Pages

Sunday 3 June 2007

Busy weekend

First I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has left a comment on my previous post. I have had a rather busy weekend, and have not been able to reply yet, but I hope to do that sometime tomorrow :o)
My tutor/professor had invited me to come along on an excursion he arranged for his students yesterday. The bus took us about two hours away to the city of Hamar, where we had a lot of fun going to the ruins of a cathedral from the middle of the 12th century and tracing the outlines of the medieval city with the museum director and one of the state archivists as local guides.


We had a wonderful lunch on the beach of the largest lake in this country - Mjøsa - while the professors held a reading from a 16th century chronicle and a lecture on the way of life in the area in the middle ages.


From there we went to what probably must have been one of the most expensive to build of the Norwegian parish churches in the middle ages, and the best preserved of the ones who remain. The church is absolutely beautiful and worth a visit.


We even managed to get in a boat ride to a tiny island in the lake where Norwegian king Håkon Håkonssen built a small fortress in the 1230es. There is not much remaining of the building, but we got an idea of the dimensions from the little there is left.


I did manage to stitch a little on the bus, and about twenty minutes before we were back at the university after our 12 hour trip, I finished a red and white block for Claire and Quilts for Leukaemia. Summer has finally arrived here, and sitting outside and enjoying the sun after breakfast this morning I managed to stitch yet another one:


I had planned on making a dent in the list of remaining SBS blocks today, but with the nice weather, and one of the ladies who were on the excursion yesterday promoting an open air play who had its last day running today, I made my way outside. I met up with a friend down the street and we walked down to the Botanical Garden where this play took place.

The play was part of the celebration of this being the 300 year aniversary of the birth of Swedish sientist Carl von Linné. It was perhaps not the greatest of plays, but it was really enjoyable as a Sunday afternoon entertainment. From the garden we made our way down to the river that runs trough the city and ended up at an outdoors restaurant about half an hours walk from where I live. We had a wonderful meal, and the clocke ticked onto seven before I returned home.

Now, I know at least Butterfly and Rose have been a bit concerned about my SBS; and for them I here document that I actually have stitched an SBS block tonight:


This is the F-2: Fool's Puzzle. I managed to hand stitch the arcs while “watching” one of my favourite films: While you were sleeping. And then I pieced the block together while I had another of my favourite DVDs running: For richer or Poorer. This should make the stitching time about four hours…

Sorry this turned into a rather long post, but this was the short version of a weekend crammed with loads happening :o)

In hope for a good week,
Sincerely, Anne

6 comments:

Simonetta said...

Thank you for your beautiful photos! Have a good week :)))

meggie said...

You did have a busy weekend! Lucky you, to get to see those ruins.
Lovely stitching as usual.

Rose Johnston said...

Firstly, i love ur blocks Anne, ur work is always so lovely!!!
Thank u so much for sharing ur weekend with us, ur part of the world is soooooo beautiful and so full of history and culture. Its amazing to imagine u strolling thru ruins that date back to the 1230's, australia is such a young country!!
Id love to visit and see all these amazing buildings and to sit back and watch the people!!!! but im sure id need months and months to truly appreciate everything!!!
take care sweetie
Rose xxx

The Chicken Lady said...

What great pictures and stories about your weekend! I had to laugh about the largest lake part. We live on Lake Michigan, not the largest of our great lakes, but big. I come from the west coast and the Pacific Ocean, but people here compare their lakes to the Ocean. Um, no. It's not the ocean, and I don't care if you can't see land on the other side! :)

Tone Yvonne said...

Hi, Anne
I see that you've been quite active this weekend :o). Come to think of it, you're always seems to have some kind of project going on ;o). Love your SBS blocks, really delightful.

Keep going girl...;oP

Susan said...

What a delightful break from stitching. We all need to do that from time to time.