Unnizone

Spring weather! Warm. Sun. Snow melts away!

Bjørn has done some tree felling over the last couple of days. Two birches needed to become firewood. He cut the trees and split the wood. I then did the stacking.

About 15 more cm. of snow is what.

We spent it doing things together. The NYT-games, Easter quizzes, dinner-making, watching TV-series.

Not only have I been awake the whole day, but until very late in the evening, the new meds took care of the pain. AND the sun was shining from a blue sky! To top it off, I even felt really energetic.

A combo I have not had in years, so I know how valuable all that is. It made me really happy and the day has been pure perfection!

I woke up at 5am (!!!), and at 6.55 am, me and Aro were 2.5 kilometers from home. looking longingly towards Bjørkelangen.

When the vet took a bloodtest of Aro, he shaved a small patch of fur of his right front leg to do so.  Of Aro's front leg, that is. The vet was fine as he was. The bare patch has annoyed Aro to no end, and he went in t a licking fenzy. Not only did he lick so much that more fur disappeared and the bare area became bigger. He also licked through the skin and got a small infection. We have tried all sorts of things to protect the spot, hoping to avoid the cone of shame. The most successful attempt was dressing him in my sweater.

After breakfast and the daily NYT games, I went in search of five things to put up for sale. I ended up making adds for these things:

Five minutes after I made the adds, the cuckoo clock was sold!

Then I did some heavy duty gardening involving carrying heavy stones. Meanwhile Bjørn was being a lumberjack, cutting down two birches. They were quite big and had lots of branches so he asked me if I could clear them away. That took quite a bit of time and energy, but it was nice contributing to our firewood production.

I had a couple of short walks with Aro, I phoned my mum and then I phoned Joanna. I carried 7 flowerpots from the shed and out to the garden - here are four of them:

In the evening I watched some episodes of "Shetland" with Bjørn while sending a few mails and making this blog entry. All in a day's work!

Had promised Aro a proper walk in the woods before April 1st comes with its ban on having dogs off-leash.  We were out for three hours and fifteen minutes, and for two thirds of the time, Aro was running around as he pleased. That of course meant a dog so muddy that he had to be showered when we came back home. But we both had a great time.

                                                                   So many trees felled by beavers!

We have so much of it.

We need to sell off things at a faster rate, there is just way too much of everything here. So I will try to pull myself together and make more adds these coming weeks.  Today this, among other things, were put up for sale:

This went on for hours, and soon the ground was all white.  This is March. I am not complaining, our Marches are usually a lot worse, weatherwise.

We had some worries, so today Aro had a thorough check up at the vet's. X-rays, blood tests, examination.  Turns out he is in very good shape for a dog who will be 12 this year.  But like us, the dog needs to lose weight. So horrified to see that our bad habits is also effecting the dog. He should lose three kilos and could lose one more.  So today is also the start of a diet for doggo, and for the rest of his life he will live a very healthy dog life. The vet took hours, and Aro had to be sedated for the X-rays. While he slept, we went to the infamous "Bakergården" for a very tasty lunch.

Then we had to go to Askim since I had to drop by work. Bjørn and Aro slept in the car while I was there. On the way home we needed to treat Aro to something after all his ordeals. We stopped by a gravel path where we have never been before, but it is one I have been a little curious about. Bjørn rested in the car while Aro and I walked for 30 minutes.

Hestehov is the first flower that pops up when spring comes. Bright as the sun, it tells us that warmer days are on their way.  At any work place in Norway this time of year, you will always hear people say they have seen the Hestehov.

Aro loves sniffing out new places

It was a great walk, the stream became a lake and I thought to myself that I would come back here and see how far the path would take me.  But then I saw some cabins in the distance. I figured I would walk to where they were and see which direction the path took before I turned and walked back. Right before the cabins, on a big metal sign nailed to a tree, were the words "SHOOTING IN PROGRESS!!!"  The sign was old, bulky and rusty and is obviously never taken down. I realized that if I took one step further I would be in Deliverance territory, so I turned and walked back to safety. The US is not the only country with rednecks.

Trying to go out in the sun, but mostly sleeping.

Since I finsihed the excellent audio book "Krakk", I have listened to a few others.  There has been a lot of hype about Sweden's new Nordic Noir queen, Sara Strömberg.  I do enjoy a good crime novel, so I embarked on her trilogy, "Skinn", "Skygger" and "Skred". I feel that three books should be enough to say I gave it an honest try. But alas, I can not see what others do. They were a little boring, and very much like every other average crime novel. Not for me, but you can't say I didn't try.

From there I went on to something very different; Arnaldur Indridason's "The King and the Clockmaker". It was my first novel by Indridason. I learned that he is known for his crime novels also, but this was something very different.  With inspiration from Icelandic history, he conjures up an original and really good story about a friendship between a mad king and a clockmaker whose father was once killed on order of the King's father. Well written and smart, I am glad I stumbled upon this one.

The next two have been the first two novels in Karin Fossum's series about Konrad Sejer; "Eva's Øye" and "Se deg ikke tilbake".   Half detective/crime, half psychological drama. Well written and altogether good.

But I have not only been listening, I have read one also.  It was a present from my brother-in-law: "The Witches of Vardø" by Anya Bergman. A story inspired by the hunting and burning of witches in the Northern town of Vardø between 1600 and 1692.  Some fact, some fiction. It was a good story, and I learned a lot along the way.