Sundays are often a day for long walks or seeing exhibitions.

We had quite a bit of snow overnight, but clearing had been done, so the main roads were pretty good this morning.

We drove south again, and had a look around Hå Gamle Prestegård, (see the labels under this text)

What I really found interesting was to see and hear about the work by the artist/photographer,

Rune Guneriussen, who you see in this photo. He has more ART on his web page

http://www.runeguneriussen.no

Do take a look!

PARTY GIRLS out in the snow , - wearing high heals.

Despite the new snow and cold weather there were still a lot of people out "on the town".

Vintage clothing, seen through a window at Fretex.

The window - text in Norwegian says: "What someone is tired of, others can get joy from."

Late opening, and I think it looks very interesting and welcoming.

The snow and ice are now melting.

And we have even had a few hours with sunshine around lunch time.

The white buildings on the other side of the lake is the college, that is situated next to our Cathedral.

Tonight I passed this window, and I got this strange feeling that someone was looking at me.

Well, perhaps not very creative to take a photo of someone else's photo. But I like the way in which they have created this window display, a pretty creative idea.

Just some strange green-yellow-white material to the right that I don't like that much, I think it detracts from the overall effect. The name of the shop is Dick & Daisy.

Cold feet.....

If you enlarge this photo, you can see what I saw this afternoon when I was out walking together with a couple of friends..... Two "mad vikings" who were out in the ice cold water!!!

I do like the snow, I think it makes the landscape look very clean and beautiful, but the icy pavements and roads make me look forward to warmer days.

Today I saw something beautiful, art made by the late Frida Hansen from Stavanger.

It reminded me of work by William Morris.....

At the moment it is possible to see some of her work at the Rogaland Museum of Fine Arts.

More info: http://www.fridahansen.no/content/english-summary

"Broken Column" statue outside the Cathedral....

You will find more of his fellows..... by clicking on the label under this text.

Have a really nice weekend!

"Resept" is the name of a nice vegetarian restaurant/cafe in the centre of Stavanger.

This is what Nina and I had yesterday.

It tasted as good as it looked!:-)

Later: Sorry to tell you that this place closed in 2012.

Haiti....

What does this artistic blue oil painting have to do with that?

Well yesterday evening I attended a monthly meeting (a group of six women) in a private house where I again looked at this piece of aesthetically pleasing BLUE art.....

While we were sitting discussing things from our agenda the door bell rang, and it was a man outside collecting money for the Red Cross, money that should go to Haiti.

When I came back home I checked the news on internet, and read that the artist of the painting I had admired earlier in the evening, is going to donate one of his big oil paintings to an auction being held by the Red Cross in Stavanger.

I am impressed about KJELL PAHR - IVERSEN. He is a well known artist, and it just shows that we can all do SOMETHING to help the people who now are in this tragic situation!

Today I want to show you a photo from a popular place to visit, further south of Stavanger.

It is an art and culture centre with many interesting exhibitions, and a nice shop and cafe.

You will find more information, both in English and German by clicking on the link.

http://www.hagamleprestegard.no

My photo shows just one of the buildings, and it is a very typical building style for this area.

We still have some farm land around the city. But many of the farmers have sold their farms to the council who have again sold it to development companies. This is a view towards Jåttå.

This is typical Norwegian......
Do you know what it is?

Have a guess.

THE DAY AFTER:

Hei Many of you had really good answers to what this food was. It is "lapper", a type of a thick and small pancake with "Brunost" or "Brown cheese" on the top.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunost

Next time you buy cheese you might find/try some at your shop.

At 14.00 this afternoon many sporty people, young and old, were out in the cold windy weather running the Sola Beach Marathon.

Actually it was a route passing the beach 3 times, or in other words 21,1 km. (Half marathon) That is what I call IMPRESSIVE !!:-)

Yesterday on my way to the icy lake, I parked the car outside the old transformer station owned by the electricity company, Lyse.

Two years back they had 18 students from Rogaland Art school who decorated the building, in return, the company sponsored with a trip for the students.

Is this art? Is it dangerous for the traffic that is passing? Well, that was the discussion back in 2008.

What do you think?

O' HAPPY DAY(S). :-)

This is Liv and her dog Kira.

They have spent hours out on the ice for nearly every day since new year!

We all had fun this afternoon!

This is just one corner of one of the five houses that were involved in a huge fire last night!!

As you see, the houses are very close. No people were seriously hurt but several people lost their homes and belongings.

It could have been much worse!!

Now the politicians are out in the newspapers discussing if and how to best protect areas with old and listed houses.

Looking up...

inside the entrance to the Rogaland Museum of Fine Arts.

"Breiavatnet" is the name of the lake where I have posted photos from over the last few days. And today you can see some of the teenage pupils from the nearby school who are out for a break in the fresh air out on the icy lake.
The city chief for roads, parks and sports facilities is the one who takes the final decision if a lake should be declared open to the public or not, after the thickness of the ice has been measured and investigated.
This lake has a 26 cm thick layer of ice (as measured today), according to the councils webpage.
But there are unsafe areas near some of the edges, so people are only allowed to go just where it is marked as safe.

Yesterdays photo with the heart was part of this decorated tree. There is a light inside and at night it looks even more pretty. This is our city park. The ice on the water is now thick enough so it has been declared safe for walking and skating on. . This photo was taken last Thursday.

A kind woman had brought some bread for the birds in the park.....

Stavanger Katedralskole, is well known and also the oldest educational institution in Stavanger for young students between 16 to 19 years old.

It is situated next to the Cathedral and has the park and the lake "Breiavatnet" on the other side. As you can see, the lake is now safe to walk and cross over. Many students and other people went ice skating today.

Tonight there was a memorial service held in the Cathedral to commemorate people from the county who were killed in accidents on the roads in 2009.

Lots of families and friends of victims, participated in a procession from the main Fire station to the cathedral carrying lit torches.

Passing the entrance of the Cathedral earlier today gave me a strong impression.

A couple of days back I was photographing at the kampsport instituttet

Wow, I was really impressed about the many different activities and the strength and concentration that the members showed!

It is a new year and many people attend evening classes and sport activities.

This is Ali and Hassan !!

This is my posting number 200 :-)

I will use this opportunity to say THANK YOU to my followers and everyone else who has taken the time to leave comments, which are always very much appreciated.

Todays photo is from Rogaland Museum of Fine Arts. It is one of the statues from "Broken Column" ( Click on the labels to see a few more of the 23 sculptures. ) They are all a copy of the artist Anthoney Gormley, and they are all placed facing 10 degrees west.

In answer to Angela's question earlier, here are some of the many Ice hockey players that were out on the lake, Mosvannet, yesterday afternoon.

The ice is thick over the whole of the little lake Mosvannet, not far from the centre of Stavanger.

A nice day to be out in the fresh air. People were walking, skiing, cycling , playing ice hockey and even having a barbeque on the frozen lake. These people did what most of us probably wished we had done too.

Our biggest local newspaper chose to announce the first baby to be born in Stavanger in 2010, Arienna who is American, was born just 15 minutes into the new year. Her parents are from Baton Rouge in Louisiana, and they are living here because the father is working in an oil company.

Best wishes to Arienna and her family!:-) Take a look HERE: http://www.aftenbladet.no/lokalt/1136904/Arienna_ble_nyttaarsbarnet.html

Many people make New Years resolutions such as, to stop smoking, save money, exercise more and so on. The paper also contained some articles on how to be realistic and how to make achievable goals...

Have you any New Year resolutions?

January Theme Day: "Changes"

This photo taken last night (-14C) it reminds me of a Christmas that is soon over, people back to work and snow that will melt....
We will ALL have to face small and big changes in 2010. And there will be lot's of challenges.
CARPE DIEM.
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