Ørnes I

Things change slowly in Ørnes, but they do change. The young cousins grow up. The older cousins have children. There's a bedroom off the entry now, so Roald and Oddhild don't have to climb the stairs anymore. Roald also has an automated lawn-mower; it randomly cuts the grass and returns to it's docking station to recharge every day. He is in love.

Some things don't change. Roald, my grandfather's first cousin, and his wife Oddhild met me at the ferry. They look just like they did when I first met them. (Could that have been 14 years ago? Geez, time flies!) They carried my bags to the car; this time it's an Audi. After stopping at the grocery store, we made it up the familiar drive to their house.

I was sent upstairs to put my things in one of the guest bedrooms. Since I'm the only guest right now, I get the best guest room. When I came down, we had waffles and coffee on the back porch. We talked about people we knew and how everyone is doing. We drank more coffee. Una (one of the now-grown-up young cousins) dropped by. Over the years it has become clear that she is a very frequent visitor at her grandparents' house; she tends to show up in the early evening and Roald and Oddhild always seem happy to see her.

We exchanged gifts. I got a pair of hand made (by Oddhild) pot-holders. I gave them a linen dish-cloth with a pattern of fishing cottages from Hudiksvall.

We talked about family. The women outlive the men. Roald thinks my great-grandmother (his aunt) Olga visited Norway just after the end of the war in late 1945 or early 1946. I'd never heard that. Arthritis runs deep in the family.

I don't know whether or not it's a blessing or a curse to be a night owl, but this is also, clearly, a family trait. Only here would an 'early evening' consist of a light meal at 10:15 before hanging out the laundry. The sun goes down around 10, but when we all headed to bed at 11 it was still light out.