Updating

Ok, wow it has nearly been a year since my last post - amazing what happens when I start writing so much for work and forget about doing so as a hobby!

Time is flying - this year restarting the garden has been a blur because the Spring has been so warm. All the plants went in early and we will soon be harvesting - well before Autumn anyways. We've expanded this year, particularly to include potatoes, squash and several trials with other veggies.

A couple photos from the garden last week (everything has grown even more in the meantime since now we are finally getting some rain).

 Here is an overview of a bit more than half of our garden, behind us are just beets, lettuce and some herbs. Potatoes at the forefront here.

 Rolf build planter boxes around the existing bed of strawberries then made several new for different veggies. The rhubarb plant in this pic travelled in hand luggage on a plane from Rolf's mom's garden in Rossvøll (thanks for sending it down Randi!).

Last week the potatoes began flowering and they are just continuing to thrive. I read recently that if you sow 8 potatoes you harvest around 90, well we sowed around 30 - so we may need some help eating the harvest! (by the way, these potatoes were a complete experiment, I had accidentally bought a bag from the grocery store not knowing we had a full one at home, tossed it into the pantry and forgot - a month later they had grown sprouts of several inches, so we put them in the soil, and voila!).

We also got a pet in the garden - this frog plus family live under the walking plants we put down.

This weekend we took our brand new electric car out to the garden. We bought it last week in anticipation of Rolf's commute after the summer. It is a Citroen C-zero, fully electric and super fun to drive.

Finally, here is a link to a little video clip from Rolf's phone-self-documentary series "Rolf and Melissa explore the world" - showing us in our new boat out on a lake just outside Oslo a few weeks ago while the weather was so warm. (Sorry it is in Norwegian, but the gist is just showing our new boat, all the baggage room, then the scenery of the lake and some islands to be explored and the place we will eat a picnic with homemade rhubarb jam later in the day).

Video - Rolf and Melissa in Østmarka

The shortest distance between two points...

is a straight line. In this case I picked an extra stop on the very long straight line that connects where I am to the next conference destination, Brisbane, Austrailia.

India-Austrailia 2013

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

So my travel itinerary has me stopping over in India for 5 days to visit a dear friend and colleague, Amritha. We will take a train together from Delhi to the Himalayas (Uttarakhand) to visit a village where we may be collaborating on some design work in collaboration with an NGO there. Afterwards I take a daytrip to Chandigarh to see what happened when chaotic Indian culture hit modernist city planning. After another day in Delhi I will continue to Austrailia over Singapore - where on my return trip, I hope to get out of the airport for a few hours and see a bit of the city.

In Austrailia I'll be in a young planners workshop followed by an international conference. I won't have a lot of spare time but hope to see some kangaroos!

Moved-in

There's nothing quite like the 'in-laws' coming to visit for motivation to get the apartment in order. Even more so when they call to say their road trip is ahead of schedule and they'll be arriving a full 24 hours before expected! So, after a super initiative between Rolf and I, the boxes are unpacked and disposed of, the floors are cleaned, shelves organized, and apartment is overall quite livable. Granted, we didn't have time to wash the windows, but since it could be a while before we're this organized again, I decided to retake photos of the apartment.

entry area

view from front door

living room #1 (room naming suggestions welcome!)

living room #1 - wall we use as a projector screen

view from kitchen

kitchen, we still have to tile the backsplash

kitchen

kitchen

living #2, or "pink tile room," or "hammock room" - will be reconfigured for 'coziness' in the winter

wide hallway? this will become more desk space when the pink tile room is reconfigured :)

bedroom

window from bedroom

..and finally, where I'm sitting right now (in the wide hallway off the pink tile room), this will be updated a bit after summer!

 Happy 4th to folks back in the US, good summer to everyone! :)

Our first harvest... Jerusalem Artichokes

We haven't had our garden parcel for very long, but last night we dug up a bunch of Jerusalem Artichokes - which we've inherited from whoever abandoned the parcel over a year ago. It's a nice way to start out the gardening experience - with produce!

I think I had heard the name of this root vegetable before, but I had never tried Jerusalem Artichokes before coming to Norway. It turns out that they are native here, and considered an invasive species in much of the world, but making a bit of a comeback as a food staple. Jerusalem Artichokes were what Norwegians lived off of before the potato - which is pretty incredible to think that the potato is not native here when plays such a big role in the local diet.

I am a big fan of these guys - they're tastier and somewhat healthier than potatoes, and it turns out that they basically grow on their own. No worries about pests or watering or wintering here. We brought this small pile home with us to cook up as home-fries this morning, planted at least as many and gave another pile to a garden neighbor. And that isn't the end of them - we actually haven't gotten down much finesse with the harvesting procedure so are certain to have missed a ton of them which I'm sure will pop up erratically through the year, outside of the neat rows we attempted to lay.

When digging, they are completely covered and hidden by the soil, so our method was to 'harvest' all the ones that the shovel happened to slice through - because then you notice the bright white interior. These have survived at least one winter in the earth and didn't rot.. It will be interesting to see how many we get next year!

Our next apartment and its oddities...

Living in rental apartments has it's pluses and minuses, but at some point there comes a bit of a temptation to have a place that you can actually alter - find projects in and make the place your own. Rolf and I have found what we hope will be the best of both worlds - we're renting an apartment with a bit of (slightly eccentric) soul, but more importantly with owners who are willing to support us in bettering the place!

So, I picked up the keys today and spent a couple hours looking around at the details, photographing, thinking about how we can make the place ours. Some of the details there now are great, others less so. I don't have any answers yet -- the apartment itself has really evolved over time (the building dates to around 1850!), and I think the best we can do is to continue that evolution, slowly over time. Of course, there are a couple of things that I am itching to rebuild/replace right away, but we'll see how it works out. We move officially on Sunday and I imagine it will take a few weeks of arranging, selective shopping and installations before we feel settled in. But for now, a few 'before Rolf & Melissa' pictures of the place - (apologies in advance for soft blurriness - I didn't realize my camera was set to manual focus for half of the shooting! ..and just maybe I should be wearing my glasses more often than I do.)

The apartment is really big for us - entry, 2 living rooms, kitchen, bed, bath, and this dining room.

This half of the kitchen is not particularly Rolf-friendly.

I can't decide if this room wants to be a living room or a dance lounge.

This 'hall' space off living room 2 may as well be another room.

We're not sure what is in the space behind that door...

It's quite a feat to find an apartment in Oslo with a bathtub..

I'm not sure why the toilet gets its own room.

I dig (some) wallpaper.

Wood construction is nice! This old tongue and grooved cross member is actually just decorative though.

Allotment garden!

Thanks to a tip from a dear fellow-gardening friend, we got our own garden plot this year at an allotment garden on the edge of the city. It's spring here now, the days are getting warmer, the sun is still shining at 9pm, plants are starting to green - it's an exciting time. The garden plot is (almost unbelieveably) the same size as our current apartment - around 500 square feet. However, we, along with nature, are in transition mode - we move to a new apartment (still in Oslo) next week, nearly doubling our living space... More on that and our efforts there later, but for now - a quick picture of the gardening work ahead of us.

 

The allotment gardens are called 'Eterjordet', and are tucked into the edge of the forest by a large lake in Oslo (Østensjø). Nearby are lots of ducks, hiking paths, and a bird preserve. The kind lady who has been running these gardens for the last 20 years or so gave us one warning when we arrived concerning pests - translating something like: "we have brown snails, 2-leggeds, and roe deer." Since the forest paths are public and there is no fencing around the gardens, we will have to see what kind of veggie munching visitors we might receive.

We inherited a wooden platform and box for tools from the last plot owner which should prove handy. The plot is super overgrown, so there will be some work - am looking forward to a bit of physical labor, especially if the sun hangs around for it!

We had our first official work visit there today - just stopped by to put up the fencing for compost, which we'll need when we start clearing the mess. I took this pic as a 'before' shot - I don't think we'll be keeping much more than the black currant bush in the foreground, the railway tie (which may be cool after we remove all the overgrowth), and the wooden platform in the back. Lots of digging and clearing to do, then, what to plant?

(Did I mention the plot is very overgrown ?)

From the train...

My commute really is lovely.

Winter came...

About a month ago, Rolf's mom called and asked if my commute out of Oslo each day was like facing real winter. I replied that they have actually had far less snow in Ås than I had anticipated - it was a mild winter. But the very next day it snowed, then my walk to work looked like this....

Work.. and snow

View from my office window - a couple weeks ago vs yesterday.

My commute

The university that I've began a phd with is located around 20 miles south of Oslo. This means that I reverse commute out of the city in order to study the city. However counterintuitive, I cannot not mention how extraordinary the scenery is along the way. (and mind you, this isn't a beautiful part of Norway by the country's standards).

My train ride begins passing by the new Bjørvika development. Back of head belongs to unknown fellow commuter.

View back towards city heading east.

The east really has been industrial - but this too wil be condos in a few years.

There are some spectacular views of the fjord and a few small towns in this space that I never can quite capture on my phone camera...

At the other end of the train line, I have a bus ride that mostly looks like this.

I walk up a hill on the edge of campus and pass this house each day - the autumn colors suit it well.

My office is in the building just to the right of this picture.

Home Office

...Also in the kitchen. Note the potential confusion between cookbooks and paperwork. I'm still working on a method to store the workstation during "off-hours." Speaking of which - happy Memorial Day everyone back home, god pinse to those here in Norway!

My Life in Oslo - the kitchen

Since Easter is just around the corner, or has already began for many Norwegians, we have been making an attempt at spring cleaning. It is pretty good timing for this blog, since I am able to get a few birds with one stone - clean house, reasonable photos, blog entry material, and less to worry about when we get back from vacation. Last night Rolf took on cleaning the oven which I had been perpetually putting off. I have to admit, he is super handy for those tasks that I don't have the patience for!

So today, I scrubbed down the last bits of the kitchen to photograph and share. The kitchen is probably what sold us on this apartment. Granted, we are only renting, and it is probably a good thing because an Ikea kitchen may not be the best clencher for buying property.. Still, I love the clean surfaces and the fact that this simple cabinetry hides (from the right to the left in photo below) a refridgerator, freezer, dishwasher, ventillation hood and lots of cabinet and drawer space. I'll admit that most of those top cabinets are empty because I cannot reach them, but it is good to know the space is there if needed. 

The table is something we threw together on the cheap with some legs and a desktop from Ikea. I stained and sealed the wood top myself and the piece has become a huge part of our lives in this apartment. Asides from a dining table, we use the space for food prep in the evenings, Rolf irons his shirts there in the morning and it is my office desk the rest day. It is rare that the table is so empty, but it looks nice when it is. I'll admit that I tossed my reading and sketchbook over to the couch to take these photos this morning.

The windows and painted hardwood floors were other major attractions when we first saw this apartment. It is not a great view out into the courtyard, but we get a great deal of sunlight coming in during the day. Enough sun that I've managed to keep a few plants alive. It is still early in the season, but we have a chilli plant from last year (one surviving from 4 originally seeded) with a couple peppers nearly ripe on it, plus some grocery store bought rosemary and an orchid that Rolf gave me as a gift our first summer together (almost three years ago if you can believe it!). Last year we had a basil plant that grew and produced far beyond my expectations, so we may consider starting one of those again after Easter.

We leave tomorrow to stay at Rolf's parents' for a week. Where they live (by the arctic circle), winter has not yet ended. While we've had 50-60 degree (F) days and sunshine in Oslo, they've acquired another foot or more of fresh snow. So we'll be hoping for sun, in order to partake in the Norwegian Easter traditions of cabin visits, skiing in teeshirts and sun worshipping in the snow, eating oranges and "Kvikk Lunsj" chocolate, plus sausages and coffee made over a fire. Happy Spring to all!