A Summer is over - some very good memories

The Summer of 2010 here in Norway is more or less over. Where we live, we have had a green winter, and August was the coldest and most Rainy in 28 years. Not one single day swimming. The Ocean was too cold or simply too many jellyfish the type that burns.

In spite of these facts, we have lot's of great memories, among them our trip to Istanbul and Southern Turkey  - in the Bodrum area.

Highlight #1 the OsloBG - The Oslo Blog Gathering in August - Here "behind the scenes"..

 We have collected some bottles from that exceptional event. As you might see (Click on the Photo), a very international collection of wines brought by Lifecruiser, Lazaza, RennyBA and DianeCA besides TorAa.
If you ponder: We did not drink all the bottles during one evening. LOL!

I must admit, it was hard to go back to work after our blog-friends went back to their respective homes around the globe. We had for some Days in a kind of Abstinence.

Missing the presence of the Global and friendly Blogger Community.
We will meet again;)

PS
Anna and Papa will visit some secret places during this Autumn/Fall.
Our Cats are doing well.
And I suddenly realized I've been a blogger since late August 2006.

Since that I've met some wonderful people from around the World.

People we will meet again and people we have not yet met in person so far.

More to come....

Papa went Downtown Oslo and met friends on a TORsday

My dear readers knows I live in Oslo. But I are not often in Down Town Oslo, with all the entertainment this city/town of 550 thousand people offers. There is far more cafe/restaurant seats than elsewhere around the Globe per capita. Surprised? I think so. Don't be ashamed. You are not alone.
And Oslo is among the fastest growing cities in Europe. Just now. We have 4 seasons and mild Winters. Alpine slopes 20 minutes by metro up to the Hills. We can Swim in the Fiord during Summer. Art, Museums, Nature is also of course right outside. What more do you want? Golf? Horseriding, Bird watching, Canoing, cross country skiing/biking, Fishing, walking, Hiking, Art Galleries, Beaches, Viking history... come on tell me. I'm here too. LOL.

Friends. To share. To talk and listen. Enjoy - life.

I did this TORsday afternoon and evening. Planned before Vacation. The meeting.

Here we are at the first outdoor cafe were we met. You might know the person to the left? But who is in between the bloggers you might know?

Another view from "Stortorgets Gjestegiveri - The Back Yard. Charming 1700 century style.

Then we went another Place. Old buildings. Are we so old we can't go to a modern designed outdoor Cafe? The answere is easy. We wanted to talk, talk and talk. The modern cafes have to loud Music for us to have a great and memorable conversastion.

On our way to the new (old place) - we passed this outdoor cafe. 350 years old buildings around.

And right across, on the same Plaze - a sculpture - A Glove with running Water.
Here the 3 youngster are giving a Toast to the World of Bloggers.
We are in fact sitting in the Backyard of what was Oslo Town Hall for many decades. Very relaxing environments. We had Fish Soup for Dinner. Delicious. With Bread and Cold pressed Olive Oil spread directly on our slices of Bread.

What a wonderful evening with special and good friends in downtown Oslo (Norway).

More to come from my journey to USA and Sweden, so stay tuned for more fun and experiences.

Family Dinner

Saturday was time for Family Dinner.

In fact for 4 generations.

So what to serve? hehe, at least 3 dishes we figured out. Actually it ended with 4 plus plus.

We are a hopeless Family in the sense of allways having mutual fun.

Love the setting around the 100 year old Family Table. And beeing together and have a good time. Enjoing every second.

Have you, my dear reader, experienced a 4 G Familiy Dinner?

And even with your X as well? ---- I call it the Global Family. As we are in Cyber World.

Here is the Table, before we "attacked".

Ruben (40) preparing for the Appetizer

Appetizer, this year as last year - on my BD - was shrimps and crawfish in jelly with remoulade, green leafes (French Feld) and seaweed crispy bread (from Sweden) with Normandy Butter, white wine from New Zealand and Voss Water from Norway. What a mix.

We then had a pause. Seb - the Master of Balloon kicking (not only kicking: Bang bang)
Main Dish: Confite de Canard - Conserved Ducks in Jelly and you see the rest

Balloons - wow

Another pause - Seb and papa preparing the surprises. haha - we kept it as as secret - for a while.....

( - No advertising allowed here)

Cheeze of course. 3 diffents from local Norwegian Farmers. Expensive but, what delicassies. Heavenly. But, since these cheeses are only available very locally - no photos. Must visit Norway to feel this wonderful tastes---

Yet another pause. Grandson with my Mother

Rasberries from our Summerhome with premium vanilla icecream.

Chocolade Cake

Chocolade Cake and Apple Cake (Family recipie - advanced by my Brother).

Anna - making Coffee alone?

HAHA - Seb is there to help.

Hallo all of you, he says - and feel safe with his grand grand ma
B D party - we allways have a great time when to celebrate

Served with Coffee and white and brown Calvados (Apple liquer). Genuine Vanilla Ice Cream topped with hip-extract (from our Summerhouse - dry -bake - conserve-cook and use the juice

Anna

gave Seb a "Book" with blank pages. Paper made for Aquarels. Everybody had to do a drawing and a poem.
As a Gift for me - then later a Heritage for him (Seb)

Here is Ruben (means: See, a Son) reading from our homemade poems.

Then we watched photos from Solvi's visit to Ingelin in Hong Kong and Thailand.

My grandson was all over.

Here is my mother, born 1919. I do think she had a great time.

In spite of her bad hips.

There was some leftovers from the Dessert - *giggles*

This is the Table after hours of pleasure. It's not hard at all to stove away. 'cause you have everybody's positive mind in your head, and replay their smile and laughter.

My Mother needed help . My son Niklas to the left and my Brother to the Right

Taxi - after Family Dinner

My mothers "best friend"

It was a wonderful Family Dinner. We missed Mats and Lori and Ingelin. Hope we can meet again one time when my mother still are among us. We had such fun together. As we allways have.

Wine

You Are Chardonnay

Fresh, spirited, and classic - you have many facets to your personality. You can be sweet and light. Or deep and complex. You have a little bit of something to offer everyone... no wonder you're so popular. Approachable and never smug, you are easy to get to know (and love!). Deep down you are: Dependable and modest Your partying style: Understated and polite Your company is enjoyed best with: Cold or wild meat

What Kind of Wine Are You?

This not a bad result, as I no longer can drink Red Wine.
I found this at Fleur de Lisa

Wordless Wednesday - this week here

PHOTO HUNTERS Fake

OK , I do admit it , this was not my first thought when the theme were FAKE: 'cause this is real and fake but fake with nature. Several times - fake. It's not water made to wine. It's real fake;)

Glass is fake from sand - right?
All you see from nature in the glass is true but also fake.
The sky around the glass, well a little bit fake as well..

More fake here at Photo Hunters

OK- OK -I have more "fake-nature"

Weekend with Blogfriend RennyBA

First meeting and first Leg: Oslo - Karlstad

Firstly we planned to pick up RennyBA and Diane outside his office in downtown Oslo.

But, RennyBA and I agreed upon it would be better if I picked them up at our local railway station, close to the activity farm, Friday afternoon. Then we could avoid the bump-bump traffic out from downtown Oslo.
We two, known each other for years, were anxious how our wifes would function together. Diane from Up-state New York and Anna from Odalen a layed backed district, 80 km east of Oslo.
First time meeting: Hugs. Then, they sat together in the backseat of my car, chatting as they allways had known each other. Both Renny and I suspected that to happen. Dreams came true.

From Oslo to Mariestad it’s 350 km to drive. In December the sun goes down before 3:30 pm. We met at 3:55.

I must admit, I would have refused to take this ride, if it was not with RennyBA. In the darkness, rain, all coalblack roads, trailers, dirt, lights hitting just in my eyes nearly blindfolded me.

RennyBA had told me of their habits: They allways stops in Karlstad, after some 2:30 hours drive, to do their shopping. So did we this Friday, luckely no rain then.

Off we went. Firstly to Systembolaget. That is the Swedish answer to the Norwegian Vinmonopolet. Norwegians ”love” the Swedish one ’cause of the lower prices (exception is high quality wines and sparkling wine). And RennyBA, he knew exactly where to go, while I had to study where to find my White Wines of preference. The selection in Norway and Sweden are somewhat different. When on tour, we usually buy BiB, Bag in Box. The quality of BiB-wines have for the past years come to a acceptable quality. And I bought a couple of bottles with screw-tap, which is very practical when you have no room for ”standing” bottles in your fridge.

We had our charriots well filled up with wine and ”avec’s”.

Neighbouring Systembolaget is a large supermarket. Time for food. And for bringing low priced ”stuff” back to Norway.Diane and Anna - Shopping is fun

Anna and I were in this large shop for the first time. While Diane and Renny did know exactly where to go and pick up the goods, Anna and I were afraid of beeing lost. Then I come to think about: We’re driving in my car. Puh. Saved. And it felt very well to go around the shop with Renny and Diana and discuss what we needed for the weekend and with Anna what to bring back to Norway. Besides, no secret that, I need a little rest from driving in the dark and rain.Packing with a smile

We shopped vegetables, fruit, milk, juice, cream, egg, butter, margarin, bread, cheese, water etc.
Renny pays with a smile
Then payed with Visa-Card and stowed it all into the car. On the road again in the Darkness.

Stay tuned, more to come.

PS. If you have problems to comment this post, you must sign into comments as "Other", then write your e-mail adress and your URL. (Or as Anonymous)

Napa 2

MUMM NAPA

As far as I know, MUMM is a famous brand for French Champagne. And I’ve been to France more or less every year since 1964 (Exept between 1994-2002 – when we did vist Latin America several times).

So, I was surprised that the neighbouring wineyard to ZD Wines is MUMM Napa.




















MUMM in Napa Valley? Why are they here? Do they sell their French Champagne?. Curious as I am, I handed the situation over to my cousin Rande who seemed to be very well informed about the area:


”Oh, Mumm, we have time to taste there as well, he said just hitting the road outside ZD, or shall we go for a longer ride. At 3 pm I said: OK. Let’s stop here. I want to taste what this French Champagnemakers can do in Napa.
















Anna, Rande and me did taste the sparkeling Mumm from Napa. IT is made from Napa Grapes and produced ”methode champanoise”.


What it tasted? That’s something out of discussion. Your taste and mine may differ. Sweet, semi-dry or dry. Though it’s alcohol. So take care. If you do not know to handle the ”bubbles”.


PS. Our Waitress at Mumm, after knowing we were from Norway, claimed she knew some Norwegian jokes. But they were told by Swedes. We got a free glass of Mumm Napa when explaining.

I can live with tollerance. Special when it means a glass of free "Champagne".

Also this one: Somebody has used my name as their brand!

B4P. (blog for peace)