June 15, 2012
We awoke in the summer cabin on our last full day in Scandinavia to beautiful sunny weather. That’s our bedroom window at the top!
After breakfast, John took us for a boat ride in his wooden inboard motor boat. It was built in 1950, and I imagine the upkeep is demanding, but it seemed a fitting vessel for our surroundings.
The water was relatively calm, and we spent about two hours puttering around several nearby islands, Norwegian flag flying.
J and I both got a chance to steer the boat for a ways, but it made me nervous, since I could just see myself getting distracted and driving into the rocks. The steering is kind of opposite– you push to the left to go right and vice versa, which was no help, considering my extraordinarily poor spatial skills.
We saw a few fish jumping, and John put out a line with six or seven hooks on it to see if we could catch any mackerel. We didn’t catch anything, but it was interesting to see the method John used– a long length of thick fishing line wrapped around a spool. He let out more than half of the line and then threaded his finger through a pre-tied loop in the line. While the line was in the water, he rhythmically dragged his finger back and forth to give the line some movement. No rod or reel!
Back onshore, we met John’s 85-year-old neighbour who still does all his own boat maintenance. In the shallow water near the shore we found a well-camouflaged starfish.
After returning to the cabin, we packed up our things while John mowed the lawn. We wandered in the garden, which contains several different varieties of fruit trees, along with many wildflowers. One tree has a small swing tied to a sturdy branch.
We left for Stavanger, about an hour’s drive away, at noon. When we arrived at the Jørpeland ferry, there was a lot of traffic, which John and Karen commented was not normal. After some investigation we determined that one of the two ferries was out of commission, so there was only one ferry making the 40 minute crossing. J and I read our books while waiting to board the delayed boat. We all enjoyed some ice cream on the boat.
John and Karen planned a barbeque with their children and grandchildren that evening, and the plan was that J and I would plan and make the food, so when we arrived in Stavanger, John dropped us off at the grocery store with Karen. We planned to make chicken souvlaki and hamburgers, with my favourite spinach, strawberries and goat cheese salad. It took some work to find what we needed in the grocery store, and some questions to figure out what the labels stated, but we eventually found all of the right foods and a snack or two for the trip home tomorrow.
By the time we got back to the house we had about an hour and twenty minutes to get everything organized for the barbeque, so there was no time for a shower or anything, which I sorely needed. It was a little confusing trying to find the right kitchen tools in Karen’s kitchen, but we eventually got rolling and everything was prepared on time.
John and Karen’s youngest daughter, Anne, arrived first with her 3 children and one of her two stepchildren in tow. Her partner was traveling for work, so he was unable to make it. Her three kids are quite young, and don’t really know any English, so they ran around playing in the yard while we chatted with Anne. She is getting married this summer, so before dinner, she tried on her wedding dress for me, which was nice, since I won’t be there for the wedding.
Tore arrived at the same time as his sister, Kjersten, and her partner and daughter. Their son, who is adopted from Ethiopia, was at a party and joined us a little later in the evening. Everyone seemed to enjoy the dinner, so J and I were relieved that our “Canadian” food was a success. After dinner, the weather was getting chilly, so we moved indoors to chat in the living room. I sat with Kjersten, who was soon joined by her daughter, who is almost eleven. It turns out that her daughter speaks quite good English for a Norwegian kid her age, so I talked with her most of the evening. It was fun to hang out with a kid again– I definitely miss that aspect of my life in my job nowadays.
Everyone left shortly after nine, and we were about to go to bed, but John turned on the TV and the Sweden-England UEFA match had just started, so we decided to stay up late and watch, despite the fact that we had to get up at 3:30 am the next day. At the half, we packed our bags and gave John and Karen a little Canadian thank-you gift for having us.
Once the game was over, I checked my email and we both went to bed.
stupid crafts 