Apple and honey

A red apple from Sognefjord, Norway's
longest fjord.
The darker honey from Norway.
Lighter honey, homemade, from good friends
in Germany.

Sometimes small things mean a lot.

It is definitely autumn in Moss

My backgarden is so colorful these days.

I picked some of the leaves and put them
on my office table.

The next day they had dried up a little.
They were now curly.

Autumn is definitely here!

PS. Don't tell anyone, but I like the fact that Moss usually has very little snow in the winter.

Lessons from my mother: Walking in the forest

Having the opportunity to spend time
with my mother, I try to see what she
enjoys doing.

She enjoys walking in the forest.
She says it is good for her back
and for her soul.

Beautiful but very dangerous

Yesterday I went for a walk in the forest
with my mother.

And there it was - the mushroom that
we as children loved and feared.
Fluesopp, in Norwegian.

We loved it because it was red with white
dots and looked like a fairytale
mushroom.
This specific specimen was a little
orange too - not quite perfect for me.

We feared it because we knew it was
very poisonous.

I guess it was a lesson in ambivalence.

Prayer

Yesterday my internet friend Jerry sent me this:

Prayer invites
God's Presence to suffuse our spirits,
God's will to prevail in our lives.

Prayer may not bring water to parched fields,
nor mend a broken bridge,
nor rebuild a ruined city.

But prayer can water an arid soul,
mend a broken heart,
rebuild a weakened will.

(anon)

Today he sent me this:

Pray as if everything depended on God.
Act is if everything depended on you.

( source unknown)

Thanks, Jerry!

Next eye message will be a positive one

The doctor said the eyes are healing OK and
that towards the end of November I will be fitted
with new glasses, after my second operation
in October.

But, as far as using my eyes now,
that is very tiresome.
so I am trying to use my ears more.
Meditating.
Listening to music.
Learning Polish by listening to an audio tape.
Even listening to the TV. :-)
Closing my eyes.

Will my eyesight be better next week?
After the second operation in October?
Only after I get my new glasses in the
end of November?

I don't know.
I will have to accept whatever happens and
in the spirit of not complaining, my next message
on my blog about my eyesight, will be that there
is an improvement.

Actually I would like to keep my mouth
shut about this subject
till everything is OK.

But I hope to write about other subjects
now and then.

Patience

Yesterday afternoon and today have been
on the downside for my eyes, so
I will consult my doctor tomorrow.

As for my After-Operation-Inbox, I still
haven't opened that.

Patience, friends!

Step Four for Getting Rid of Blurred Vision: Back to Work

When I had my cataract operation, the doctor
told me not to lift anything above two kilos
for the first one and a half to two weeks.

In my usual job there is actually a lot of lifting
and carrying, often unintentionally and
unexpected.

So today I went to work,
but I worked in the office.
On one hand I did not lift anything heavy.

But using my eyes fairly intensively on the PC,
five hours was enough.

Three Days after Surgery: Improvement

It is not a dramatic improvement,
so far,
but using one eye at a time,
I see that I now have slightly better
vision on my right eye.

Two days after surgery

If you could look at me right now,
I would look like my usual me,
with my glasses.

At night I "dress up" with the plastic
shield to protect my eye.
I put eyedrops in my eye from three
to six times a day to help the eye
heal.

As for the improved vision -
it hasn't come yet.
I close one eye at the time
and try to compare.
Perhaps slightly clearer on
the operated eye?

Step Three for Getting Rid of Blurred Vision: The Operation

The surgery was around five thirty in the afternoon.
I was home by seven and looked like this
with my plastic cover.

I just woke up around two thirty
in the middle of the night,
and looked like this.

I am fairly OK.
More words about this
on some other occassion.

The Peace Train

When seeing is more and more difficult
(first cataract operation this Thursday),
listening becomes more important.
While listening with your eyes closed,
thinking takes on another dimension too.

When I was young, there was a
wonderful singer named Cat Stevens.
He then made some very personal
choices and became Yusuf Islam.
It has probably not been the easiest
choice as he also imposed upon himself
not to sing and to play the guitar
for more than twenty years.
Listen to these two versions of his song
The Peace Train from 1976 and 2006.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sjSHazjrWg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7iLPnDCQ1g&NR=1


Youth often has a feeling of fire.
It is an express train swooshing on.
It is so fast you don't always see
much of the area you are going through.
The action is inside the train.

Getting older sometimes has more
quietness.
It is an old fashioned steam locomotive
moving slowly through green nature.
You become more of a spectator,
looking out and the action on the train
is more relaxed.

The lyrics of the song I found here
http://www.allspirit.co.uk/peacetrain.html

Some of the words
feel very personal, just now.

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train.
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again.

Remembrance Ritual

Cheryl Richardson is one of those people
I let influence my life.
http://www.cherylrichardson.com/

In her weekly newsletter she talks about
a remembrance ritual she has had
every year since Sept 11th seven years ago.

It is a way to remember those people
no longer here, but also a ritual for asking
yourself the following questions:

Am I pleased with how I'm spending
my precious time on earth?

Am I spending enough quality time
with the people who matter most?

Am I doing my best to listen to the voice
of my soul so I make real, honest choices
based on what I most want?

Am I sharing (or working toward sharing)
my God-given gifts and talents with others?

Are there any petty disagreements or differences
that I need to let go of once and for all?

Is there someone I need to forgive?

Elgen = The Moose

In the center of Moss is a little park

called Kirkeparken.

This is where a wooden church once stood,

a church that burnt down.

Here is now a statue of a moose,

elg in Norwegian.

Children love this statue.

In nature I have only seen a moose

from some distance.

Here I get the opportunity to stand

close and see the real size of this

magnificent animal.

The Fountain by Carl Nesjar, in a different light

My first try: Tickets for a concert

Yesterday I went to a concert in Oslo.
Listening to a concert is great when
you can keep your eyes closed! :-)

But the problem was, I thought,
to get a ticket.
In the old times, getting a ticket for
a concert in Oslo when you live in
Moss, would have been problematic.

But not now!
It is 2008 and we have internet.



A friend told me about this firm
selling tickets, so without
problems I searched their homepage
and found the wanted concert.
It was easy to reserve my ticket.
I did not pay at this point,
but received a reference number.

But where to get the actual ticket?
Could I get it here in Moss?
No problem!
I could have visited one of the two
local post offices.
I decided to use one of the five local
Narvesen kiosks because they have
longer opening hours.
At the kiosk I showed my
reference number, paid and
received the ticket.
In Moss!

Off to Oslo last night to a great concert!

PS. This text sounds like an ad for dummies,

but the truth is when you first discover

something convenient, it does sound

like an ad.

Some photos from a walk in August on Jeløya

Jeløya is the island next to Moss, and part of Moss.


In August we drove to the northern part of
Jeløya. I had never been there before.
Coming back towards Moss,
we stopped and went for a little walk.


Wood is of course used as a building material.


Many use wood for heating, at least for what is
considered cozy heating in an open fireplace
or in-case-electricity-fails heating in an oven,
so summertime is the season for preparing
what you need for the coming winter.

Hæ?

When I was a child we were taught at home
to ask : ¨Hva sa du?¨ (What did you say?)
and preferably not only ¨Hva?¨ (What?).
What we were certainly not to ask was ¨Hæ?¨
This word for What? was considered vulgar in my
family.

Now I hear it so often among young and old people
talking to each other here in Moss.
I wonder if it is to be considered a dialect word
in this region or perhaps a slang word that
keeps alive, decade after decade.

Hæ?

Are there more than one copy of each of us?

Today, at the bus, the old lady in front of me,
keeping a sideway conversation with her friend,
letting me see her face very clearly,
fascinated me.

She looked just like another old lady I know.
Only that this second old lady does not live
in Norway, but in my second country.
This Norwegian lady still looked vibrant, excited,
though I imagine she was in her early eighties.

The lady in my other country looked like this
about ten years ago.
Now she has Alzheimer.

Looking at the old lady at the bus today,
despite the difference in the languages
the two look-alikes speak,
was having the opportunity to clearly remember
that other lady before she got Alzheimer.

Isn't it strange how two different human beings
can look so much alike when they are not related?

The Fountain by Carl Nesjar, general views

Carl Nesjar was born in Larvik in Norway
in 1920.


He has made several
all-year-round water sculptures
in many different places
(f.ex. Stockholm, Lake Placid, Buffalo),
like the one he has done here in Moss.


He studied art at the Pratt Institute in
New York from 1935 to 1938,
only a teenager.
He later studied art in Oslo.


He has worked together
with Pablo Picasso.

The Fountain by Carl Nesjar, by day

Water in different forms and shapes.



During the day the fountain looks quite
different than in the darkness.



The iron rods leads the water upwards.



The water flows in a circle.



The big trees and the green lawns
definitely makes this fountain
a special place.

The Fountain by Carl Nesjar, by night

Late one evening I was walking
home and passed the fountain next
to the Town Hall in Moss.
It is a fountain I like to look at
in full day light, but in my opinion
it also looked good at night.



Out came my camera,
an automatic one,
with no special effects.



It felt a little special to stand there
so late, sending flash light
through the darkness.



The artist who planned
and made this fountain
is originally Norwegian.
His name is Carl Nesjar.
He lives in the States, I am told.
He is now 88 years old.



I decided to come back
the next day and take
some more photographs.

Scrapping

When I looked for a picture to my last blog entry,
I found the website of Joanne
http://joanne6523.blogspot.com/
She is a scrap book designer.
She sells files online that you can use for
your own scrapbooking.

I will remember that as I get to the point where
I move scrapbooking from my
One Day list to my Next Action list.
It looks really fun!
This hobby also fits my visual memory and
my interest in remembering the past.

You ain't gotta know yet!

http://joanne6523.blogspot.com/2008/06/baby-boy-girl-tags.html

Yesterday my daughter-in-law had an ultrasound.
She and my son had hoped to find out the sex of
their coming child.

The technician had only ten minutes for doing
the ultrasound.
He explained that during those ten minutes the
baby was in such a position you couldn't see
what sex it is.

I guess my future grandchild wants to keep
some secrets to itself at this point :-)

Step Two for Getting Rid of Blurred Vision

This morning, at work, my mobile telephone rang.
It was the doctor telling me my first cataract
operation will take place on September 18th.
That felt like a big relief, knowing it is just
two and a half week away.

Edward Munch's Summer House

The Norwegian painter Edward Munch
(1863 - 1944) lived in Oslo,
but bought a summer house in
Åsgårdstrand, a little idyllic place
south of Horten.

So one day this summer, we took the ferry
from Moss to Horten and then the bus
to Åsgårdstrand.

The summer house and the studio is
situated in a sloping garden, looking down
to the Oslo Fjord.

The standard of the house is extremely basic,
but it had charm.

Standing in the studio, now a museum shop,
it felt strange knowing that Munch had used
this simple room while creating some of
his masterpieces.

We walked down to the harbor, and posed.
The big tree and the house was more or less
like it was back then.

One couldn't help thinking that Åsgårdstrand
could have used more of Munch's art
placed in different parts of
Åsgårdstrand to show how
Munch had seen what we see now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch

Photographs: Barak and/or Cheryl