Norsk sommer

Ah, Norwegian summer. You can't beat it! We have had glorious sunshine for the last month and I've totally forgotten about winter and embraced the fact that it never gets dark at the moment. There is plenty of fjord swimming going on here, ice cream and norwegian strawberries being scoffed and topping up of vitamin D :)

Sweden

One of the best things about where we live is that we have Sweden as our neighbour. From our house Sweden is just 70 minutes away and we make the most of it every month by making the short trip to stock up our fridge with cheaper (and better) than Norwegian goodies. It's usually just a day trip to shop but a few times a year we stay a whole weekend and explore one of my favourite countries.
This time we had a quick shopping trip to Gøteborg then drove back to Norway along the stunningly beautiful west coast, stopping off anywhere that took our fancy after staying in a lovely little B&B on the island of molløsund. Most places were closed as this time of year is usually still snow covered but we still had the most amazing weekend exploring in brilliant sunshine, eating delicious local lamb, freshly caught fish and straight from the oven kanelbullar.

A week off

I'm really hoping winter will be over soon. It's 5c today and the snow is melting rapidly and luckily it's not so cold at night so we are not getting those fun sheets of ice to kill ourselves on! yippeee
I've been off work this week and had a visit from England, a trip to Sweden and lots of sorting out at home and if I'm honest a good few hours on the sofa, fire lit and a good film. Oh, and cinnamon buns- been making lots of those bad boys and filling the freezer with them :)

It's here

The snowy season! I can't say I jumped for joy on Saturday morning when we woke up to the white stuff. I could if I knew it was going to go away in a week or two but it's now likely to stick around for at least 4 months...... groan.
I've been laid up with flu for the last 3 days and this morning I've finally managed to get myself out of bed, onto the sofa, under the duvet. It's the first time I've had flu and sweet jesus, I hope it's the last. I'm wiped out. Next year I'm getting that flu jab ;)

getting settled

Slowly getting settled in over here and getting used to waking up at 5am (ouch!) and driving an hour to work. We are loving our new house so much so the early mornings and long drive are totally worth it :)
At 4am today I was woken by the sound of howling in the distance at which point I grabbed for my phone and quickly googled wolves in the area and sure enough there have been plenty of wolf sighting nearby!

Oh, November. The worst month of the year. Every year when the clocks go back it takes me at least a month to get back into the swing of things and this year it's worse than ever. November this time has floored me! I'm in bed by 9.30 at the latest which I hate as I'm a bit of a night owl and especially because with the house move I need energy but so far I have not mustered up any therefore moving has been super slow!
We officially move in this weekend although we are still without a dishwasher, cooker and internet so neither of us are keen to move until those 3 essentials are sorted, but I'm well aware than we need to get our arse's in gear before the snow starts to fall (thankfully it's late this year)
I'm slightly sad to be saying goodbye to out little basement bunker after 3 really happy (and cheap) years although I will not miss the snow half way up the windows! Instead we have a wonderful view(see above pics) over the treetops (which seems to change every single time I look out of the window!)
The other pic is our 5 window living room (another great thing after living in the basement bunker!) which really needs a lick of paint and that hideous light removing but apart from that we are good to go :)

House peek

Little house peek for you there in the top left hand corner :)
It's not our forever house, it's our "okay we need to get on the property ladder in Norway" house.
It's further away from Oslo than we would prefer and we will now have to both commute to work (about an hour each way) but it's surrounded by aaaaaaaaaamazing forests and nature..
It's only ten minutes from our cabin and if our neighbours chopped down some trees we would have a view of the Oslofjord (which is just five minutes walk away)
It's only small but it's cute and has under floor heating and a cute little wood burner(important when it's -20c outside) and a walk- in wardrobe.
It's ours and we cannot wait to move in :)

Portgual & news

Oi Oi Oi, it's been quite some time since I checked in here. Blame Instagram. I'm much much active there than here. Must make more effort to blog!
We just got back from the most relaxing trip to Portugal which was wonderful. So nice to go back to summer just as winter is arriving in Oslo. As usual I'm not ready for the loooooooong norwegian winter-even after 3 years here I'm still not a fan of the frosty season :)
What else? Oh, yea! We bought a house!!! We will get the keys on November 1st and begin moving slowly throughout November and hopefully be settled in for our first christmas in our new home :)
We are super excited! Unfortunately we have 3 months notice on our flat to see out so the rest of the year is gonna be pretty tight paying rent and a mortgage! yikes :)

Wales

In July we had a holiday in Wales during a fantastic spell of super warm weather. Ten days of perfect sunshine. So lucky. We traveled all around North Wales stopping wherever we fancied to swim in the most amazing cool, crystal clear water.We had not planned on going on holiday this summer as we wrongly presumed (and hoped) that we would be moving house so we decided to book a cheap little National Trust cottage on Snowdonia and every day Wales surprised us with lots of hidden gems. It was a totally unexpected fantastic relaxing holiday. Go Wales! :)

Hello September

Today it really felt as though someone just switched autumn on. We had extra blankets on the bed at the cabin last night, candles were lit as the evenings begin to draw in. Leaves are slowly turning brown and crispy and I wore socks today for the first time in ages. I'm sad to say goodbye to summer.
The idea of the long, dark winter fills me with dread. Going to and from work in the dark, the heavy footwear,the bloody big thick as a duvet coat, crappy fruit and veg in the shops and 3-4 months of snow and ice. Ugh, dreading it
We had our last swim of the summer in the fjord this weekend (I'm presuming it's our last as we won't be going to the cabin for 2 weeks now and I've never had a swim so late into September but who knows? This summer has been full of surprising warm weather)
 

summer greetings

 We have practically de-camped to the cottage for the summer (hottest,sunniest summer Oslo has seen for 60 years folks!) where days are long and lazy. We have no internet and no tv. Just a radio, reading, talking, eating and swimming-heaven!

We spend the weekend relaxing at the cottage and the week being stressed about finding a house.
The house buying process here is horrrrrrrrrrrid!
You view the house when it's open for an hour with everyone else who is interested it. If you like it the bidding starts at 12 the next day and usually ends 5 hours later. You can text your bids and then you receive texts showing the bidding going up.  I thought bidding for a dress on E-bay was stressful......
God help us!!!!

Summer

Summer is in full force and we are making the most of the cottage at every opportunity. Summer in Norway is fab. Life slows down, (and in July the country closes down!) the nights are super light (and I often go to bed with daylight outside which is still weird to me) norwegian strawberries are eaten (best strawberries ever) and best of all we swim. A lot, at every opportunity. There is something about a long cold winter that makes you desperate for summer and makes you terrified about missing a single minute of it!
p.s Pic of Henrik was taken at 11.40pm as he beavered away til midnight with cottage jobs (another downfall to the long winter is that you spend a huge chunk of summer fixing things that the winter fucked up!)

I've been without my car all week after wearing out my break pads. I took the car to the garage last Tuesday and it will be ready to pick up next Tuesday. That's how they roll here in Norway. They take their sweet friggin' time and it irritates the shit out of me. I used to drop off my car in London before work,get a service and the break pads changed, pick it up after work and hand over approx 170 pounds yet here I get to wait 7 days and hand over 1100 pounds for the same job.
Our cottage makes shit like this bearable-only just!

May

Ahhhhhh, May. My birthday month and that lovely month in Norway with so many holidays that you are hardly at work. Bliss. It's also the month that summer decided to make an (better late than never) appearance here.
We took off to Brussels for 4 days for my 40th which was fantastic. We dined on mussels, pomme frite dipped in mayonaise and chugged waaaaaaay too much delicious Kriek beer. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to my thirties :)
We opened up the cottage, gave it a good old clean and enjoyed a 4 day weekend where temps reached 27c. There was much lounging,napping,reading,relaxing,planting,an attempted swim(still too cold) and bbq's.
I love Norway during the summer when winter seems ages away and the days are long and light (and I can forget that we had snow on the ground 5 weeks ago!) Bring it on, summer :)