Snow and meat

Yesterday the snow came. We woke up and everything was white and clean and crisp, like a layer of icing. The full moon made it magical and all the kids gathered here to play and make snowlanterns and pulled the sledges and taboggans out of the garage to play. Today two lambs arrived from our neighbour who helped me cut it into the right bits on our kitchen table. The lambs were walking on the field outside our house only a couple of weeks ago. I spent the whole day salting and preparing a winters supply.

To Be

I kindof like it when weather interrupts my plans. There is nothing you can do but wait. No need to fight, get upset or panic. Just wait, patiently, till the storm has passed and the waves have calmed from 12 to 4 metres so the boat can return to its normal schedule.
Spent the weekend at Lofoten Artsquarter, www.kunstkvarteret.no where I organized the seminar “TO BE OR NOT TO BE” – Ethical and aesthetical perspectives on nature as resource. "People view and define nature as a resource. What does this really mean? Has profit replaced sustainable management and have we lost our respect and humility for the beauty of nature? How is it possible to approach nature with new eyes and review our present attitude of seeing nature merely as resource? This seminar will look at ethical and aesthetical perspectives on this subject in Norway and Tanzania, through the eyes of two artists and one social anthropologist."
On our return we stopped at Eggum on the north side of the Lofoten Islands. The waves were bashing in and the sheep were seeking shelter behind the boathouses, gently chewing away at the last bits of salty grass. In Norwegian it is the same word for weather as for to be. Weather or not weather (Å vær eller ikke vær) - that is the question.

Animal Architecture

The other day I took the children from my Art School out in the bay below our house to make houses and homesteads inspired by animal architecture. We talked about where animals, birds and insects choose to have their homes and what materials they use to create their houses. The children were so inspired and made amazing structures exploring the beach for good places and useful materials. They experienced that structures made of clay needs mixing with straw to remain solid and they invented flexible strings out of seaweed and worked out how to make houses out of stone, wood and straw. The younger children made whole environments with fires glowing of orange rowan-berries and ponds surrounded by shading juniper-bushes.