Strawberries and Sunflower

Skogsveien 30 is progressing and becoming nicer. We have worked on the strawberry fields which look much more organised now (pictures to come). For the time being there are three rows planted, but we need to make at least three more, because there are still many strawberry plants spread out in the garden. Chris and Julia were active. I have been trimming the grass and preparing earth spaces to receive new flowers. The highlight of the planting, however, was the arrival of the sunflower. It's beautiful. I intend to plant many new ones. This was only the beginning. Check it out.

Getting Started with the Work

The allotment already has a lot of flowers, not yet blossomed, that were planted by the previous owner. Spring will show what will come out...What I intend to do now is tidy up on what is already there and add some more flowers following my personal taste and touch. The strawbery field is being taken care of by Christian, my husband. This will demand some extra work. There are lots of strawberry plants that need to be replanted. In July we hope to taste them with sugar and cream....hummmm!

Getting to know inside my cottage

Maybe there is some curiosity as to how it looks inside my cottage. Therefore I post below some pictures as the cottage is today. Hopefully it will be improved in a short while. I think of having new curtains, with colour and flowers, to macth the place and give it a happier atmosphere. A new sofa is also under consideration. What you can see below is what you get. No more, no less :)

A Sign from the Geese

Even after having decided to go ahead with the Kolonihagen project, a lot of questioning was still going on inside me. Would it be too much work? Would I have the time to dedicate to it besides all the other tasks I already have? Would I know how to handle that sort of work? Would my husband help me? Would I be able to sell it again sooner or later if I wanted to? Part of me wanted it very much and part of me had to fight with all these questions. Then, when I arrived at Skogsveien 30 last Saturday, on a bright warm and sunny day, the little cottage and the garden smiled at me in the most inviting way...I could not resist it and I embraced the project again wholeheartdly.
That same Saturday, while I was sitting in Monica Haga's garden, talking and sipping a nice glass of wine, two big geese flew right over our heads, honking their peculiar noise. I was marvelled by it. I had never seen geese flying for real, the city girl that I am. Besides, they were flying very close to us! It was then that Monica told me a couple of things I had probably heard before, but did not keep in my mind. She told me that as the geese were now returning to Norway, we could now consider spring to have officially arrived. Secondly, she told me that when the geese honk to the ones flying ahead, they do it to encourage them to continue to fly and figuratively speaking they are saying something like this: "Go on, keep flying, you can do it!" I decided to use the whole geese experience and their honks as a special message to me: Go ahead Rose, keep dreaming and keep up the good work, you can do it! ;)

Love your path. Without this, nothing makes sense!

As of today Skogsveien 30 has become a new part of our lives. With a big sigh and a whirlpool of feelings I embark on this new path: Cottage life. As if living in Norway in itself wasn't novelty enough!!!

All right, things happen for a reason and I do have a good feeling about this whole new thing. It's kind of like a surge of supressed creativity waiting for a chance to bubble up to the surface.

So I am ready to bring out the peasant girl in me and get my hands dirty. May the sun shine brightly upon Skogsveien 30 in the years to come!