Tree Hugger

Unky Herb and I have been back from Ås for almost 48 hours and I'm nearly back to pre jetlagging status. It's nice to reflect on the previous twelve days that we spent with our family's tree hugger. We visited her grad school at UMB, a school of 3800 students, where she is pursuing a masters degree in International Environmental Studies. The town of Ås has a population of 16,400 people. It was a small town, but large enough for a train station, two grocery stores and two pizza restaurants.

 We went to spend Christmas with the Prairie Princess treehugger, and to see what Christmas and the winter solstice are like in Norway. We had a good experience living in campus guest accommodations - living space usually used by visiting scholars. We met some of PP's classmates and new friends, all international or Norwegian folk, none American. They were bright and friendly and obviously enjoyed PP's presence and generally up beat character. J.B., the French guy whose English gaffs were guffaw inspiring, and the German, Sophie, who spent quite a bit of her free time with PP.  We also trekked through some Norwegian wild areas and some urban wild spaces in Oslo.

 The erstwhile Prairie Princess doing some tree hugging of a moss encrusted campus tree.
 

The Daughter of Norway in Nordskogen (north woods) near UMB (University of Life Sciences). DoN used the trail here for her nature runs when the weather was a bit more hospitable.

I played my first tennis today since my return and I was a bit rusty at first but managed to recall most of the necessary skills before the afternoon session was over. It was nice to be back on the courts and smacking a few forehands with the other three geezers who showed up to play today.