Happy New Year to my readers!
Well, in fact Christmas and New Year have come and gone, and I am perhaps a little tardy in publishing a post on our festive season activities... but here goes.
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| Our Christmas location - Gyl, just outside Tingvoll, in Norway |
Once again we have had the privilege of spending Christmas with family in beautiful Norway, and despite some very mild and rainy conditions in our first couple of days, the weather gods eventually came good and provided us with the necessary white stuff.
We were off to a good start as we arrived in Oslo, awaiting our connecting flight. Oslo has had a huge amount of snow this winter and the picture below was taken through a window at our departure gate. For all that it's a picture of industrial buildings at an airport, I feel the image has a stark, monochrome, wintry beauty.
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| Monochrome beauty at Oslo Airport |
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| Clear skies above Kristiansund |
After a connecting flight from Oslo to Kristiansund on Norway's west coast, a 45-minute drive from the airport brought us to the tiny village of Gyl, where we have visited my cousin Marion and her family numerous times over the past 20 years.
Previous stays have been in the lovely white timber building that was Marion and Erik's home for about 25 years, and was once the local school (where indeed Marion's husband Erik was educated in his early years). However, a few years ago two elderly spinster sisters made the decision they could no longer live in the house in which they were born and had spent their entire lives. Like Erik's family, their clan has farmed in that location for about 600 years. There was no question of them putting their 170-year old home up for sale on the open market; it was in an almost original state - right down to the fact that they had no running hot water inside the house.
Marion and Erik made an offer, and they became the owners and caretakers of this piece of local history. Over the next few years plans were drawn up to build their dream home as an annexe to the existing dwelling.
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| The new house, with the original one on the right |
A lot of the building work was done by Erik himself over the course of two years, with the assistance of adults sons Jo Eirik and Jørn Henrik, as well as a contracted carpenter who lived with the family for a month or two at a time (Gyl is not a metropolis, and commuting would have been impractical). This really was a labour of love, with most of the timber coming from the family's own woodlands, and cut and shaped in their barn.
The house has a traditional turf roof, and it's an incredibly energy efficient home with lots of light, generous spaces and mod cons - all whist maintaining a rustic character to blend with the original house adjacent.
The heating system is amazing; there is a single fireplace on each of the two levels, but there are no radiators in any of the rooms. Yet the house has a constant, reliably warm temperature, even in the depths of a snowy nordic winter - achieved via the impressive piece of engineering in the photo below, a Swedish system that uses the oven to heat water which is pumped into pipes under all the flooring.
It's also connected to an electric water heater, so that if the temperature drops below a certain level (eg overnight), the heater kicks in to maintain a certain minimum level of warmth so that you're not trying heat a cold house in the morning. It also means you don't have to feed the fireplace before you go to bed.
Of course, it really helps if you have your own forests to supply the wood.
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| This Swedish heating system is a real piece of eco-friendly engineering - it heats water which is pumped into under-floor pipes throughout the house, ensuring even temperatures throughout |
Marion's a renowned cook and this new home gave her the opportunity to design the dream kitchen with seriously gigantic walk-through pantry, including enormous freezer space to hold all her preserved fruits, home-baked bread and locally caught fish.
That freezer also holds the bounty of the family's hunting pursuits. Like many Norwegians, some of my relatives enjoy hunting which of course does not really fit with my philosophy, but it's not my place to criticise. Erik and the boys are carrying on a traditional pursuit that, whilst it still involves killing animals, is a vastly more humane method of sourcing meat than heading to the supermarket for a clingfilm wrapped, styrofoam tray of intensively reared, chemical laden flesh. They are incredibly mindful of the environment, and respectful of the animals they kill. It's done with accuracy and the minimum of stress, and every part of the animal is used for something - nothing is wasted.
Whilst I'd wish for everyone to be vegetarian, vegan, or even pescetarian as an initial step, I'm more comfortable with this family's meat pursuits than most people's.
(I should add that the family is also very conscious of my sensibilities - whilst the subject of hunting is by no means 'taboo', they do limit their discussions of that topic in my presence, and take care that I am not needlessly exposed to the evidence of their activities.)
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| View of the porch from the dining room, with the fjord beyond |
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| Obviously the deer's head is not something I'd have in my own home, but as noted above, this is a family that hunts |
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| The original entry to the old house |
A new experience for Kevin was the obtaining of a Christmas tree from the family's own woodlands. Erik and Kevin travelled by tractor up the mountain (another first for Kevin) and spent a considerable time selecting the perfect specimen - apparently this is more difficult than you would imagine, as Marion has very exacting standards! Kevin was then given the honour of cutting down the chosen tree.
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| The woodlands above the house - site of the Christmas tree selection |
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| Kevin in action. No, he's not cutting down the dead-looking one |
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| Driving home in the tractor with the prize in tow |
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| Preparing the tree for its new indoor life - it needs to stand in warm water in the barn for half a day to stop the needles dropping |
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| The finished article |
As usual I found our trips to the supermarket a delightful experience. I always enjoy visiting grocery stores, no matter where I travel around the world - it's an opportunity to get a feel for what the locals buy and consume. But Norwegian stores at Christmas time are particularly filled with interesting and festive items, as noted at length in last year's Christmas post. This year was not a disappointment.
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| Don't forget to stock up on Julenisser whilst purchasing your Christmas groceries! |
Our days leading up to Christmas Eve were very leisurely - strolling around the village and surrounding forests, enjoying the neighbours' Christmas decorations and admiring local quirks.
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| Yours truly, in her natural environment - snow makes me happy |
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| Neighbourhood cabin |
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| Mailbox in Gyl - for all you Star Wars nerds |
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| Have snow boots, will travel |
Christmas Eve, as always, was a truly special day. We'd had light snowfalls over the preceding couple of days, and snow continued to fall in the morning of the 24th itself.
Everyone busied themselves with preparations for the evening event - Marion cooking, cooking, cooking. Erik and Kevin stringing up lights on the barn and the old house, to welcome guests. Neighbours dropping by all day long to present bottles of wine and chocolates, as well as things like salmon which they'd caught and smoked themselves. The menfolk of the house belatedly wrapping their Christmas gifts, literally in the last hour before the scheduled mealtime.
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| The new house under snowfall |
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| Eric (up ladder) and Kevin (supervising) - decorating the barn with Christmas lights |
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| YIKES! Erik (as 'julenisse') off to terrify the local children |
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| Tingvoll Church - constructed sometime between 1150-1200 |
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| The cemetery in Tingvoll |
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| Entrance to the sacristy at Tingvoll Church |
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| The vicarage opposite Tingvoll Church - happily situated right on Tingvoll Fjord |
Some of you have probably heard of the 'slow TV' phenomenon that was pioneered in Norway about ten years ago. In recent years this has expanded to include a 7-hour program that tracks the slow cooking of Norway's traditional Christmas Eve meal - ribbe, or slow-roasted pork ribs.
Kevin is completely fascinated by the concept of slow TV and having discovered the ribbe program last Christmas while we were in Finnmark, he was very much hoping it would be reprised this year. His hopes were fulfilled, and despite the fact that of course we don't indulge in the consumption of animal flesh, there is something very telling and pleasing about the Norwegian psyche, that they devote a television program to something like this.
Kevin particularly likes keeping an eye on the temperature reading and pondering the science of the cooking process. For myself, this program is not only about the ribs - the channel plays a continuous stream of vintage jazz / 50s / Christmas music for the entire seven hours. Consequently a lot of households have this program on in the background while they ready the house and themselves for dinner.
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| Slow TV for your viewing pleasure: the traditional Christmas meal, ribbe - 7 hours of slow roasting pork ribs |
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| Kevin can't wait for Christmas Eve dinner to be served |
As usual, on 25 December we strolled up the hill to Erik's brother's farmhouse to eat and drink copious amounts with the extended family. I am fortunate indeed to have such wonderful relatives who all welcome us warmly and provide generous hospitality.
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| Heading up the snowy (and icy!) road to Erik's brother's house |
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| Tunnels of... white - on 26 December we took a long walk up the mountain to a friend's cabin. My word, the wind! It was truly glacial and we needed every one of our thermal layers |
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| The view over Tingvoll Fjord from the mountain cabin of a friend (about 45 minutes walk from the house) |
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| Erik was pretty sure this was the footprint of a Eurasian Lynx - the print was just a bit smaller than my hand! |
So another marvellous trip to Norway, another truly beautiful Christmas. It was particularly nice to spend time with my cousin, as her mother passed away just a few months ago. Both of us were very glad to have had that memorable Christmas with my aunt in far north Norway last year.
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| Sunrise in Gyl |
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| The house in sunshine, on our day of departure |
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| The barn and house looking suitably Christmas-y, on 24 December |
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| Back home in Farnham, loaded up with Marion's homemade multesyltetøy (cloudberry jam) and store-bought strawberry and raspberry jam ...because Norwegian jam is the best in the world |
Neither of us is fussed about New Year's Eve, so that was spent quietly at home with a bottle of Prosecco - which suited us just fine.
Some of you will know that I am one of those unfortunates whose birthday falls very close to the festive period. In Australia this is a particularly negative thing for me because it's high summer. At least here in the northern hemisphere the weather is more to my liking.
This year my birthday fell on a Friday, so I made all the arrangements myself to mark the day. I travelled into London to see an exhibition of Soviet-era art at the Tate Modern, and then attended a rare screening of one of my favourite films, Love and Death on Long Island (dir. Richard Kwietniowski, 1997), at the BFI. This was followed by dinner at my favourite vegetarian restaurant in London, The Gate in Hammersmith, where Kevin joined me.
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| London looking twinkly on a cold January evening Below: Just a man under Blackfriars Bridge playing 1920s toons on a flaming tuba. As you do. |
I hadn't been to The Gate for about 18 months because (a) it's pricey, and (b) the last time we went I was disappointed to find that - like every other vegetarian dining option in the UK at that time - most of the dishes were based around dairy.
The UK seems to have been much slower than the rest of the world in embracing vegan options (which are generally my dining preference), but I'm happy to report that in the past 6-12 months there really has been a significant change - so much so that even local pubs are now offering at least a couple of vegan options, and sometimes even an entire alternative vegan menu.
My birthday dinner was one of the best of my life. I selected Miso Glazed Aubergine as a starter, moved on to Rotolo for main course (pommes dauphinoises filled with North African style vegetables and chickpeas), and we shared an incredible dessert called Dark Chocolate Snowball. All of this was 100% vegan and TO DIE FOR. Worth every penny.
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| One of the best meals of my life - the vegan wonders of The Gate restaurant in Hammersmith |
It hasn't been a very cold winter, though we have had a couple of days of light snow and a few more of sleet. While everybody else is now eagerly awaiting spring, of course I am lamenting the signs that winter is on the wane (as much as I do enjoy the spectacle of spring). All the trees are already starting to bud and snowdrops are popping up all over the place.
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| The first snowdrops have arrived in Farnham |
For now I'll enjoy the cold while I can. The memories of yet another snowy Christmas in Norway will have to sustain me, as the days grow longer and the temperatures start to rise.
Until next time,
- Maree xo
