Another school year has started. I am watching from the sidelines. Not just an office away from the classrooms, completely outside of a school. It has been emotional and bittersweet. I missed the first day fancy clothes. The brand new pencils and backpacks. The nervous but smiling children ready for adventure. The sparkling clean classrooms, and the magnificent crew of educators ready to build a new family. OH, and the teacher tired Fridays. Yes I sure do miss the atmosphere and camaraderie only teachers understand. I mean seriously, who else bonds over bladder control and shared hatred of office machinery shenanigans?!
I never really planned or envisioned my career path going this route. Not that I should be surprised. When I went to college I would have sworn to you I would teach kindergarten. After I took my first position in first grade, I knew I was home....until I moved to teach sixth grade. A grade I swore I would never teach, ever, but wow, that age is challenging and rewarding. I promised to never go back to the littles. Until I did AND moved across the ocean. If anything, I should know by now that I have absolutely zero idea where I am going to end up or what age of children I will circle back to. So at this point, all I know is that this year, I am not in a school, I miss it, but I am embracing the off road adventure so to speak. Soapbox warning: One thing that doesn't change though, is the sheer outrage I feel watching my teacher friends ask for school supplies. Every year, I watch my American colleagues posting their Amazon wish lists on Facebook, sharing other teachers lists, and get this...BUYING SHIT ON OTHER TEACHERS LISTS SO THEY CAN "GIVE BACK". It still stuns me that teachers are basically left to fend for themselves to provide the standard of care so many parents have come to expect. I feel so torn every year, because as long as teachers keep leaning in and taking the brunt of the load, society will expect it. Give an inch take a mile mentality and all. Teachers' kindness and dedication is exploited, and they continue to be abused by a shitty system. But at the same time, if they don't provide quality experiences for students, they feel they are letting the kids down and not doing their jobs well enough. While these Amazon wish lists alleviate some of the issues, it only widens the gap for students in districts that don't have the financial support that is available in some districts. I'll get off my soapbox now, but holy fuck if lockdown and trying to manage one kid at home didn't convince you that people who juggle 25+ learners at a time are valuable, then there's no reaching you. In other news, I actually didn't miss summer this year. It was Monday, September 4th. I honestly do think that was the warmest day of the year for us. Cue today where I am seriously considering digging out the heavier duvet and wondering if I will need to give my baby squash a duvet to survive to ripen. Already the tree leaves are silently screaming the green right out of their bodies. I swear maple trees are the all-things-autumn queens of the tree world. The sun starts to set a little earlier and there is a hint of freshness in the air, and they are lined up for their spiced cider and scarves. Don't get me wrong, I love autumn myself. It is probably my favorite season. I love the colors and the brisk air. Crunching fallen leaves and stomping in rain puddles are pure dopamine boosts. AND this autumn I get to travel to Ireland. That will be a fun adventure....even if it is work related. I don't think I will really have much time for exploring, but it will be enough to grab a few postcards to send to AB's grandkids and to say I was there. I can always put it on the list for NBF and me to go back. Other than that, there are lists to write, winterizing to do, and a whole tree's worth of apples to make into different apple treats. I joked last post about falling for the make it myself crap, and I fear that has really gone off the rails as I not only made my own apple butter, but I traded some for homemade rhubarb jelly. I may have also invited someone to pick berries at my place and been invited to pick mushrooms at hers. I don't need to hear anymore I told you so. I have it covered...as does NBF. Oh, Norway, what have you done to me?
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This sure has been a wet summer. As I sit here typing near the windows, I can see the rain showering down and spilling over the edge of the awning. I think we could count on one hand the number of days it has not rained since July 1st. While we don't have a rain gauge here at home like we do at the cabin, I would guess we have easily matched the 17+ cm I can verify by the cabin rain gauge. I know it is more because my rain gauge actually overflowed at one point between visits. Of course, we also had the serious weather system Hans move through and do significant damage in our area. This means we haven't really explored as much as is typical for us. We had planned to revisit a couple of places including a waterfall and the ice church in thawed season, but of course, we would rather be safe than take risks. I have to admit, I feel a little stir crazy. I am almost considering buying a jigsaw puzzle, if that tells you about my state of mind.
The weather is also cooling already, so it is no longer the warm summer rainy nights. It is full on, build a fire and cozy in autumn evenings. Which means it is almost time to secure the fort for winter. We have a little bit of work to do at the cabin in order to be ready including spending a weekend hauling firewood up the stairs. I am beyond tempted to supply beer and pølser and have NBF invite a couple of friends, read much younger bodies, over to help. This last weekend, we spent an impromptu night at the cabin, and I started making the mental lists of what needs to be done. We have things to stow away and of course, making sure the water supply is insulated. Before I know it, "Her kommer vinteren" will be playing on the radio. It feels like all too short of a summer cabin season, so I guess it is a good thing I enjoy the cozy winter weekends as well. Unfortunately because of the rain, there are tasks that may have to linger until next year. I was really hoping to have my flag pole painted and planted. I look on with envy as we pass the cabins with flagpoles. It honestly seems a silly thing, but I guess it is my "white picket fence" of our cabin. Plus, NBF has been promising that when we get the pole done and the cabin named, we will order a custom flag. Yes, I know, I wrote about naming the cabin months ago, but we want THE perfect name. Actually, I do think we landed it. We have been calling it Blueberry Hill. It works on a lot of levels, the cabin is blue and on a hill, my last name is Hill, and there are a fuck ton of blueberry bushes on the hill leading to the cabin. Cue Fats Domino singing! "I found my thrill....." Speaking of blueberries, I decided to harvest for a few minutes. NBF came to join, and it reminded me of one of our first dates. He surprised me with pickers and baskets, and we went out in the woods collecting berries. It is still one of my favorite dates. We actually found cloudberries that time! However this time the only clouds were dropping rain, but there are so many bushes out there that it only took about ten minutes for us to harvest over a kilo (two pounds). NBF was reminiscing about having fresh blueberry jam for pancakes, and let me tell you, that's how they fucking get you. Because guess who has two thumbs and made her own blueberry jam when we got home. Even as I type this I fear my soul is creeping into "you can make it yourself" land. It really was so very simple that I can easily see myself slipping further down the slope. I promised myself I would stop at jam and smoothies, but then of course, NBF mentioned pie and it has been ever so long since I made a cobbler. Goddamnit, Nellie, get a grip! Don't fall for it. Honestly, the only thing that put a halt to the blueberry dreams was a slight health scare. Let's just say babies aren't the only ones with colorful reactions to eating too much of a certain food. I was already not feeling well, so this just made me think I had more serious issues going on. Thank goodness I was able to Google myself into "have you eaten any of these foods (including blueberries) lately?" instead of "symptoms of colon cancer." I also have to admit, I have already packed away two bags of apples from the apple tree in the freezer. I also intend to get a few more so I can try my hand at apple butter. Fuck man, that slope is steep and icy. Y'all need to promise to stop me if I take up knitting...although I crochet, sigh. Perhaps it is too late already I say as I look outside to see my spaghetti squash plant thriving. All jokes aside, I am pleased with this life I am making myself here, blueberry shit and all. It's been an eventful two weeks, that's for sure! Monday before work, I asked NBF, "Are you sure we should go in? They say Hans' visit will bring the worst rains in twenty five years." The answer I got was basically, let's go, there's nothing to worry about. I swear this man is as carefree as I am cautious. And it was true, on the drive TO work, there was nothing to worry about. Even as we were headed home, there was rain, but nothing heavy. I did notice surprise waterfalls emerging from the hillsides where none had existed before hinting at the existence of Hans and his footprint. Then came the tunnels after the mountain. We were slowed down to moving a couple of car lengths every minute or so and were in the tunnel much longer than I was comfortable with. I kept thinking about that Norwegian film, The Tunnel. Eventually we "escaped" the tunnel but by that point traffic was moving so slowly that people were out of their cars or shouting through open windows to report the conditions up the way to drivers traveling the opposite direction. Our report was that the tunnels were filling with gas and would probably close,. Their report was that there was water ahead that just kept getting deeper. Deeper turned out to be hood high on my car. Many of you on my Facebook saw the video of our crossing. It was scary, but we only lost the front tag in the cross. We even made the news. Just after our crossing, the road and tunnels were closed. Seems we left work just in time. When we arrived in town, the roundabout to get to our road was a swirling vortex of water, rocks, clumps of dirt with grass, and one shoe. We took a short tour of town on our way to the grocery store and were just stunned to see how much water there was. The train tracks were so full of water NBF joked about running boats for train, and there were streams of running water in many places they didn't belong. I guess our station wasn't the only one, because there were no trains running from the airport either which meant I was "rained in" for home office. Today we finally made it to the cabin which was quite a journey in itself. The main road to our cabin is washed out. We had to take a pretty big detour to get there. The cabin is fine, thank goodness. The rain gauge was overflowing, but the spiders have returned to build webs clear across the veranda. We had joked and laughed about our chairs that were on the pier being washed away and needing replaced, but we did not foresee what actually happened. The chairs are indeed gone as is the grassy area. We couldn't even get all the way down the forest path before we met water. The pier looks like the top simply floated off the base and crashed into shore, breaking apart. I just stared, devastated when I saw it. While that is heartbreaking to me, I am so very thankful we fared better than many people in the aftermath of Hans. And of course, the house optimist is already planning the new pier which promises to be better in all ways. It's hard to believe that just a week ago, BAH was jumping off that pier and into the fjord, so he could have at least one story to tell when he got home. His visit was a last minute decision and a relatively quick trip, but we found some time to have fun. Both NBF and I had to work all week, so it couldn't be total exploration. Although, Monday morning left me unsure exactly who he was here to visit because he took off for work with NBF. From the moment we got in the car at the airport, he couldn't wait to practice Norwegian with NBF, and I was (rightfully) shamed for not using more Norwegian (on multiple occasions through the visit). BAH said as soon as could could even be partially understood in Spanish, he exclusively spoke Spanish to the person helping him learn. He also said I was using English as a crutch and not using my amazing resource, NBF. I'm not saying he's wrong, but where did he get that streak of brutal honesty?? Must be from NBF 😂 In all honesty, I really admire his bravery and drive. I am a touch envious that I can't embrace the struggle, read swallow my pride, as much as he did. He wanted to try ALL the Norwegian food and did end up trying whale steak and brown cheese. He unabashedly asked NBF anything that came to mind and continued to try to speak Norwegian all week. It took me right back to his childhood to see him so enthusiastically learning and just plowing through headlong. I think being able to see both the boy and the man is a special gift we parents get. Or perhaps, we are just never ready to entirely let go of that little boy because then we have to grow up ourselves. Either way, I don't feel like reminiscing about the old days and getting all sappy in this post. We took BAH to see the big silver moose, so now his brother can see it without feeling guilty. But aside from that excursion, mostly we stayed home because NBF and I had to work. I worked early in the morning while BAH slept and was nearly done by the time he got up. He napped on the couch with me while I worked a couple of mornings. We went to see the cabin and took a long walk one evening. We also had hours of chatting and debating issues. I miss that so much. (Fuck, here I go again with the sappy shit.) He thinks I am surprised that he is like me in so many ways, but I have always known he was. It's just that when he was young, he was really busy trying to be just like his dad. That's a lot of work when you get half your genes from the polar opposite of your dad. Now I find it simply remarkable to see how he has combined those two halves to make his own self. And then just like that, it was time to drop him back at the airport. It is a practice from when he was in the Marines. I can watch him walk through security and keep it together, but after that the tears fall. This time was no different. I don't think there is ever an easy goodbye when you are sending someone you love so much so far away from you. However, I can't end the telling of his visit without this story. I took him to the grocery with me, and the clerk asked me if he was my brother. When I told her no, he is my son, she laughed out loud and couldn't get to the other clerks fast enough to spread the news. Since the conversation was in Norwegian, BAH had to ask in the parking lot what that was about because he understood me saying he was my son but he didn't understand why it was funny. Well, my brother, now you do. Now. You. Do. |
Nellie HillJust a woman leaping outside her comfort zone and telling the tale. Archives
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