first fish!

on the way back from our ultra-short holidays we decided to buy a fishing rod with the basic equipment... Since nor me non TBBE have never fish/angle before we decided to take a quick course .... on youtube!!! After combining all the pieces of the fishing kit (fishing knots are not that easy in the end!!) we have spent about 2 hours on 'mastering' our skills in using the reel and casting. Results are as follows: one lure lost, two messy knots untied and a couple of interesting 'things' caught:

Fortunately the second trial (today) was more successful:

TBBE caught his first fish (a 42cm long mackerel)!

and filleted it (youtube rules!!!)

and grilled it!!!

mniam... :-)

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ultra-short holidays

Suddenly the weather forecast on Friday morning was pretty good for the next days so we decided to take this opportunity and went for ultra-short holidays (four days!) :-)
We headed towards Aurland (about 3 hours driving NE from Bergen) and it was an excellent choice!

Vindedalen: view on Sognefjorden:
Lærdal:
Vindedalen after sunset:
Sognefjorden:
Aurland - view on Aurlandsfjorden:
Nærøyfjorden - the narrowest fjord on Earth:
in Gudvanden:
Undredal (100 habitants and 500 goats! = great cheese):
above Aurland:
Snovegen:
I hope for more long weekends in similar style.... :-)

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rainfall record

The rainfalls records for July (the oldest from 1921) were beaten yesterday in 14 municipalities in the western Norway. 66.2mm of water in 24 hours in Briksdal, one of the destination on our planned holiday route.
In the end it was a good idea not to go :-)
Just yesterdays rainfall is equivalent to 80% of the average precipitation in July!!!!

Amazing....first a snow record (see here), now, exactly in time for our long planned holidays, a rainfall record...

What about a high temperature or a sunshine record?

my first tomato

still waiting for better weather to start holidays... :-(
but meanwhile I discovered the first tomato on one of the two plants on our terrace!


Apparently the saying "water = life" makes sense...


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holidays?

We planned to start our holidays (2 weeks somewhere between Sognefjord and Trondheim) last Saturday but having in prospects 5 days of constant rain we decided to postpone them for a week.
So today we are back again to the discussion about when should we leave and guess what? Deja Vu? The weather forecast is exactly the same as it was week ago :-(

non-eco aspects of Norway

Eco refill packs are normally much lighter than the original glass or plastic jars and they take less place so reduce costs for transportation and generate less carbon footprint.
Generally they are also cheaper, but not necessarily in Norway!
Example:
300g coffee (original pack) = 88,50NOK

100g coffee refill = 37,90NOK (--> 300g = 113,7NOK)

128% of the regular price for a refill pack will not encourage people to be more eco-friendly!

shedding shell

Don't ask me how TBBE found this movie, but the fact is - it is incredible!!!!

Crabs change their shell/skin when they grow out of the old ones (every 2-18 months). This process (moulting) is very energy consuming, especially if there is a need to regenerate lost limbs (!)

Extreme SportVeko festival

Thursday was a very nice day. It would be even better if we could fly ourselves, but just watching Extreme Sport festival was great! A lot of people (not that common here), a hot and sunny day (not that common either!) , good music and lovely scenery plus and a lot of paragliders...

An ingenious fountain:
and a very spectacular (im) precise landing :-)