Ok I’m going over to morsmål for the next bit of the day so my mum can understand. I want to tell you about Eldbjørg who I met today and when you see her in this picture you may understand why.

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I knew from the few words I spoke with her on the phone that I wanted to meet her, I could even hear from the sound of her car when she picked me up from the camping place this morning.
On the table at her house was a massive teapot with a Sami tea cosy plus a load of the most delicious looking bread and buns which I was sadly forced to eat in order not to offend her and her family.
Where to start?
When she was a girl they used to wash the house every Saturday. In every room in the house there was a picture from the bible and as her aunt moved from room to room she would shout out to the kids and they would come in to hear the story that went with each picture. And she told it exactly the same each time otherwise the kids would complain.
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When she was 7 she got a growth in her throat and had to lie completely still to avoid a lot of pAin. They had to watch her even through the night as the growth might suffocate her at any moment. She liked it best when her grandmother took the job as then she told stories nonstop.

This grandmother had a herd of reindeer and she and her sister milked them. They were dependent on their dogs to round them up every day and separate the mums for the calves, quite a hard job you might think but perhaps even reindeer mums like a bit of time away from the kids. In any case they did it every day and after three hours their udders were full of milk and they would milk them. but they only got a cup of milk from each one but it was incredibly creamy. Then they made it into cheese but they didn’t eat the cheese as we would do in a sandwich. no they put it in their coffee like Tibetans put butter in their tea!

Ok only one more amazing story then I must go to bed after the camping people have just given me a delicious sei steak and lots more stories of draugen.
This is a true story.
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here you see the birch trees. They have a disease and the leaves are all eaten up of some kind of bug or worm Eldbjørg told me. Terrible you might think when you see the whole forest brown and lacking in leaves. And then you hear that the leaves fall down on to the forest floor and the bugs eat all the blueberries, a tragedy for berry loving Norwegians!

But actually no. What it means is that the birds get happy. Masses of food for the birds and they can lay two sets of eggs. And this happens regularly, about once every ten years she says.

5 thoughts on “

  1. What a wonderfull trip 🙂 I am planning to take with my daughter and dog to Åndalsnes tomorrow. I have to by the tickets, but I will absolutely read your stories as soon as I can. This cheese eating with coffee is known among us Finns too. We call it “leipäjuusto” bread cheese. You may google the pictures. It is really delicious and we eat it also with cloud berry jam. If you happen to hear stories about sea mammals, so please keep me in mind. We will travel int hte beginning of August to Andenes and participate in Whale Safari….Thank you for linking me with you amazing stories, all the best Heli

  2. Looks like you’re having a ball ! Lovely weather to hang out in the woods !! Greetings Gert-Jan and Ellen.

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