that get started. Though I may have a few projects in my head that never get off the designing paper, most projects get carried through to completion.

Sewing projects include 2 shirts for my son, 4 shirts for my husband, 2 nightdresses for myself, 5 tops for myself, curtains for the house, pillow cases and a long patchwork runner for the bedroom.

Two covers for bedside tables. There was also a long runner, with the same basic pattern made to protect the tops of the dressers. Project was completed in October 2021.

A shirt made for my husband who likes bright colours and patterns in his clothing. I originally started making shirts for him as the sleeves were never long enough. I have now been making him all his shirts for many years.

Knitting projects include two sweaters for my son, a toque, scarf and mitts set for my son, at least 6 pairs of socks for my husband, 2 pairs of socks for a friend, several children’s sized socks to be given away, one sweater and trousers outfit for a three-year old, a sweater for a five-year old, a sweater for myself and a baby blanket that was given away. Some of these projects were designed to use up yarn that had been sitting around for quite a while.

I like making sweaters and this one is a typical Norwegian pattern. This was made for someone turning 70 years old and given away as a birthday present.

Knitting socks are easy and don’t take nearly as long as a sweater. These ones were for my husband. This yarn comes with the stripes in it, so it is just knitting round in circles and measuring to get the right length. Once the first one is knit, I make sure that the second (or third or fourth) one has the stripes in the same place.

Walks

Walking is the type of exercise that I enjoy best. I no longer spend a lot of time walking in shopping centres as my need to buy things is reduced. I have a house full of things that are not used and try to restrict my purchases to things that are going to be used. So the walking that I prefer is out in nature. Thankfully, the municipality of Inderøy has many well-marked trails. Each year new ones are marketed through the program “Inderøytur”. I go on walks that I have enjoyed before, and find new ones that get added to my “like-to-do-again” list. I have one girl-friend that I go walking with quite regularly and I also go for walks with my husband and my son. I like walking by myself, and I enjoy walking with others.

View from Storlia, in Mosvik. This picture was taken 2021.06.27. This is a walk that I like to do at least once a year and in 2021 I actually did it twice as I took my daughter on this walk in November when she was visiting. It is a steep climb and must be done on a clear day as the views are spectacular from this height.

Food preparation

I make dinner almost every day. There are occasions when someone else does the cooking, but we eat out very little. I enjoy making meals and I enjoy baking. Food preparation is a meaningful activity every day of the year. I try to plan a variety of meals and also try to restrict the use of salt and sugar in my food preparation. This results in my baking almost all of our bread products (reduced salt content important here). I bake a lot less cakes and cookies than I used to and try to make healthier desserts than I might have a few decades ago. I also prioritize non-meat meals about twice a week. We use dairy and egg products so are not vegetarians at all, though I love my vegetables.

Gardening

I enjoy being outdoors, particularly from April to October, and I have a large garden that is never as well looked after as I would really like. I’ve always had the attitude, “what gets done, gets done” and try not to worry about what doesn’t get done. As I age, I find I have limits to the energy that can be used on gardening which is a very labour-intensive activity.

This year I had new planters on the terraces. I lined them with appropriate cloth, then filled them with dirt and plants. I was very pleased with the results.

I used a lot of yellow pansies in my planters this summer. They continued to flower until the snow came in November, then they got eaten by the deer. Lobelia and geraniums gave a variety of colours, but they do not last as long. The key to pansies is to not let them go to seed by cutting off the flowers that are finished and making sure they don’t dry out.

During the summer of 2021, my son took on the responsibility for improving the lawn, digging up a large section of mostly weeds, putting down new dirt and seeding with lawn seed. He has put in a lot of work and the lawn has seen great improvements the two summers that he has been living here.

Painting

I enjoy painting things, though I am not artistic in that way. It tends to be walls or furniture that gets painted. Outdoor painting is restricted to when the temperature is above +10 degrees Celsius, but there were several things that were done in 2021. One outside wall of the house was painted and the new trellis at ground level was painted. There were also some small outdoor painting projects completed. There was little indoor painting done during 2021.

Both the wall on the upper floor was painted and the trellis at this level was new and painted. You can also see some of the garden in this picture.

Reading

I read a lot, mostly when knitting. This year it has been mostly fictional romances, often set in the early 1800s but by modern authors. I record new books read on www.goodreads.com, where I have recorded 78 new books read in 2021, but I also reread favourite books by authors I have read over decades and these would be in addition to what has been recorded online.

Travelling

Travel in 2021 has been restricted by the pandemic. I am actually not nearly as interested in travelling long distances as I was when I was younger. The major trip taken this year, was a one-day car trip to Trondheim and then coming home through Selbu. I have written a separate blog about that trip. In addition we took a day’s drive to the western end of route 755 (the main road that passes near us and crosses Skarnsund Bridge) making a lot of stops along the way. You can read about both of these trips on previous blogs (Selbu, Route 755).

However, we were fortunate to receive a two-week visit from my daughter in November. She was on her way to a business meeting in London, and was able to visit us on the way. She normally lives in San Francisco, California, USA. It was nice to have both children home at the same time and the siblings were able to have time together on their own. Though my daughter had to work while she was here (“home office” with online meetings with people in many places in the world), we were able to go for walks and spend precious social time together.

Otherwise, travel has been by watching television shows and documentaries at home. No fuss, no insects, no unwelcome heat or humidity, just the comfort of our own living room. One can see a lot of different places this way, one hour at a time, and avoid all the inconveniences of international travel.

Writing blogs

I am not much of a writer, but I have undertaken to write a few blogs in 2021, mostly about the walks I have taken in Inderøy. I like to include a lot of pictures as I feel that they illustrate what I have been doing better than using a lot of words. All pictures that I use in the blogs are taken on my cellphone. Any exceptions to this will include an acknowledgment of photographer. So far I have published 36 blogs in 2021 and this one will make number 37.

2021-12-24

Book: There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather (Touchstone, 2017)

My daughter came across this book and I decided to read it. I enjoyed it so much that I want to share some of my ideas after reflecting about the book.

The book was written by a Swedish woman who lives in the United States and has two children. Having grown up in a village in Sweden and surrounded by people who enjoyed being outdoors, she was disappointed that where she was living in Indiana, children had little chance to play outdoors. She took her kids to live in Sweden for six months and wrote about many of the differences between the two countries as relates to bringing up children.

The book is primarily for parents and gives tips on how to raise children in a Scandinavian fashion. Here she includes information from Norway, Denmark and Finland as well as Sweden. I could relate to much of the information that she had gathered about the advantages for children spending at least some time outdoors, every day, no matter the weather.

At the moment of writing this, it is a dark December day in Norway. There are only a few hours of daylight every day, and though I try to go outside most days, some days it is just not appealing to be outdoors. But while reading this book in December it made me think about the importance of being outdoors, not only for children, but for adults.

Summary of the book by Linda Åkeson McGurk

Introduction: A Swedish Mother in Rural Indiana
Chapter 1: A Right to Nature
Chapter 2: Fresh Air is Good for You
Chapter 3: Just Let Them Play
Chapter 4: We Must All Take Care of Nature
Chapter 5: A Little Dirt Won’t Hurt
Chapter 6: Freedom with Responsibility
Chapter 7: Outside, There is a Better Connection
Chapter 8: It Takes a Village

The author starts by explaining the American trend (based on her experiences in Indiana) that parents are concerned that if their children aren’t reading by the age of four, that they will not get anywhere in life. To my mind as a parent, that is not understanding the stages of development that children go through. It is common in Scandinavia that children start school at six or seven years of age (both my children started at seven and they both have master’s degrees ) and they might go to a kindergarten or preschool before that. Both my children started at kindergarten (barnehage) at the age of three.

The author refers to several other authors who have written about different aspects of children and parenting (see the list below) and has found the facts which I will be making references to here. You will need to read the book to get things exactly right. The author is concerned that children need to get “fresh” air every single day. Of course, not all people are lucky enough to live where the outdoor air is actually good for you. But by going to parks and other areas of nature, you can get fresh air into your lungs.

Children do not need to have activities constantly organized for them. One of the things children need to learn is how to organize their time, how to be bored, how to take suitable risks, how to socialize with others. In addition, they need time with adults who actually talk to them, as that is how they build up their vocabulary. Curiosity about the world around us leads children to learn how things work, either through their own investigations or by asking adults appropriate questions.

The author is also concerned that if the next generation is going to learn to take care of nature, they need to come in contact with it and learn to love it. Looking at trees only on a screen does not give the same learning or loving attitude as a walk in a park with tall trees. Children like to investigate things and usually get dirty doing it. Research has been done that indicates that we are too clean now, and we don’t get some of the good bacteria that we need to live a healthy life. Playing in the dirt or sandbox is not a health problem.

Small children need quite a bit of supervision when they are outside. They need to be protected from dangerous situations, for example a car whizzing by on the road, but they also need to learn to take responsibility for themselves, for example, learning to cross roads at crosswalks. As children grow older, the borderlines of where they are allowed to be on their own should expand as they are able to handle longer distances from the house on their own.

It has been shown in many research projects, that being outside in nature is good for mental health, not only in children but in adults.

A Scandinavian Mother’s “Get Up and Go Outside” Manifesto includes the following points (mostly directly quoted from pages 209-211):

1 There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. Whatever the weather, children must be dressed appropriately, whether it is sunshine and warm, rainy and wet, or snow and cold. Learning to dress yourself and your children appropriate to the weather is important for the parent to learn. Make sure footwear is appropriate too. There are, of course, certain types of weather which do not suit outdoor play, such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, or flash floods.

2 Fresh air is actually good for you. It reduces the risk for common infections, near-sightedness, vitamin D deficiency, and obesity. It will also lessen the symptoms of ADHD, anxiety and depression.

3 Unstructured outdoor play has everything kids need for healthy physical, social, and cognitive development in the early years. Older kids need time to play too.

4 Our modern indoor lifestyle has made kids too clean and likely triggered an epidemic of immunological disorders. To bring some beneficial germs back into your child’s life, ditch that hand sanitizer and let him sink his hands deep down in dirt.

5 Kids need risky play to learn how to assess risk and prepare for adulthood. Activities can include climbing trees, sliding on frozen puddles, using real tools and walking to the park without an adult.

6 If we want our kids to keep a foot in the natural world, we need to pry them away from their screens sometimes, and do things outdoors as a family. The adults must leave their screens behind too.

7 Find some like-minded people and figure out how you can get kids back outside in your community. Working with others makes it easier.

8 Children and nature make a really good fit. By immersing kids in the natural world early, we’re increasing the chances of them wanting to take care of it later in life.

References to Other Books

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. Algonquin Books, 2008.
Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children, by Angela Hansom. New Harbinger, 2016
Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting, by Carl Honoré. HarperOne, 2009
Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education, by David Sobel. Orion Society, 1999.
Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World, by B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta. Algonquin Books, 2016.
Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without going Nuts with Worry), by Lenore Skenazy. Jossey-Bass, 2010
Unplugged: 15 Steps to Disconnect from Technology and Reconnect with Nature, Yourself, Friends, and Family, by Jason Runkel Sperling. Kindle Edition, 2016.
Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life, by Richard Louv. Algonquin Books, 2016

Personal Thoughts on Being Outdoors

We all have our personal experiences from childhood which will depend a lot on where you actually grew up and how your parents were with you. I was fortunate to grow up in the 1950s and 60s in an urban area where everyone owned their own house and there was a yard at the front of the house, and a yard at the back of the house. Most houses with children would have had at least some grass to play on though we also had vegetables and fruit in our garden at the back. The back yards were usually fenced, so separate from the neighbours and the front yards were usually unfenced. There were a lot of houses with children my age so I had people within easy reach to play with. Particularly in chapter 8, Linda McGurk takes up the situation that for children to play outdoors a lot, it has to be what everyone else is doing too.

The message I remember hearing was “Go out and play”. I was expected to be outside the house and either play by myself or find someone else to play with. If the weather wasn’t that great, I could use blankets under a roof and make myself and my dolls a nice place to play house. When the weather was good, I might play with one of my girl friends out in the sunshine. But I also remember sitting on a blanket in the shade (and having to move as the shade moved) playing with my dolls. I remember climbing trees, using roller skates on the side walk, playing Annie Oakley, riding a tricycle and pulling a wagon, or playing hopscotch marked out on the side walk, all usually with one or more friends.

Elementary school was a five-minute walk from the house and I went home for lunch almost every day, giving me time to stretch my legs as well as get a warm meal in the winter months. The school had a very large outdoor area, with various types of areas to play in, including several areas with a lot of trees, some of which we could climb up a few branches. There were playing fields as well as paved areas for skipping rope and playing hopscotch. The children spread out over the large area giving those who had a need to run around lots of opportunity to do that. Occasionally the weather was so bad (usually heavy rain), that we had to play indoors during recess, in very noisy basement areas that nobody really enjoyed. I think having a long lunch hour and a recess with outdoor play helped us to sit still when we were in the classroom.

My children were primarily brought up in a rural environment, living in a single family dwelling with farm fields beside us and no playmates within easy walking distance. When they were young, I spent time outdoors with them and they were given more freedom to be outside on their own as they grew older. They were both fortunate to have their early years before computers were very common and long before hand-held devices were available. The limits of physical freedom were defined by the size of our lot, which eventually expanded as they were encouraged to walk to a friend’s home or to cycle somewhere on their own. Unfortunately we parents were also obliged to drive them a lot. However, they would be encouraged to play outside even when visiting friends.

Both of my children attended kindergarten from when they were three years old until they began school at the age of seven. Kindergartens in Norway still have several hours of outdoor play, usually in a fenced-in area around the main building. Here they can dig in a sandbox, play on swings, ride tricycles, or make up their own games. They learn to socialize with others their own age. They learn to follow the rules set by the staff. For my children as well, the kindergarten was where they learned Norwegian as we used English at home.

Once my children started school, the elementary school was five kilometers away and they got a bus to school. Catching the school bus was part of the regular routine of learning responsibility for one’s own activities. Even at elementary school, there was always recess with outdoor play, no matter the weather. The children were expected to wear appropriate clothing to school to be outside both during recess and lunch hour. Sometimes adults would organize activities, but mostly they were outside to prevent bad behaviour and to mediate disputes between the children.

As an adult, I like to spend time outdoors. I can get discouraged if the weather does not look good from inside. I don’t like being outside in the dark, which makes limitations on when I can be out in the winter months. We live in a part of Norway where it seldom rains non-stop for hours at a time. It is more likely to be showers on and off all day, so it is easier to get outside while it isn’t raining and even stay outside with whatever I’m working on even if another shower comes along. In the winter, I like shovelling snow off the driveway as it gives me both fresh air and exercise as well as being useful. In the summer, I have a large garden to work with, though it can be discouraging to work when it is pouring with rain, which it often does in the summer. Not all summers here are warm and dry. But that just means that one has to learn how to dress suitably for the weather.

I have always found that going for walks is a good remedy for a bad mood. It gives me time to think through problems. If I am walking through the woods, I have to concentrate on where to put my feet and problems seem to melt away. I have also heard that having trees visible from the windows in your house is good for mental health.

The municipality that I live in has had a summer program called InderøyTurer (Inderøy Walks) where trails are marked in the wild areas. There are usually about 30 different walks and one gets points based on how long the walk is and how difficult a trail it is. There are always some easy walks for those in wheelchairs, so that handicapped people are encouraged to get outside too. I read just recently in the local newspaper that this summer there was a record number of visits to these posts. We use an app on our smartphones and are able to check in using our phones. This is an encouragement to get people out of their houses and take their children with them.

I would like to encourage everyone to spend time outdoors, preferably in nature or near trees, every day. Whether you spend half an hour or several hours, being outdoors will give you fresh air, exercise and time away from the screens in your life. Enjoy!

2021-12-232021-12-23

Buying a house

When looking at several generations in my family, I see the same things happening in more than one generation. For example, my mother was 35 when she had her first child, my older sister was 34 when she had her first (and only) child, and I was 33 when I had my first child. So we are a family that has our children relatively late and thus other things connected to this happen when we are more mature.

Let’s look at my parents first. My mother was born in 1907 and my father in 1911. They got married in 1939, moved from one country to another in 1946 and bought their first (and only) house in 1947. So my mother was 40 years old and my father 36 when they got their first house. They already had one child and the second child was born in 1949, shortly after they had bought the house. So for about 9 years my parents lived in rented accommodation before they were able to settle enough in one place to purchase a house.

2970 West 37th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Picture taken on 2016.06.25 This is the house that my parents bought in 1947 and I grew up in. It was always grey, but we had white and green trim. The front door was dark brown. The flower beds had different plants when I grew up. On the whole, there are very few changes to the house itself on the outside.

My parents-in-law were born in 1906 and 1916. They got married in 1942 and adopted two children, the oldest being born in 1948. They bought their first house in 1951 in New Westminster. So they were 45 and 35 years old when they bought their first house.

My husband was born in 1948 and I was born in 1949. We got married in 1978, moved from one country to another in 1980, had our first child in 1983, our second child in 1989 and bought our first (and only, so far) house in 1991. So we were 43 and 42 when we purchased our house. We are still living in this house 30 years later.

Between 1978 and 1991, about 13 years, we lived in a variety of rented accommodation, ranging from apartments (Port Coquitlam and New Westminster), to primitive housing (Aukra and Inderøy) to basement suites (Molde), to student housing (Molde and Bodø) before we were able to purchase our own house in Inderøy.

The name of the house is “Fjellheim” (literally “mountain home”) and was given to the house by a previous owner.. This picture was taken 2020.08.05, before the old flag pole was removed.

Why did we choose this particular house and this particular time to purchase a house? There were several factors involved, including opportunity and financing.

During our first years in Norway we had very little income and had to find very inexpensive housing to keep a roof over our heads. We rented an inexpensive, older house, with only cold water and no indoor toilet facilities for two years. The arrival of our first child made a move to a basement suite in Molde necessary. We got an inexpensive basement suite based on looking after the owners’ dog while they were out of the country. When we shifted from student life to working life (with income!) we moved to Bodø and got student housing through my husband’s employer. Slowly we acquired our own furniture having progressed from rented, furnished housing to having to have our own furniture. The move to Inderøy eventually resulted in a move to a house when we were expecting our second child. When the owner of the house died, we bought the house, an easy solution to the problem of moving again.

However, being able to purchase the house that we did was also dependent on us being able to finance the purchase. My father had died in 1989 and so I inherited enough money to be able to have a down payment on the house which we purchased at the end of 1990 and became officially owners of the first of January, 1991.

As I look at these three couples, who all purchased their houses at approximately 40 years of age, I see some similarities.

First of all, is the desire to own a house. When I was in my early 20s, I wanted to rent accommodation so that it was easy to move whenever I wanted to. I did not want to become settled in one place. The time was not right for me. Often owning a house is also connected to being part of a couple. This need to settle is often connected to having children and feeling the need for more stability in one’s life. It was after I had my first child that the need to own a house was something that I felt.

Second, is the ability to finance the purchase of a house. A house usually costs much more than a person or a couple can afford to pay off at once and a loan must be taken up to spread the cost of the house over many years, often 20 or 30 years. Being able to go to a bank and ask for a mortgage is dependent on having a steady job with an income that is high enough to pay for the mortgage on a monthly basis. Here in Norway, usually both people in a couple will need to be working to afford to buy a house, though this will depend on whether you live in a large city (where the housing is very expensive) or a small town or village (where housing will be more affordable).

Why did I want to write these thoughts? Both of my children are now in their 30s. Neither of them have children nor own their own home. I wanted to share with them some of my thoughts about owning one’s own house.

2021-12-20

Another December Walk – Furufjellet

Inspired by my walk yesterday, I set off for another walk today. Today’s walk was longer, an hour each way. The weather was also nicer today, with the sun shining and no precipitation while I was out walking. The temperature was about zero degrees Celsius, but I had warm winter clothes on and kept toasty warm. Much of the walk is uphill, so I generate a lot of heat when walking.

Today’s walk had four sections to it, each quite different walking. The first section is through the woods, then I cross Skarnsund Bridge which has a lot of vehicle traffic on it, then up a gravel (and icy) road, then into the woods again. The return is exactly the same route, but mostly downhill. I started shortly after 11 am and got home two hours later, not even completely exhausted.

Through the woods to the bridge

The first section of the walk is about 10 minutes of walking, first along a gravel road that gives access to about twelve cabins. I noticed immediately that one large tree had been cut down and remembered the day that I had heard the sound of a motor saw. At the end of the gravel road, there is a path that leads up to route 755 which crosses Skarnsund Bridge. We had frost in the night, so I had to be careful where I was walking and avoid icy patches. But after all the rain the last week, the streams were still running briskly, taking run-off water down to the fjord.

There is a small stream beside the road to several cabins.

Skarnsund Bridge

I don’t walk across the bridge nearly as much as I used to because there is much more traffic on it now and it can be a bit noisy. However, when I am on my own and not trying to hold a conversation with anyone, the noise doesn’t bother me nearly as much. One can notice the vibrations of a heavily loaded dump truck and large trucks can create quite a breeze as they whizz by at 80 km an hour. Today, there were both trucks and buses passing me, as well as cars.

The nice thing about the walk across the bridge is the views in several directions – back towards home, up the sound to mountains with snow cover, to the south where the sun is a bit above the horizon and out the fjord towards Trondheim.

Vangshylla as seen from Skarnsund Bridge. This picture also shows how little light there is here in the middle of the day (photo taken at 11:25), even when the sun is trying to shine.

Looking north from Skarnsund Bridge with Framverran on the left and the mountains of Sela in the background.

Looking south-west from Skarnsund Bridge with the sun just clearing the island of Ytterøy.

As I approach the Mosvik side of the bridge, I see both remnants of the ice that builds up on the hillside and a stream of freely flowing water. The temperature was about zero degrees Celsius, but water was running freely in many places.

Gravel road

At this time of year, gravel roads can be a bit of a challenge as they can be very icy, especially in the ruts of the car traffic. The one I took today has very little traffic, which is why I like to walk along it. It is also uphill so I get a lot of good exercise, both for my limbs and my heart and lungs.

A road not taken. The photo shows how the frost settles on the ground in open areas, but less so under trees.

I don’t imagine that this field gets much sunshine at this time of year. With lots of rain recently, rain water had collected and was now starting to freeze over. I am now high enough up that snow has fallen yesterday instead of rain. I am at about 120 meters over sea level at this point.

In the woods

This section of the walk is in a quiet section of forest on a steep slope. In the summer months, sheep can be found grazing here. Today the gate in the fence was open as the sheep have either been sent to the slaughter house or are in the barn for the winter months.

Now I’m off the road and into the woods again.

The gate is open so there are no sheep out at this time of year. In the summer one must keep gates closed so that grazing animals stay where they are supposed to be.

This part of the trail is not particularly steep. It seems to be well used, either by people or wild animals. Though there is some snow where there are openings in the trees, it was also quite soggy and damp..

This section of the trail was being used by a small stream.

One section of the trail that had puddles also showed that the temperature was right on freezing, with a thin sliver of ice on the water.

On either side of the trail, the hillside is steep. Looking up.

This point of the trail, called Furufjellet, the Pine Mountain, was the goal of today’s walk. At the top of the cliff are some pine trees. Pine trees often grow where the soil is very poor. Much of the forest around here is actually spruce or birch trees.

I don’t have the best camera for taking close-ups of birds. Can you see the woodpecker sitting on a branch? He was busy pecking away as I watched him. We regularly have woodpeckers that come to our bird feeding station, so it was nice to see one out in the woods.

I really enjoyed my walk today. Even with two hours of walking, I wasn’t exhausted, so I guess I’m in better shape than I think I’m in. When the sun shines during at least part of my walk, my spirits are lifted and I feel much better. As I got home again, the sky clouded over and there was less sunshine. At the time of writing this blog in the evening, we have started to get more snow.

Enjoy your walk today!

2021-12-19

A December Walk

Going for walks in December can be difficult for me. I actually don’t mind being out in the rain or the snow, but I dislike the wind. The problem is getting out of the house. Once I am outside with the appropriate clothes on, I enjoy being out in nature and the temperature is not very important.

The other challenge with getting out for walks in December is the short window for daylight in which to go for walks out in nature, away from houses and lighting. For example, today, the 19th of December, two days before the winter solstice, sunrise was at 10.03 and sunset was at 14.22. When it is cloudy, it doesn’t seem very bright outside at sunrise or sunset. When looking outside from a brightly lit house, it seems darker than it actually is, once you are outside.

Weather-wise, December this year has been very varied. At the beginning of the month, we had quite cold temperatures, down to -12 degrees Celsius. We had snow on the ground and sunshine during the few hours of daylight. Then about the 13th of the month, it warmed up to +8 degrees Celsius and started to rain a lot. The snow disappeared. The ground is soggy. Paths in the woods are small streams or large puddles.

Today I went for about an hour’s walk starting at 11:30. I took a walk that goes both on dirt roads, paved roads and forest trail. I put on rain trousers and rain jacket. Toque and mitts were also put on. I wore winter walking boots that kept my feet dry in spite of the soggy ground. I enjoyed myself as it is quite a while since I have been out for a walk in the woods.

My goal was to get to Bjønnbråtte, which is on a cliff top. First I follow some gravel roads which are very easy walking. As I climbed up the hill, it was noticeable that it had been trying to snow, rather than rain, as I got higher up. There wasn’t much, but the temperature must have been close to freezing point and I had to be careful that I didn’t slip.

Once I got into the woods, the trail was not only damp, but the stream was following it and there were large puddles to pick my way around. The walk to Bjønnbråtte is about 20 minutes from home.

Picture taken at 11:52, from Bjønnbråtte, looking towards Ytterøy. This is the end point of one of my favourite walks. This point is on a cliff that goes straight down to the water.

Today I decided to walk home via Sysvedalen and Vangshylla. At the bottom of Sysvedalen is a very small beach, used mostly for pulling small boats up on land to be stored there when not in use. It is a pebble beach, not sand. What attracted my attention today was the amount of seaweed that had been washed up on the beach. It has been quite stormy lately and today I was there at about high tide. Looking up the data about high tide, it was highest, at 307 cm, at about 11:50 which is quite a high tide for us. It was a full moon last night, which gives us quite high tides.

Looking south-west from the beach at Rotvollvika. Picture taken at 12:05, shortly after high tide. In the background is Ytterøy.

Looking south-east from the same beach at Rotvollvika. This picture was also taken at 12:05.

Taken from the road down to Vangshylla at 12:15. It was raining at the time and I was fascinated by the light in the sky.

Taken from the road to Vangshylla at 12:15. Note the light in the sky and the ramps to the boats in the small boat harbour. It is high tide and you don’t have to walk very much downhill to get to the boats.

As I continued on uphill, the sky to the north had the most light. This was caused by a break in the clouds though it was still raining where I was. The picture was taken at 12:21.

Once I was home again, I was glad that I had gone outside. I often wonder why I don’t get out more, as I really enjoy myself, even if it is raining. The weather forecast is for snow again, perhaps even tonight. I’ll just have to see what it is like tomorrow and make an effort to get outside again.

I hope you, my readers, are getting out for fresh air and exercise regularly. Don’t put it off, no matter the weather. Just find a terrain that suits you, dress for the weather and away you go. Remember the Scandinavian expression: “There is no such thing as bad weather”, but you do have to dress appropriately for the weather that you have.

2021-10-05

Fall Colours

A while ago my daughter asked me if the trees here were starting to change colour yet and though the answer at the time (about the middle of September) was “no”, this blog is an answer to her question. The pictures were taken on the 1st of October, 2021, either on our own lot or on my walk up to a local dairy to buy milk.

I love the different seasons we have where we live. There are four distinct seasons and each has its own characteristics. Fall, or autumn, is when the nights get cooler, some of the trees loose their leaves and most flowers have gone to seed. Where we live there are often storms with a lot of wind and rain. There is also less and less daylight each day until we get to the winter solstice. Geese are flying south and other migratory birds disappear for a few months.

Some bushes have a lot of colour to them. The leaves on these ones turn red and there are black berries. I think this bush is *aronia*, or black chokeberry.

Meteoriologists in Norway have their own definition of fall: “Når døgnmiddeltemperaturen er mellom 0 og 10 grader og temperaturtendensen er fallende gjennom perioden, da er det høst, sier klimaforsker Stein Kristiansen ved Meteorologisk institutt.” (source) – “When the average daily temperature is between 0 and 10 degrees Celsius, and the temperatures are generally falling, then it is fall/autumn, says climate researcher Stein Kristiansen from The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (website).

This year we have not been below 4 degrees Celsius at night and daytime temperatures have been between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. I think the amount of daylight affects trees too. Many smaller plants die off once their seeds have been made. If we have a very dry summer, I notice that the birch trees will lose leaves even in July or August to save water.

Some of the fields are still green, but where the grains have been harvested the field is now a yellowish brown. Our woods are a combination of deciduous trees (which lose their leaves) and coniferous trees (which retain needles all winter, though they also shed some of their needles at this time of year). Also notice the red stick at the side of the road. It serves a dual purpose: first to tell drivers at night where the edge of the road is and second, to tell those who plough the snow in the winter where the edge of the road is.

These bushes lay close to the ground, but the house owner has chosen four types of bushes that each give a different colour to the slope at this time of year.

Trees that stand alone, like this birch tree, can often have more vivid colours.

Grasses that are not cut, turn yellow as the seeds mature. The green fields are grass fields that are cut to provide fodder for cows and they will stay green all winter, or until ploughed.

However, I was also surprised to see some flowers still blooming.

A dandelion was having a second blooming.

Red clover was still blooming along the side of the road.

*Achillea millefolium*. This is very common here, especially along roads. It is called common yarrow in English and *ryllik* in Norwegian.

In my own garden, plants are also turning various colours as their lifetimes are over. The ones you see here are all perennials and most of them will come up from the roots next spring.

Last of all, we think of the fall season as the time of year that the leaves fall off the trees. In this area of our yard, the trees have already gotten a good start at getting rid of their leaves and giving the gardener something to do.

We are only at the beginning of fall now. The next two months will show even more changes in nature around us, as the days grow shorter and the temperature drops. More trees will change colour. More leaves will fall, as not all trees lose their leaves at the same time. While the days are still nice, I will continue to enjoy walks several times a week.

2021-09-152021-09-15

Noremsbråttet, Utøy

Today’s walk with a girlfriend took us to a place neither of us had been to before. It took a bit to find the parking spot and we then started off from the car in the wrong direction, which just gave us a little bit more exercise.

The parking spot for two posts was well-marked once we were there. We will only do post 18 today. Post 19, a large rhododendron is best done at the end of May or June, when it is blooming. You will find that I have written a blog about it in 2020. http://trish.mclellan.no/2020/06/17/inderoy-walk-ordal-nature-reserve/

The information board gave information about the Ørdal Nature Reserve which includes the famous rhododendron. We did not walk into the nature reserve but ended up just before the boundary into it. Looking at the map on the board, we are walking at the top end of the map.

The Norwegian word “bråttet” or “brottet” refers, I think, to an area that has been recently cleared of trees. These two spellings would be pronounced similarly, depending on one’s dialect. These terms have been used on the names of two walks this summer, both of which take the walker to a high point with a view as there are almost no tall trees in the way.

We were lucky today with a morning with sunshine, though the temperature was about 10 degrees Celsius in the shade. When we got to higher elevations and were in the sun, I was walking in just a t-shirt.

The first part of the walk was along a gravel road. We were walking downhill at the beginning of the walk, which means you get a bit of an uphill climb just before getting back to the car.

We were walking in the shade so it was cool. We could also hear the farmer out cutting his grass and we had actually seen him when leaving the car.

But we didn’t walk that far downhill before we came across signs telling us to head into the woods. Another time I would like to go the whole way to the Rhododendron, just to see how to get to Noremsbråttet from the other side of the hill. My telephone tells me that at home, Noremsbråttet is only 3 km away, though that would be in a straight line and trails never go in straight lines.

The walk, as usual, took us up and down slopes. Though on the trip to Noremsbråttet it was primarily uphill, we both experienced that there were uphill sections on the way back to the car as well. The area we were walking in today is on the side of the hill on the east side of Skarnsund where the slopes are quite steep.

Here is an example of the trail we were following. It is narrow and in places it was quite damp. We had a lot of rain last week and most nights there is quite a bit of dew. This picture is taken looking back from where we came.

Though the trail was easy to follow and was marked well, it was not a very well-worn path. This trail is a bit out of the way, even for people living in Inderøy. Most of the human traffic would be in May or June when the rhododendron was blooming. By September, there are signs that many plants are getting ready for the winter ahead.

Looking up the slope, you can see how steep it is on this side of the hill.

Looking downhill the slope looks even steeper. But at this point along the trail there were lots of trees clinging to the side of the hill.

We were now up high enough to get a bit of a view, but there were still quite a few trees obstructing the view. Here we see Framverran on the west side of Skarnsund.

I knew that there were two trails to the rhododendron and this was the divide. We took the upper trail (“øvre sti”). The lower trail (“nedre sti”) to the right looked very unused and overgrown.

Then suddenly we came out into the open and got some sunshine. Here you can see that the blueberry plants are going red and loosing their leaves. There were still lingon berries (“tyttebær”) to be found. Now it felt like there was a bit more level ground and the path continued straight ahead and we stayed in this open area the rest of the way to our goal.

We came across a picnic table. It looked quite new, but this wasn’t our goal. We still had to cross another few hundred meters and on another rise we found our goal. The dark band of trees in the distance would be primarily spruce trees and I think that they would be in Ørdal Nature Reserve. We didn’t go that far on this walk.

We made it! Another 30 points on our app. My friend and I walk about the same amount so it is fun to find out how many points she has. She is a little ahead of me at the moment.

The view was spectacular. We are looking across to Framverran on the Mosvik side of Skarnsund.

Looking northwards to the hills of Steinkjer. No snow yet, but those hills will be some of the first ones to get snow in our area.

The highlight of the pause at Noremsbråttet was watching the eagle soaring in circles and almost never having to move his wings. I didn’t feel that there was any wind where we were, but the steep slopes will give up-drafts that allow birds to soar. It was very difficult to get a good picture of the eagle as he was just too far away. At one point he came a bit closer to us, and a small flock of small birds hastily moved from one group of trees to another group considerable farther away from the eagle.

This is a walk that I would recommend. There are steep bits where one needs to hold on, but they are quite short. The view at the top is beautiful on a sunny day. There was a picnic table to sit at while taking a pause before heading back. We used about half an hour each way, so about an hour’s walking.

2021-09-11

Kvamsholmen to Undersåker Bay

On the 10th of August we went for a walk to the island called Storholmen. Today we again parked at the Recycling Center in Utøy and walked the same path down to the fjord as we had on the previous walk to Storholmen (see the previous blog here). But instead of walking out to the island we continued along the path towards Undersåker.

Storholmen is on the left, still just attached to land and the other islands are now isolated. It was an incoming tide, so the causeway out to Storholmen had much less above the water on our return trip to the car than had been the case on our outward walk.

As you can see from this picture, the sky was quite cloudy. Though we usually go for our weekend walk on Sundays, we chose Saturday this week as the weather forecast was better for Saturday morning. I noticed that just as we arrived home again, it started to rain so it was good that we weren’t out any longer or any later in the day. The temperature was about 12 degrees Celsius, which I find a nice temperature for walking. There was no wind, not even down by the water.

It didn’t take us long to come out of the woods and follow a road towards the honey farm at Kvamsholmen. One of my son’s classmates grew up here, but the farm has now been taken over by Tonje Kvam.

This sign is in both Norwegian and English and explains the life cycle of a bee, who lives approximately 40 days. In the summer there can be up to 70 000 bees in a hive.

We passed one house, or perhaps it is a cabin/summer house, and this pair of jeans was left out in the garden. I don’t think I would want to wear them again.

Undersåker Bay – My daughter was friends with the girls that grew up on one of the Undersåker farms. The tide is out. We walked around this bay, crossed a stream and sat down at a picnic table on a rocky outcrop just to the left of the center of the picture.

We came to a stream that drains several hamlets in Utøy and the stream seemed to have different names depending on which farm it is closest too. The sign below explains that the stream has been used for various purposes over the centuries: in 1620 it was used to power a stream grinder; there was a sawmill in the 19th century and a cement foundry in 1930 which used sand from the beach as well as the water from the stream.

I reacted to the name on the sign, “Storfossen”, the great waterfall. Yes, we have had a lot of rain this week so there was a lot of water in the stream and it definitely was noisy as it journeyed down to the fjord. But I didn’t think it was so very large.

Though I wasn’t able to measure the height of the falls, it seemed like about one or two meters at the most. After a week of rain, there was certainly lots of water in the stream.

The wooden bridge felt quite slippery, but thankfully there was a railing to hold onto. The bridge is under the trees so it probably never dries out. There was certainly a lot of moss growing on it.

A week of wet weather also made the paths a bit muddy. It was narrow here so I felt I had to walk quite cautiously.

Suddenly I came out into the open and we were at our goal for our walk for today – Undersåker Bay.

There was a picnic table to sit at while we took a well-deserved pause. The tide was out. Low tide had been at 9:12 about two hours before this picture was taken. So the water had already begun to rise.

The walk back to the car was just to turn around and go the same way back. We did make one little detour to a picnic place to see what the site offered.

In the background is the farm Kvamsholmen, and we decided to see what the “rasteplass” or picnic site had to offer.

At first I thought these buildings might be boathouses, but they did not have easy access to the water, except at high tide. A boat would have to be carried down to the water. As my son explained, the building would be used for storage of things needed for a day down at the water’s edge, a grill, chairs, perhaps a table, and a small boat that could be carried by two people to the water’s edge. They all looked relatively new and in good condition.

Undersåker Bay from a different angle. The goal of our walk had been on the far side of the bay, between the green fields on the left and the white house on the right.

There were some interesting rock formations here as well.

On our way back to the car, I noticed this older building. I notice the combination of stone foundations and wooden piles. The lower edges of the siding were showing signs of having been around for a while. I went around to the side of the building.

The side of the building was open and I could see what was been stored inside, though I couldn’t put names to much.

But then I found a sign about the building, that is probably from 1850-1910, so well over a hundred years old.

We had a good walk and used about 2 hours from leaving the car to getting back to it. But this also include a sit-down pause at Undersåker Bay and exploring a bit at Kvamsholmen farm. Because the car is parked at a higher elevation, the best exercise on the walk is getting back up the hill at the end of the walk. We were lucky with the weather and that made the walk all the more enjoyable.

2021-08-182021-08-21

Åsbrottet, Utøy

Today, my girlfriend and I went for our usual Wednesday walk and we chose a walk we had not taken before. The walk up to Åsbrottet was a new Inderøy walk this year and neither of us had taken it before. I enjoyed the walk and we had some surprises along the way.

The information about the walk told us where to park our car and that the walk was 3.5 km long and would take us in a circle. We used about one and a half hours which included time to enjoy the walk, take lots of pictures and enjoy the views. We parked at Stavran, near farm buildings.

I think the farmer at Stavran uses John Deere tractors.

The trail

This was a newly marked trail this year and was well marked. There were only a very few places where we wondered where the trail went. There were many trails leading off the main trail, and I discovered that this was because we came back a different way than we went up the hill. (Of course, we were climbing a hill!)

I am going to show you some of the pictures from our walk, but not always in the order that they were taken. There were some very steep climbs, as we climbed up about 100 meters to the check-in point at Åsbrottet. There were pleasant areas in the trees and therefore out of the wind. There were a few areas where my hiking boots got damp, though that could have been mostly dew from the grass, but there were obvious signs that some areas would get quite muddy when it has be raining.

A lot of the walk was in fairly open areas, relatively recently logged. On this section of the trail we had quite a steep climb.

Someone (or perhaps many people) had done quite a bit of work to make it a good trail, especially where there were damp or muddy sections.

Some parts of the trail were through woodland.

Most of the trail was quite easy to follow. This section looked like it had been around for quite a number of years, so not all sections of the trail were new.

Twice we had to cross a fence and both times there were very good stiles to cross. The advantage of a stile is that the farmer doesn’t have to worry about hikers leaving gates open and cattle and sheep getting out of their pasture area. My girlfriend said that stiles over fences were quite new in Norway and certainly not very common. On the far side of the fence in the picture there had been large animals grazing, though we didn’t see any today.

The views

I always love walks where we get up high enough that there is a view over the trees. Living in a farming area, there is always the challenge of figuring out which farms one sees in the distance.

Having started at Stavran and having climbed the first steep section, we could see back to the road, farms in the distance and even farther away would be Levanger.

A lot of the area we were walking through was quite open. The sky looked threatening in this picture, but we had no rain on our walk. In some places it was a bit windy, especially when out in the open, or on a hill top.

This area had been logged a few years ago, but I’m not sure how long ago. Small plants and trees were starting to grow again. In the background you can see the forest that still exists.

Eventually we got up high enough to see northwards towards Beitstad Fjord. The walk was getting very promising at this point.

Follafoss on the far side of Beitstad Fjord, taken from Åsbrottet, the highest point of our walk.

Looking south towards Trondheim Fjord, Utøy, Ytterøy and Levanger

The signs

When getting around an area one has not been hiking in before, one has to rely on the markings and good signs. On this walk, the signs were new and the different directions were marked at critical points.

The first sign tells us that there are two places we can get to on this trail, Åsbrottet, which is where we get points for a walk, and Farbuhøgda. (Høgda = high point)

Åsbrottet was well marked and this is where we got our points. There was even a table to sit at to enjoy the view. It wasn’t really warm enough to sit today and there was also a wind blowing at the top that, though it kept the insects away, also encouraged us to keep on walking.

As always, there are choices. We chose to go to Farbuhøgda, before returning to the car at Stavran. One could have a shorter walk by going directly to Stavran from here.

Farbuhøgda had a grill, table and two benches to sit on. There was a fence around it, presumably to keep grazing animals and their excrement away from the picnic area.

We came across this diving board into a little tern, Farbutjønna.

It wasn’t a very big tern, but it must have been deep enough to dive into. Note the plastic bag in the foreground, which is tied to a rope which could be used by a swimmer to pull themselves out of the tern. The edge of the tern did not look like it was easy to find solid footing.

Now it was time to go back to the car, though by following the path in the direction indicated, we walked farther than if we had just gone straight ahead which is where we had come up. It was longer, but not nearly as steep.

We both enjoyed the walk. It was cool enough (14 degrees Celsius) to enjoy the climbs without attracting a lot of insects. The breeze kept us cool and the insects away too. We used about 90 minutes and felt we had had some good exercise. This is a walk I would like to do again, but I have to do it early in the day when I have lots of energy.

2021-08-10

Storholmen, Utøy

This evening the three of us decided to go for a walk out to an island that can only be reached at low tide. A check of the tide tables yesterday evening indicated that low tide would be just before 8 pm. So we took off from home at 7 pm.

We chose to park near the recycling center in Utøy, which serves the whole municipality of Inderøy.

The recycling center for Inderøy municipality had just closed when we got there. There is parking off to the left for those who want to go for a walk. There is a ramp up to the upper level, so that garbage is thrown into the big blue bins from the top. Examples of what we would sort out is cardboard, metal and impregnated wood. The red bins to the left are for clothing. They are in the open area so accessible at all times for depositing used clothing.

We had about a one and a half kilometer walk to where we wanted to go, mostly downhill, through both open forest that had been recently logged and older forest.

This section of the walk was through old forest. It was cool and pleasant in the forest.

We are almost down to sea level and we are going to walk out that causeway to Storholmen, the island you can see in this picture.. This is about as low as the tide goes. It was registered at 47 cm at 19:50 today, the 10th of August 2021.

To the right of Storholmen is Kvamsholman, which is really two islands. These two islands are a habitat management area and are reserved for birds, in particular oyster catchers (tjeld), eider ducks (ærfugl) and two types of sea gulls.

This information sign of the islands shows how Storholmen has a causeway out to it and Kvamsholmen is reserved for the birds. All the islands are isolated at high tide. The difference between high tide and low tide can be as much as three meters.

The path out to Storholmen is easy to follow, though there is quite a bit of seaweed on either side. Some of the seaweed was quite slippery if you stepped on it. It was about 600 meters from the beach out to the island.

I’m no expert on seaweed, so I can’t tell you what kind this is.

In some places there were a lot of mussels as well. They would make good food for the sea birds that live here.

Storholmen is a large rock in the fjord and is covered by a variety of vegetation, including trees and grasses.

Kvamsholman as seen from Storholmen. Kvamsholman is about 200 meters from Storholmen.

We enjoyed our walk. The temperature was about 20 degrees Celsius, though it felt more when we were walking in the sun. We walked about 2 km each way and we walked the same route back to the car. The return to the car was a bit more strenuous as we now had to climb back up the hill. We were probably walking for about one hour. this is a walk that we take about once a year.