Friday, December 23, 2011

Ås and the north woods

Just twenty-four hours can make a big difference in the appearance of a town. Yesterday it snowed an inch or so and when we were in the town center, I took a photo of the train depot. Today it was about 37 degrees and all the new snow disappeared. Yesterday looked Christmasy, today, not so much.



Our adventure of the day today was a walking tour of Nordskogen (the north woods) just next to the UMB campus.  It was cloudy and wet from the melting snow and there was mud and a bit of ice in spots where the sun couldn't shine - in Norway in December, that's quite a bit of territory.  We had fun looking at the  green, green moss on the trees and ground and trying to identify the European trees and other vegetation.   Here the DoN crouches down at a creek in Nordskogen examining some moss or lichens and looking pretty Norwegian in her new hat.


As is usual when trekking with my kids there was a fair amount of joking and horseplay.  Unky Herb wanted video of him bouncing up and down on a fallen log in the forest.  I took this photo just before some video was taken.


The Daughter of Norway (DoN), now sometimes known as the queen of the trolls, wanted her turn on the log, too.  The queen of the trolls on a log in the north woods. I think she's enjoying her Christmas break as much as her brother and her dad.


And a representative view of Nordskogen - the north woods. The trees have a thick layer of moss, I guess because this is a fairly moist area of Europe.  The snow comes and goes.


Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We went to the Ås Kiwi supermarket and stocked up on lefse and lutefisk. The DoN is volunteering to do her best on the lutefisk if I help her eat it. I said I would.  I know I won't be sorry.

3 comments:

Santini said...

I love the train depot photo. It looks very Norwegian, wintry and crisp.

Lutefisk? Well, good luck with that.

What's a Norwegian Kiwi market?

All your photographic subjects appear to be having a good time.

Those woods are lovely, dark and deep.

Jimi said...

The Kiwi is the name of a Norske grocery chain, somewhat like Cub or Piggly Wiggly.

Lutefisk is just processed cod. I usually like cod.

Santini said...

To me, Kiwi means New Zealand-ish. Thanks for the clarification.

Merry Christmas to you and UH and the DoN.