Salted Snails,,,

No, not another Norskie delicacy, just an easy way to get rid of a pest.
Iberian snails have become a problem here over the last 10 to 15 years. Horrible brown sods which can be up to 12cm long. They do severe damage to gardens, and to make matter worse they have started to cross breed with the local black snails. Maybe they'll produce a super species..
In the meantime, the easiest way to kill them is by sprinkling a little salt on them. Just in case that isn't totally effective, it's best to scoop them up and throw them out of the garden, on to the road, where the local boy racers can squish them.
'She who controls the wildlife in this house', (and that includes me), has just killed the first one this year.
Pity she disposed of it before I thought about the camera, just in case you think this is an April Fools post.
Pictures will follow of the next kill.

Shopping,,,,

God I hate shopping.. Not just a little, but hatred of an extreme kind. And so far I've spent too much of my Easter holiday embroiled in this hideous pastime/punishment.
But thankfully I will get a rest for a few days, since most of the shops are shut now for the next 5 days. Whoopeee :)
I often read on Shetlink about folk panicking if the shops in Shetland are shut for one day. Lord knows how those people would manage in Norway. ;)

End of a nice day

Today started beautifully, and although there was some pain and discomfort to a certain part of my body during the afternoon, the day has ended beautifully as well.

The view I see most when I sit in the couch, and manage to look past the TV, is this one. These are 'my mountains'.

Those mountains are from 20 to 30 kilometres away, but sometimes they are so clear that it looks like I could count the Trolls on them.
Which reminds me, there are rumours going round about a Troll uprising in the local area. Hopefully it won't spread beyond the local area but, you never know. If I hear any more about the rumours I'll post an update here. Most likely on Thursday. ;)

Mountains, Skis, and a sore behind.

Since it was such a beautiful day, we headed to the mountains. On the way I got a picture of one of the avalanche sites in Skorgedalen. It's easy to see where all the trees have been torn away. This avalanche was one of the ones which closed the road through Skorgedalen during the recent snow.

We then headed up to Ørskogfjellet to strap on the skis.
Nothing ambitious, just a little bit of cross country skiing.

I was doing well going uphill, after all it was just a gentle slope, and the view was stunning.

But, thanks to the law of gravity, which states that 'whatever goes up must come down', it was time to try back down this gentle slope.

I was doing reasonably well for an old fart. I managed to stay on my feet some of the time.

Did I mention gravity? Well gravity obviously has little or no respect for me so I had to make use of my primary braking system.

I now find sitting on my primary braking system slightly uncomfortable. Whoever said that snow is soft was a lier.

The West Norway "WOW Factor"

Even after 3 years I still get that WOW feeling sometimes when I look out in the morning:

Spring????

I think I stupidly posted that Spring was here. Well I thought it was until I opened the door this morning, and saw this:

It's snowed most of the day, but thankfully the snow isn't accumulating. It's just a few centimetres, so no problem, unless it snows all night, now that the temperature is almost zero again.

We went to Moa, the big shopping centre near Ålesund today.
She who must be obeyed told me that I needed some new clothes. What is this thing that women have about shopping??? Actually all I needed was some new trousers and shirts for work, but for some reason, which I find hard to understand, she thinks that my butt has to look good in working trousers. Why? I wear a boilersuit anyway. :)
I have to admit that I desperately needed new trousers, following a gaseous incident last week when the result was a hole, and a cold draft in the rear. Must stop eating beans..

On the way to Moa, which is about 56km away, we passed through Skorgedalen where there had been several avalanches with the heavy snow recently. The visibility was crap or I would have got pictures. 1000 metres of devastation to a mountainside, when snow decides to slip, is an impressive sight. If the weather is right tomorrow we're going skiing, which means going that way again, so hopefully pics then.

Mountains in the mist

Took a trip to town today. In Shetland such a trip involved 20 minutes driving on beautifully smooth roads, since I have to admit that Shetland has about the best maintained roads in the UK.
But from Vestnes, a trip to town takes 20 minutes on the Hurtigbåt (fast boat). The journey is about 11km at 27 knots, on a sea which is smoother than any Shetland road.
Today there was mist hanging around the fjord which made the mountains appear mystical, and different in perspective, so it was like seeing it all for the first time.
As a Shetlander I don't think I'll ever lose my fascination for mountains.

I took a video of the crossing, and once I figure out how to add a video here, you'll see it.