Princess Bride or Reisen til Julesternen!
Is this the dress for the big day? Just a bit hard to breath in it! oops…! I lost my magic wand. Where is my prince?? (the one with blue eyes and dark hair…) 
Archive for February, 2006
Winter showed up but failed to stay , Spring is on its way
It is funny how having spent the fall in Norway (where it was not cold), I came back here in January and it has been mild ever since. I feel as if I have had no winter. Of course, we have just had a few days of extreme cold (-13/-20oC) but it lasted barely a week. Now in the morning the birds are singing as if it was April. Cardinals and chickadees, chip, twit. It is so loud out there.
I am a season person. I like the four definite seasons: spring, winter, summer, autumn. It wasn’t until I came to the US that this ingrained knowledge was disturbed. First, in most part of the US, the summer is synonymous with hot and humid. Unbearable. Then the winters can be very cold with blizzard scorching your skin. Like Iowa. Then in between there are those wimpy half seasons that last for maybe a month.
Having said that, in Pennsylvania, we had the most beautiful Indian summers. It was a beautiful sight every October. And the weather could still be warm as the forest would lit up in a myriad of golds, reds, and yellows. I loved it! It was my source of inspiration for 4 years. I sincerely miss State College, PA. The only place I could see myself live in, in the US.
There is little natural inspiration in Iowa. There just is not. Even the parks available offer nothing but entangled shrubs full of spiders and poison oak and ivy, to which I am very allergic. No fun to be had in the woods around here. Nope.
For someone who likes nature this can be a problem. For me nature does not need to be spectacular, by far. I favor it cosy and non threatening. Cushioning. Like Switzerland or Alsace, where I grew up. At least for an every day experience. I love to go to places that take my breath away though. Like the French Alps for example. It was wonderful in Chatel (Haute Savoie) in December. The thick snow, the sun, the blue sky. Or Norway by the fjords, Hardanger, Hardanger vidda.