A Busy Day

All the free food, aka, wild blueberries, that are just minutes from our front door, were calling my name.  I can’t stand the thought that someone else might pluck them or, heaven forbid, they’d fall to the ground, uneaten.  My big plans for today were to go pick as many as I could, even if it was raining, because I have room in the freezer and I just dream about filling it with wild blueberries to last me until we leave.  But alas, plans don’t always turn out as I’d hoped.

Kory and I had to run a few errands this morning, looking for peculiar hardware items for the condo.  We needed gas in the car ($145 for a fill-up today), money from the bank (where there’s a giant sucking sound going on), and a few odds and ends at various stores.  I told Kaleb we’d be gone half an hour, then we’d go blueberry picking.  We were gone nearly three hours and he was sure it had only been 15 minutes.  When that kid gets his nose in electronics, he is lost to the world around him.

In particular, I went looking for something to substitute for my beloved Cuisinart so I can mash up food until it’s unrecognizable and then eat it.  No luck in that department.  Kory got more stain for the deck.  We priced out curtain rods.  We looked for a smaller vacuum (currently the 50 year old Kirby takes up half the closet in our bedroom), and we were out of toilet paper.  So, we were on a mission, as it were.  We ended up with few things we’d set out for, (thankfully, TP was one of them).  We came home with an unplanned purchase - a portable gas grill that will take up less room on the deck, and we can take it to the beach – because it was a screaming deal on sale ($70 versus $500.)  Our other BBQ got damaged in the hurricane and no longer works properly, plus it looks bad.  We also ended up finding a clearance sale at a sport’s store (don’t even know why we went in there), where we bought Kaleb some school clothes – T-shirts and sweats – since that’s what homeschooling does for a kid – teaches them no sense of style or appropriate dress. I couldn’t resist since they were high quality sweats for seven bucks – I splurged and bought three pair.  I also bought him a raingear set (coat and pants) for twenty bucks, some socks and Crocs.  The prices were cheaper than America, so God certainly directed our steps today and I was pleased as punch.  Kory bought some sweats, too, and a rain gear set, since the rain doesn’t seem to notice that it’s summer here.

When we got home, the pressure washing in our front entry walkway was done, but sadly, it wasn’t too clean.  The guy just washed the ceiling and walls, which left all the grunge on the walkway, conveniently located in front of our door so it can get tracked into the house.  I was more than a bit peeved.  I was also disappointed that he didn’t pressure wash the hand railing plexi-glass wall since it obviously needed a good washing, too.  I pointed these things out to Tante Aslaug, who is a condo association board member and she just said he was hired to wash the walls and ceiling.  Now, who didn’t think that one through?  It took the guy forever to set up and get the hose and washer up to our level, and to not have him clean the whole lot was a mystery to me… so I washed down the walls (as the dirty water was hanging in big drips along the edge of each piece of siding), and got out the mop and cleaned up the walkway.  I’ll wait to clean the hand railing for another day, as the windows now need washing again too.  Uff da.

The hours left in the day were going fast, and the chance for me to pick blueberries was getting slimmer.  I promised to bring dessert to Josef and Camilla Koven’s house tonight since they so kindly invited us over for dinner.  And again, I’m so impressed that people are taking such great care to make food that Kory can eat.  If the potatoes and veggies are boiled or steamed, with no added sauces, and the fish is cooked with no added oils, it’s all do-able.  Desserts are hard though, so that’s why I volunteer to bring them, and blueberry pie was on my agenda, but I had no blueberries, nor did I have a crust made, or the filling prepared.  So Kory and Kaleb headed into the hills to do the job I’d so looked forward to, and in just an hour they returned with about five cups of berries (see photo above) and just in time for me to mix them in to the filling and plop them in the crust I’d made while they were away.  It was all about teamwork today.

As soon as the pie was done we headed out to Langevaag.  It turns out my friend Sandra lives just a few minutes walk from the Kloven’s house.  We’d actually walked right by Josef’s place the other day when we got lost coming down Sula Fjell, but we didn’t know it was his place.  Funny.

We left hours before the dinner invite so Kaleb could stop by Sandra’s to do some whacking on her backyard (above).  I had left a patch of weeds and bushes for him to whack down since I knew it was something he loves to do.  He does it all the time at home, usually with dire consequences because they are plants I don’t want chopped down.  Even when he takes to whacking the plants along the driveway, he leaves such a mess that I get after him for that.  But I knew it was the perfect scenario for him today because Sandra would gladly clean up anything he decided to cut down - and cut down he did!

It was pouring rain for the hour or so he was out there attacking the plants like they were a vicious enemy ready for battle.  He cut from the right, he cut from the left, he went at it like there was no tomorrow.  I’ve never seen him smile so big.  I told Sandra he really should be paying her for the sheer amount of pleasure he was getting out of cutting down all those bushes.  It helps he had a very sharp “weapon” to use so he was quite productive with his time.  He couldn’t have been more pleased, and we just watched in amazement from the safety of the living room.  When he was done, he began to whack the things that were already in a pile and cut down, because there was nothing left to whack.  And to top it all off, Sandra gave him a hundred kroner for the work (about $19).  Insane.  I’d already paid him six bucks for the berries he’d picked earlier, so he made out pretty well today and is starting to appreciate doing a good job and making money for doing it.  Hallelujah for that.

We drove around the corner to have dinner with Camilla and Josef and to meet their smiley six-month old baby, Gunnar.  What a happy kid that guy is.  I’m not much for holding babies, but that one was pretty irresistible.  We had a wonderful meal (they put salmon in a foil pouch with some yummy veggies, spices and water and it cooked up fabulously).  My blueberry pie however, didn’t fare so well since I set it on the backseat of the car and didn’t take in to account the slant of the seat, so much of the pie succumbed to gravity and ended up spilling.  It still tasted fine, but I was fairly peeved at myself, after all that work.

We had a wonderful visit with our hosts, in their totally adorable farmhouse (top photos today are from there) at the base of the mountain, talking about all kinds of things Norwegian and American.  Josef took us on a late night walk up a trail to the base of the mountain to show us alternate ways to hike up to Sula again.  Even in the rain, the view from on high of the surrounding communities is something to behold.  Another magical day in Norway, but a bit busier than I’d like, as it makes the time go by way too quickly and I want to savor every minute.