Tales and adventures of a Belgian lady and her fourteen furry friends
For weeks now I have been lying on the sofa daydreaming of trips to make and things to do. I did not have the energy to do much more than spend an hour outside with the dogs, let alone head out into the mountains. But the dreams became sharper and clearer as weeks passed. They… Continue reading Sparks
For the last couple of months I've been making a second home on Hardangervidda, that notorious yet stunning high-mountain plateau that lies between us and the west. In times before, when I roamed the mountains overlooking the fjords during summers, I was never really drawn to the place. It just didn't have the same dramatic… Continue reading Crossroads
A little over a year ago I posted some thoughts on time. Back then PJ and I were both on furlough, the pandemic had only just begun and many of us imaged that 2021 would be very different from 2020. But the reality of things hasn't changed all that much. Also this March we entered… Continue reading The Cancelled Season
Something has been missing this past November. As the evenings turned dark the mountains were black. There was no white. No snow, no powder and no ice. It was freakishly warm for most of the month, with temperatures reaching up to ten degrees even at 700m of altitude. Sometimes the degrees took a dip to… Continue reading Beautiful Powder
Last week the end of autumn started announcing itself. Or at least, the end of the cosy, colourful fall, that beautiful time of the year with yellow leaves and golden sunlight during the still warm days, and frosty crispy mornings after cold nights. In the course of 24 hours about 40cm of snow came down… Continue reading Autumn Rollover
Autumn colours are showing on the leaves of the trees and in the grasses and bushes that cover the slopes surrounding our house. Summer has come and gone in what seems like a flash. Wasn't it the beginning of July just a second ago? Initially I had very low expectations for the summer. Things were… Continue reading Summer Recap
When I got the dogs I made a resolution to myself that I would try and update the blog with regular, small posts just about how things are going. I haven't been very good at it, but resolutions are the beginning of good things, so with this I will try to be better and get… Continue reading The pack expanded
Things are starting to look different when I look out of the window of our cabana now. The fluffy blanket of snow is disappearing and where silent woods once stood covered in white, brown patches now show on the forest floor. There's even a hint of green here and there. Long hours of dusk have… Continue reading Season Zero
I was writing something on Norway Trail, the first dog sled race PJ and I participated in. I thought it would be fun to give a little day to day overview of what that week looked like, of all the things we've learned along the way. But it seems so irrelevant now. It's only been… Continue reading Time
At last the weather forecast shows multiple days of blue temperatures. From last week new snow and minus degrees descended upon us, hopefully for a while to stay. When I came home after Christmas in Belgium it was like driving into a postcard. The forest around the house was so incredibly beautiful it made me… Continue reading The long spring of January
