Stumped.

This rather impressive house number appeared on one of my routes to work a matter of days ago. Apparently the home owner decided to do something different with her cherry tree stump and called in a local chainsaw carving firm to work their magic. Plus there's absolutely no way you could miss their place now either. It's pretty massive.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I am due to be another year older and I suspect once again not another year wiser!

Arilx

The Folk Museum

As threatened....we are back in Norway today. This is the massive open air Folk Museum which sits on the outskirts of Oslo [the exclusive part where the monied folks dwell!]. Not too much talking...just a sample of pictures. Enjoyed it immensely.  Despite the size of the site many of the buildings are not open to view inside so it doesn't take as long to get round as we initially thought. Phew!

This is a typical Scandinavian stave church. They're made entirely from wood and most remaining examples are in Norway. This one dates from 1200 with some renovations. It was very dark inside and a devil to get photos of. There were a whole row of these fairly crude heads carved from long posts with the detail burnt on right up high. The paintings near the altar were magnificent.

Examples of the farm buildings and store rooms which saw me beginning to lose the will to live eventually...there were so many of a very similar ilk!

Shots of traditional painted furniture and interiors. They put me in mind a bit of our barge ware painted furnishings.

This type of motif is called kroting. It's a mixture of chalk or sour milk and water and was painted on by the women at Christmas, Midsummer and for weddings. Eventually paint was used instead to make it permanent.

Decoration was not just restricted to within the houses. The grander ones have carvings on the outside, doors and shutters.

I had to ask the room guide what this thing was. A coffee grinder apparently. The carved horse roller was used to smooth linen.

Towards the end of the route the museum has a street of more modern places. A couple more to end the tour...by this time our feet were aching [we'd been to the Viking Ship museum in the morning] and we were more than ready for a breather!

Arilx

Not quite Madame Tussauds!

I've still got some Norwegian photos to share, but am currently twonking about and not getting on with editing them so please bear with me as I skip forwards and backwards in time over the next few days!

Meanwhile we had a lovely sunny day for our silver wedding anniversary and as ever Mr GBT willingly went along with another of my hare brained ideas. I think he quite liked this one though....800 years of history depicted in teasel head figures inside Chidham Church. I know not why, but it's genius. A few to amuse.

They very much appealed to my sense of humour.

Arilx

A Quarter of a Century Ago....

.... I went from being Miss to Mrs. That's what the Oslo trip was in aid of. Am not entirely sure where the time has gone😍

Arilx

Washing my dirty laundry in public.

I am literally divulging details of my dirty washing on the blog, but I shall be restrained and only talk of matters pertaining to my recent purchase of the Ecozone ecoball. Indeed I have gone wild and I dug my short arms into my long pockets and invested £18 into one of these.

The initial outlay seems quite steep, but several people had recommended it and the feedback was that they last up for absolutely ages [they don't keep your whites absolutely pristine, but that's not that important to me] and in the long run it's going to save me more. Mr GBT was highly sceptical when it came [I kept its arrival as a surprise for precisely that reason], but in the three weeks we've been using it he's admitted that he hasn't noticed any changes. The changeover has been very straightforward and my washing smells clean. I have bought a small box of washing powder to keep in case of emergencies.

If sometimes you feel like your actions are such a drop in the ocean and why keep ploughing on this article might encourage you https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/mental-health/5-ways-small-actions-have-huge-power-20180910

Arilx 

Friday Night Fare

For many Friday night is takeaway night. It marks the end of the working week and the beginning of the weekend. It's an occasional treat here at GBT, but I think this A board I saw recently would tempt me in if I was wondering which to choose on its wit alone!

It will come as no surprise to find that I saw it in Norway. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Arilx

Hardly A Matter of Life and Death!

A little break from the Oslo posts as am a bit short on time and we're away working again at the end of the week. A small tale from GBT instead.

TYM is not a great fan of packing and one thing which gets him chuntering is having to pack all sorts of different stuff for uni. Limited space in the car meant he had to make choices and some items had to be removed.

A couple of days prior to us making the trip I came in from work to hear him muttering crossly to himself in his room and saying how much he hated it. Generally I try not to be an interfering Mother, but following on from a couple of slightly difficult days for him I just called out to check he was all right.

Beaming [he's a smiley chap] he opened his door and confirmed everything was fine. So the cause of all this angst?

The much loathed festive jumper he bought last year for various related uni events and whether he should take it back with him. My advice was that he could leave it behind, but I suspect he'd find he needs it again and if it stays here at GBT then he's going to end up with two naff festive jumpers he hates instead of just the one! He's taken it with him🎄🎅!

Arilx

The Bonkers Bits

Go on indulge me....you knew I was going to be keeping my eyes peeled for all the bonkers stuff in Oslo didn't you! Just a small selection of what I spotted.....

It's not everyday you come across a depiction of a woman's inner workings displayed on a wall as a piece of art work is it now?!!

Perhaps you might prefer a troll....I saw lots of variations of these and am frankly about as keen on them as the garden gnome. Simply not my taste that's all, but quite amusing.

I saw the sign first and when I went to investigate further I discovered that this used to be a carpark. In an attempt to highlight climate change and encourage walking you can now play your own music by plugging your phone into the converted parking meter. People dance in the space.

Speaking of parking....there were a whole series of painted spaces. I like the idea of adding a splash of fun to something utterly functional and mundane.

Some bite their nails....this strange beast is apparently biting its leg. [St Edmund's, Anglican Church]

Why pray are there graffiti teeth on this bridge.....answers on a postcard please.

Now I may have seen a greenman or three in my time on this planet, but never something along these lines. These two look like they've stepped straight from the pages of a Grimm's fairytale.

In this case it looks very much like the street artist looked at the blank wall and thought ..."ah well might as well incorporate the original features!"

Enough I hear you all cry...next time I shall aim for a more grown up post.

Arilx

Giving the game away.

I think this one photo alone shows what I've been up to. Last year a friend shared some photos on FB of her holiday and in that moment I realised just how much I wanted to see the Viking ships in Norway for myself. It's a bit like when we went to Orkney....we save and save so we can occasionally splurge on a really special occasion. We've got a celebration coming up later this month and this was our way of marking it.

The Tune Ship displayed as it came out of the ground. Due to the poor archaeological techniques employed at the time it suffered a great deal of damage and the grave goods disappeared.

This is Gokstad ship. Inside it was found a male skeleton. The body of the deceased was placed inside one of these triangular burial chambers along with all the goods they would need for the after life. The structure was built in the centre of the vessel before the entire thing was interred beneath a burial mound. Unfortunately we'll never know what the original contents were as the grave robbers had done their worst several centuries ago.

Finally the star of the show....The Oseberg Ship with its magnificent carvings and grave goods. It's difficult to see the detail of the prow carving so I've added in the detailed copy.

The women buried within it must have been extremely important in the Viking society of the day if the quality and quantity of their grave goods is anything to go by. They were well prepared with everything from cooking equipment to boots and even the leather horse's saddle has survived. So much exquisite detail on the exhibits it was difficult to choose which ones to show [plus they were devilishly difficult to photograph behind the glass]. However, I've plumped for the cart [I've definitely seen this a few times on various programmes] and one of the animal heads [there are three more on display]. 

The whole experience exceeded my expectations by a country mile....just absolutely incredible. At nearly 52 I was so excited that I struggled to get to sleep that night!!

There are more tales to be told of my time in Oslo.

Arilx

Diving in.

Hello! You know what it's like when you've seen loads in a very short space of time and it seems like you've been away forever? I'm going through that right now! My brain needs a little time to process and sort the experiences I've had before I can sift out the bits I want to blog about, so please bear with me. It's been amazing though. Whilst I trundle through photos and get myself back into the groove, let me leave you with this lot who were suspended down the bridge cables when we crossed the river.

Arilx