Norway - Part 2/2

The weather kept improving in Norway, with sunny days and little to no rain. Besides spending time at home, we also explored nature around us.

I realized that my pictures are probably out of order because here the field has already been cut, and we are walking through it, instead of on the normal path through the woods.  Walking through the fields added some variation to our hikes close to Mimi and Mormor's house. 

Derek looks like a member of the Russian Mafia. The kids liked my grandmother's vintage mink coat and hat last year too.  I thought it was funny when we found reflectors safety-pinned into the pockets:-)

Derek spent a lot of time making knives and daggers and finding ways to attach them to his pants.  

Croquet was a big hit of the summer.  We played almost every day.  Some people (Mimi) played properly and would hit the ball with the narrow end of the mallet, and others (everyone else) would hit the ball with the wide end the mallet, making it much easier to navigate the course.  

The highlight of this year's Norway trip for me was picking the cloudberries!  They don't normally ripen until August, but this summer was unseasonably warm, and the berries were early!  Cloudberries grow low down and spread out in the arctic marsh.  They look kind of like yellow/orange blackberries, but don't grow on bushes.  I love to eat them with cream and sugar as a delicious treat.  The berries are tart, not particularly sweet.  We spent many afternoons hunting for cloudberries and inspecting the ones we found to determine when they would ripen and which day to come back.  When the berries ripen there is heavy competition, with many people out in the woods hunting for the treasures.  These berries we found earlier on, from an area that must get more sun than average. 

The kids thought cloudberries were ok, but nothing special.  If it were made into jam, they might be more impressed. 

Uncle Thomas exercising using Derek as dumbbells:

The kids decided it was really important that we roast marshmallows and grill some hot dogs.  Mimi worked hard starting a fire.  It is ironic that the kids don't even like burnt marshmallows.  They like to pretend to roast a marshmallow and then eat it mostly uncooked. 

We had a few days of excitement when the farmer came to cut the fields.  The farmer and his son and an employee came by six times (if I counted right) to go over the field.  The tractor first cut the field, then there was an attachment to make piles, another to build rolls of hay shaped like marshmallows, another to package the marshmallows, another to move the marshmallows, etc. 

Lydia and Derek were spying on the farmer in the tractor.  They were in a field that never gets cut.  When the tractor was there, we always made sure they were well out of the way because it never seemed like the farmer could actually see what was in front of him when driving - there was just too much for him to keep track of.  

My parents' house is just beyond this cute little trail. 

Lydia helped my dad remove a stump.  

Derek likes to shovel too, but he searches for lost treasure.  

This field is full of cloudberries that we found in my mother's 'super secret' spot.  

I think Derek is pointing at the rock as it looks like a root goblin from one of his Norwegian graphic novels - the series "Northern Lights."

A 10 minute walk from my parents was a pig pen, where many villagers joined together and they each get a pig at the end of the season.  

We went on a new hike a shortish car ride away, and it was beautiful.  There were beautiful views all around, and I hope we go again next year.  The weather was perfect too. 

Lydia started out fine and soon started feeling really sick.  She kept laying down to rest.  Eventually, we did take a short cut to the main road to end the hike early (still after 2-3 hours of hiking). To cut the hike short, we had to walk through spongy land and we kept sinking knee deep it, and finally we made it to the road where some of us waited for Mimi and Thomas to bring the cars to pick us up. 

On another hike to Tverlandet, the kids liked to wander through the stream.  They always like that hike.

Can you find Karina and Derek?

We picked at least a couple of kilograms of cloudberries on this next outing. I found it funny that when we were walking home, another hiker with empty berry containers asked where our spot was, but she never did find out exactly. 

I filtered through the cloudberries, picking out any leaves or stems.  Next my mother lightly boiled them and added sugar before freezing it for later use. 

Thomas worked hard out with the yaw, cutting down some fields that the farmer didn't bother with because of large stones.