Then… it has happened again…

This year it happened on the 17th February…. a cold and eastern wind  day… wind from east is cold here in Sogn. Last year it happened on another date, maybe… and in another kind of wether…. unnoticeable… once or another while in the daytime….. I stop in the middle of the kitchen floor…knowing that something has changed. I can’t explain it. I look around me… everything is like normal and yet… in a fraction of a second; i feel it more than I see it: …. The light is on its way back!
Just like in life itself; we come to a point where we know that something is changed, you yourself or conditions and people around, and this will have an effect  on our life ahead….

A moment
Give
a moment
of your day
to someone you care for
A small moment
in your thought
a flight of thought
This might make
the big difference….

The blank canvas… the new day

A clean, white, empty canvas lies in front of me… I have planned what to fill it with and I want it to be a masterpiece; …before my inner eyes it  i s  already! The motif and all the lines are there. Every colour has got the right grade and glow…. the light in the shadow and the shadow in the light. Words of thoughts have also got a space within the limits the paper. These are thoughts at every new beginnings. Will I succeed this time… I wonder……

Such it is with our day, as well… From the morning it lies in front of us, and it is for us to fill it ; either with physical works, your job… in office, school or whatever… smalltalk with the neighbour, a telephone call…. good thoughts are to be sent either by imagination og by post, old-fashioned and good. Will it be sunshine today, or do we have to enjoy the sun from yesterday… or those beams two weeks ago…. The sky is cloudy!….. Well, sun shines in so many different ways and the energy from it can be stored….

A picture is like a day
The new day
is shining over every little thing
over the tiny snow crystal shining on the field

over the roof of the neighbour’s house
over the naked birch forest thar beams back in burgundy colours
over the willing ore forest that shines in green and gives promise of spring
over the red robbin on the feeding tray
that make you ask if you ever before have seen such red colour
over the Golden Apple .. so that you eventually believe in
the story of the hidden gold treasure
over the biggest of the ‘Spenadn’
so that you really know what golden snow looks like

and then the day begin
my day
and your
and it will be how you create it
beautiful

 The big difference

Some times when you are mountain hiking, and really tough uphills, like often here in the west…. it is good with a helping hand. Some years ago, I had some hardships with my body, knees and hips, it made me old before the time. It  was in the Autumn and three sweet grandchildren were visiting. Solveig, my eldest daughter, is of the hiking in the mountain type, and they pulled me to go with them! Tjuatoten was the goal… for the young ones. My goal was Mastefestet over Tjugum (300 m). Beautiful view, first lunch pause with tea on thermos. ‘You can come with us a little farther, can’t you, Mormor? Åsmund the smallest, tempted as good as he could. It reminded me a little of the time when Solveig and her  brother and sister were small and we try to tempted them with oranges to go a little longer…..in Easter tours on ski in the mountains.
Further upwards through the birch tree hills life was tough. My body was aching and! The others did not want to go without me, and I felt like challenging myself to the uttermost limit. Arild Julius, 13-years grandson, said the solution words: Bjørg and Åsmund can pull you upwards where it is too steep for you, Mormor! And I can give you a push from behind! We reached the top! The experience og my life. My greatest victory in the hills! On the summit it was windy and a bit cold, yet it was so warm with such a support ive and cheering group!

Little is enough
to make life easier for your fellow men
Even you might not be the strongest
…you might be stronger
                           than he who is weak
                            You can make the big difference

 [box type=»note» style=»rounded» border=»full»]Tjuatoten (50-1098 m.o.h.)Tjuatoten is a mountain at Dragsvik,Balestrand. It is a hard hike up to the summit, where you get a magnificent view over Sognefjorden, both over to the Vikafjell mountains and in to Fjærland and Leikanger.[/box]

Climbing a mountain

[box type=»info» style=»rounded» border=»full»]Akvarell is for me the only medium for artistic interpretation of a motive, be naturalistic or more of an abstract version. The play of the colours, the various shades have always fascinated me from I made my very first uncertain brush strokes. Little by little I have learned to dance with the brush, learned to make the right amount of paint and water….and most important, I have learned that it is still a long, long way to go…..[/box]

Great excitement at new climbing: Storehesten (mountain) upwards …and down again. ‘Fjellvettreglar’ (‘Guiding rules for safe walk in the mountains’ for watercolourists does not excist. ‘The road is made as you are walking’ is the first item. So comes the weather conditions… they have a big impact on what colours to use…. But the point in the rules dealing about ‘it is never too late to turn’ ….hm… no, not by any means…. After so many preparations, fome selection of the angles, the size, the mood…. and not the leasr ‘walked’ the path with a pencil; to turn is no alternative! I have to go to the top! One day or one week og even one month, it does not matter!….It is good to meet other people on the path, but in the most difficult sections, you need compete silence and peace…. But then: Meet you on the top!

   There is always
   a way up
   from the deepest cliff
   and the higher
you reach
   the more
   you will see
   glims
   of the blue
  heavenly sky

*)

[box type=»tick» style=»rounded» border=»full»]Kvamshesten, 1209 metre is one of the highest mountains between Førdefjorden and Dalsfjorden in Sunnfjord. The marked profile that raises steeply from the landscape around, especially …seen from south…be similar to a horse’s body.. Locally in  Sunnfjord the mountain is named The big horse, it is the highest of many mountains with a horse name in this district.[/box]From the first time I ‘discovered’ Storehesten, this mountain has fascinated me. The lines, the light and the shadows in the front, the multicoloured rock are always in changing…. Sun, rain, Spring and Winter…. the mountain have got so many facetswhere it majestically show up towards the sky. It eill forever have a place in my heart, and I would so dearly want to call it mine. But I have to stand behind in the queue…and it is OK…..as long as I own a bit of this monument!….

*) In Norwegian we have one word for heaven and sky: ‘himmel’

Christmas Joy far into the New Year…

…..is it possible?… It is so easy to be expectant in the Advent time. We are sort of programmed to be happy at Christmas.The New Year’s joy is an explosion of hilarious happiness. And thereafter the ‘grey’ days are coming……Then you have to dig deep to find the joy inside. It comes from thousands of golden stars in the sky, from the red Robin quickly coming to catch a grain of corn from the gavel….. we all have our special sources and talents… if we think carefully….
For me happiness is connected with colours. I have just finished the first strife of an new water colour painting… I haven’t caught it yet…  I am still in the searching for the soul of it…. But then…in a magical moment colours and lines are right… Oh, holy happiness! Cooperation between knowledge and powers, fantasy and talent… and not the least the unfathomable love for the work; wether it is preparing a lesson as a teacher or building a stone wall at the roadside or giving a lecture in a big assembly…. a creating a water colour painting. I want everybody to experience the joy to create and see something grow under your fingers and admire the result….. a plant you have helped to give life..

Good luck with a new creative and colourful year… grey or red, turquoise, green, blue or lilac… and not to forget yellow, the colour of the sun…..

Go
with happy colours
on wandering
searching for
new methods
and new ways
Always alertly looking for
new challenges
at the next hight
.:.

New year….

Those two words contains a universe of possibilities. Christmas is soon over.. the Christmas tree is still standing with lit candles, shining glitter and the star on top….all good words from the holy time, all good deeds and intensions have given us new energy. Good moods, good whiles and moments…alone or with family and friends… Now we are ready to give content to a whole new year….A.D. 2014. Overwhelmed and quite shaky…..standing at a sea shore in Florida…at rolling hills of Yorkshire….beneath the mighty mountauns of Norway… or simply under our shared deep blue starry sky …….thinking that every single 365 days og 2014 is waiting to be filled….

Inspiration
Where I find inspiration
for my paintings?
….
From mind
and from heart
from your openminded
watching
from children’s laughter
and their wonderful wondering
from a kind touch
of my friend’s warm hands
from tear drops and dew drops
from speaking flowers and twinkling stars

Inspiration
is just another word
for hard work
with joy

We have all of us our inspired moments and inspirational sources….
We are all part of making a chain, we are all pearls….

Just before the belles chime for the New Year …

A new year has announced its coming… new-year’s resolution? I recon not…. I am old enough to remember that such promises were difficult … something went wrong and some items became awkward… while some thing went very well…. And I am young enough to hope that the new year will give me lots of possibilities to raise what fell and make right what went wrong…. say what I did not say and ‘not say’ what I did say…. One of our national poets wrote ‘House rules’ about «the day has got many hours, the year has got many days»…. days in which we can make up for……..

Heavenly red clouds on fire..
then she climbs over the mountain range
….the sun…
explosion over the fjord
Then the sky changes to its usual suit
But it keeps in mind
the ecstasy 
from the happening
as a new day
is ready on the staring line…

In these days of counting your stock….

17 years ago I said farewell to my job. I wanted to try out other talents than teaching. I met with many a challenge and many a joy. In this my new life I also met some bodies in the official administration.  I had to handle some bodies in the municipality thar had not affected me in the same way before…..such as the tax body… that was new and not familiar…… When I was finishing the more complicated tax form, I got some thoughts about this official room of which we all play a part in…..! These reflexions became a little text:

An account
is to count all your fortunes
You start with counting your incomes 
thereafter you count your outlays
Then you subtract all your outlays
from all your incomes
So you are left with all your blessing
of which the tax authorities know nothing about
…..they are so difficult to count….

The house at the roadside

The days between Christmas and New Years is named ‘The room- Christmas’… It is a time with tranquility and calm life…. thoughts to the future as well as to the past….. to what  w a s  …… People whom I met with alongside the road…… who set traces after them…… those who went before us and gave us some lunchpacks for the travelling….they gave us a heritage to cultivate….gave us a wealth bigger than gold coins in a chest….

There are houses at the roadside
with fire heat inside
Come in
sit down a while
put your shoes under the oven
it is cold in the hallway
Heartwarm folk
have got a chair for everyone
young ones and older
Food for the body
Food for the soul
richly poored
She knows what is needed for the day
has knowledge and understanding for the most
gives out from a well
from life and tradition
but mostly from the everlasting heart well
that overflows
and gives spirit for us all

…in deep joy and gratitude for the meeting….