The Norwegian adventure, part 2 (of three or four)

      The ship and me and my friend Patty and 300 other travelers were on the way at 9 p.m. and soon the obvious becomes, well, obvious. We are going to be seeing a lot of water in the next 12 days, a lot of rocks, some big enough to be islands, and yet there are signs of life everywhere.  We are headed to the most northern piece of land in all of Europe, and, since this is mid May, it will be light outside most of the time. (Luckily staterooms have some serious shades to create darkness while we sleep.) 

    The routine of ship life is pretty basic -- there is no pool, no band or dancing, no library, etc.  But there are wonderful meals, 3 a day, and many stops along the way. Fresh fish is therefore really fresh!  All the food is splendid, and very Norwegian.  (Smoked salmon every day, for one thing, if you want it!!)

    So on to the photos I made - with my cell phone because it is good with light, and there were so many wonderful light moments.  Enjoy!

An excursion stop -- colors and light - Nidaros Cathedral, started in 1070 and located in Trondheim, which was the capital of Norway,  A national shrine!

This cathedral, it turns out, was near where my Norwegian friend grew up! 

a wake.....

our ship inching in to the pier, one of several stops that day

the view from one of our two windows... and we appreciated those windows immensely, day and night. 

in the rain, which we didn't have much of -- though we had some snow flurries!  I love the colors on the houses, everywhere.

SCARY!!

getting closer to the north! We were still on an "excursion", and I happened to be sitting in the front seat of our bus... Most of the road is invisible!

on the bus with less mist -- not a heavily traveled road...  We will get back on our ship at its next stop.

   My friend Patty, in a borrowed rescue suit.

our bird watching excursion continues by boat --- Patty is somewhere inside that amazing rescue outfit. SEE THE THOUSAND BIRDS IN ROWS ON THE ROCK.  Our boat was basic, the winds were real, and I'm glad to have been there!!

This blog has done a new trick for me that I am not happy with, so I give up for now. Will resume soon in the next post!!

 

I've been away, am back!

I've decided to share my recent trip to NORWAY and to bring whomever wants to go along with me via some photos I made during parts of the past several weeks.  I photographed only with my iPhone, so there's not the usual variety of images I may have had with my regular [much heavier] camera. However, I think I managed fairly well, considering.  

Note: this was a long awaited trip to somewhere I had always wanted to visit. I have been to Norway before, to visit friends there, but never had I taken the mail ship all the way up to the most northern point in Europe, far above the Arctic Circle.  It turns out a friend, Patty, whom I met years ago when we were VISTAs in Applalachia, in 1966, had also always wanted to go to Norway.  Her grandmother and several others in her family had emigrated to the USA in the 1940s  .  It required her persistence over 3 years for us to be able to go -- I couldn't believe that we weren't about to have to hear "We're canceling again this year." Instead, we actually started out from Boston -- Patty lives on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts --  on May 7, headed to BERGEN, on Norway's coast, where the ship set out at 9 pm on Sunday, May 8.  (There's a 6 hour time difference between eastern Kentucky and Norway.)  We learned a lot and ate wonderful food, including lots of fresh fish. Most of the other 300 or so passengers were German or Norwegian, with some other Scandinavians.  The common language was often English.  Our entertainment was the water around us asa well as various excursions when the ship stayed in port more thn two hours rather then the usual 15 minutes.

SO, here are moments from the beginning of our getting to know better a hard to reach part of the globe that is graced with great beauty and ruggedness.  I repeat: I learned a lot!!

THIS FIRST PHOTO SHOWS OUR AFTERNOON IN BERGEN, before our 9 p.m. departure. I was able to visit my first cousin once removed, Brooke, who lives there with her fish scientist husband and their eight year old son.  And she is getting her PhD.  The son and his dad were soon off to soccer practice, a very important part of any Norwegian kid's life.  Please note: no snow in view until ... the next few days, as we headed north along the Norwegian west coast.

streets in Bergen with our ship, the NORDLYS, in view, docked and waiting for passengers like us

One of these windows is ours.... Our stateroom was on the side of the ship that does off and ons during the many stops for pick ups and deliveries, including the mail.  I have many photos from all times of daylight (almost all night long) during the stops which lasted 15 minutes to several hours. That's when we could get off the ship and get to look around for a bit.

getting used to the beauty and the "lay of the rocks and islands -- not just the land"

ships passing in the day -- another Hurtigruten ship -- with much horn noise back and forth

a rescue ready boat? I didn't listen closely enough during our safety presentation to find out....

Tonight I will end with these views of sun, sea and sky -- that began my introduction to this part of the world. I thought it all amazing.  It didn't look the same every night, so I am glad I stayed with it the two early nights of the trip.  Some of the Hurtigruten ships at other times of the year go looking for the northern lights.  In fact, our ship's name means "northern lights" .  (BTW, these photos are not necessarily in consecutive order.}

The last shot (for now) was the first photo I made that first evening. Seeing that scene felt like an unexpected wonder. 

In the next 2 or 3 blog posts I look forward to sharing more of this part of our world I was privileged to visit. It is too fascinating not to share.

the world with redbuds and with war/hunger/falsehoods/and you name it

          After the Quaker Ladies photo,  I'm sharing some of my redbud photos over the years.  Can't help myself. Mid April wonders.

         While driving around my Kentucky county these last few days I have been totally aware of redbud trees in bloom everywhere!!  Oh my goodness, so beauiful, so amazing and so counter to human beings harming each other day after day.  And, it could be argued, that even by our not working hard enough to solve the ongoing impending changes in our climate, we are harming both people and the planet with our collective greed and ignorance.               

        However, I don't know if this year's redbuds bordering these narrow country roads and along the edges of our woods are what make me so happy this day. Perhaps they simply remind me of the power of beauty.  I don't want to forget that it's certain that there is harm ahead which our world has yet to experience. I ask myself, is there instead a way for the power of beauty and fairness to lead us, somehow, in turning harm into harmony???

        

redbud companions on the ground:  Quaker Ladies, or Bluets

 apple tree companions as well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of my very favorite roadside redbuds -- though this year these trees were not as lovely as in 2018.

near Winchester, closer to central Kentucky

new branches, showing the redbud way

 

         To finish off, two more photos from Kentucky -- the first one is my MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL photo, from a small airplane's point of view.  This is h a r m.

This is closer to  h a r m o n y.

 

        I'll hope to post again in two or three weeks.  Be good to each other, and love the season around you.  Ann

         

More George Ella, plus our writers group

   This is so exciting -- last night I was NOT able to post anything on my blog, but this morning, here I am! Happy again!  I've been looking forward for two weeks to posting some more George Ella photos, AND to sharing the photos I once made during a meeting of our writers group, which, until the past 4 years, met once a month for over 20 years. 

    Five of us met that day in Louisville, at Marie's home, sitting in a circle.  The light outside was wonderful, which sealed the deal.  I didn't usually take photos of us at work, but that day I could tell that I needed to break a few norms, quietly, without comment or concern.  The first photo here of George Ella is similar to the one in my last post, but now here are some other photos, which could rightly be called the "companion pieces."  

   Please forgive small errors that might appear as I wrestled with these photos off and on all this day!!!  

JAN

LEATHA

MARTHA

 

MARIE

 

Now a few more GEL photos from over the years:

not slowed down by a bad back day

In Frankfort, KY:  I'm pretty sure this is the day GE became Kentucky's Poet Laureate for two years.

Olson cousins enthralled

Christmas 2021!!  at JAN's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANN, by Molly Carew

GEL's FAMILY  - two of the seven of them

 

 

WRITER'S GROUP, photo by Jan's husband Bill  -- oh, the stories, the poems, the words!!

seen through Marie's window that March day in LOUISVILLE