Buying food in Alta can be ‘hit-and-miss’. Most fruit and vegetables are old, soft and colourless in the stores. I was lucky to finally get a mango that was decent after three years in Norway. I celebrated with a fruit salad and yoghurt breakfast.
Most often food is of poor quality. Fungus, mold and squishiness is [...]
Meet The Jets! – Jumbo Jet, Ink Jet and Brid-jet. They are two weeks old in the pictures and only Jumbo has her eyes open. Here their ears are still kinked back and they are covered with their mum’s (ripped out) fur. Yesterday they turned three weeks and are very happy running around their pen. [...]
Last year in Tromsø I dismally failed at growing basil. In fact, only the sprouting leaves came up. This year I’ve had a little more luck. Even though Alta is at nearly the same height on the globe as Tromsø (a little higher actually), Alta has a much better growing climate. This is because Alta [...]
Alta has been struggling with identity for a while now. It was granted city status in 2000 with only 18,000 residents. Since then the city has been obsessed with naming themselves. Tromsø has been called the ‘Paris of the North‘ since the 1800s and is also known by the locals as the ‘cultural centre for [...]
There is no cable guy. We can’t get cable. They haven’t installed cable in our farming area yet. The choices are antenna or satellite. We chose antenna as it was easier, or so we thought. Apparently, somebody has built the barn in the wrong place and blocks our signal. Back in the 60s Alta didn’t [...]
It was Farmor’s 70th birthday and Tante made one of her famous cakes for the occasion. The flower decorations were all hand-made with marzipan.
Tante’s marzipan cream cake was the first to be devoured. But luckily Norwegian birthday parties never have just one cake. We also had a bløtkake (cream cake) with pineapple made by Farmor [...]
The Norwegian post symbol is a golden ‘bugle’ horn and the background, which also serves at the postal colour, is red. From 1647 the horse-and-cart postal carriages used to blow their horns to clear the way as the ‘post is coming’. This golden horn on a red is a symbol to note when traveling in [...]
Life in Alta is quite different from the rest of the country, even farm-life. So, we thought we’d introduce you to our new inspiration and take you on a grand tour of the farm. As we walked clockwise around the farm to take pictures today, I was ever so amazed at the diversity [...]
Celebrate National Fårikål day with us. On the last Thursday of September every year Norway celebrates their national dish with, of course, all you can eat fårikål!
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From the west, a wall of stone Saints and Prophets will confront you. All sides of the Cathedral are very textured and deserve a long walk around. You’ll see gargoyles and gothic arches, thick wooden doors with rusty floral art and Anglo-Norman/Romanesque bits and pieces ’stuck on’ that intensifies your ground view. However, the outside of Nidaros Cathedral is even more intriguing when you know the history.
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Many Norwegians know what they are doing when they pick wild mushrooms. This knowledge is passed down the family during mushroom hunting trips. The hard-core mushroom hunters go into the mountain wilderness for days to get the best finds.
The bunad is a traditional Norwegian costume worn by both men and women. It can either come from established rural traditions or have a more modern design inspired by historical patterns and cuts.
By our favourite jetty is the cutest little boat shed. We often have picnics there in Summer. It’s nice to just drop by our favourite places in Winter to see how very different but very beautiful everything still is.
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The further ‘out of the way’ you go the more common it is to see folk cottages standing by the side of roads, along fjords or in a thicket of trees, minding their own business.
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