November 15

Dear Heidi,

We still have several cm of snow, even though the sun has been shining all day. Pappa and I went out into the greenhouse to tidy up a bit and to rescue some of the bulbs and plants that now need to come indoors. We also rescued Ben and Jerry, who were hiding at the bottom of their barrel, in very sludgy water indeed! Pappa has found his old fish tank (packed away in newspaper from 1984) so now they are happily swimming around in the schoolroom on the bookshelf. The ice over the barrel was already 10 cm thick and Pappa had to chop out a hole with an axe.

I have been tidying up the schoolroom ( ha ha, an everlasting job) and have packed away two Ikea bags of fabric / projects and only left the mending. I am hoping that the men will forget about these items so I can pack them away too!! I must admit that I do love our schoolroom when it is tidy.

The garden birds are really busy at the feeders everyday. We are already seeing the woodpeckers and bullfinches that don’t usually come until later in the winter. I wonder if this means we are going to have a cold winter at last.

It’s funny to think that just a few days ago we were in England where there were still flowers out.
Ah well, such is life in Norway.

I expect you will be seeing almond blossom everywhere once you get to Morocco.
Love always,
Mamma.