Supernatural Happenings

It all began with "the phantom sheepskin mover", who frequently relocates the sheepskin from one of our Sofa's to random places in the house.

Then it was the turn of the the blanket/throw that is on the other Sofa which now frequently is found at the bottom of the stairs or under the kitchen table.

This morning after coming home from Peggy's morning walk I found our long suffering passion flower plant in the middle of the kitchen floor, some 10 metres from the window sill in the living room where it normally resides. The pot being half way between the window and the plant and the soil lying in a nice straight line between window and the plant, drawing a 2 lane highway over our living room/kitchen floor.

Creepy!

I would have taken a picture of ths carnage before I tidied up, but Mrs Longship is in Copenhagen with the Camera.

Haugtuft, from the air.

My Father in law is the sort of man that will not use new things for fear of ruining them and prefers to wear old stuff out first. This always causes a problem regarding choosing birthday presents and his 80th birthday was no different.


The decision was taken to give him something that he had to use/experience and what better than a sightseeing tour in a light aircraft. My boss, who has his own aerobatic aircraft and also has access to Tønsberg Flight clubs 2Cessnaa 172's, very kindlyagreedd to be our pilot.


We took off into a deal ofturbulencee on a bright sunny Saturday morning. Our one hour trip took us over Haugtuft, my in-laws chalet and onward towards Drøbak. On the return journey I took the controls, handing back over shortly before a quick touch and go followed by a textbook, one wheeled, cross wind landing.

The Others

As you will know from my earlier post about Lego David Blaine, I have been following the progress of LDB amazing stunt, "28 Days in a Fish Tank"

Day 25 featured a competition to spot all ten of "The Others" in the fish tank. This, I did, and quite to my surprise I was among the first 5 correct entries recieved. So, I am now waiting with great anticipation the delivery of my very own, Limited Edition LDB Badge.

Those of you who would like to know more about this enagmatic little man can watch "LDB, The movie" here, on quicktime, or if that doesn't work, here.

Day 17 included a visit of "The Flying Satans", performing their excellent hit song, "Magical Man"

Excellent stuff, amusment for young and old.

The Duckling, A very short story

Sadly, the little wild duckling, deprived of it's mum by a cat, which was the contents of the box in the previous post, didn't last so long.

We did what we could but as is so often the way with wild rescue birds but it wasn't enough.

What's in the Box?

My wife's just arrived home with this shoe box which has holes punched in the lid.

This can only mean one thing....... Still, it's been a while since the last time.

Lazy Beds

Playing blog catch up as normal, now reporting an activity 1 week ago.

Saturday of last weekend we took a trip to the nearest large garden centre and bought our set Potatoes, as follows.

Juni, Early, 8 Kg
Berber, early Main, 4.2 Kg
Laila, Main, 6 Kg (The same spuds as last year)

After reading all about Lazy beds in an edition of the excellent Kitchen Garden Magazine, it was decided that we would give this technique a go.

The procedure went roughly as follows,

1: Spread the cow muck, delivered by the young lad in the photo(no not me), into the required rows.

2: Place set potatoes on cow muck.



3: "Fold over" turf/soil on top of potatoes, ensuring most grass/weeds are face down into the cow muck

4: Admire the result of 3 hard hours work and check every day for signs of progress.....

Out of Date Seeds

Along with onions and peas, during our first days work out in the kitchen garden (now a couple of weeks ago), we sowed a good variety of Veg, Herbs, and even some flowers.

Being the hoarder that I am, my substantial collection of seed packets included a fair number of packets past the "sow by" date. The rash decision was taken that these should be used up regardless of how dense the subsequent seedlings may end up.

As much for my own records as your interest, below is a list of the seeds sown, with producer and sell by date (unless otherwise specified). I will endeavour to keep track of thess and publish a detailed germination success/rate report in the near future.

Flowers:

Aster, Suttons, 1/2004
Wild Flower mix, 6/2005

Herbs:

Parsley(Envy), Suttons, 6/2004
Tarragon(Russian), Jahnsons, Dec 2001

Veg:

Courgette(F1 Hybrid), Marshalls, 2005
Leek (Musselburgh), Mr. Fothergills, Packed Aug 1999

Sprouts (Not Brussells!!!):
Mung Beans, Mr. Fothergills, 2002
Alfalfa, Suttons, 6/2002



Other, in date, sowings, included Basil, Coriander, radish, beetroot, spinach, fennel, carrots and turnips.

On a slightly later date, we also made indoor sowings of many different types of peppers, tomatoes and such forth. I will do my utmost to update you on these after "pricking out"!!!

Found, Lost and Found (Again)

I can't make head nor tail of this

I had not been able to find my LandRover Zippo lighter for a good while before now, when it caught my eye lying in the gravel beside the back steps inside the carport as I parked up the bicycle

This is not the first time that this has happened. I first came into possession of this treasure when I found it whilst searching for good skimming stones on the little shingle beach near the hut on the back side of Loweswater lake in Cumbria. This is a place that a good number of my readers are familiar with and it's quite possible that some of you where with us that day. It must be a good few years ago, and my memory is terrible. Maybe it was AJ (AKA Thoughtful Scotsman) and family, friends of Mrs VL visiting from Liverpool, Geoffers, Doc M...... If any of you were there and you remember the occasion please leave a comment to refresh my memory

The last(first?) time I remember actively searching for(and not finding) my Zippo was before "The Lads" trip to the Swedish rally in early February. Judging by the state of it it's been out in the weather for a good while. How it could have been lying in a place that is right beside our normal way in and out the house without being noticed for the best part of 4 months I can not imagine. Maybe Mrs VL has an explanation.

I will start a full photographic restoration, a la Haynes manual, as soon as Mrs VL arrives back with the camera. I hope we've got a good quantity of Brasso to hand.

News Dog

In the lack of any willing customers, Peggy, during a day out at the vet clinic was accosted by Sandefjords local Journalist as part of an article highlighting the problems with Ticks during the summer months on cats and dogs and options for treatment/prevention.

Read the article here. I believe that a closer look at the picture shows that both animals are a little more uptight about the presence of each other than the threat of picking up ticks out in the Norwegian forests.

First Sowings

Spring is finally in full swing. The sun has shone for a couple of weeks now, prompting us, beginning last Sunday (7th May), into a flurry of activity in the garden.

Onion Bed

This year sees us continuing our soil improvement plans and reclaiming land in keeping with our long term Terraced fruit and vegtable garden plans, which will rise up from both sides of the little farm road that runs down to the field. Last year, we were very lucky to come to an agreement with the real farmer that he would use our large pile of rubble as part of the fondation of his new tractor road and replace this with the soil he dug out of the road. Giving us a great mechanically assisted step forward and removing a load of back braking work for us.

The final layout and allocation of land for soft fruit, vegatable beds and fruit trees/orchard is not decided yet. Fruit trees and bushes will have to wait another year for both readiness and financial reasons. So this year we will use as much of this area as possible for "bulk" vegetables in an attmept to keep the area weed free and blend in the copious amounts of manure that the real farmer added for us whilst filling up with soil.

After a couple hours of hard digging, stone picking and manure spreading we had an area 6m x 1.5m prepared. In here we planted 1/2 a kilo of Sturon onion sets and a row of sugar snap peas. We also prepared an area 1x1m for a 4x4 square of Marshalls Metoer Vroma Broad beans.

Futher plans for this area later in the spring/summer, include french beans, leeks, courgettes/marrows, butternut squash and sweetcorn.

Photos to follow.

Lego David Blaine

I can't imagine why but "Lego David Blaines" Amazing "28 Days in a fish tank" stunt has caught my attention much more than anything "Real David Blaine" has ever done.

Follow all the action live here..... www.legodavidblaine.co.uk

Brilliant!!!!

Show Cats

I guess it's about time that I blogged about our feline escapades again.

The whole tribe (excluding Anitra, who, quite understandable, continues to have nothing to do with the whole traveling and showing lark) set off for Smaalene Katteklubb's Show in Skiptvet on the other side of Oslofjord in the early hours of Saturday morning. In total we were 3 humans and 4 felines.

So that's Vegas, our fine stud boy, who's aversion to cat shows is significantly more manageable than Anitra's, Asia as a "Company Cat" for Vegas to keep him a little more relaxed, Skiddaw with her new foster mum (more on that later) and Little Amazing Incident, our very special AI'd boy.


So I'll start with Vegas and Asia. As hoped, they were quiet and relaxed during the journey. Vetting in for Vegas was the normal fight, which prompted the poor Vet to ask if the others where relations of his..... Aware that Vegas had a full bladder and has a tendency to spray the second he is introduced to a new environment he was put in the bare cage, before decoration with only his litter tray. As assumed he proceeded to empty his bladder up the back and roof of the cage..... Nice.. So, we took cat out of cage, cleaned up, installed curtains, blankets and decorations and put the cat back in the cage. Vegas, being the clever lad he is promptly emptied the other half of his bladder straight up the curtains...... Great...... After that, it was the "company cats" turn. As normal, Asia caused the most amount of destruction possible in a short space of time. Their litter tray was emptied, food was spread all over the cage, water on their blanket and so on.

Vegas was the first up to be judged. He was well enough behaved for the judge to award him the certificate we had hoped for but badly enough behaved not to progress any further. The final, and slightly amusing part of the story involves Vegas's amorous tendency towards Asia (even though she was not in season). She was moved in with Amazing, but not before a small crowd had gathered to watch him "trying it on". Oh how embarrassing...... Must remember not to take a "company cat" in future.

Skiddaw, who we have decided to keep in our breeding program, has been fostered by one of the nurses at the Vet Clinic where Mrs VL works. This arrangement means that Skiddaw now lives and is looked after by her new mum but we organise matings and she will come to us a few weeks before she is due and stay with us until the kittens are weaned. When we she has had a few litters ownership will be transferred to her foster mum. Thus have we an extra breeding cat without the chaos and someone, who fell in love with the breed first time she saw one of our cats, gets to own a cat that they couldn't afford to buy.


On Saturday, Skiddaw was a little unhappy and vocal to begin with, but settled down and was exemplary with the judge. Much to our surprise, she won her class ahead of her sister, Scafell Pike, who was being shown by her new owner/breeder. This was great for us, but a little daft as Scafell really needed the win as part of her plans to qualify for the Scandinavian winners show, which we probably can't attend with our cats.

Little Amazing, much to our surprise, was an example for them all. He was relaxed for the whole day. Not a peep in the car and not a grumble in the cage (apart from when he ended up with Asia shoved in with him...) Despite his independent tendencies, he was perfect with the judge, even taking it upon himself to play with her pen whilst she attempted to write notes about him. Despite being "A promising young man" he was placed second, behind a cat a couple of months older, oh well, maybe next time.

All in all, a good day out.

Londons the kew.

Today, I was finally back on Norwegian soil, for all of about half an hour. After the voyage from Hamburg to Oslo, my dear wife joined me onboard for a very enjoyable 1 night preview cruise when I swapped my boiler suit for my best attire.

I took a long weekend in London during the time that "Freedom of the Sea", my second home it seems, was laid up in dry dock in Hamburg. The ocassion was my cousins (on my dads side) wedding. A lovely affair it was too.

Mrs Longship joined me on the Friday morning and we indulged in a "shopping spree" in Harrods. Well, a few olives, some tights and some sweets. We did enjoy the Sushi bar though, I never knew just how tasty raw fish could be, it was exceptional.

Anyway, to the point of my ramblings from Freedoms internet cafe.

For me, there is no City I have visited quite like London. For people such as myself who are curious in nature and find facination in so much of life and history, London is frustrating. It's not the lack of interesting things, no, quite the opposite. There is so much of interest that you don't know where to start, and worse, when you do start you know that you'll never get to the end of it always feeling that you leave wherever you were half finished.

As an example, it was not before the umpteenth time I was in the science museum that I thought it would maybe be a good idea to start at the top floor, only to find that there was a huge aviation section on the 5th floor, which I had never seen because I was too busy looking at the steam engines, boat and cars down the bottom floors.

This time it was Kew Gardens that provided us with a wonderful but frustrating day out. We did admittingly give ourselves a rather short time, after the festivities onboard Hispanola the night before, Sunday did start rather slowly.

We headed sraight for the first victorian greenhouse we saw, the tropical rainforest one. By the time that we had finished enjoying the Banana trees, the rubber trees, the worlds largest palm, ginger, bamboo and so much more, we were already running short of time, only to discover the excellent aquatic display in the basement, which took up another chunk of time. This was followed by a wander over to the worlds largest compost heap, the one thing we had to see!!! A very friendly and peacock, who endulged us in a show of his wonderful tail. A chat with a few very brave and curious squirrels, a stroll through the Rodedendrums over the the Veg plots and the Rock Garden, before finishing off purchasing a starter kit for canivorous plants (Venus Fly trap attempt #6......)

Kew is a fantastic and fascinating place. I am so very jealous of folk who live in the proximity to make a season ticket a possibility. In the 3 or so hours we had, we were altogther to rushed and probalbly saw 15% of what we could have seen.

So, we decided that another trip to Kew is in order, a full day perhaps during our next visit to London town, whenever that will be. But then we would be missing out on the Natural History Museum, the Tate, the Tate Modern, HMS Belfast, the science museum, the London Observatory, the London Eye .................

The Struggle of the Seasons

It's a war out there.

Spring duly arrived to claim it's territory in early March only to find Winter stubbornly refusing to move aside.

This struggle is no way near over. Yes, spring has gained the high ground, the first rocks and the steepest slopes are now appearing through the snow, but it's a long hard battle. The snow which has been with us since mid November has now sunk and compacted down to around a little over half a meter depth but it is now dense and wet and the spring thaw has had little effect to the total volume of water to melt.

Just as spring begins to makes headway, for example, a light spring shower helping to wash away some snow, the temperatures fall and it starts snowing again. Just today, lovely spring sunshine managed to get the temperature up around 5-6 Deg C, but tonight, it would seem, the temperatures are on the way down past freezing again and it'll all be ice again in the morning.

This struggle has left it's mark on the landscape, once a beautiful pure white, now dirty grey. Through the constant melt and freeze, the gritting of roads, the passage through wet snow and so forth it is hard to tell the difference between snow, grass, gravel and tarmac.

It's been a wonderful winter and we have been very privileged to enjoy such conditions which haven't been seen for 40 years or more but now it really is time to start making progress with this years endeavors in the vegetable garden.

Come on winter, get out the way before it's summer.....

So the viking longship sailed full steam into Jyväskylä late last friday night. Amazing how you can fit a ship on a train, but that's the wonders of modern science for you, or at least Finnish railways. Things are going to get a little confused in about 4 lines time or thereabouts, so hereafter I will be S for Senior, he will be J for Junior, my dear wife will be D for Dear, the 4 year old F for four (alliteratively), and the almost 2 year old T for (almost) Two. Got that? try it a few more times, just for fun...

So S and J arrived home, J a little hungry and tired after the journey. Dinner over, we cycled back into town for a couple of beers with S's South African mate, who happened to also share an interest in all things Landrover and Mini, being the proud ex-owner of a 68 Landy, in a version only available in SA. J seemed a little concerned as to the temperature level and the wind chill, but S said not to worry, it's only 16 below, wait 'til you have to cycle around in -33 to experience cold. BTW D has had frostbite on her cheeks and nose from this type of experience. Emboldened by a few quaffs of Koff, we returned to our vehicles, slightly better covered up (and in J's case, looking rather like the wicked old witch, with his scarf wrapped around his head), cycled home, and waited 30 mins. or so for the feeling to return to faces, fingers, toes and other unmentionables...

The alarm clock (otherwise known as F and T) rang, reliably as always, at 6.30. S, being a dutiful father, gave up feigning sleep to prepare breakfast, allowing D and J a much needed lie-in. BTW the outside temp. was a much more respectable -25. ONYERBIKE!

And so to the first event of the day. Living within shouting distance of a small ski resort boasting approx. 30k of crosscountry tracks, 4 downhill slopes, a ski jump or three (home of the famous Matti Nykänen, the George Best of Finnish Ski Jumping, but still just about alive!), 2 saunas and an icehole for swimming (!!!), guess what we were off to do. Cross-country skiing it was. S and D's skis impressed the jury with two extremely important qualities: grip and slip. Unfortunately the grip was only when the ski was going forwards, and slip when going backwards. I just realised, it was so early and so cold WE PUT THEM ON THE WRONG WAY ROUND! After 6 km, and much huffing and puffing, it was back to the pad for a much needed coffee and pulla (finnish doughnut). (S and D have since bought end of season skis at half price to remedy the situation!)

Next stop was the skating rink, within a stones throw this time, and F showing off her skills with and without an ice hockey stick. J seemed a little apprehensive re the prospect of skates, remembering a previous visit chez S and D, so phoned up she who must be obeyed for guidance. Having been given the nod, it was off for a few wobbly circuits.

And all this before lunch! Nothing like a relaxing weekend. Back to skis after lunch. F got her much anticipated first go on downhill skis and proved to have a) good balance and b) not much fear. Oh dear. S and J walked there this time, pushing T in the buggy, who dutifully fell asleep for her afternoon nap upon arrival at the slopes. Fully kitted out off they set. J's previous experience on skis has been documented in a previous post, but S's was over 5 years ago. He gingerly slipped and slid down the childrens slope in the wake of F, while J disappeared up the chair lift. Upon his reappearance (at a considerable speed) S and J set off up the chair lift together. On the way up, S was concerned about the steepness of the upper slope, a situation soon resolved by J getting distracted by a snowboarder flying past, knocking into S and leaving both in a heap halfway up the slope. Some quick shufties sideways out of the way of the next passengers and off we went. After two hours of exhileration (J) and fear(S) that was that. The centre of the slope was icy under a couple of centimetres of fresh snow. The two solutions were a) go straight down, hence avoiding the need to turn on slippery ice, as demonstrated by J, and b) zig zag across, pray in the middle, and turn in the deep snow at the sides, as attempted by S. Fun was had by all, and we capped it off with a few runs on the stiga and the Pylkka, down the sledding hill. Most improvement F, least falls S, most speed (and best moves on the chair lift) J, best sleeper T, and most dutiful and patient spouse, D!!!

So to the sauna. J declined the Finnish practice of preceding it with an icehole swim. The air temp was by now at about -6 and the water temp at +2, so quite nice really. Shame. Having been royally entertained by S's Finnish kavereita (mates) whilst attempting to take a nice quiet sauna, it was time for a nicely cooked meal prepared by the guest, topped off with a nice bottle of red: apparently the same as was had at J's wedding 2 years ago!

Sunday morning: S managed a little better at feigning sleep, so D got up with the alarmclocks. Payback time will ensue at some stage, I am sure.... Down to the centre of town to see what was going on at the (frozen) lake. Kiddies entertainments and suchlike. BUT S and J discovered a stand renting retkiluistemet for only 3 euro a half hour: For those not in the know these are free heel skates, using a crosscountry ski boot and binding, about 30 cm long, and designed to go rather fast on rough surface. With a 4 km circuit cleared around the lake what did you expect? Again the problem was almost the same as the famous ad: speed is nothing without control. Once S and J got half a hang of what to do, they were travelling faster than was really advisable. BUT no falls, and a fantastic way to exercise - 6 km covered in 35 mins... At 150 a pair just for the blades, not sure a bout the investment though.

Lunch and then two abortive attempts to play football. First of all the gym usually used by S and friends was in repairs, and then an attempt to try to weedle a space on an outdoor allweather (!) heated pitch ended up in some misunderstood Finnish shouted by a large, erm, well, Finn, and a reasonably hasty exit. A quick cuppa back at home, and the Junior was on the train to Turku, where, if he was anything like the rest of us, he must have slept like a very tired person.

Fun, games, and thanks very much for coming! (sorry about the lack of pics, technology has yet to catch up).

Beer at any cost......

I'm up in Jyväskla, Finland visiting my Brother and his family.

Yesterday evening it was -16C and we cycled 20mins to get to the pub....... Absolute Madness........

Snow Business...

This part of Norway hasn't seen so much snow since the winter of 1968, the media has reliably informed us.

Fortunately the brief "warm" spell of a couple weeks back was enough to clear the roofs of the house and the barn but had little impact on what was lying on the ground. However, just as we were getting used to having a clear road and snow with a suitably hard surface (an effect of the slight defrost and then re-freeze) to walk on, it started to snow again. And snow, it did, solidly for 4 days. I wasn't the only slightly deranged person to be seen skiing through Tønsberg town centre. T'was a damn sight easier than walking....

It's great with all this snow, but it brings with it a fair quantity of work. I am very glad for my recently acquired and no longer defunt snow blower (read all about it on more power). All the same, when it's like this, to get to the front door for example you can not avoid shifting some of the snow by hand. Simple tasks like fetching wood down from the top barn for my new internal wall in the garage (again on more power) turned into a 2 hour farce trying to get the tractor and trailer back in the barn. It's got to the extent that it is almost impossible to walk through the snow in areas that have not been cleared, making the vast majority of our property inaccessible if you are not wearing skis.

Who's towing who?

This went past our office window not so long ago.

Amazingly, it is in fact the little boat that is towing the big boat backwards.

Sorry about the picture quality, the weather out there is foul

Clothes Shopping

The first night of our winter holiday was in a hotel. Peggy, who wasn't allowed to overnight there, traveled separately a day later with her Auntie.

Whilst we were out for our first practice skiing session with TS, Peggy did few hours overtime before going Saturday shopping in Oslo with her Auntie, who had been given some cash to buy Peggy a new jacket. We had underestimated just how fashion conscious Peggy was, she had to have a "name", (Kennel, the Prada of the dog world it seems), which was way over budget. Impressively, she did manage to negotiate a 150,- Kroner discount.

She's been told to look after it, and not to wear it out in the garage or when doing mucky farm work......

Rosy Cheeks

That's what we had during our weeks winter holiday in Bjorli, around a third of the way up this wonderful country. The sun shone and temperatures during most days came up close to freezing, very comfortable cross country skiing conditions. On our last 2 days the wind blew strongly and that ruled out a trip up to the top of the mountain, which was a shame.

A new comer to skis was The Thoughtful Scotsman. After a couple of practice sessions in Dombas, where we spent a night on route, he seemed ready for his first trip. This was an 8Km round that was described as a little up and down but all the same easy. In fact this was 4Km steep up followed by 4Km steep downhill. To a new beginner both steep up and down are difficult, so this was a long and painful trip for T.S. We chose our routes more carefully there after and by the end of the week T.S. was more or less in control going down hill and wanted more, completing a 16Km circuit in 31/2 hours (including a stop for lunch), counting the number of times he fell with the fingers of one hand.















A great week of fresh air, snow, exercise, good food, good company, good beer, fine wine, a rather delectable Scotch Whisky and most important relaxation.