Silver (and orange and gold) Birches & Skirts, Knitwear, Coats

(Click each photo for a larger version)

Seb: I told you I’d be photographing Autumn (Fall)! I tried some oaks, some beeches… but none of them were quite autumny enough! The silver birches were the first trees to go truly ‘autumnal’ in our garden; beautifully golden and yellow, every gust of wind blowing yet another handful of leaves fluttering from bough to ground.

I almost took a photo from the ground up, so you could see the leaves amongst the grass, but this angle worked better. I love how the very bright sun is just dappled enough to make this photo possible (though you can see a gap where the leaves didn’t quite block enough sunlight to prevent overexposure… damn!) — and of course, once the light passes through the yellow leaves… the ambient light is GOLDEN!

England — at least the south — is beautiful right now. It’s warm, but the nights have an edge of chill just to remind you of what’s coming. I’ve started wearing socks again! And most importantly, it’s blustery. If you’ve never been in a British forest in the Autumn with the wind blustering all about you, head hunkered down into your jacket to keep your ears warm — if you’ve never done that, you really ought to.

Abi: Skirts, Knitwear, Coats: The last days of Summer. The colder months are just around the corner… I hate to say it but lately the air has been all “back to school” cold in the mornings and I have stopped wanting to sleep naked, covered only by a white sheet at night. Soon the leaves will turn and fall and we will be no stranger to socks and practical footwear. But I’m OK with that, I like Autumn.

I took this when I was out and about yesterday. If ever you wondered where “Women of a Certain Age” go to get their clothes, then I think this is it. I am not sure if this type of fashion emporium cater for seasonal change.. nor am I certain of the approximate age when women are supposed to offer these places their custom, but the handpainted sign got me and seemed somewhat appropriate for the coming season.

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Seb’s Flickr Stream — Abi’s Flickr Stream — you can comment here, or there!

Medieval Portal & Humbug Head
(Click for larger)

Seb: Ightham Mote, a house in Kent, England, dates back to the 1300s. It’s been levelled a few times, cut up and resculpted and had its innards gutted and sold off numerous times — but there has been SOMETHING here since the 1300s.

About 20 years ago the National Trust bought it and have been managing it since — and it’s lovely!

The blue windows were a bit of luck — it had been raining all day, but when we finally got there the skies opened up and… BLAM! Blue skies, reflected in the windows.

If you squint closely (or view it larger) you can see someone waiting at the end of the tunnel.

Ah! And the derivation of Mote — it’s NOT a typo. It has nothing to do with the moat that runs around the house. Mote is old-English apparently, for ‘meet’ — and druids and the like would meet at Ightham Mote, back in the medieval days. So there you go.

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Abi: Regular visitors to my Flickr stream will know all about my cat Sixx. I have to confess, I never really thought of myself as a cat person, until I got her (I have always wanted a dog). I don’t think Sixx is actually like any other cat I have ever met.

This shot was originally going to be a photo of some cozy blankets and a hot water bottle, as a nod towards the darker evening and colder weather. Obviously Sixx thought she could improve upon it in some way, by sticking her small, soft head into shot at the last moment, what a rebel. I can’t really argue with that…

One of my favourite things about her is the top of her head. I love these markings, almost like a humbug. Many of you won’t know why she is called Sixx but I named her after Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue. Yes, she is that cool.

I’m going to run out of Norway-related gasms before I actually get there, I can tell. My flights are now booked, though — I’ll be departing England on the 18th of March, and I’ll be in Norway until the 4th of April. I have just one month to prepare for a rather impromptu excursion. I don’t have the gear — the clothes, the snow boots! — nor do I have anything other than a bunch of couches to sleep on.

I’m staying with students, y’see. Institutionally-painted, box-room dwelling students. I graduated five years ago, but for some reason or another, most of my international jaunts since then have featured me staying at some kind of school or university. And I always end up getting horribly drunk — there’s something about being a student, at least in Europe, that implies drunken behaviour.

I presume Norway will be the same, just more expensive — a pint of beer (500ml) is $10 (£6). Much like the Faroe Islands, not much grows in Norway — some hardy grains, sheep, cattle, goats, pigs and potatoes. Oh, and fish of course — so basically, they import everything. A pizza costs $20, and they’re at the top of the Big Mac Index. I’m relying on the generosity of my hosts — surely, to them, a pizza is ‘just $20′, while to me it’s ‘TWENTY DOLLARS??!’.

Anyway… fjords. The main feature of any trip to Norway, other than the delicious fish, petroleum products and girls, is fjords. The definition is a little bit wishy-washy, depending on where in the Anglo-Norse world you happen to be, but generally it describes a narrow inlet from the sea. Technically, if you’re a geography nerd, fjords are U-shaped valleys formed by glaciers (mostly during the last ice age). As the glaciers drifted out into the sea, they carved valleys that have been eroded over thousands of years to form the fjords we see today. There are fjords all over the world, but Norway has much more than any other country — Scotland, Greenland, Canada and New Zealand have a few, but that’s about it. If you click the photo above, you can see the fjords that dot the west coast of Norway. If you think they look beautiful there… just wait and see what I bring back!

As for the actual photographing of them, I think I’m ready. I’ve cleaned my lenses, ordered a new camera and hired a Swedish gypsy to carry my bag and tripod — I’m ready. I don’t know which parts of Norway I’ll be seeing exactly — students aren’t so good at making plans for prospective visitors, at least not beyond ‘and now we drink!‘ — but I’ll see at least two of the big boys: Hardangerfjord and Trondheimsfjord. Trondheim is on its fjord, so it will be pretty hard to miss, while my host in Bergen has a house right on Hardangerfjord (which, believe it or not, derives its name from ‘hard anger’, probably referring to weather conditions). I don’t think we’ll make it to Sognefjord (the biggest one), because it’s right in between my two stops. Other than fjord-spotting, I’ve been threatened with long, healthy hikes in the mountains… and skiing. I haven’t worn skis since I was two years old. But how hard can it be…?

Anyhoo, I haven’t been sleeping very wellI didn’t manage to take any photos of my own this week (except the fun Valentine diptych with Abi), so I’m afraid you ‘only’ get a bunch of fjord photos that I found while scouring the Internet. Most of these fjord photos can be clicked for larger versions, which I really suggest you look at.

(Hardangerfjord, the one near Bergen)

(Sognefjord, which is a massive 200KM long — the second largest in the world, after Scoresby Sund in Greenland… which I have no intention of visiting… yet)

(The view from Trondheimsfjord)

(Maybe I should get a photo of me in the same place… would make a good new ‘explorer’ photo.)

(Beautiful Romsdalsfjord, but I don’t think I’ll get there on this trip… alas!)

I’m off to Norway in three days! Wheee!

I’ve now obtained a warm jacket (actually a snowboarding jacket — I’m so cool) and some very warm wool socks (again, snowboarding/skiing socks). Ostensibly, I will be walking — not a lot, but more than usual (i.e. more than none) — so the socks make a lot of sense. I actually need to get some new boots too — my current Timberland boots are 7 or 8 years old, but when a new pair cost something like £150 ($230), it’s hard to bite the bullet.

I have a scarf and hat (a deerstalker — still not sure about wearing it in public). The guys at the snowboarding shop said I should get a ‘buff’ — seriously, like a muff, but… buff. One of those neck warmer things. I don’t think it’ll be that cold or bitter in Norway though.

All that remains… is pants. I have none.

(Click for larger… though I can’t imagine why you’d want to…)

Both kinds of pant, British and American. I must buy some in the next couple of days (so that I have time to break them in). Do I go for the full, ‘long’ variety… or do I stick to boxer shorts? Do I wear denim and cotton (I don’t own jeans), or is there such thing as ‘warm’ trousers? I don’t want to wear plastic waterproof pants or trousers (for similar reasons). I have an old pair of wool trousers I think.

I mean, I have boxer shorts… not many, but some. A couple of pairs. And pants — trousers — I have… well, nominally two pairs, but I only really wear one.

This is the problem when I don’t go out much. It’s very easy to just whack on some underwear, slap on some trousers and a t-shirt, plonk myself down in front of my computers and while away 16 hours before reversing the process. Now that Norway is only a few days away and I’ll be spending three weeks in the presence of other human beings, I better get some more clothing for my lower half. (Incidentally, I recently bought an eight-pack of socks, they went through the wash once, and now only three out of sixteen socks remain — how lame is that?)

Anyway, other than that little dilemma, I’m all ready for Norway! I’ll be spending seven days in Bergen and eleven in Trondheim. There will be many fjords. And Nordic beauties — it’s about time a British emissary was sent to reclaim what was unlawfully stolen away by the Vikings! And… er… well, there isn’t a whole lot else to do in Norway. Their primary exports are fuels, machinery… and fish. They also love their woollen goods — so basically this is going to be like the Faroe Islands, but without the fuel or machinery. And without the dried sheep and whale.

I actually don’t know what we’re going to do, except walk and carouse. I’m staying with students in Trondheim, so I imagine that’ll be quite rowdy. But even then, I’m very curious to find out what people actually do in Norway. They’re not a standard ‘Western’ nation that deals mainly in services. There isn’t going to be a ‘downtown’ Trondheim. I guess it’s a more social lifestyle there? When 50% of the country’s income is from exporting fuel, life has to be pretty easy, surely?

The weather’s looking good, too. Bergen is a balmy 3C (37F) during the day, while Trondheim is a little bit nippier — freezing during the day, down to -5 (23F) or -6 at night. (Of course, if you figure wind chill into the equation it drops to about -15C, but who’s counting…)

As for the blog, I need to spend the next few days finishing preparations, and shifting obligations to other hapless victims/helpful friends. As before, I’ll put the blog into its ‘resting state’. It’s like cryogenic suspension, stasis, but not as cool. A new header will appear at the top of the blog to remind you where I am, and that for a month posts will be both sporadic^[1] and erratic. I’ll likely stick to early-morning updates, but it’ll depend on just how debauched and drunk I get. I needn’t remind you of what happened in Poland…

Oh, and if you want to buy some photos, I’ll try to get them onto Etsy in a timely fashion. I actually want to enable sales right here on this site, but that’ll have to wait until after Norway.

Bon voyage, or as they say in Norwegian: god reise — or, if the going gets really tough, luftputefartøyet mitt er fullt av ål!

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1. Did you know that ’sporadic’ comes from the same Greek root as ’spores’? As in, scattered far and wide.