20230627 Dinner at Grandpa's
We woke to a quiet morning with ducks on the water below and nuthatches and tits in the trees off the deck. Though our evening had been relaxing, Sine messaged that Lukas puked in his bed again last night and then had explosive diarrhea down the side of the washing machine. I suppose it was some sort of karmic balance.
We went on a walk down to the water below the cabin picking strawberries and cherries along the way. The raspberry and hazelnuts weren't ripe and the blueberries were too small. The strawberries grew on disturbed ground and were most abundant along the side of the dirt road. Rose bushes grew like weeds, their heavy perfume filling the air.
At the waterside there were strange stepped parts of the landscape, that almost seemed manufactured, like ancient viking ruins.
It started to rain as we continued down the road and up the mountain path and we passed a group of older men on a volunteer trail crew. The rain increased as we continued up the hill but we couldn't stop because the mosquitoes attacked when we stood still. As we walked up the narrow path we passed a half dozen huge anthills and large white slugs roving the pine litter. In the rain, my wool shirt started to smell like wet dog.
On the road back to the hytte we darted from shelter to shelter along the road and we came across the best sign of the whole trip. 'Farts dempere' (speed dampener) is a speed bump. The road signs saying 'over fartsgrensen?' were to warn drivers not to speed.
A little farther down the road Amanda finally spotted one of the woodpeckers she'd been hunting and we stopped while she took pictures in the rain.
The moment we turned onto the gravel path leading to the hytte, the rain stopped and the sun came out.
The door to the hytte locked in an unusual way. There was a lever on the inside frame that lifted the entire door on it's hinges into a slot at the base of the frame. It's difficult to move and it feels like you're breaking something when you do it which is why I'm being so careful here. With the door settled in the frame it is effectively locked and when it's lifted, it opens freely.
Upon our arrival at the house in Oslo we were greeted by Mio and Bob. Ja and Sine were Mio's patrons and Bob was patronized by a neighbor but spent a lot of time hanging out at the house, eating Ja's food, and sleeping on our bed.
Driving back there wasn't as much traffic and I took a nap in the two hours to kill before heading out to grandpa's house for dinner then we hopped onto our bikes and picked up Lukas from the barnehage. Amanda had to work hard to keep up with us on her upright single speed bike.
Grandpa lives on the top floor of a six story apartment block. As an avid reader his walls were cluttered with books. He also has a interest in 1950s-1960s American culture and we talked about cowboy movies and various authors. Lukas was still interested in shooting spiderman webs and we tried to introduce him to the hulk, flexing and growling.
Grandpa prepared a variety of Norwegian dishes including Rømmegrøt - a sour cream and milk pudding with cinnamon and sugar, thin crispy bread, fruit, and lager.
We stopped chatting for a moment after dinner at the sound of a loud hissing outside and everyone got up to peer out the windows at the heavy rain shower that was falling so hard I mistook it for hail. The people in the flats across the way hurried to remove furniture from their balconies and we heard people crying out in the street as they ran for shelter. The gutters above the window poured with sudden violence.
Ja, Sine, and the kid practiced gymnastics on the wooden floor in front of the fireplace and we played one of Lukas's favorite games, Bjørnen sover.
At the last verse the sleeping bear gets up and everyone screams. I wanted to find a youtube video of the song but this was the only one that had the bear waking up and growling.
Back at the house we put the kid to bed and enjoyed a couple hours of peace before retiring. Ja mentioned that the kids summer break started soon and they were going to take the ferry to Denmark to visit the zoo.
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