March 26, 2011

It was great to see John again. I met him in 2007 through my work. At that time he was Executive Director at a large US investment bank and living in San Francisco. At one point he was flying over to Oslo for a very important meeting. While he was in the air the meeting was cancelled and he found himself stranded in Oslo for 24 hours. We invited him over to our place for dinner and he got to know the whole family. Since then he has changed jobs and moved back to his home country of Australia.

There were horses on the farm and we went over to feed them in the morning:

The farm is first and foremost a sheep farm.

Please stand over by the fence, Viktor, so we can take a natural looking photo.

This what a bag of wool looks like:

John made it crystal clear that we had to work to pay for the rent. He took us all out in his pick-up

to fetch wood for the winter.

A typical Executive Director at an investment bank together with his dog:

Back on the farm we put the wood in a shed for the winter. Teddy is a strong kid:

The shed has been built using really old planks from the farm.

Viktor discovered a game called Rush Hour Railroad. We have the normal Rush Hour at home and this version adds two platforms which can be moved both horizontally and vertically.

The goal of the game is to slide the cars/trains back and forth so you can drive the red train out of the game through the only opening. You are not allowed to lift any of them.

Viktor started making his own puzzles and made everyone try them before we photographed them all. Here is one of the ones he made. Trains can only move in the direction of their length. Platforms can move in both directions. Can you get the red train out? Answers in the comment field, please.

The kids also had fun making paper airplanes, here is Teddy’s:

We even squeezed in a saxophone session for Viktor:

John took us all up on a hill and we got a great view of the farm and the surrounding landscape:

Just as we got out of the car there was a bird hanging in the air above us, the way bricks don’t. Helene asked if it was an eagle. I brushed her away, saying “No, that’s not an eagle.” It was a stupid reflex response. John could confirm that the bird was indeed a wedge-tailed eagle. Lovely bird, miss Sophie:

The landscape was riddled with beautiful trees, many of them standing alone. I went bananas with the camera. I love trees and I love photographing them. There is something soothing about their fractal nature combined with their stubborn defiance of gravity. To me a tree is a symbol of life and the powerful force of millions of years of evolution:

In the afternoon John’s wife, Sofia, and their daughter, Tessa, arrived. The girls found each other immediately:

The girls tested parts of Tessa’s wardrobe:

The evening light was beautiful:

We were offered a great dinner to complete our day on the farm. Thank’s John and Sofia!

Eirik

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