A new year - a new beginning

Happy New Year everyone!

I am hoping that this means a new beginning as well. I know, I have been off the radar for a very long time. 

Time has just passed me by so quickly and I completely lost motivation for writing. I simply did not know what to say. I hope it will get better now.

I will leave you for now with these images from "Winter wonderland".

 

Just another afternoon

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. I first went for a walk straight after work and tried to get some shots of all the lovely flowers around Blindern on my iphone.

The camera is not great but I hope you can appreciate the pics anyways.

It was a little bit sad because I said goodbye to my friends who live far away from little Oslo. They had been here for 6 weeks and were going back home.

Dinner was almost ready when I arrived at home (wonderful man) and we later went for an after-dinner stroll around the neighbourhood.

The whole afternoon was just pure enjoyment.

Road trip in Norway | Part 5

Day 6-7

We ended the road trip in Lom, where we stayed at Fossheim Turisthotell. It is such a beautiful place with tall mountain tops surrounding the valley. We went for a stroll past Lom stav church which dates from the end of the 12th century.

Lom stav church

We dined at Vianvang, the restaurant of national celebrity chef Arne Brimi where we tried "Tyttingkir" - a drink where they had mixed a Lingonberry puree with white wine. It was very refreshing!

Tyttingkir

Finally Friday

It is finally Friday and I am going on a mini-break to lovely Vestfold.

Have a wonderful weekend and remember: "You are fabulous"!

xoxo

The Fashion Source Expo

I would love to go to The Fashion Source Expo Wednesday 6th October 2010 at Central Hall Westminster in London (UK).

Picture from www.ethicalfashionforum.com

The main focus of the event is fashion - being manufactured and traded in an ethical way!

There will be exhibitors as well as a programme of seminars.

This event brings together manufacturers, suppliers and cooperatives who work towards promoting sustainable fashion practices. Some of the underlying goals are to reduce poverty and negative environmental effects as well as suppor fair and equitable trade.


Global organisations such as the Fairtrade Foundation, the World Fair Trade Organisation, Organic Exchange, and MADE-BY in partnership with the RITE group.


Registered tickets holders only gain access to this event and visitor spaces are limited. Have a look here for more information about the event.

Road trip in Norway | Part 4

Day 5-6

We went from Geiranger to Hellesylt by ferry.

The weather was quite grey and cloudy, but the scenery is still beautiful.

The Seven Sisters Waterfall

On the road again... until we reached...

Ålesund - a city characterised by the Jugendstil architecture.

The Garden Project | Final stage?

I spot little baby chilli peppers!

The garden project is definitely making progress despite the lack of sunshine the past few days.

Yay! A Chilli pepper!

One of the chilli plants has 4-5 little chillies emerging from the remains of the white flowers.

One of the Tomatillo plants has also finally started blooming with yellow flowers.

Chill time | Summer in Oslo

I awoke to yet another day with clouds covering the sky. I thought I'd share theses sunny pictures that I shot earlier this summer. One great thing to do on a sunny day is to head down to Vippetangen or Rådhuset and catch one of the local ferries in Oslo. You can get off at one or several of the the little islands in the Oslo fjord or go to Bygdøy. These islands are a terrific way of getting out of the city, go sunbathing and swimming or simply take a stroll around and explore some new territory.

Oslo City Hall

You get to see some of the attractions from a different viewpoint.

"Skjaergården" (Oslo archipelago)

Going on the ferry is a great option for locals and tourists on a budget, as well as a nice way of just zoning out from everyday stress.

Just watch and relax...

You do not even have to get off the ferry but you can just go on a round trip. This is what we did and it took about 30 minutes - sit down, feel the movements from the sea, breath in the salty air and feel the breeze ruffle up your hair. Delightful!

Tuesday Blues

Yet another grey and cloudy day in Oslo. I am currently working on finding some inspiration for my blog. I will for now just share this photograph with you. It's a motive I found along the way during our road trip. It reminds me of the past and it fills me with nostalgia of earlier days when the time did not pass so fast.

~ Have a fabulous day ~

Zumba fitness | New Activity

I actually tried Zumba Fitness some time ago. Zumba fitness is a great work-out concept inspired by latin dance-moves. It makes you use parts of your body that you either did not know you could move or that you weren't even aware that you had!

I, personally love latin music because it always gets me in an upbeat mood. Zumba fitness is about moving your body and having fun - just in line with the general Latin mentality I'd say. Well, coming from the cold north, my point of reference may not be great (No offense to all my fellow "northerners").

You can read more about Zumba here.

Road trip in Norway | Part 3

Next Stop: Geiranger

Day 5

Our next place to visit was the Geiranger fjord  - UNESCO World heritage listed sight in Western Norway.

The weather was not treating us well that day, and heavy rain clouds and fog were ruining are prospects of getting any nice photographies of the fjord as we entered the site coming from above.

We could see absolutely nothing as we drove now the winding road to the Geiranger fjord. The sight is still quite spectacular with its S shaped fjord, the steep mountain side and the waterfalls coming down, almost vertically from the top of the mountains, hitting the water far below.

This is a very popular tourist destination, and the locals here are probably used huge cruiseships sailing into Geiranger.

Every tourist site and souvenir shop usually display trolls and sell items with troll -and elk motives. This little gallery in the middle of one of Norway's most popular tourist destination seems to be fed up with all the trolls. I would suspect that this sign would attract its own crowd of tourists.

The Garden Project | Further developments

Our little livingroom garden project is still going strong. We have now re-planted our little tomatillo and chilli plants twice. The first time, about a month after we first planted the seeds and the second time this week since the plants had outgrown their pots. The chilli plants are now about 25-35 cm tall. The tomatillo plants are taller - about a meter by now.

There have been quite a few flower showing on the chilliplants and I think the first chillies have started to appear. The chillies need some help pollinating since they are stood inside and this can be done by using a cotton bud to move the pollen inbetween the flowers.

We have 4 large Tomatillo plants and one that is about half the height, probably because it was placed in a Northern facing window after the first potting. 

There are signs of flower buds on the Tomatillo plants as well, but they have not yet started to bloom.

I hope this little bud will turn into a flower.

It is actually impossible to get fresh Tomatillos in Norway - not even canned tomatillos are sold here as far as I know.

Road trip in Norway | Part 2

So the journey continues.

Day 4-5

First stop was Trollstigen:

We eventually reached the top of this winding road up the mountain. Great view!

The stop for the night was "Melchiorgarden", a charming little farm situated in Norddal, a village surrounded by fjords and mountaines. They have 3 guest rooms and they offer a simple, traditional Norwegian breakfast. They grow rasberries and make their own jam and squash (Cordial). We were met by hens and a rooster strolling around in the garden as we arrived. The rooms are decorated differently in a country/shabby chic style and there are some very nice details added as in the picture below.

We enjoyed a traditional 3 course meal dinner at a guesthouse nearby called "Petrines Gjestgiveri". The meal consisted of smoked salmon with a green garnish as the starter and roasted lamb with ovenbaked veg and potatoes as a main. We were so full after these two courses that there just was no room for their lovely apple cake or "karamell pudding" for desert. Petrines is also offers accommodation.

The next part of the journey includes Geiranger and some of the towns on the west coast of Norway.

Road trip in Norway | Part 1

My week of summer hols this year is short and sweet. We decided to do a road trip of 1619 kilometres in 9 days. 

Day 1-3:

Starting off at this cute little cabin in Sjusjøen, by Lillehammer.

The cabin is a great starting point for long walks, just absorbing the nice surroundings and perhaps head up some peaks.

There is also time for cosyness inside the cabin, playing games, drinking wine and having romantic dinners.

Burgers with mango-jalapeño salsa

This weekend has been lovely - summery warm and sunny. I've spent most of it relaxing and being a good girlfriend. This includes making some delicious burgers with a mango and jalapeño salsa.

Dinner for 2:

The burgers

400 g of good quality meat (beef or pork - whatever you prefer).
1 egg
1 tsp thyme (preferable fresh)
1-2 tbsps grated lime rind
A pinch of a equal amounts of nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper and cloves
1/2-2 tsp of finely chopped chillipepper

Mix it all together and shape the burgers. These can stay in the fridge for a day or so, or you can freeze them for later.

The bun
7 dl flour
1/2 pack of yeast
3 dl water
3 tbsps olive oil
Salt
Sesame seeds

Add the yeast to lukewarm water (appr. 37 degrees C).
Mix the liquid into the flour. I used my Kenwood for this.

Leave the dough for 40-60 mins.

Divide dough into equal pieces and shape into smooth balls. Leave them on a baking tray or sheet and let rise for 20-30 mins.

Bake at 225 degrees for 12-15 mins.


The salsa

1 ripe mango, pitted, peeled and chopped into little pieces
1-2 jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 red onion, finely chopped
Fresh lime juice (appr. 1/2 dl)
Mint, finely chopped (I used about 4 tbsps)
Salt

Mix it all together in a bowl

- - - - - -

Add some oil to a pan and cook the burgers until medium rare (if beef) or until cooked through (pork). (Stick a thermometer into the burger. It should be about 70 degrees C for the latter.)

Green Tip of the Month 2

Get rid of junk mail that fills up your mailbox and your rubbish bin!

Eco-chic violations, exhaustion and writer's block

There have just been so many things going lately. There have been trips, social events and work-related events, and many eco-chic principes have been violated. This is very unfortunate indeed. I am terribly exhausted and this has now resulted in a bit of a writer's block as well, but let us look a bit at the eco-chic violations that have been committed these last few months.

I have been on a total of 8 flights. I found a site called Carbon Footprint, which is pretty handy because you can calculate your carbon footprints depending on what you do or even how you live your life. My total ended up on 1,27 tonnes for these 8 flights.

You can, after calculating how many tonnes of CO2 you have emitted, become "carbon neutral" buy carbon offsetting, which is basically paying a certain amount of money that is invested in a sustainability project or the like. One option is a Reforestation project in Kenya, another is a wind power project in Mongolia through Certified Emission Reduction (CER) Offset Credits.

Tip 1 | From SP

SoulPrincess was flicking through British Vogue, April Ed. She found a list og natural products that she left as a comment to one of my posts.

I have edited the list and added the links to some of the sights that I thought looked interesting. Some of the sights where very "alternative", but you can find the whole list on Maya's Bubble.

As far as I could see, there were not many of these products that have been organically certified. I have specified the ones that are certified. Please correct me if any of the other products are certified as well.

Here is my edited list:

Love to be natural - ORGANIC and FAIRTRADE Certified
Beyond Skincare - ORGANIC Certified

Maybel Maybanks - Natural skincare, and so one...NATorigin - natural eye-care and so one
Charlotte Naturals - Natural skin and body products...
The Alice Bethany Bath Time Co. - Bath treatments ...
Victoria Regia
Organic Botanics

Summer Plans

Summer is finally here and that makes me very happy. I love summer in Norway! Correction: I love summer in Norway when it isn't raining like today. It never really gets dark - it feels like late afternoon until past midnight so I never want to go to bed. Nothing beats a nice summer evening on the terrace or in the garden with a glass of red wine and a soft. lovely blanket.

The summer is also the season when we take out most of our holiday.

I have some very eco-friendly plans for this summer's holiday. It isn't only eco-friendly but also wallet-friendly. It is actually free!

I have managed to reserve a week off at one of my company's cabins in the mountain. It is free and I dont have to fly anywhere, in other words reducing my personal CO2 emission.

There will be a whole week of enjoying nature, hiking, swimming, maybe canoeing and horse-back riding as well. I hope to bring people that I enjoy spending time with and of course lots of nice food and drinks.

From Rustad Hotel's website

My other plan for this summer is redecorating the living room and the entrance in our flat. We moved in here in February this year, but we still have not had the time to freshen it up. It is a relatively old building, however the bulding it self has been upgraded and refurbished and so has parts of our flat, but not everything. There are floors and walls that need to be painted. I have already started to look at "Project redecorating", and I am tying to find as eco-friendly products as possible. I do at least hope that I will find products that are labelled with the Nordic eco label.

Eco Friendly Eyewear

How about some stylish and sustainable sunglasses?

These eco-friendly bamboo shades are made by Kayu.

Bamboo is our planet's fastes growing wood with a growth rate of up to 60 cm per day.

For every pair of shades they sell, Kayu donates $ 50 to Unite for sight. This amount covers one sight-restoring surgery.

Unite for sight is a non-profit organisation that works with helping to "improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness in the developing world".

(Unite for sigh website)

36 million people are needlessly blind and 80% of blindness is curable or preventable.