Night Light

I tried taking a photograph in almost total darkness tonight. We've had our first snow and straight away it's not quite as dark as before. There was just enough night light on this little forest road near our house to capture the landscape with a 5 minute exposure. It's hard to believe that I could hardly make out what was in front of the camera in the darkness before I released the shutter.

Family Photographer

The problem with being the photographer in the family is that you are more often than not excluded from the family photos.

Camera and flash set up and ready, "stand over there Lorienne...point the flash this way with your left hand out from the side and shoot...", "Click!" Copyright Lorienne Bell!

Legend

They're born, they take up your time, keep you awake at night, put you through emotions you didn't know you had. The little ones, the really small ones who wave their arms around and make noises, their only means of communication is to scream at you. They can not be reasoned with and at three in the morning they don't care if all you want to do is sleep, they need attention or food or something. Who knows? Do they know?

All this and still we love them. You can travel the world, create history, but it is only to your children that you can truly become a legend.


Henrik 1½ years

Rhiannon Update

Spot the baby! She must have really wondered what was going on when Dad set up a strobe and umbrella on a lightstand and started piling soft toys on and around her. You'll have to admit she looks cute though (and perhaps a little confused). All this while Henrik was driving cars around the lightstand and jumping up and down on the sofa where she lay.

That Time of the Year

It's that time of the year again. The last time I wrote I mentioned the weather and how we have become obsessed with it. Well, this is when our weather obsessions really take off! I have been checking the forecasts every evening lately to see whether it's time to change to winter tyres or not. Yesterday I could bare the suspense no longer and booked a time to have our tyres changed to steel studded winter tyres instead. There have already been a few accidents where motorists have skidded off the road because of ice on the roads.

We get our tyres from a local tyre shop just 5 minutes away in the neighbouring village "Brynje". You can have a look at their website here.
They may not be a huge workshop, but they are efficient, friendly and cheaper than the places in town. Oh, and there is coffee and cake while you wait!

Weather Dependent

Since moving to Sweden we have become obsessed with the weather just like everyone else here. Everyone knows that living near the sea means shifty weather conditions. It is also a fact that living close to mountains means you can't go outside without dressing for at least three different seasons on any given day.
Jämtland (our region of Sweden) is less than 200 km from the sea and prides itself with having it's own mountain range. Go figure.
Today we started out with wind and clouds. After having breakfast we noticed how the sun was shining and the wind had died down so we got dressed to go for a walk, but halfway through the walk the wind and clouds had returned with reinforcements...
Our neighbour is into motorassisted paragliding which is very much weather dependent since the wind has to be just right so you don't blow off to the North Pole by accident. We have watched him many times driving away with his kit on the trailer only to return disappointed a little while later. Sometimes though, the weather stays right for long enough for him to "take the leap". It looks like such fun!

Worn out head

There is lots to do at work at the moment and by the time I get home my head is worn out. I'll write more again as soon as it gets a little quieter next week.

Tasse the Cat

Our cat has a dilemma. It's getting too cold to be outside, but impossible to hunt mice inside. Now is the time when all the little vermin out there in the woods also feel the cold and start looking for places to hibernate. Our home is regarded as a possible place if Tasse the Cat doesn't get them first.
They never actually get in to our house but turn our lawn into mouse metropolis while it's covered in snow. In spring it's a mess of vermin highways complete with motels and roadside cafés, all built using what left of our frozen grass. It takes half of our short summer for our lawn to right itself again.
Fortunately Tasse thouroughly enjoys a good hunt and is pretty good at it too. Last spring when the little buggers started heading towards the forest again, we watched him catch an average of 4 mice/hour. Not bad, he is a good cat.

Sleeping Princess

Today was not my first day back at work.
Sleeping princess (illustrated below) sleeps all day and stays awake all night. I managed about two hours of sleep and Lorienne only one. Needless to say we have taken zombie impersonation to new heights today. To top that Henrik woke up this morning and was unable to walk on his left foot. After quickly going through a long list of possible illnesses: brain haemorrhage, damage to the nervous system, reumatism, gout, etc, we concluded that it was only a sprained ankle. Still, there was no way he could walk by himself so I stayed at home to help Lorienne and to carry Henrik around to where ever he wanted to play. He later made a miraculous recovery and ran up and down our passage until bathtime.
Tomorrow will be another day. We hope we aren't still awake when it arrives.