Sunday's Psalm--Solemnity of All Saints

Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;

the world and those who dwell in it.

For he founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the rivers.

Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?

or who can stand in his holy place?

One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,

who desires not what is vain.

Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,

a reward from God his savior.

Such is the race that seeks him,

that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.

Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

from Psalm 24

Photos:  trillium, Ohanapecosh, Mt. Rainier, Washington

College Fjord, Alaska

Nenama River, Alaska

Sourdough Ridge and Mt. Rainier, Washington

Fr. Brown's Cross, Juneau, Alaska

grandson's hands

sunset, Longmire, Washington

Old Rusty Cars on a car cemetery # 8 - Båstnäs

Almost unbelievably but must be seen

It is not a Bench of the week post!

If you are up to see something really spectacular, click on the link below and take a look at this video from You Tube:

Kseniya Simonova's Amazing Sand Drawing

Your stay at the beach will never be the same.

Autumn by a Norwegian lake

Just for fun I had to copy the Title RuneE posted this morning. Not the same lake, but one of the many silent water mirrors we can find in our beautiful Norwegian nature these days.The ice has begun to cover the water surface.
The sky is completely without clouds and the low sun makes colors different from earlier.
The photos from our tour around Lake Sogn close to the geographical center of Oslo. See previous posts to get more of this lovely recreation area.

James at Newtown Area Photo has started a meme called Weekend Reflections. Post a reflection during the week-end, log on at his site - and you're on.

Sky Watch Friday--just hanging around town

I've not been out and about much in the last few weeks, but my hip pocket camera is always--well, in my hip pocket--so I stopped on the way to town one day last week when the clouds were especially brilliant.

There are fabulous skies all over the world, and we get to see many of them through the  efforts of SkyWatchers around the blogosphere. Find them here.

Please click previous post and see my ABC Wednesday post--it is very important to me. And visit again tomorrow, as I have a special reflection planned.

Autumn by a Norwegian lake

This week's reflections are from a lake that once was part of the water supply in Bergen. Now it is only used for recreational purposes.

James at Newtown Area Photo has started a meme called Weekend Reflections. Post a reflection during the week-end, log on at his site - and you're on.

I have not been able to access Blogger or indeed any Blogs through my normal ISP all day (this post add-on is via another system). The same is true for many others around the world. I will thus not be able to answer any comments, make new comments or make new posts until this has been fixed by Blogger.

The problem has now been fixed, so then it is back to normal business!

Bench of the week

For more benches - visit Rune at "Visual Norway".

Ladies here, there and everywhere

In the corner of my eye when sitting here writing this post I see my Indonesian Queen inspiring me with her graceful attitude and colorful clothing.
The Norwegian painter Kai Fjell is probably the one who most has expressed women in his artworks. The natural feminine power that cares for creation and prolonging life has been as I see it, a central force in his production.
Another artist is Olav Mosebekk who always has expressed women in his drawings and graphic works. In his last productive years he dared to call him self a painter, and went longer than before in showing the beauty of women i.e. in his book O.M. - og bakom synger Eros

I am nothing compared to these two Norwegian artists, but am very intrigued by the female body, and try often to express the beauty of women in different ways and colors. My last paintings is shown here:
More of my nude art can be found in My Gallery

Bench along the trail

When you walk along a trail you are usually glad to see a place where you can sit down, relax and enjoy whatever sight there might be to see. In this case I was walking along a trail in The Forest of Canada.

No, I have not moved away from Norway. However, in Bergen there is a forested recreational area called The Forest of Canada (Kandaskogen in Norwegian). One might imagine it looks a bit like it too - judging from the pictures I have seen, for instance on Barbara Martin's blog.

The name stems from a group of boy-scouts who in 1918 went hiking in "Canada".

I only hope the authorities in Canada take better care of their benches than we do.

Sky Watch Friday # 66

For more Sky Watch photos, visit the Sky watch site - Sky watch was Dots idea, now hosted by Sandy, Wren, Klaus, Fishing Guy, Louise and Sylvia.

Thursday Walk - Sognsvann around twice

Sometimes we move our daily exercise from the urban cobblestone streets down town to the gravel tracks around the beautiful lake "Sognsvann" where people from all part of Oslo find possibilities for recreation and exercise. Walking and jogging, in addition to bathing during summertimes, are preferred activities.
The bathing jetty is empty today and the hoarfrost shows that only dogs have left their footprints.
A glimpse of light comes through the forrest but no shortcuts are preferred because a real training session is our target.
My heading photo is also from the tour of today.

ABC Wednesday -- O is for...

O is for October

What is October to you?

Does this leaf represent October? It may if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. The other day I was looking out the window through the blinds and I thought it was snowing. The wind was blowing all the leaves off our big birch tree in the yard and they were drifting like huge snowflakes. Nights are very chill and I have to scrape frost from my windshield if I go somewhere in the morning.

October is a carnival of color.

Or maybe this represents October for you.

When our kids were growing up they did not wait till October to start thinking about their Halloween costume. But when they started asking in July or August, my answer was, any costume worth wearing can be made in the days before Halloween. It doesn't take months and I refused to think about it that early. Now, the giraffe costume took some time for the paper maiche and paint to dry. The robot took a trip or two to town for boxes and dryer vent and silver spray paint. (The arms and legs were that expandable plastic venting, Really cool effect!) But most costumes were thrown together no more than the day before from stuff around the house.

Halloween is coming this Saturday, and though where we live we don't usually see many trick or treaters, they will be out and about haunting the streets in town. I hope they have as much fun with costumes as we did. If Halloween celebrations are not common in your country, do you have a holiday when kids dress up?

All the color and fun aside, October is also a serious month.

It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

This is especially important to me because of my mother and my sister and other relatives and friends. It is important to me because I have daughters, daughters-in-law and granddaughters. It is important to me becasue I am a woman.

In the summer of 1993, both my Mother and my sister Ann were diagnosed with breast cancer. They had surgery a day apart. Mother had radiation; Ann had chemo and radiation and continued to work as well as care for many of mother and dad's needs. In January of 1995, twelve weeks after Dad died of another cancer, Mother followed him. They would have celebrated their 61st anniversary the next month.

The day of Mother's funeral my cousin Terry was in surgery. (Her mother, my Aunt Grace, had fallen to the disease two years before.) They identified four different kinds of breast cancer cells in her breast tissue.

Ann's cancer returned a few years later, and she lived with it until October of 2003 and died the day after her 48th anniversary. Terry is well, and enjoying her retirement.

Make an appointment for a mammogram.

Do a monthly breast exam.

My list of those directly affected by breast cancer grows. It includes other relatives, many friends, and many friends of my friends and relatives. I carry the names of about 75 on my hat and have quit adding names to it because there is no more room. the names are not only women, but also men who have had breast cancer.

I'm walking again. During our recent cruise, on a day at sea, my husband and I joined others for 5K in "On Deck for the Cure". (8 laps around the deck in case you wondered.)  And because the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation took place in Seattle while we were gone, I am signed up to do the walk in Arizona in two weeks.

I still desperately need more sponsors. So if you want to do something to bring an end to this disease which affects so many, please consider  clicking my shoes in the sidebar and donate five or ten or more dollars to my sponsorship.

Watch in the next couple of days for some special items I will be offering as an incentive to sponsors. I just have to get the pictures taken.

Okay, here's a bunch of links for you:

ABC Wednesday is in it's fifth season. Visit the site to see what others have found for O. Please also visit our ABC hostess Denise, who is grieving the death of her beloved pet Wilma.

For more information about the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, visit the 3-Day site.

For information about Breast Cancer and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, look here.

And if you would like to sponsor me, here are my shoes again.

Okay, I can't make the pictures into links, the links are above in the text.

O is for Ocher at Oscar Street in Oslo in October

The color is Ocher.

The street is "Oscarsgate"
behind the Royal Castle in Oslo.

The Letter on this October Wednesday ABC = O

Other O expressions is found HERE

Who'd be a writer, eh?

It's getting a bit dire, isn't it - no blog post for two weeks. The trouble is, it's been so "nose to the grindstone" that I have blow-all to say for myself. However, lest we consider me lost for words... Oh perish the thought!

So, I will say this - if any of you who are not writers ask me if you should become a writer - seeking to be published - I will say "NO!!! Run for the hills and take up knitting instead!"

Seriously, I think if I'd known what was involved in trying to become a published author, I'd never have started. But it's from the innocence of not knowing that writers are indeed born. We have a dream, we feel a book within us that we feel must be shared and off we go. JK Rowling's billions may beckon us, as may the prospect of fame. Yes, well... Of such things are dreams made.

Here's the truth - it's a long hard slog and JKR was a phenomenon, not a usual occurence.
To become a published writer - and heaven knows, I'm not there yet - yet being the operative word - you need to have:
an awful lot of tenacity,
the ability to persevere, to rewrite and rewrite again,
the hide of a rhinocerous,
the patience of a saint,
the pushiness of a... well a pushmepullyou-thing,
and a determination that goes beyond the bounds of what is rational for Joe and Josephine Soap.

I'm quite convinced, at this stage, that becoming a rocket scientist is easier than becoming a published author.

But here's the thing - if this is what you want to do, if this is what you have to do - then you do it. You write, you edit, you rewrite, you ask for critiques from fellow writers, you support your fellow writers (okay, if you like you could go off and lurk in a lonely garret with a mangy mouse and some green cheese), but you work at it, you learn, you grow, you rewrite some more, you network, you enquire, you attend conferences and read books on writing and then you rewrite again. You may put aside one manuscript unfinished and start another. You may finish three manuscripts and realise they're all rubbish and move onto the fourth. But this is part of the journey and you just keep going, and going, and going.

And that, let me tell you, is just the start...

Those writers who are published or about to be published will tell you that getting the publishing deal doesn't mean it stops there - no, that's just the end of the beginning and still a long way from any sort of end.

So now, hands up all those who want to be writers? Hey?! Where'd you all go?!

I'm working on developing a thick hide...

O is for Otter

Wikipedia has this to say about otter:

Otters are semi-aquatic (or in one case aquatic) fish-eating mammals. The otter subfamily Lutrinae forms part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, polecats, badgers, as well as others. With thirteen species in seven genera, otters have an almost worldwide distribution. They mainly eat aquatic animals, predominantly fish and shellfish, but also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals.

The word otter derives from the Old English word otor or oter. This and cognate words in other Indo-European languages ultimately stem from a root which also gave rise to the English words water.^[1]

Some of you might like to know that Oter, which is mentioned above, is also the current Norwegian name for this very animal.


Today's post is an entry in the FIFTH round of ABC Wednesday, the meme initiated by Denise Nesbitt.

For more, you can log on via the MckLinky enabled site

Swine flu and Seasonal flu jab received

Seasonal flu immunisation, or the Flu jab, is the injection of a vaccine against flu. It gives good protection from flu that lasts for one year. The flu vaccines currently available give 70-80% protection against infection, with flu virus strains closely matching those in the vaccine.
The seasonal flu vaccine will not protect you from Swine flu. Some people will be at high risk from both types of flu. They will need both jabs.

I have taken the Seasonal flu jab for some years and got my annual doses earlier today.
I also got my Swine flu vaccination as one of the priority groups.

The vaccination programme has now begun in many countries, and in Norway the Administration has opened a dedicated website Pandemi.no describing important information about the Swine Flu challenges.

Reflections - Breidalsvatnet - Oppland

Kjell Holm is dead

I am sitting here writing a blog-post about the spectacular exhibition of works by the Norvegian artists Terje Fagermo and Edward Munch that will take place in the London gallery Robert Sandelson, late this week.(invited vernissage on October 31.)

Then a sad message could be read in the local newspaper: Sunmørsposten.

"Kjell Holm died last Sunday during a holiday at Malta at the age of 90."

Kjell Holm moved to Switzerland in the 1960s, where he later has been settled. He has also lived in the United States, but has always maintained good contact with his native city.

It was through the "Foundation Kjell Holm" that he shared his wealth and capital with his old fellow citizens of Ålesund. Of the many gifts Kjell Holm has given Ålesund city over the years, are the stained glass windows in Volsdalen church - given by Kjell Holm personally - maybe the most eye-catching.

I did not know Kjell Holm personally, but had the opportunity to meet him, talk and listen to him three years ago when he opened his Sandbu Mansion for us in August, 2006.

Some of Terje Fagermo´s first paintings are on walls at Sandbu and I know the importance Kjell Holm has had in Terje´s development as an artist.
Sandbu received the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage in 2002 and the beauty of this "farm" will be a once in the lifetime experience for all of us visiting. (Kjell Holm third from left)
On behalf of us all, Thanks.