SNOW AGAIN!

The ground was white when we looked out the window this morning. But the sun is peeking through the clouds and the forecast is for plus 7 so the snow shouldn't last long. We'll save our walk for this afternoon.

Yesterday we walked downtown and stopped at the SA second hand store. It closes at three in the afternoon so we just had a few minutes to shop. It was enough time to buy a klokkestreng (wall hanging) and a set of kranse kake pans. When Kristy and Todd were home for our farm's 100th anniversary, she really wanted to make a kranse kake (cake with many layers of rings) for the occasion. I made a few phone calls but didn't locate anyone with those pans. Now I have them!

We walked down to the harbour and stopped in at "Onkels", a little cafe by the water. We had lunch there with friends Odd Bjorn and Else before we left Kristiansund on our previous visit. It's such a cosy place with stuffed armchairs as well as the usual table and chairs. We could sit and enjoy the lovely view of boats coming and going on the calm waters. Howard enjoyed his cup of coffee with sugar and "kaffe fløte" (cream) added. (I didn't tell him that it cost 30 krone, or about $5 Canadian) The atmosphere and view out the east windows were well worth it!

We were able to watch part of the Canada/Denmark curling game on a European sports channel. They didn't focus on one game, but kept us up to date on several. It was special to see live action from Swift Current, the city where Howard and I met 45 years ago!

Kristy washed a load of clothes last night and I hung them up to dry on a clothes rack. Electicity is expensive in Norway (as are most things!) so dryers aren't used a lot. Looking out the window, you can see a clothesline in almost every yard.

Furnaces are not common in houses here. Todd and Kristy have a wood burning stove in the corner of the living-room and electric heaters throughout the house.

Sundays are not for work here. Mowing grass or hanging out clothes on a Sunday is frowned upon. Stores are closed too. Grocery stores are only allowed to have a small portion of the store open on a Sunday.

A fellow is coming after work to assess the value of Todd and Kristy's house. They have redone their upstairs bathroom - new fixtures, tile walls and heated tile floor. It looks like a picture out of a magazine!! But since the value of the house has gone up, their insurance needs to go up as well and they want to get that done before we leave on Friday for our Mediterranean cruise.

The cruise ship is called the MSC Fantasia. We sail from Genoa, Italy. After five days on the Mediterranean we will leave the ship at Barcelona, Spain. It sounds like there won't be many English speaking passengers on board so it will be a different experience in many ways! Most of the meals are buffet type so we won't have to order from an Italian menu! We will be on the 11th deck. If you Google it, you'll see pictures.

There is a Lenten service at the church at seven this evening so we will take that in. It's hard to believe that Easter is almost here. We will miss the Sunrise service and breakfast at Trinity, Torquay. We will be in Oslo on Easter Sunday. We are driving to the airport at Oslo but I don't think Todd wants to tackle Oslo city driving so we may be going to an Easter service in a smaller place on our drive home. We will go through Lillehammer so may stop there and have coffee with Howard's second cousin, Dagmar Buen.

Time to do something around the house. Maybe I'll bake some cookies!