the baby times

Hundreds of new neighbors

West Vancouver

Horseshoe Bay

Point Atkinson, Lighthouse Park

the john

There is an intense blue light in every public toilet in Førde. So crack addicts cannot find their veins.

Mind the gum paper on the floor.... A good picture
has a

VIRKELIGHETSDETALJ

("A reality detalj"? touch of reality?)

Anyway... a random item telling you "this is not fake."

our local cafes

Mediterranean colors

...

Scandinavian surroundings

booktown

In Fjærland you can buy books everywhere.

www.bokbyen.no/en

campaign trail

next Prime Minister...?

Iggy visits Vancouver Kingsway riding for town hall meeting in lead-up to the federal election next week.  Still not sure how I feel about the guy, but Harper definitely needs the boot!

fashion

Clothes should have smashing colors this year

light showers

the air is fresh and the birds are singing

and through the windows you hear sudden cheers or groans from Canucks fans.....

sun

Laurel Street

lots of sun this past week and even some warmth today....  tomorrow that will end

Douglas Park

...

Morning light through the door slit.

mikkel the kid

Mikkel went to a party in the mountain. But as he is too old for this, I picked him up in the middle of the night. Back home, talking and having a late supper in the early hours is always nice. 04:19 as I write this. Still dark. Morning will break in an hour or two.

Maybe, I will wait for the light, now, as I am this far.

my plum tree

My plum tree gets flowers before leaves. At one point it looks like one big white cloud.

night

Sky is clear, moon is full. Lights are on in the rectory.

The huge tree leaning over, is a walnut tree. The other massive ones are also tropical trees. Together they make an arboretum.

påske

Quietly celebrating Mikkel is back home.

And so is the dog. We picked him up in Bergen, and after a couple of hours in filthy cafes and crowded malls, I was glad to go back home.

I let the dog out in the open fields and realized long wool underwear and skiing pants are no longer necessary.

8 degrees, rain and intense bird song this evening.

wild flowers

blue-eyed grass

Dichelostemma capitatum Bluedicks

Outlook Trail, Sonoma Valley                                

vildanden

Just threw the camera in the air, sort of, when I saw the ducks leaving the ground.

A perfect blind shot.

They are Mallards, or wild ducks, according to Wikipedia :)

Same as the injured bird in the attic in Henrik Ibsen's play, The Wild Duck.

a little further down the coast....

      took flight on the weekend....  

hawk

vineyard and wild flowers

  now I'm back......

and it's as if I never left.  Rain.

vår

Life has moved outdoor

Even at night, when R came, we made a small fire outside. Just for the eyes to rest on the flames.

matja

Dog smells of dirt and mud and melting water.

Sleeping beside me now, happy and exhausted. From time to time her body is shaking as she dreams.

I am close to fainting too.

Lissa is probably stumbling through the doors right now, starting on her weekend, nine hours behind us.

Lissa says:  Actually... I was packing my bags...

prose

Keeping the eggs off the floor

02:22

I sleep in the attic and I love heavy rain. The drops drumming on the roof all through the night.

Snow is melting rapidly and water will dammed up everywhere.

Too late of course, and the dog and I are blogging from bed.

herman & henja

One glass of red wine at Herman last night

And a chat with the ancient creatures at Henja, on my way down to pick up the car this morning.

more flowers

lovely flowering Japanese Apricot

my favourite of the early bloomers... Magnolia

Stachyurus praecox, also native to Japan 

http://www.vandusengarden.org/

a very local moment

Awake too late, veranda door open, listening to the water from a million brooks and small rivers, and the waves hitting the shore a hundred meters below.

Dog is on her chair outside, doing the same thing.

There is something promising in the humid, dark night, and the smell of earth and dirt.

Not a single car

No footsteps

A distant owl

a global moment

I slept in and got up late, and an hour later I took this picture from my veranda. Lissa was still awake in Vancouver. Anette, on the other hand, in New Zealand, was just about done with her day.

And she'd just put her watch an hour back - for winter time.

Sakura

Van Dusen Gardens during Sakura Days

"Sakura" is the Japanese word for cherry blossom.

Vancouver is known for its cherry blossoms in the spring; so is Japan.

In Japanese hanatokoba, the cherry blossom symbolizes the transience of life, something especially bittersweet in light of recent events in Japan.....

haiku entry from earlier blossom festival
at Van Dusen Gardens

One of the more popular origami designs is the crane.

There is a Japanese legend that whoever folds a 1000 cranes will have their heart's wish come true.  All over Vancouver, people are helping Japan in many ways and folding origami cranes as a gesture of support.

You can help, too:  http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000043&tid=016

or any way you can....

including attending the Sakura Days Festival at

Van Dusen Gardens: http://www.japanfairvancouver.com/

april fools

I never lock the door. After all I live in Mayberry. Sometimes I come home to letters on the kitchen table.

I better go out and look for the rabbit on my lawn.