Norway

I've just returned from a little trip to Norway staying in a town about an hour and half north of Oslo called Gjovik.

These lovely people Anne & Jan have a holiday home on my street in Hebden Bridge and last time they were here they wanted to buy my fabric to take home and make curtains with, but my fabric was late arriving so they weren't able to. They jokingly suggested I hand delivered it and they would show me around where they live. I decided that I would take them up on their offer!

So I went to stay in their beautiful house with their handsome boy Simba,

 this sweet girl Isobel

and their lovely friends from Trondheim, Inge-Johanna and Svanhild.

Their house overlooks the 100km long Lake Mjosa and we spent long evenings on the veranda taking in the view. This was taken at 12.30 at night. I commented on the beautiful sunset and was soon corrected...it is in fact the sun rising. It just doesn't get dark at this time of year! 

We took a trip on the Skibladner, The White Swan of Mjosa. which is the oldest Norwegian paddle steamer. 

She was quite a character. 

We chugged all the way up the lake to Lillehammer ( i just love that name)

picking up af ew extra folks on the way.

Push!!!

We visited Stenberg, an open air museum and saw lots of traditional old buildings.

Quite a contrast from our day in Oslo walking on the rooftop of the Oslo Opera House.

I haven't yet mentioned my favourite thing about Norway. The wild flowers! They were EVERYWHERE, lining every roadside, ever verge, every garden, every bit of waste land. Profuse, colourful, abundant. I have a whole blog post about them but that is for another day :)