Unnizone

Shortly after we got up , Bjørn went to Sweden to buy groceries. While he was there, I walked the dog, washed clothes and sent some mails. When he came home, it was my time to leave. Aro needed the vet again, he has a lump. A vet we had not used before since we just took the first appointment we could get. She was very sweet and complimented Aro on how cute he is and how well he looks for his age. She used a syringe to take a sample of whatever is inside the lump. When she knows, she will discuss it with Aro's regular vet who also does surgery. She will phone me on Thursday and we will find a way ahead, depending on whether or not it is a benign cyst. We stopped on the way home for a short walk and some water. Drove home, had a quick nibble n then drove to Bjørkelangen to get some cortisone to Aro from the pharmacy and to do the part of the grocery shopping that needs to be done in Norway (Sorry Sweden, Norwegian milk and bread is better). When I came home I had been active for six hours and I was tired. And since the World Championship in football is on, and my wish to see the Norway - Ivory coast game was a little stronger than my desire to boycot the US as I should,, I watched the game. Such a thriller, and Norway won! Later watched France beat Sweden 3 - 0.  The French team is remarkable.

Sooooo warm. Sun from a clear, blye sky. Overwhelming for a Norwegian. Still much nicer than winter!

Started the day with a short stroll with Aro. We had a stop for Aro to do his business, and I stood still, waiting. A big hare came bouncing towards us, completely wrapped up in its own little bubble, so it did not notice us. Only when it was a few meters away, it suddenly became aware of me standing there, turned on its heals and ran back.  Here Aro has become aware of it. The hare is on the photo, but it is at the end of road and impossible to see.

We had a look at my newest garden project, my lawn-in-several-levels-iwith-flowerbeds-inbetween.

Back inside I did a quick crossword puzzle.

Did some hours of housework while Aro rested on his cold-blanket that Bjørn bought for him.

Then I groomed and bathed Aro. He hates both, so that was quite an ordeal. Did it to help him, it will make his fur fluffier, and I bathed him in quite cold water. But he looks upon it as torture.

Bjørn assmbled and tested the new pressure washer. It costed a fortune but we need it to clean our house before we paint it. And we can use it to wash the cars, saving money on the car wash. 

I went on to vacuum clean the house and then more gardening.   Most certainly a day well spent!

My first day as a 57 year old.  I have figured out what goals to have for this year. Some are concrete and practical, others more idealistic.  Summed up, in no particular order, they are:

1. Take a lot better care of myself, and make myself more of a priority.  Make some decisions about the way forward.
2. Never to have a wasted day. Do not need to be fantastic, but something about it should make the day worth the living it.  Less screen time.
3. Be a better teacher.
4. Lose a minimum of 25 kilos. Get in better shape
5. Turn more of the outside chaos in to a garden, and improve what already is here. Kill off unwanted plants.
6. Learn a bit of Thai and Spanish, brush up on my French and German.
7. Be more social when I have the energy. Be better at staying in touch with family, friends, penfriends, mailfriends and what have you.
8. Keep the house in order and get started on some bigger house projects.
9.  Not postpone the boring stuff, get it out of the way fast. 
10. Have more fun: Travels, visit municipalities, go to plays, films, concerts, exhibitions...

So, throwing myself into a new and better life; I got up early today. Had breakfast (oh so healthy and low calorie), and made sure to drink well and take my pills :)

Went for a walk with Aro, and the day has already been worth the living it, for what we came across: Wild strawberries and a viper. The strawberries are sweet,  the viper is venomous, and who can go wrong with an alliterating start of the day. "Venom", by the way, is "gift" in Norwegian. "Gift" is also the word for "married" in Norwegian.  Something that always makes my pupils laugh, and some will always say "Yeah, that makes sense".

Then to the garden center to go on a Bjørn-sponsored  birthday-gift shopping spree! Went to my favourite garden center.  So great just walking around there.

Like everything else, plants have become crazily expensive. But I got a nice selection, and will plant them on the first level of my new garden patch!  Came home, had a break and watched TV while the sun was at its most intense.  Then did close to five hours of gardening. A lot of weeding.... And planting out what I had bought today.  The butterflies love the thyme I planted last summer!

After a couple of hours of weeding, I needed a five minute break. And what could be better than lying flat on my back in the grass?

Quite a bit of weed....

Such nice foliage on the one at the bottom here.

One of the plants I bought today.

Second level.... Slowly getting that part in order also!

First level is looking good!

After close to five hours of gardening, I went in and had the quickest of showers since the Norway - France game in the football World Championship was about to start.   Watched the game and had a much deserved Freixenet Cava!

Norway lost 3 - 1,  but that was  as expected. We are the underdog and met one of the teams likely to win the tournament.  Still very cool to watch.

I have to say that on my first day as a 57 year old, I got off to quite a good start, and it goes towards fulfilling several of the points on that list :)

Drove to Bjørkelangen to post a parcel. Then to Ørje and the vet there because I knew they had bitter-spray. Then to work. Did hours of tidying and threw away kilos of papers. Grocery shopping on the way home.

Started the day by going to the hairdresser. That took two hours and then I had a shrimp sandwich at the cafe before I drove back to Bjørkelangen. Stopped by the vet to hear if they had bitterspray. When Aro was at the vet, they shaved his leg for a blood test again, and of course he is right at it, licking the shaved area around the clock. He is back to wearing a cone, but I will try to spray it with a bitter taste, so he can go without the cone and hopefully still stay away from it.  However, they did not have it. Then to the store that sells lawn mowers, clearing saws and the like. Had a bio clipper fitted to the lawn mower. That will be good. Got back my small electric chainsaw from service. Then - grocery shopping.  Me and Aro went for an evening walk and inspected the garden.

The area that was just shrubberies, bushed and old trees a year back, is slowly becoming a garden patch.

There are four levels where I need plants, this is the top one and it is almost done. Just need some weeding and a few more plants. The second level only has a few plants, so that will be the next project.

Suddenly summer was here. After about nine months when temperatures have been between winter's minus  25 and spring's plus 15, it is quite a shock to the system to suddenly have plus 25.  It takes a few day to get used to it, so today I have been fairly lethargic and have had a head ache. But sooo good to finally have summer and sun.   Did go grocery shopping. For some reason the store was absolutely crazy. Must have been 50 children there.Big families, groups of retired people. The volume was so high, it hurt. Queues in front of every disk. People chatting away, while blocking access to everything. I am known for having unlimited patience.  But if I had needed ten more minutes at the grocery store today, I would have lost my mind.

The pupils in the class I have had made a buffet with food from their home countries.  We had a nice breakfast / lunch together.

So many nice words were spoken. And some were written....

I will not teach them next year, and we were all a little sad about that. Took an hour and very many hugs to say goodbye. I will miss them, they ave been a good gang.

Then some time to do last day things. Before the hardest part of the day - a goodbye part for one of my very favourite colleagues. We started on the same day in 2013, we have been in the same teachers' room for five years.  he is one of the kindest, friendliest and funniest people I have ever come across. I will miss him terribly. As will many others, so there was a lot of tears as we all said goodbye.  I will make sure to stay in touch with him and invite him home. But work will not be the same now.

Truly an emotionally exhausting day. Home late, dead tired.

There are a few fields on this property, this is my favourite.

-  "No, Aro. You are not coming with me to the bathroom. Leave!".

-  "Hmpf".

Bought this today! Then did an awful lot of lawn mowing.