Evidence of an elk encounter

When I left home at 7 a.m. this morning, little did I know I would encounter an elk only 200 metres from my front door. Luckily, I was driving so the elk got more scared than I did and ran away. Sadly this also meant I never managed to get my camera out in time. As I have never seen an elk before (except for one time in a zoo), I took my time when I got home this afternoon to gather up some elk encounter evidence!!

Saturday night

The new, blue Mjøndalen square at nighttime. I didn't take this photo last night, but I'm sure the square don't look too different on a Saturday evening. A few teens on the colourful benches in the background may be what's missing.

It's a cow's life

The vet Loe's cows live an idyllic life, waiting for the spring to arrive..

Shutters Shut

Suffering from slight writer's block I was struggling to come up with a title (and text) for this photo. For long, I couldn't even remember what these red and yellow thingamyjiggy's in front of the windows are called in norwegian, but when I remembered I could easily find the english word for it: shutters. With that, my mind wandered far away from colourful shutters in Hokksund, to two choreographers in the Netherlands, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Lèon. In 2009, my mother and I saw a ballet performance by Lightfoot and Lèon in the Opera House in Oslo. The performance was called "4x Paul Lightfoot & Sol Lèon, and "Shutters Shut" was one of the four dance pieces, performed to a recording of Gertrude Stein's poem "If I told him: A completed portrait of Picasso." The only thing I remeber from Lightfoot and Lèon's performance is this dance, as I was, and still are mesmerized by the dance movements and the rythm in Stein's reading of the poem. Click here for "Shutters Shut"

Youth House

When the library moved to a new building, the basement in Mjøndalen's community centre was turned into a youth house. Nedre Eiker Youth House opened in 2004, and the local kids gave it the name "Down Under." Every Tuesday to Thursday, kids from the age of 13 can drop by to play pool or Nintendo Wii, take music lessons (drums, guitar, keyboard etc.), surf the Internet and buy home cooked food. It is also possible to rent the premises to throw (children's) birthday parties or to hold seminars and lectures. Go Down Under for more information!

25

I walk past these bee hives every day and I have wondered where the bees are. I mean, I assume they are inside the beehives, but what do they do? Are they in hibernation? Do they survive the cold winter or do they freeze the death? What do they eat?? I have found out that the beekeeper give the bees sugar water in the autumn, which will be their food through the winter. Okay, that makes sense. What surprised me was the fact that the temperatures inside the beehives are around 25 degrees at all times throughout the winter, no matter how cold it is outside. Why this is? The bees sit together, around their queen to protect her from the cold, and it is their body heat that makes the temperatures so high. Makes me wonder, exactly how many bees are there inside there??

Sixpence

This is the statue of Herman Wildenvey, a famous poet from Nedre Eiker. I have already shared information about him in these posts, Portåsen,Wildenvey and Bulbs, so today I will just say this; I like his choice of headwear!

Fresh

To me, this photo brings with it a breath of fresh air. Its sharp colours gives me back the icy cold feeling I got when I was standing on the bridge, taking this photo, yet the sight of the swans and ducks makes me feel that spring is not far away. Farther out, this little river, that is connected to the water Fiskumvannet in Øvre Eiker, is covered in ice, and it brings me back to reality; it is still very much winter!

Stabburet

Two weeks ago I posted a picture of the chestnut tree. Here is a photo of the same storehouse, stabburet, that you could spot in that picture.