We were up early on Friday
to get to Stansted airport by 8.30 as we were visiting Marie’s parents for the
first time and they had kindly invited us to stay with them in Tonsberg in Norway. On the way to the airport we stopped off at
Wendover to pick up a couple of months’ worth of post from Ann, Karen’s mum.
We flew into Oslo on the
way out so that we could spend Friday with Matt and Marie who live in the
city. It was unseasonably warm and we
had our first barbecue of the year at a lake near them. They went for a swim but Karen and I weren’t
so foolhardy – the lake hadn’t thawed out from winter until four weeks ago.
On Saturday morning we had
train journey of an hour or so down to Tonsberg and were met at the station by
Steinar, Marie’s dad. He gave us a tour
of the town showing us its boatbuilding heritage etc. and then took us home for
lunch. It was such a gorgeous day that
we all went out in their boat for the afternoon for a trip around the islands.
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Leaving their bay
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The boat – a bit like home
from home really
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The daffodils were in full
bloom and the tree blossom had only just started so I suppose their spring is about
four weeks behind ours. As it was the
first really warm day of the year it seemed everybody was out on their boats
for the day. It was a pleasant change
cruising out in the fjords rather than narrow canals and Steinar had a great
knowledge of the history of the places we went past.
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Beautiful blue sky...
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…and to the front
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Marie’s mum, Anne Mari,
and their dog Casper
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Casper was quite a
character and one of its party pieces was to howl/sing when the piano was
played. They had found that he only
reacted like this when the tune played was in A minor.
It was still warm in the
evening so it was perfect for another barbecue and we sat outside on the roof terrace.
The weather had completely
changed by Sunday morning; it was drizzling and the temperature had more than
halved from the mid 20s to about 10 degrees.
Anne Mari had got up first and raised the Norwegian flag in the garden
as an honour to having guests!
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Flag raised in our honour
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Looking across to where we
had stayed
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When we got home we
realised that it must have been another dry and sunny weekend in England as
many of our plants had wilted but at least it meant the solar panels had kept
the batteries topped up and the fridge and freezer had kept going.
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Sweet peas now planted out
– it’ll only be a few weeks before longer sticks are required
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