Happy May Day! We celebrated with homemade biscuits for breakfast. We really just need 3/4ths of a recipe, which is why we should all be cooking in metric!
In Sandnes and Stavanger, there is a huge motorcycle “parade” that rides on May 1 each year. I walked about 30 minutes to a pedestrian overpass to watch the ride. I couldn’t get Anya to go with me.
I’m guessing that I stood there for at least 20 minutes watching the motorcycles drive by. Some waved, some tooted patterns on their horn, one even did a wheelie. Marta and Kjell were probably out there, but I couldn’t spot them.
I walked back the scenic route.
Following a winding river, a footpath goes for an estimated 4 miles. Along the way are playgrounds, sand volleyball, picnic tables, and solar system monuments. Pluto is the one 4 miles away. The bank of the river is lined with beautiful daffodils. As it is a holiday, many were out with kids at the playground and having a picnic lunch.
Walking back through Sandnes, I came upon a May Day ceremony, where they had a speech, laid a wreath at a monument (that I can’t read), a choir, and a marching band.
Close to home is a lovely embankment on the side of this fjord.
The hill was stunning with color.
At home, I was out doing some yard work, mowing the lawn and weeding. The neighbor, Gunnar, and I started talking. Now, he has a bit more English than I have Norsk, which is minimal. But we had a great connection. He invited me up to see the flowers, which I have shared with you just a couple days ago–the ones outside the kitchen table window. I somehow let him know that we enjoyed them. He introduced me to his wife, who speaks English, but she was sick so stayed inside. But I got the tour up the hillside.
So, you might sense the steepness of the hill, as our house in brown with white trim is in the middle left of the picture. Remember that his flowers are outside our kitchen window, and now we’re way above the roof of the house. Up this terracing, he has loads of berries and fruit trees, even red and white grapes. He’s lived in the house for about 80 years and made the rock wall terracing himself. He had stories of where he picked up some of the rocks.
It would have been nice to speak Norsk, but I was able to express how beautiful it was and my thanks for the tour.
It was a beautiful day, but my knees are telling me I did a bit too much weeding. But I did get most of the grass out between the slate stones in a patio area under the Adirondack chairs. The little mossy stuff will fill in nicely.
I have a presentation about my PhD work to give on Tuesday in Uppsala, so I’ve been getting that ready to go as well today. I still couldn’t get “SJ” train tickets from Stockholm to Uppsala on the high-speed train online, but I was able to get tickets from the airport to Stockholm on a different train online.
With blessings,
Beth