With the summer holidays in full swing, you would think that we would have a bit of time to draw breath and reflect on things. Nothing could be further from the truth. David and Solveig, our former neighbours from Munkebakken, finally tied the knot a few days ago after co habitating for nigh on a decade and a half. Rannveig in a fit of generosity offered to make the wedding cake with barely a little more than a week to get it all together. We are talking about the full on rich fruit cake here, normally a 3 to 6 week project plus at least a couple of months for the cognac to do its magic in the fruit mix.
One rich fruit cake as ordered in a matter of days
The assembly and preparation of the mixture took a few days as the rich fruit cake is not exactly what you could call a traditional Norwegian dish. Some frantic long distance phone calls to mum in Austinmer to solve some of the technical problems with icing, a few late nights and a sprinkling of bad language later, Rannveig's labours bore fruit (so to speak).
The final result...another Rannveig triumph!
I'm endlessly impressed by the good lady wifes ability to take on such culinary projects without previous experience, no time margin for error and the threat of disaster looking over her shoulder and still come out of it smelling like a rose every time. David and Solveig were suitably impressed and we could finally relax a little.
We visited Kristin and her kids at their holiday hut (hytte in Norwegian) a ways to the south from us. The weather had just started to turn to real summer and we got our first inkling that the water might be warm enough to dunk our large, but majestically hydrodynamic bodies into. From then on in its been beach, beach, beach...island?
Our girl has fine taste in life saving accessories
Yes, island. The fjord here is scattered with small to medium large islands, most suitable for finding a piece of beach or rock and setting up for the day with a picnic and some coldies. Lars Peter and Hanne, friends of ours here in Tønsberg have a very flash runabout and kindly invited us to share the day with them last weekend as they went in search of a perfect piece of island.
It took a while and with two babies and a toddler along for the ride, a little bit of creative juggling, but we found ourselves enjoying the blazing sunshine out in the fjord from a scenic island. Just as a final little twist, we got to see some wildlife up close and very personal... a mink! They seem to like living under rocks next to the shoreline and are prodigous swimmers, going from island to island in the summer and using any ice floes that may form during the winter. Not in the least bit shy, the little bugger flew straight past us on the beach as he made a beeline for his home on the other side of the rocks.
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