it's difficult to sleep while in Norway between the months of April and August

the light rays of the sun penetrate my sleeping self much too early in the morning, and seem to activate my consciousness without regard to an inadequacy of rest. furthermore, the suns rays alight my world until well into the evening and this holds my active awakeness until the clock tells a new day has begun.

the sunset sky's colors tonight have finally relented their thrills at 10:30pm.

the mania of the norwegian seasons...

...drives me to pluck weeds that cause me painful stinging so that i may nourish myself with their wildness.

Brennesle: is the good food to eat.
this spring's first pickings over the past two evenings, from a path's side at Fjellbirkeland.

Sognsvann is surprising in March

"Your calendar is based on Jesus, ours is based on the sun" said the Iranian guy to me tonight. Despite the darkness of night, and the lack of city lights illuminating Sognsvann at the north-western edge of Oslo, I could see by the bonfire-light that a hip Persian youth was kindly sharing his culture with me. His hair: some kind of rad Eastern mullet style--product-spiked top, shaped sideburns, and a cascade of black to the back.
His heavily accented and broken English conveyed a description of the event I chanced upon tonight, after walking to the frozen lake to wind-down from all-day thesis writing. Under the grove of conifers at the snowy lakeshore, a half-dozen fires crackled, and 100+ people encircled. An amp-ed music system was projecting the soundtrack... unknown language, and melodies for me... but upbeat and vibe-y music. Many danced in a large group, with the core of the people tossing blue-green scarves into the air.
My Iranian informant told me that this was the annual celebration before their calendar new year's day, which happens with the return of Spring's sun, or the Westerner's March 21. Tonight features fires--a holy symbol, he told me, but not religious. They dance around them, and jump over them...for good health, and a positive new year. He excused himself from my company after the brief but generous conversation sharing with me the celebration's cultural meaning. I am certain that regular circumstances will never associate us socially. And I am simply happier for receiving such an unexpected gift of experience tonight.

another day, another ...payout from the ch-Ching! of a rich world we live in...

I sympathized with the trees... as each exhalation quickly became a web of crystallizing vapors over my face. My eyelashes and nose hairs accumulated extensions of crusty ice. The fog that was seen enshrouding the forests outside my window this morning, had frozen lace-like over all tree twigs, branches, and trunks.

I went for a run around Sognsvann this afternoon to investigate the phenomenon more closely. As I set my pace, I quickly felt a part of the scene. And I imagined...myself becoming covered in frozen fractals of water, were I to stand as the trees. And, I thought about the character of the trees too...standing so, straight and tall! These trees haven't had a rough life at all! Growing up, just like they do. And they looked good...under the fine, frozen fog.

My breathing was heavy--inhale, exhale--as I pushed my body to jog in the stiffening cold. I believed this, conclusively: the trees like to have us amongst them! For: they give us oxygen and we give them carbon dioxide. It seemed a strikingly simply, and happy thought about the relationship I was maintaining...