Another Saturday morning with Grete and her children/friend swimming at the pool. Here are some photos of the pool and the crew - inlcuded are Grete, children and Mirgue.
After swimming, I gathered up my information and headed to Oslo. It was a beautiful day so figured I better see the open air Folk Museum today or I may not get another chance. The train ride was eventful in itself because, much to my surprise, they were cleaning the tracks at the central station, so we made a stop outside of Oslo and all were asked to get off - asked in Norwegian - and I was like a lemming, following this crowd of people to a bus, not knowing at all what was happening until I finally was able to ask someone who spoke English and he told me the story. Nothing like being lost in translation once again.
Anyway, once I got into Oslo, I went immediately to the Information office and bought my tickets to the ferry. I was making good time, so after getting my tickets, I was able to get to/on the ferry quickly. Here are some photos of the ferry ride leaving the harbor of Oslo.
The Folk Museum, is an open air and living history museum consisting of houses and buildings from 1600's to early 1900's. Below are some photos from my time outside.
One of the things I enjoyed most about the Folk Museum were the two art exhibits. One was a photo collection from 1910 - 1915 of rural Norway. It included back-lit slides that were really beautiful. I took a few photos of the photos below.
Another exhibit that I thought was interesting, but disturbing as well, was of the "boys home" from 1930-50's. These places were like concentration camps for foster/orphaned boys. There were photos depicting their living conditions and tasks they were responsible for. The most disturbing thing for me was the audio stories - even though I could not understand what they were saying, I could hear their emotional wounds in the cadence and manner which they talked. The good thing about the exhibit was the progress the Norwegian child welfare system has taken since then. Here is the poster for the exhibit.
After I returned to Oslo from the Folk Museum, I came to a large food festival of organic and sustainable agriculture farms from around the Oslo region. There was every kind of local fruit and vegetable imaginable along with meats from reindeer, moose, lamb, goat, pig and beef - and the cheeses! To die for cheese from sheep, goat and cow milk.
At the festival there were five Steiner farms (Camphills) and their programs represented. One of the farms had a Waldorf school as well, and this group organized a children's exhibit where they were making a small twig house - here are some photos of the children making the house and when it is finished.
They also had a few more stations set up for children to play - including this bin of hay for throwing and rolling in hay, and this fire for roasting marshmallows.
I walked around town for some time afterwards and by 5:00 found myself at the Noble Peace Prize Museum - it closed at 5:30 so I only had a few moments inside, but was happy I could see it for that amount of time at least. Here it is from outside.
I was beginning to get hungry so I found this little father/daughter run sushi resturant off one of the busy streets for some comfort food.
The return train ride was complicated because of the railway cleaning the tracks - so instead of a 30 minute train ride, it turned into a 2 hour train ride. I was tired and went to bed as soon as I got back to apartment.
Sept. 18
Today I picked mushrooms! I have been excited to go on a hunt since I arrived. I headed out early to a hut in the woods with Mirgue - she is the women who invited me and is a retired professor/scientist from UMB (her area of expertise is flower breedings). She was the leader for the day which included a group of Finn/Norwegians coming from Oslo. This hut is the home to a group of cross-country skiiers who have a large sauna and meeting house together. It is a part of a larger park and have all of the trails lite for winter nordic skiing. Here are some photos of the building and scenery from deck.
The group arrived and Mirgue had a short ppt. presentation with photos of which mushrooms were good and those to avoid. Afterward, we packed up and set out to find the "stopp". We spread out into the forest - each with our baskets/buckets for gathering the "Trakekhanterelle" (winter chanterelle) and others. I stayed with this one particular species because it is so delicious and because I did not want to pick the wrong kind! Here are some photos of the mushrooms in the forest, our group and my bucket of mushrooms.
After we were done collecting, we brought our "stopp" to the controller - Dag Guttormsen. He is the expert who checks to make sure we do not have any poisonious mushrooms. I learned he also is a UMB professor/adminsitrator - besides being a molecular biolgist, he is the Director of the Library - he also has worked with our U of MN in exchanges with the Centennial Chair program. He was very kind and knew a LOT about the mushrooms and wild foods/medicine found in the forest. Here is a picture of Mirgue, Dag and Finn (Finn is a special friend of Mirgue's, and a retired professor of fruit breeding - he met Peter Hemstead about 10 years back).
After arriving home, I prepared the mushrooms for drying by cutting off all the ends and brushing off any of the humus or moss. Here they are ready for the dehydrator.
One last picture, here are Barb and Chuck Francis settling into an evening at the guest house. They have been such good friends while here.
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