What is so rare as....

          The old saying is "What is so rare as a day in June?"  It's June like weather but that's nor the rare of the title. "What is so rare as company in The Little House?"  Yes, two days of fun and activity where it's normally just Kaia and I.  Lars family is here for a rare visit!😀  Eleven family members will gather for dinner tonight. Lars and Lisa always want to see uncles, aunts and cousins when they come. Gathering most of them for dinner tonight gives that opportunity. A good  time will be held by all and Al, too.

Takk for alt,

Al

                A girl mesmerized by a street performer in Amsterdam.

Modern Convenience

         It's hard to over imagine the gap between my elementary education with eight years in a one room schoolhouse and today's technology at my fingertips. The book I'm currently reading was written a hundred years ago. The period the novel describes is in the fourteenth century. Consequently, there is much archaic vocabulary. With my handy smart phone by my side I Google the words I don't know. For example the book never uses the word 'believe' using in its place the antique 'trow'. Obviously elementary school offered no computer classes.

      We did get The Weekly Reader every week at school bringing us news of the wider world. One article from the Reader sticks in my mind. The gist of that article was that there was a new substance which was so significant it would transform our lives. Any guesses about what was being described? Plastic! Truly plastic has transformed our lives for good and ill.

Takk for alt,

Al

              This school picture was taken when I was in third grade.                              These thirteen came from five families.

Half Done!

 

       In 1959 Ed and I were about half through Marine Boot Camp in mid-October.  During my enlistment I wrote home to my parents every week. My Mother kept all my letters and eventually gave them to me. When I back at the OFH this winter I'll see if I can find them.  It would be interesting to see what I wrote about Boot Camp. Given that I was writing to my parents I likely didn't hype the challenges. I've never looked at them since mailing in airmail envelopes. Remember them?

Takk for alt,

Al

  

It's late!

      Last night there was a very light frost in low lying areas. Predictions are for lower temperatures tonight, though not likely a killing frost. Farmers worry about frost in September before crops mature. This mid-October first frost is very late.

     It's very dry, it's been weeks since the last rain. It's so dry that some farmers are eschewing fall tillage because the dry soil is hard on equipment. A local electrician reports finding no moisture when digging for electrical work. I've given both my evergreen tree and lilac bush a good drink.

   Weather talk is the resort when the writer lacks original thought.😀

Takk for alt,

Al

Today's random photo is in the Opera House in Budapest. Hungary. 

Who needs periods?

      Who needs periods? Not  Norwegian Jon Fosse who wrote 670 page Septology without one. Fosse, the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for literature apparently has been writing in that style for years. It matters little reading his stream of consciousness books. Michele lent my his Aliss At The Fire, first published in 2004, and also written without a period... it doesn't matter.

    Unlike Septology, which now may be my favorite book ever, replacing Suskao Endo's Silence, is brief, at only 107 pages. One sitting was enough to complete it. Should one want to tackle reading Fosse before attempting Septology, which I read twice for benefit, either Aliss or The Shining are brief books. Perhaps The Shining is the better of the two.

    In 2002 Aliss still waits for her husband to return from boating on the fjord in 1979. While she waits family history is played out in her imagination. It was an eerie read because a friend in Norway, Knut's, brother was lost in similar circumstances. It's a very thought provoking book which will ruminate in my mind for a ling time.

    I recommend it and reading Jon Fosse.

Takk for alt,

Al 

Finally....

        By nature I'm a very linear person. Typically I read one book at a time, unlike others who have several books going simultaneously.  However, I started a lengthy book but was moved also to read Sigrid Unset's Kristen Lavransdatter I: The Bridal Wreath. Naively thinking it was a single book, and not a trilogy, I first bought the second book. When I discovered my mistake it made me even more keen to read book One.  Unset received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928, and this book passes the test of time.

     The books tell the story of a rich woman's life in thirteenth century Norway. While many of the customs are unfamiliar the human emotions and personal foibles are not. The book has been in continuous print since its first publication testifying to its enduring appeal. 

    Kristin is raised in a Norwegian manor house. It was personally intriguing to me becasue in our travels in Norway Joanne and I stayed in a manor house near Opdal, Norway. Our hosts were her second cousin and wife. Many of the place names in the book were also familiar from our travels in the country. 

      Reading Kristen engaged me from the outset and became even more compelling.  Fortunately I have volume two so I can read on. These are books I'm finally reading that should have been read long ago.

Takk for alt,

Al

PS In the time in which the book is set daughters were clearly the property of their fathers until they were married. Even in our day there was vestige of this is in the wedding ceremonies when thee question was asked "Who gives this woman to this man?" 

Time for reinforcements!

        More digging has revealed the scope of the rock. (see yesterday's blog) It's dome shaped and digging has revealed that it's more than a rock, it's a boulder! With a surface of about four feet across it is clear I'm not going to get it out of the ground. The next step is conversation with the farmer who hays the land to see if he has an excavator. 

      Recovering the boulder is a possibility. Apparently its been farmer over as long as that land has been under the plow. So just leaving it is an option.  Yet, now that it's uncovered it doesn't seem proper to just leave it. 10,000 years it has rested there, time to move?

Takk for alt,

Al