A little bit of Sunshine!

.......and it comes from South Africa, didn`t know oranges were that good this time of year. :)

Muscari

 A lovely view for my morning tea! The flowers have such a heavenly colour. Spring is on the way :)

My baby has left

Leaving school and starting your studies away from home is one of the most  exciting things to do in life. This is what I have to think about every time my baby leaves back to SA to carry on with her Bachelor of Fine Art. Firstly she is privileged to be so talented and we even more privileged to have her. After lazing in my couch for almost 2 months now. I know she is all loaded up to have the time of her life!

LOVE YOU KAJA!

Streptocarpus

Such a brilliant little flower which has almost orchid status for me. Just before Christmas we had freezing temperatures in Oslo. One of my favorite shops www.mestergronn.no had this flower but I did not buy it in fear of it not surviving the trip home (-22 degree C that day) It has also the most amazing foliage which makes packing in really tricky! Hope they manage to get this gem of a plant in again. This picture borrowed from http://www.gesneriads.ca/strep271.htm 

On a little hiking trip in a beautiful place called Nature`s Valley in the Eastern Cape I found this little gem growing on hard stoney ground right next to our path. It is just as exciting seeing it in it real habitat! I love the Eastern cape for exactly that reason! 

Cape Primrose

Purple boards

This picture is taken in daylight and shows a truer colour than the rest. ie the purple is slightly bluer.

When I started crafting black boards was one of the funnest things I made. 

I haven`t quite gotten over them yet :) These are new boards which are for sale on my site http://epla.no/shop/solbakken/

Spring flowers

My first little wait for spring flowers to flower is the Muscari, love this plant. Hope I can get the bulbs to survive until the frost is gone so I can plant them in my garden in spring time. Since we dug up all round our house I don`t have much hope of seeing many bulbs popping up then. So I have to brace myself to see the spring flowers until spring 2012. Which makes me think of the garden I just left in the Eastern Cape of SA, where despite awful drought my aloe lit up my garden in the middle of winter.

...the bird I then watched from my balcony was sunbirds, they just love this flower!

New kitchen lights!

So chuffed to find such practical lighting and sooo cheap! Yeah! thanks to Home & Cottage Kr159,-

Finally I can take down my advent light and still see what I am doing!

Today`s word of wisdom

Yesterday is History
Tomorrow is Mystery
Today is a Gift
That is why it is called
Present!

Kung Fu Panda

Flag Woodpecker

It really has been very cold for birds, it is amazing they manage this weather. Here is one of my regular guest, he can eat one of these balls of seeds in a day! Hungry maybe?

This tree is probably why he the woodpecker likes to be in my garden. And one of the reasons I bought this house with my family. I love old trees, this one is at least 15m high maybe even close on 20m. 

Smash the gingerbread "house" or in our case the Eiffel tower!

Have to take a moment and brag about the fantastic cooks in this house! 

This Eiffel tower was 1,2 m high. 

In the new year the gingerbread "house" gets smashed and eaten.

Well I regret demolishing it, it was so brilliant

The little dude is a character to a cartoon my kids watch Phineas and Ferb.

Again surprisingly well done :) Uma.

Hmmm, thinking :)

As a sweet girl pointed out, it looks like you have thought bubbles!

What a sweet notion :)

Årets første håndlagde produkt/ This year`s first craft

Woolen slippers sewn in felt, 12cm long. I have joined something called epla.no which is the Norwegian version of Etsy.com. It is fun but it will take time to figure out what is popular. My shop on epla is called "solbakken" here is the link http://epla.no/shops/solbakken/ So hopefully this is going to be a productive year :)

Godt Nytt År/ Happy New Year everybody!!!

2010 has been a year with great changes for us. Moving from  South Africa to Norway. All that was taken in our stride and actually very exciting. This year though I go into with a little trepidation as to what it will bring. The older I get the more I worry about everyones health and well being, I take it less and less for granted. I also start the year unemployed, what a stupid word, I have more than enough to do. But I need to arrange it in a manner that I get in some cash :)
My little encouragement for 2011 is "may your burdens be light"