Thursday, May 24, 2007

THREE HUNDRED YEAR OLD BARNS, FAMILY FARMS, AND TJAEREKROSS

8 AM Foggy cold. REALLY foggy.
Asgardsreien.
Bad Gods.
Bad. Bad Gods!

These are TJAEREKROSS and were placed on this barn door over three hundred years ago to keep the bad gods out.
I ran my hand over the rough contours. Was it cow blood? Paint? Plant extract?
I do not know.
This is the inside of the barn next to the farm house.
My father was born here in 1920.
My family can be traced back from this farm for three hundred years.

The house perches high over Nordfjord.
Starheim, Norway.
I am transported back hundreds of years.
I see names of my ancestors on headstones.

Morning.
I heard a loud rushing sound outside the cabin door.
Air conditioner? No. Of course not.
Heater?
Possibly.
Ah...

Waterfall!
Of course.

So I will leave you to your weekend.
By Monday I will have left the mountain cabin at Rand and be staying in Bergen.
I have not forgotten LOTTERY. I have not forgotten that I will soon be an author.
But I am remembering what it is like to be a writer.
Here in Norway.
What about you?
Where do you remember?

10 comments:

Bernita said...

Memory holds the door...

Holly Kennedy said...

These photos are gorgeous, Pat.

I feel like I could dip my hand in that morning waterfall from my basement desk. You've made me want to visit Norway and hunt down my relatives :)

Travel safe.

Tyhitia Green said...

Loved the waterfall, Pat. That place is beautiful and unharmed by all of the toxins we have over here. Happy Belated birthday!! I am currently writer hoping to become an author soon enough! :*)

Dawn said...

It's a blessing to be a writer, Pat, because it leaves you open to experience things on multiple levels. I'm sure it is the same for all "artists" but as a genre writer I sometimes forget that I've been blessed in this way just as much as the poet or Shakespear.

Mia King said...

Wow. I have chills, Pat. I am also sensing another book. Are you getting inspired?

We miss you here at the islands ... enjoy Norway and travel safe!

Lisa R said...

I agree with Holly -- you have totally inspired me to visit Norway and track down my relatives. Being anywhere in Europe always makes me remember because it is just so inspiring. Loved the pictures!

Kimber Li said...

So beautiful! Thank you so much, Pat.
;)

Sharon Maas said...

Wonderful photos - I've never been to Norway and don;t have any ancestors from there but you make me really want to pop up for a weekend! What an amazing journey - and I, too, sense the seed of a future novel...

Heidi the Hick said...

I can't talk about remembering right now because I am just about on the verge of possibly weeping at those photos!!!

Isn't it incredible to meet your family history? That connection to the past makes my blood rush.

(Some Fjord horse picture maybe? Please?)

John Robison said...

My family comes from Georgia, and I have similar memories of the old places there, in Chickamauga, Lawrenceville, and Cairo.

But most of them are gone now. My grandparent's home sites are now commercial developments, the victims of urban sprawl.

I particularly liked your pictures.

Before Georgia, most of my family came from England and Scotland. I hope to see some of those places when I go there for my book tour early in 2008.