Saturday, August 20, 2011

I've bought some yarn today :)

That means my next project is in progress. It was hard to decide the color combination today, but the result looks good so far :-)

It's sort of late now. I've been in the hospital the whole night, and now I'm just not ready for going to bed. I can sleep in tomorrow morning because the kids are at a sleepover.

It's weird sitting here all by myself with nobody else in the house.
For a while I had hubby on the phone and it felt like he was here, but now he's not anymore.

Well, I'm considering going to bed... should I stay or should I go now?

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Knitting to my nephew

I've been knitting the last week.
I still have half the hat to go, and my mom is making the pants - I don't like knitting pants, but here is what I've done the last few days.

And here is a closer look at the pattern:



Monday, August 8, 2011

It's raining

Raindrops are such funny things.
They haven't feet or haven't wings.
Yet they sail through the air,
With the greatest of ease,
And dance on the street,
Wherever they please.


---------

"Splash," said a raindrop
As it fell upon my hat;
"Splash said another
As it trickled down my back.
"You are very rude," I said
As I looked up to the sky;
Then another raindrop splashed
Right into my eye!




We've been out walking and playing in the rain. It was great! Not too cold and not to warm to wear our rain suits. We had to pick some of the tempting raspberries and blueberries. They were so tasty and very fresh, covered in raindrops.


Saturday, August 6, 2011

Pictures from our hike

Mostly these pictures are shots the kids did with our kid friendly not so good, but very funny little camera.
Here we go.
Checking out the view.



Stacked stone cairns are everywhere. They are used to mark the hiking trails. On one of the mountain peaks we found this one.
Passing rivers and creeks is more the rule than the exception.

A little hero on her way uphills.

Before we entered the (Dørålsglupen) rough rocky passage.

Mom is having a rest

Another viewpoint.

A last glance at the beautiful landscape for this time:

Thursday, August 4, 2011

48 km or 30 miles in Rondane Mountains

On the map you can find all the cabins we visited.

That is what we have been doing the last days.
First we drove to Grimsdalshytta, parked the car and pitched our tent on Monday.

The kids threw rocks in the water and A fell in and got all wet - a good start.

But luckily there was this hatch outside the diesel generator house and his shoes, socks and pants were all dry within a couple of hours.


The next morning we cooked our oat porridge and loaded our backpacks for a three days hiking trip.

The first goal we set to Dørålseter 22 km (13,5 miles) uphills, downhills, uphills again and downhills again. We went through a rough passage called Dørålsglupen.

The maps from the Norwegian Trekking Association says it is a 6 hours effective walk for adults. We used 9 hours including cooking and pauses. The kids were only complaining every time we asked for a rest ;-)

We came to the cabin and had a great dinner there before we jumped in bed, tired but happy.
Next morning we planned to go to Haverdalsæter. The hike is estimated to approximately 5 hours, and we have to walk back trough Dørålsglupen again before we walk along the river the last part of the trail.
Yet again we started the ascent and then the jumping from rock to rock, passing the snow and descending on slippery ground to the Haver valley. We got our shoes soaked several times on this trip and we saw lots of living and lots of dead lemmings, some of them very angry :) We used 7 hours for this trip and from we cooked and the rest of the hike, we had some showers of rain.
At Haverdalsæter we also came for dinner. Very tasty and delicious!
We met another family with kids the same age as ours, and they played together a while before bedtime.
The very last morning we headed back to Grimsdalshytta (where we parked). A very nice, and quite short hike. Not too challenging. The kids even had to run an extra peak to make it a bit more of a real hike :)

3 hours it says on the map. We stopped for a swim (kids swim) in a cold mountain lake and for a lunch, but we did not cook. 5 hours in total.

At the very end of the trail the rain surprised us, and we all got soaked within a couple of minutes.

48 kilometers (30 miles) in three days for a 6 year old, two nine year olds and two grown ups isn't too bad :)

The 6 year old said this before the rain started today: "The mountains are beautiful, and hiking is much more fun than I thought."


There will probably be some more pics - we have another camera (still in the car) with pics the kids have taken.