Bird Stupidity, Shalder Style

Shalder is the Shetland name for the Oyster Catcher. It's Norwegian name is Tjeld. (It's difficult to explain how the Norwegian name is pronounced, but it sounds a bit like "Tchell", which is likely the root of the Shetland name.)
But in any language, it has to be the stupidest bird that ever flapped a wing... Although maybe that's not true, because I haven't got round to a post I meant to do about the Magpie yet.

Anyway, here's Sammy the Shalder, just over a week ago, sitting on a digger bucket, at the building site next door to us.

As I said in my last post, the weather here changes quickly. So 9 days on, here he/she is again, sitting in the middle of the building site.

Now, why would a bird be sitting in the middle of a building site? Simple.

Now if that ain't stupid, what is?

Yun's aa fir enoo.
;)

Summer has arrived

On Tuesday morning I was contemplating thermal underwear because it was below freezing when I went to work. But, typical of Norway, things can change very fast, and today we were bathing in the glory of +20C.
This, of course, could mean only one thing, since I had a day off. Hard Work...
But before I did anything I sat down on a chair before the door, and had a look at the smaller things in life. Yes, more macro photography.

Damned ants are everywhere.

First job of the day was to move our satellite dish on to the new ground mount I had made. And although the mount is heavy and weighed down by about 150KG of concrete slabs, I know that it would never be able to stand up to a Shetland gale, but it'll do nicely here since there's never any wind, unless I've been eating beans.

But after this I had to set my sights a bit higher. And 'she who also carries a camera everywhere' took the 'bum shot' for today. Me up a ladder trying to clear the downpipe from the guttering.

While I was up there, and since I always have a camera on my belt, I got this nice view over the marina.

And an aerial view of our current gardening project, including my newly relocated dish.

Then we headed off to the garden centre near Tresfjord to buy some plants. The view east across the fjord from there is rather nice.

And here's the view north towards Molde. In the middle of the picture is Skorgenes, and to the right Vikebukt.

So, home with a car load of plants, shrubs, bushes, and a dear little bronze deer which I bought as an early birthday present for my peerie Trowie. Damned thing weighed nearly 40kg, so like the satellite dish, I don't think it'll blow away in a hurry.

Some of these small shrubs which we're buying in pots have a tendency to grow rather quickly. And, as an example, here's a picture of one that was just a pot plant 15 years ago. It's about 12 feet high now.

Some of the plants we bought are the start of a rockery feature to fill in a dead corner in the garden. I sat back and enjoyed the sunshine whilst 'she who gardens' got busy.

After she'd finished, this was the result.

Some of the small flowers, which I thought looked like sea anemones, and which I haven't a clue what they are, have an unusual historical use here. Because these plants have a lot of water in them, they used to be planted around the chimneys of grass roofed houses here to reduce the risk of fire from stray sparks from the chimney.

Anyway, that's all for this post, although I have another post about the stupidity of a local Shalder (Oyster Catcher)

Trondheim Trip - Part 4

After the doctors stopped playing about with my innards, and after they were happy that I was suffering no ill effects from the anesthetic, I escaped from St Olav's Hospital. And, having not eaten for about 14 hours, we paid a visit to the Cafe Dublin for lots of food. It's a nice place, and as can be seen from the sign, top left in this picture, it's easy to find the toilet.

 Then we hit the road, but not before I did my good deed for the day by helping a very nice, very blonde lady, who had completely failed in her attempts to park her car in the same car park as us. She had got to the stage of complete mirror entanglement, but to give her her due she hadn't damaged anything, and thankfully I didn't damage anything when I unwittered (Shetland word which fits, and has no sensible English translation) her car for her.

Anyway, on the road, and heading south on the E6. Near Trondheim there just isn't anything that could be called a mountain, but there are some weird looking hills.

And as we slowly climbed on the way south the rivers looked nice, but I bet they were cold.

The valleys all look the same, and I have to admit get boring after a while.

But if you look carefully at that picture you'll see the railway. Along which I happened to snap, whilst on the move, this rather interesting railway station.

As we got higher, the river looked increasingly colder.

Until we reached the summit of the road, on the roof of Norway at Dovrefjell. Height above sea level is 1026.1 metres, and here's the marker to prove it.

The roads over the mountains are reasonably good, and fairly straight since it's basically a flat plateau. Here's a couple of scenes from the area.

It's certainly bleak country, yet absolutely fascinating.Then we started coming back down to more sensible levels, and the roads started twisting around the mountains again, which is where we encountered warning signs like this.

Obviously a danger of running into a damned great star in the middle of the road. ;)

Anyhow, the next post on this trip should be the last, covering the section from Dombås to home, with some really sinister shots of the mountains in Romsdalen.

Yun's aa fir enoo.
:)

Why I love Norway

Well, there is another reason, but she's camera shy.

And I thought Britain had some stupid ideas....

Just to show that Britain isn't the stupidest country in the world, and Lord knows I never thought I would say this, but Norway has just taken the golden crown for stupidity.
This relates to cars, and their use, etc... Britain has the MOT test which has to be performed every year, and in theory that can be done on the date, eg. 365 days after the last test, or earlier if you prefer.
But in Norway, as usual, things are a bit different. So I got a letter from the authorities today telling me that Honey the Honda was overdue for her EU Kontroll, (equivalent of the MOT).
Now, this test is only performed every 2 years, and since I bought the car at the end of May 2008, I had just been thinking about it, and thought I'd see to it at the end of the month.
Now, having trawled through the pages of the highways department, I find that the due date for the test is defined by the last digit of the registration number, in my case 4, which means month 4, April. Sadly for me, that page is one of the many which isn't translated into English (or Shetland).
Never mind, they give a month for the test to be done from the time they issue the warning letter, so situation normal as far as I'm concerned. And being the awkward old sod that I am, I'll get it done to my schedule, as originally planned.
Though, there is one good point about getting a car tested in Norway. Apparently the testing stations are well regulated, and honest, which is a damned sight more than could be said about MOT testing stations in Shetland, or Britain in general, which rely for their profits on conning innocent individuals into expensive repairs which are not needed.

Car rant over ;) ;) LOL

Trondheim Trip - Part 3

Gamle Bybru (Old Town Bridge) is by far the best bridge over the river. I used to be able to lift for ships, but it is now fixed, although they have retained some of the workings of the lift purely for decoration.

From the bridge there is a good view of the buildings on either side of the river, downstream.

And upstream. Note the floating cafe pontoon.

The main reason for crossing the river here was to go up to the fort., Kristiansten Festning. It's a fairly steep uphill walk, but well worth the effort.

Building of the fort was completed in 1685. The defensive tower, called Donjonen, which stands atop the fort, originally had cannons on the top 2 floors, and a powder room in the basement. The wall of the building which faces the river, on the right in the picture, is 4 metres thick. There are quite a few cannons around the fort walls, some of which work, and are fired to mark special occasions, such as a royal birth.
Here's the info board which shows the layout of the fort, sadly the vandals have been at it.

This is part of the inside of the fort wall.

The fort offers excellent views over the town, even on a dull day like this one was.
This view is looking towards the Norwegian University of Science and Technology which is an impressive building.

And this shot looks towards the St Olav Hospital complex, which I've become all too well acquainted with in recent months.

 Looking towards the Kirk.

And a view towards the harbour area.

 This view shows Munkholmen (The Monks Holm), which lies about 1.5km offshore. The island and the building on it, has in the past been, an execution site, a fort, a monastery, and a German anti-aircraft installation during WWII. It is now a museum. I'll maybe get a trip out to the island when I go back next time.
The coast on the other side of the fjord, in the distance, is about 20km away.

And, then back into town across that nice bridge again, here's a closer shot of the arches on it.

Yun's aa fir enoo.

Sweeties

Well, maybe not sweeties, but that's what was on the customs declaration label. And as far as I'm concerned they are sweeties.
Norway has, in my opinion, two serious culinary drawbacks. Firstly it's impossible to find an OXO cube, or anything with a flavour anywhere near it. And secondly, God knows how this country survives without Gravy Salt.
So many many thanks to a very dear person who sent me a supply of the aforementioned culinary necessities.

Now for some serious cooking..... LOL.