A day at the beach

We had rented this cabin for the weekend and went up to it Friday afternoon. After playing outside for hours until bedtime, everything was just fine. But with a cabin that everyone can rent, I guess there will always be someone that don't bother to clean up after oneself... And I think it must be years since last time this cabin has been washed down from roof to floor... So when we went inside and the kids started to play in the beds and sofa, the air got filled with dust... The result, Endre got thight in his chest, and could have gotten an asthma attack if we had stayed :( So we just had to pack up and drive home.

But the weekend turned out great still :) Saturday we went to Aglapsvik where there is a great beach. 

The tide was low so one part of the beach was filled with
big rocks covered with little blue mussels.

Cockle or "Heart shell" as we call them in Norway.

Blunt gaper.

Sandworm cast.

Amphipods ( scud).

The "egg bag" from a common whelk.

There was several common eider mams with kids swimming, but
no dads. A bit sad because they have some great colors.

Mountain avens.

Not as planned...

We had rented this cabin for the weekend and went up to it Friday afternoon. After playing outside for hours until bedtime, everything was just fine. But with a cabin that everyone can rent, I guess there will always be someone that don't bother to clean up after oneself... And I think it must be years since last time this cabin has been washed down from roof to floor... So when we went inside and the kids started to play in the beds and sofa, the air got filled with dust... The result, Endre got thight in his chest, and could have gotten an asthma attack if we had stayed :( So we just had to pack up and drive home.

Midsummer

The rainclouds was hanging black and heavy over the mountains around us,
but we had sun the entire afternoon. We went up to our cabin and had
a barbeque. The kids had a great time. But when the sun disappeared the
mosquitos came... so we packed our things together and went home.

Endre is picking the flowers to the bunchberry. When I was little we used to
call them "coffee flowers" because the black flowerheads looks like grounded coffee ;)

# 4/52 Monkey

Pair #4 is off the needles :) A pair of Monkey.

I was not sure abot the color when I casted on for these, but as I knitted away I liked it more and more. And I do have a second skein of it :)

Pattern: Monkey
Yarn: Opal Petticoat # 1294
Needles: 2,5 mm

I might knit up a pair again soon, as I have seen some around at Ravelry without the purls...

I got this award from Strikkeguri some days ago - thank you so much!
I find it hard to just give it away to just 8 bloggers, there are SO many that inspires me every day. So I'll give it to all of you wonderful readers who are so kind to leave me comments. We all love comments don't we ;)

Looking for tadpoles

We have a tiny little pond by the bog, and we can find tadpoles there each year.

As you can see there is not much water in this little pond, even
after a week of rain... So it dries up every summer. We hope some of
these little tadpoles grows up to be small frogs before that happens.

Here Endre has managed to get some up in his pot :)

Afterwards we went for a walk at the meadow looking for flowers and bugs.

The gras starting to get high now and it smells so good!

My boys and socks on the needles

It was Erlend's turn to be sick today. And I think it's the first time in ages that I've only had the boys home - and Endre was thrilled to have his big brother all to him self! He has been following him all day. Here they are listening to music. Can you see that Endre is dancing on his chair :)

It's still raining, so there is a lot of time for knitting. I casted on for a pair of Monkey yesterday - a fun and fast knit! And although I'm not so fond of the black&white stripes that are in some of the yarn from Opal, I like the colors in this skein.

I've also got my first pair of Kai-mei on the needles. But I'll have to frog it back to the heel because I've knitted a little mistake :(

And yes, we're still wearing wool socks here... Washed a pile of them today. The summer seems to have forgotten us. With rain and hardly 10 C it's cold. And with the Solstice just a week away, I really hope we'll get some sun and warm weather before the days get shorter and darker again!

Vanlig frosk / Common frog

Siden det regner så er det lettere å finne frosker nå.
Her har ungene funnet en vanlig frosk.

Since it's raining it's easier to find frogs.
Here is a common frog that the kids found.

Vanlig frosk (Rana temporaria) er den vanligste froskearten i Norge. Den kan bli ca. 7-10 cm lang, og har en butt snute. Fargene varierer en del med temperaturen, men undersiden er lys (gjerne med mørke flekker) og oversiden brun, rødbrun eller gråbrun med mørke tegninger, særlig på bakbeina. Vanlig frosk finnes over hele landet opp til 1000 meter over havet. Arten er den amfibiearten som finnes lengst nord i Eurasia og er en robust art med små krav til leveområdene. Her i nord foretrekker arten å gyte i dammer med en relativt grunn, soleksponert strand, men den gyter også i tjern og gårdsdammer. Vanlig frosk finnes sjelden i dammer med fisk, og egg og rumpetroll tåler ikke like surt vann som spissnutet frosk. Vanlig frosk gyter derfor fortrinnsvis i midlertidige vannsamlinger, derav artsnavnet temporaria (midlertidig).

I april-mai (avhengig av klima) samles begge kjønn til gyting i gytedammen så snart isen går. Hannen lokker med en vedvarende knurrende "rrrrrrrr". Hunnen legger de 400-2000 eggene i faste geléklumper. Eggklasene vil oftest synke til bunnen, men flyter gjerne opp i senere faser av utviklingen. Larvene (rompetrollene) går på land i juli-august og blir kjønnsmodne etter 2 til 3 år. Arten overvintrer som oftest på bunnen av en dam eller bekk, der den puster med huden for å få oksygen.

The Common Frog, Rana temporaria also known as the European Common Frog or European Common Brown Frog is found throughout much of Europe as far north as well north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and as far east as the Urals, except for most of Iberia, southern Italy, and the southern Balkans. The furthest west it can be found is Ireland, where it is an introduced species. Common frogs are active almost all of the year, only hibernating when it gets very cold and the water and earth are consistently frozen. Common frogs hibernate in running waters, muddy burrows and can hibernate in layers of decaying leaves and mud at the bottom of ponds. The fact that they can breathe through their skins allows them to stay underwater for much longer periods of time when they are hibernating. Common frogs breed in shallow, still, fresh water such as ponds, with breeding commencing in March. The adults congregate in the ponds, where the males compete for females. The courtship ritual involves croaking, and a successful male grasps the female under the forelegs. During the mating season the males can be recognised by a darkened swelling, the nuptial pad on their 'thumbs'. The females, which are generally larger than the males, lay up to 4000 eggs which float in large clusters.

Senja Familiepark

We went to Senja Familiepark on Saturday. They have lots of
animals for the kids to look at :)

At the bottom of the hill we met a gang with angora goats.

A baby goat.

They didn't pay us much attention, but when we gave them
branches with birch leaves it became crowdy at the fence.

Ludde the llama just laid and enjoyed the sun.

Endre loved the miniature pig :) We should had one..

And it's no farm without sheeps ;)

And there were rabbits. In all kinds of size and variations. Since Endre is
allergic we didn't take the chance to take one out for a cuddle...

Endre at the playground in Noas sjark. It's a pun on Noah's ark.
A sjark is a norwegian fishingboat.

The newest attraction in the park is this mule foal. Which was very shy.
Here she is with her mum Luna.

Lots of space to run at.

Here's the mule foal's dad - the donkey Jacob.

He and the shetland pony Balder loved to get dandelions from the kids.

We had a great day and will definitely come back later in the summer!