posted on 4th August 2010 under Habits, Nature, Summer
If looking for recreational nature, Norway including the capital Oslo, is home to a number of great environmental attractions where you can get up close and personal. So if you really like to stress down and get away from it all, take the tube or a bus 20 minutes to the outside of Oslo and get yourself an outdoor adventure. We do that often on the weekends (like most other Norwegians) and since the in-laws from the US are visiting, we shared one of our favourite spots to give them a taste of this Norwegian natural pearl. It’s just 30 minutes walk in the forest and here is the scenery:
It’s a photo – not painting!
While sitting there at the water edge, the cutest little duck family came along and they were relatively tame. I had my Nokia x6 on hand of course and started to shoot pics (click all pics to bigify & enjoy!):
Scenery like this – at least to us – is breath taking. You don’t say a word as silence in the woods is golden – you just enjoy the magic moment and let your thoughts go with the flow. Like if you have the chance to see things like this:
To share this with the in-laws from US was kind of special we have taken our children up here for years to experience the natural environment. We use this place in the spring, summer, fall and winter as a recreational area and all seasons have their charm. We have hundreds of pictures of the family at this spot, and now it was especially nice to bring Diane’s family here to experience this place for themselves.
My in-laws are leaving tomorrow so I am glad that the atmosphere was good and that we could share one of our families treasured places with them and give them plenty of memories to take home from their trip. Last night we all exchanged pictures; the beauty of digital photography is you can share it with many without reducing the quality of the photo. So my in-laws will have plenty of good photos to remind them of their trip.
I am sure to be testing my new Nokia X6 much more in the days to come. We have some vacation left before OsloBG and will be online more after our guests have returned to their home in New York. Hope you will stay tuned and share the fun!
Update:
This post is part of Petunia‘s photo competition with the theme “Mitt lille land = My little country“. Click link to visit and see a lot of great pics from Norway!
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posted on 27th July 2010 under Nature, OsloBG, Summer
The Oslo Fjord, crowned by the capital of Norway, is an inlet of the Skagerrak bay, stretching inland from the North Sea towards Øresund in Sweden and the Baltic Sea. A “Fjord” is normally formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock and many such valleys were formed during the recent ice age. In spite of its name, the Oslo Fjord is not a fjord in the geological sense, but it still is wide range of waterways.
This Fjord has an impressive archipelago of islands, which in summer becomes the city’s favoured playground and since the in-laws from the US are visiting, we wanted them to have a taste and luckily enough we have good friends with a cabin and a boat on the Fjord. They were kind enough to give us a whole day to explore and we gladly take you along:
Oslo is situated in an amphitheatre-like setting, with the city centre in the bottom close to the Oslo fjord, and residential areas stretching uphill from there in all directions. Behind the residential areas, the forested area extends, with flora and fauna that is quite extraordinary for a city of this size (click all pics to bigify & enjoy):
Enough facts and on to our round trip with the boat – I guess photos show more than a thousand words:
Recreational, don’t you think?
A lot of nice beaches on the islands and shores.
Tourist highlights:
Above & Below: Oslo harbour at the City Hall
Above & Below: The new Oslo Opera House
Bygdøy island with e.g. Maritime and the Viking ship museum.
Some curiosities:
Above: Light Houses – Below: House boat
Moose are commonplace (easily spotted in winter), and the whole of the capital is part of Norway’s wolf reserve (even if they rarely come here). We did not see any moose that day, but on the island by our friend’s cabin, we saw this cute deer:
A culinary end:
The day was finished off with a delicious dinner of grilled pork loin, baked potatoes and salads. We were incredibly lucky to have good friends willing to share their cottage and boat and help us give a perfect summer Norwegian experience while my wife’s family was visiting. We will soon be moving on to Sweden, and then across the Norwegian mountains to Bergen. So keep checking in for a look at the fantastic Nordic summertime.
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posted on 13th June 2010 under Nature, OsloBG, Reiseblogg2010, Summer
Oslo University Botanical Garden, Norway’s oldest, was established in 1814 and administrated by the city’s University. As part of The Natural History Museum, even the primate fossil Ida can be viewed as part of the exhibition “Can we forgive Darwin”. Ida gained world renown in May 2009, when the scientific paper describing her was accompanied by a TV film and popular science book. The garden originally covered 75,000 square metres, but has since doubled in size and the collection includes roughly 35,000 plants of about 7500 unique species. It’s not only a scientific collection in itself though – but very popular for recreation too:
My wife DianeCA and I had another quality time there last weekend and we gladly take you along for the tour. Read her post from a different prospective; An Oasis in the City – while I take this opportunity to announce & prove that summer finally has arrived in Oslo, and to show you what the locals are crazy about; the Sun ( click to bigify & enjoy):
Botanical Garden – a recreational oasis:
The garden is for those who are fascinated by the diverse and unique fauna. You may read more about that on my blog post from last year: Flowers and herbs….. This time I’ll concentrate of the recreational side of using the garden – by a photo reportage:
From the Rock Garden.
A miniature alpine landscape, where the plants are hardy perennials, bulbs and shrubs from all over the world. They are arranged in series of European, America and Asiatic sections:
Perfect for singles, couples and/or families to relax in.
The Victoria House:
Dates from 1876, it’s three division’s houses orchids and ferns, the spectacular Queen Victoria Water Lily (Victoria cruziana) and house plants:
In this house, you may also see utilitarian Tropical and Subtropical plants producing rice, cacao, sugar, cotton, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla.
However, what the two children in the above photo spotted was this little fellow to the right:
Experience for yourself at OsloBG:
We always take guests visiting us in Oslo to the Botanical Gardens. It is well worth a day wander, and is located in the diverse borough of Tøyen which can be part of a planned trip to the area. Located in this section is also the Munch Museum which is dedicated to Norway’s collection of Munch’s paintings, and within the Botanical gardens you may visit the National Geological Museum and Natural Museum at the same time. Oh and don’t forget the greenhouses like Victoria House above. Hope you will come and explore with us, it will make your day bloom like a rose – so click here to join us in August!
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posted on 8th May 2010 under Nature, OsloBG, Reiseblogg2010, Spring
The pure natural beauty of nature in the significant four seasons and seasonal lighting fascinates me. Early or late sunset in winter vs. summer time in Scandinavia adds another dimension. Looking out of the window last night at 9PM gave a great reminder. My wife and I are at our vacation home and Sweden and inspired by the special sky we hurried to the local beach for a photo hunt. We’ll gladly take you along and hope you find it worth while:
Going crazy with my new Cannon Power Shot G11, let me share some of the shots from today (click to bigify & enjoy!):
Golden sky beach beauty in Scandinavia:
This is our favourite photo hunting beach in our “home away from home” in Mariestad. My regular readers know I love to play in posts with photos from the same spot in different seasons. Let’s start with one from tonight’s golden sky:
Then the difference from spring (now) to fall, then winter and at last a hot day for tanning: Amazing to observe this is the same place, don’t you agree?
Left: Fall gives golden beauty too! Right: Winter with nice fresh and crisp air!
Summer time – even topless tanning.
The days are growing longer here in Scandinavia, with the sun not going down until almost 9:30 in the evening. Soon it will be summer and the nights will be lighter than any other time of the year. I do hope you will soon be experiencing this with us at the Oslo Blog Gathering 2010. If you haven’t done so already check out the program and join the team!!
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posted on 26th April 2010 under Nature, Spring
Blogging about Norway, our significant four seasons, culture and traditions now calls for a post about spring. After a relatively cold and snowy winter, nature is slowly waking up from hibernation and both nature and people get livelier. Of course the return of the sun helps as well: From 6 hour’s daylight in mid December to 15 hours now in Oslo helps to bring out the spring feeling and we get light more day by day: 18 hour’s in mid June.
We’ve had the loveliest sunny weather this weekend and to give you the proof of the pudding, my wife and I had a photo hunt in our garden and on our favourite spring beach. Let’s start with our garden and some examples of spring flowers in the south east part of Norway:
Let’s take a closer look at some typical from our area in southern Norway (click to bigify and enjoy):
Left: daffodils – Right: Crocus
Left: Scillia in front – Right: Primrose
Other typical garden flowers in Norway are tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, snow drops, and Lily of the valley.
Wild flowers at the Spring Beach:
Like I said we were on a photo hunt and went to our favourite beach where we know we’ll meet real spring and nature just out of hibernation:
I hope you are able to spot the ground almost totally covered by Anemone hepatica (common names: Kidneywort, liverwort, pennywort, Common Hepatica – in Norwegian: Blåveis). Let’s take a closer look:
Some weeks later, this is the white flower bed that will meet us when we again visit this lovely beach just 25 minutes by public transportation out of Oslo city:
Anemone nemorosa also in the family Ranunculaceae. Common names: wood anemone, windflower, thimbleweed and smell fox or in Norway: Hvitveis. (Photo shot with my Nokia two years ago).
There are others who are happy for the spring flowers too – guess you’re familiar with the story about the birds and the bees? 
This little guy was so fat the flower almost couldn’t hold him:
Not only the birds and the bees are happy for spring, warmer and sunny weather (around 15C – 60F). In this delightful, crisp, fresh air, people start thinking of beach life and tanning too of course (click to bigify and enjoy):
A bit early for bikinis yet, but if you dress right, still enjoyable.
So by this I declare spring seasons have started in Oslo, the south east of Norway. I hope you got some spring spirit from this too. To get even more of the spirit, you might like to check my wife DianeCA’s post too. It would be interesting to read if some of these spring flowers are to be found in you’re part of the world too!
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