Happy Birthday - Willie Nelson

Willie Hugh Nelson, born 29th(*see note at bottom of post) April 1933 in Abbott, Texas.
The true founder of outlaw country music

He's 78 years old, still touring the world for most of the year, and showing no signs of slowing down. Hopefully he'll be back in Norway really soon.

Here's a video of him with Melonie Cannon, singing a song which Willie wrote, and which I'm fairly sure is the reason that I live in Norway now.
Enjoy.


*  The bit I mentioned about his birth date.
It's actually quite funny, and I'm sure I've told this a thousand times to anybody who would listen.
Willie always celebrated his birthday on the 29th of April, until he joined the army and had to get a copy of his birth certificate. He was surprised to find that the certificate showed the 30th as his birth date. Assuming that this was correct he continued for many years to celebrate his birthday on the 30th, until an aunt who had been present at his birth assured him that he had been born several minutes before midnight, but the doctor, for one reason or another, hadn't looked at his watch until after the hour had turned.
Most folk would be confused by a situation like this, but not Willie. Just like the Queen of England, Willie celebrates 2 birthdays. LOL

Anyway, Happy birthday to the greatest singer/songwriter who ever dared to step across all the boundaries of country music,,, and most other musical genres, when I come to think of it.

Yun's aa fir enoo.

First Tulip,,,

The first Tulip in our garden opened today,,, a beauty. :D :D

Everything is growing quickly, thanks to the higher temperatures. Yesterday it got up to 22.1C. The best today has been 21.7C, but that's warm enough for me.

Eventually got round to changing from winter to summer wheels on the car today.. I only had to do half the job since there was a willing slave available. ;)

It only took us about 15 minutes.. Which is still a helluva lot slower than the 6 seconds it takes an F1 team to change the wheels of a racing car.

Onywye,
yun's aa fir enoo.

Summer is here.... Hip, Hip Hooray.....

Slowly but surely Summer crawled out of the fog this morning..

I was up early, before 7am actually, looked out the door, and all was grey. Early morning mist, which decided to become late morning mist, and with a temperature of about 6C.
But as the sun rose higher the mist was burned off and I made a conscious decision that it was time for me to wake from my winter hibernation and do a couple of small jobs outdoors.
First was to take apart a wooden grating which had originally been in the bottom of our shower and had been left outside until I got round to salvaging the boards for future use. (Shetlanders never waste wood).

Because of where the wooden structure had been leaning against the wall it had attracted a few squatters. Although I don't know if squatters is the right term, since they actually had their own houses with them, on their backs..... Yup, snails.
I quickly came up with a plan for them.. A snail race. (I tried the same thing last year)
Here they are lined up for the start.. Note, I put the ones with the go-faster stripes in front, since stripes on cars are supposed to make them faster...

Due to a complete failure of macro photography, and the fact that William Hill refused to offer decent odds on the outcome of the race, there are no more photos of this event.. But let me assure you that if you see somebody with stripes on their car.... It's just for show, or they maybe have a very small 'cubic capacity'. :D

The sun got hot enough during the afternoon that I erected the 'parasol' above the 'Reekerie Ooterie' (outdoor smoking area, for anybody that hasn't read my crap before).

And I settled down beneath it's shade for a relaxing beer. My first 'Garden Beer' this year.

OK... I can see what's wrong with that picture as well.. But the glass is the right size. :D
I had a wander around with the camera in the late afternoon and took a series of pics over the fjord, one of which is now my header picture, because it had a fast boat in it. Here's a slightly slower version of the same picture.

So, all in all a nice day for the first day of Summer...
BUT!!!!
Summer means gardening... The plant in this picture had been in a pot which was broken by frost. The bush survived, and rather than bung it in a pot again we decided to give it a decent burial. Not easy when there is only 5cm of soil, but after a bit of time a hole was dug, some words were said (not nice ones I hasten to add), and the 'mystery seedling' was laid to rest within 10cm of the point designated by 'her who has the garden planned'.

I think there could be more posts on this 'grand gardening master plan' in the future. Assuming I can understand/can translate/can tolerate what I'm being told to do.....

Onywye,
yun's aa fir enoo.
Mair sharn anidder nicht.
:D :D

Sometimes nothing happens as it should...

The forecast said warm and sunny for today. WRONG!!!!
I hoped our first Daffodils would open. WRONG!!!! (They just looked sad and gave up)

And then there was the poor little sparrow who is building a nest in one of our ventilators. He's having a helluva problem finding dry nesting materials. And what he does find just don't seem as though it will fit through the entrance, so the poor guy ends up hovering like a Humming Bird, wondering if he's going to make the same mistake I made when I bought a motorbike which had handlebars wider than the shed door....
I think this is the first time I've ever seen a sparrow imitating a Humming Bird, and certainly the first time I had a camera in my hand.

Onywye,
yun's aa fir enoo.

Summer is coming,,, fast..

After weeks and weeks of miserable weather, there is hope at last.
Yesterday was yet another day when it was so wet that the sparrows, who are keen to get on with their mating, were just sitting around under the bushes, sheltering from the rain, and picking hopelessly at anything they thought might be dry enough for nesting material.
We are on holiday from the work just now for Easter, so I was available to run the wife to the hospital at Ålesund yesterday for an appointment. I had hoped to get a few pictures worth posting during the trip, but as usual the weather said NO!.
Me and Jeemie did a little bit of shopping at Moa while Trowie was terrorizing her doctor. Kinda glad she wasn't with us for two reasons. Firstly, one more person in that damned shopping centre and it would have burst at the seams. Secondly, like most wives, she's a pain in the butt when it comes to shopping. :D :D 
On the way home the weather started to clear up and by early evening, although the clouds were still hanging down to about 500 metres, there was a glimpse of sunshine on the mountains in the distance.

Today the temperature slowly crept up to 14.7C, the rain stayed away for a change, and the flowers and birds are starting to behave like they should at this time of year.
It's fine to be able to wander out in the garden at night now with just a light jacket on. Especially when there has been enough sunshine to charge up the solar lights along our garden path.

Hopefully the next pictures I post will be of our first Daffodils... Maybe tomorrow...

Onywye,
Yun's aa fir enoo.

Happy 21st Birthday....

To
"Honey The Honda"

First registered on 4th April 1990. Honda 2.0L Accord
She's been the best behaved female in my life for 3 years now. She seldom complains, even when I treat her like a rally car on the mountain roads,,, unlike my regular co-driver (the wife) who always complains about my rally style driving. God, you should have heard her when I drove through the east road of Yell at speed... LOL
But, back to the birthday girl.
She's coming up to 300,000km on the clock now. All the electrics still work. And she starts at the first turn of the key. She is without a doubt the most reliable vehicle I have ever had the pleasure to drive, and some of those drives have been rather long, including 750km last June with only one short break because the human contents of this amazing vehicle couldn't hold their water any longer.

Here's a couple of pictures of the birthday girl.
1st on a gravel forest road.

And this one 1500m above sea level at Dalsnibba last summer.

Admittedly, a few hours after that picture was taken she suffered from a slight incontinence problem due to a burst radiator hose, which you can read about here.

I have a feeling that this car is very likely to outlive me... Since it's basically in better condition.. And a helluva lot less rusty.
So if you're reading this with a glass, or cup in your hand, please raise it and join me in wishing Honey the Honda a very happy 21st birthday.

Yun's aa fir enoo.

The weather is improving

Slowly but surely spring is arriving.
I was up early this morning. It was such a beautiful morning that I had to go out with the camera.

Spring is having it's usual effect on the birds. They've started building nests under the edge of the roof.

This one even posed for a picture about 3 feet from me.

The flowers are also starting to come out.

In the afternoon we decided to take a little run in the car. Some clouds had started to hide the best of the sun. But even Tomrefjord looked quite nice today.

This ships was lying next to the STX shipyard. Big ain't it....

We took a run round through Fiksdal. This little mountain always looks impressive when it still has some snow on it. It's not very high, but it sure is impressive.

Onywye.
Yun's aa fir enoo.

Music post... A true classic

As usual on a Saturday night I end up watching music videos on Youtube.
Mostly I'm searching for Willie Nelson videos. But sometimes I search for Johnny Cash. And tonight I found this one from one of Johnny's 1970 TV shows.
Johnny Cash and Burl Ives. Both American legends. But on the same stage,,,, just magic. Enjoy.


Sorry if my posts have been a bit few and far between lately, but there just isn't much happening here, and the weather has been absolute crap.
But there is a big event happening on Monday. A 21st birthday celebration for one of the nicest members of the family. I think I can safely say that she's the only female member of the family which has never given me any real problems or grief.
So check back on Monday to see which one of my women I'm talking about. ;)