Look what‘s out today @GingerAntics ! I wonder if I can remember what has been happening.
Just now unpacking from our trip. I had a few crafty items waiting for me so I am just now opening them too. I am so excited!! Who loves to scrapbook about their trips?
Today‘s free crime fiction deal on Amazon et al
Good gosh I‘m not back even a day from vacation and here I am buying ebooks from the BookBub deals! I liked this author‘s This Side of Innocence when I read it as a teenager, which she wrote in the 1940s. Looks like she wrote this one in 1978...she had a long and prolific career. It looked good so thought I‘d see if I still like her writing
Ahhh, the pleasure of unpacking souvenirs. The top puzzle of Trondheim was a gift from family, and the bottom one of Bergen was a purchase. Cannot wait to build them!!!
We are home now. Flying home is the worst; no designated time for sleeping over the ocean, and going thru US Customs takes forever! We were awake well over 24 hours by the time we got home—so exhausted, and despite taking two types of meds I got motion sick toward the end of the last leg. Our cat was desperately happy to see us as were we to see her. I will miss posting my beautiful photos here. Thanks Littens for sharing our trip with me. ❤️
This debut novel is full of illogical (see highlight above) and too perfect (the MC has a perfect husband and teenage boys) scenarios. That someone looks stunning on the day of her father‘s funeral seems completely irrelevant The chapter continues similarly-her husband “handsome as ever”. I would have bailed into chapter 1 except I need an easy read for my insomnia. Unless it makes a major change for the better, I can‘t recommend it.
My family (not me) hiked the top of three of the seven mountains around Bergen yesterday. It was rugged, exhausting, and beautiful.
Moose burger anyone? Reindeer? Whale? Ahhh, Norway....
Bergen Harbor today. You can see a small cruise ship in the distance center-right. Bergen attracts enormous cruise ships (dwarfing the one you see here), I‘m told sometimes three at a time. There was one such enormous cruise ship in the harbor when we arrived in Bergen, and the crowds to match. Today is much nicer.
I have countless Hardanger books & patterns (many inherited from my husband‘s grandmother), but this book is by far the best I‘ve ever seen. It covers the history of the technique (the photo here is from the area we drove thru to go to the Hardanger museum in Utne), countless photos from that museum, & brilliant instructions starting from left or right. Brilliant. Detailed with countless diagrams. And a sleeve with patterns. I ❤️❤️ this book!
Sights around Bergen, Norway today.
In the 1470s, William Caxton had a profound effect on the English language standardizing words across regions, but leading to the most unusual results we question today. This is the best (most fascinating) chapter of the book by far.
@brit91 This was my little Midnight six years ago (with her fave toy at the time, a shoestring). Missing her so much on vacation. Do you see why your little dumpling has hit me in the feels? ❤️❤️❤️
It paid off going into those Norwegian bookstores! Look what I got!!
My son and I played the Viking game 3 times. The king always won. We will have to play some more to figure out how the attackers win. The rules to the game are from somewhere between the 9th and 10th centuries. Remnants of this game have been found from Ireland to the Ukraine. It‘s addictive.
Some Trump humor here in Norway: on the left, the Norwegian cover of Luke Harding‘s book and the advertising on the right speaks for itself.
Even when I don‘t read the language I end up in bookstores! Granted, there is a tiny section of English-language books. Does anyone else do that?
My first selfie from the trip. This is behind the Steinsdalsfossen waterfall in Norheimsund on the way to Bergen.
@howjessreads #friyayintro
1. Traveling a lengthy stretch of Norway: Trondheim to Bergen
2. Am I obligated to say Norway since it‘s my 9th trip here? I ❤️ seeing family. Not fond of international travel. In the states, my fave vacation was in the Jamestown-Yorktown-Williamsburg area of Virginia
3. Neither (pecan or chocolate)
4. Yes! Seeing more family in Bergen and possibly sailing with them along the Norwegian coastline 🇳🇴 ⛵️
5. Ok
This is the bookmark I plan to start with. If anyone wants to give it a try I can send you the correct size cloth (I have a lot of extra) when I get home and instructions for the correct type of thread and needle. You also need the small very sharp scissors. Just let me know in the comments and we can exchange emails. @AnneCecilie @writerlibrarian @ljuliel Anyone else?
@ljuliel Here‘s another page showing some of the stitches. The top example shows how to do the cutting of threads.
@ljuliel This is a picture of a Hardanger pattern. It is sort of like counted cross-stitch on large pieces of special material. The empty squares are where threads of the material are snipped using very sharp scissors like those pictured and pulled out (called cutwork). The stitches have to be precise to do this so the whole thing doesn‘t unravel. So where it looks like pieces are joined, this is actually where a lot of cutwork has been done.
This is a Hardanger embroidery pattern book I bought today, along with some Hardanger kits. I really do hope to get back to it.
Who wants to be reading with me sitting here by the Hardanger fjord? 🇳🇴❤️🇳🇴❤️
It‘s the girls‘ shopping/resting day in Norheimsund (the boys are hiking a nearby mountain). So we‘ve finished shopping and are now relaxing by the fjord outside our hotel (pictured). I‘ve book in hand ready to spend the afternoon reading on this gorgeous day.
pick
1. Homemade corned beef hash with an over-easy egg on top
2. We have a Magic Time Machine restaurant with themed rooms, like the arctic or jungle. You have to dress for anything since you don‘t know if you‘ll be freezing or hot...
3. Yes if no one is around and sometimes even if they are
4. Norwegian Freia chocolate with whole hazelnuts
5. @julesG @8little_paws @GingerAntics @Bookzombie
@Eggs #wondrouswednesday
This was today‘s outing in a town called Utne, on what was probably the scariest road I‘ve been on in Norway. So many blind turns on the edges of mountains with one-lane roads. Fortunately there weren‘t that many cars on the road with us. This museum had the history of Hardanger embroidery (cutwork Norwegian embroidery my husband‘s grandmother taught me about 25 years ago) and Hardanger fiddles from the 1600s.
This is what 3:45 am (I have insomnia here too) in the morning looks like on the Hardanger Fjord in Norway. It looks about the same as photos I took at 11 am yesterday.
We spent the afternoon with my husband‘s dad and stepmom who have a cabin on the side of a mountain near Norheimsund. I told his stepmom I was reading Len Deighton‘s XPD and she gave me this trilogy off their amazing shelves of books.
We drove by the Hopperstad Stave Church in Vik on the way to Norheimsund today. According to my handy stave church book, it was built in the mid-1100s and restored in the late 1800s.
What a hilarious description of the maitre d of a posh private club. I can actually picture this guy!
These are the pages of the book journal from Moleskin in which I am recording my #litsyatoz reads, as well as my #nonfiction2019 reads. Sometimes I record more information than others. The previous pages I posted for #Litsyatoz are the index pages to this journal. I hope this helps you all who asked or wondered about this cool book in which I‘m recording the books I read.
The panoramic view of Sognefjord from our hotel in Balestrand. It was a beautiful but very long drive from Ålesund. We encountered everything one can imagine in Norway slowing us down: one car road in which a bus and a gravel truck-trailer met and neither could pass the other (lots of backing up), sheep in the road (multiple times), tunnel under construction (scary), road under construction, cyclists going up/down one car roads (slow)... so tired!
The panoramic view of Sognefjord from our hotel in Balestrand. It was a beautiful but very long drive from Ålesund. We encountered everything one can imagine in Norway slowing us down: one car road in which a bus and a gravel truck-trailer met and neither could pass the other (lots of backing up), sheep in the road (multiple times), tunnel under construction (scary), road under construction, cyclists going up/down one car roads (slow)... so tired!
Happy to add this book for #letterO in my #litsyatoz records. Three books to go, two of which I‘m reading now.
Sights from Ålesund today: downtown, Viking ship, and from the outdoor museum, a house from the 1850s and other buildings.
pickThis story is told from the perspective of a newly adopted girl in WWII and the same person when she is 80-something living at Salt Winds. It‘s a somewhat slow, moody read about a tragedy the girl witnessed and its affect on her as she nears death, but its well written and good enough to keep your interest to the end. She‘s a flawed character making bad decisions at both ages, which is frustrating but necessary to the story. 3-1/2 stars
Our view from our Airbnb in Alesund at 10:30 pm last night. The sunlit mountain opposite us was beautiful.
We are now in Alesund, Norway via the Atlantic Ocean Rd., which is supposed to make its debut in the upcoming James Bond movie. Apparently in the winter it is one of the most dangerous roads in the world because the Atlantic Ocean is smashing waves across it.
Intriguing prologue to my next book for the #letterY in #litsyatoz
Sights around Trondheim yesterday. Husband and son went kayaking on the river around the city center (the first photo is not them, but made me think of them) and had a marvelous time despite it being cold and rainy. This is daughter and husband looking toward Nidaros Cathedral. And oh how I‘ve always loved the abundance of flowers here in Norway. On the road to Alesund today. Much of the rain should be over (please!).
Love this description of snow.
“It‘s started snowing again. It‘s too dark to see anything through the indigo window—and anyway their reflections are in the way—but Virginia senses it all the same. There‘s a prickly silence that comes with snowfall, and it‘s more than just absence of sound. It‘s heavy. If you put that silence on the kitchen scales, they‘d tilt with a loud clang.”
How gorgeous is this cover in the Norwegian version?
How do you like the knife sticking out of this book? Nice gimmick. This would be the original language version of this book because Nesbo is Norwegian.
Our light block-out shade as a few “leaks” so the sun that never goes down here in the summer alights the bedroom In our Airbnb where we are trying to sleep. The sun sinks a little sometime after midnight and a few minutes ago (4 a.m.) it rose again causing our bedroom to light up even more. And it woke me up!
How come I can nap during the day without the shade but the daylight affects me so much at night?
Arg! My kingdom for a dark bedroom.
