Nothing unusual this week (5-11 July): one funeral and two weddings for Saturday. Summer has finally arrived here. There were one or two days of rain but otherwise sunshine. I feel sorry for my friends in Boston with the heat wave. Here in northern Norway the warmest it has been so far is about 70 to 75 F.
Friday I went hiking in one of the Seven Sisters Mountains. It had rained on Thursday so parts of the path were slippery. At the end of the trail I slipped. Fortunately I didn’t fall but I caught my 4th finger on a fence. Nothing serious but it’s a little sore. So I guess that’s a sign to give up mountain climbing.
Two weddings on Saturday the 10th. Fortunately they were at the same church (Alstahaug). Both weddings were planned in detail. There was a singer for each and instrumentalists for the 2nd wedding so extra rehearsals are needed. A trumpeter played at the 2nd wedding. For the postlude they also brought in a tuba player, a drummer and a 2nd trumpet player. Most of the wedding music is new to me. There are Norwegian wedding marches that are traditional here. So far the only wedding music that I knew are the Mendelssohn and Wagner marches, and also the Purcell Trumpet Tune.
After the service on Sunday I took a boat trip to Vega, an island south of here. We stopped at several islands on the way and back. The round-trip tour took about 5 hours. It was a perfect was to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Rain is predicted for Monday.
(12-18 July). And this time the prediction for rain was correct. We had 3 lousy wet days. My relatives Turid & Gunnar arrived on Tuesday for a couple days. On Wednesday we drove to Dønna and Herøy but we couldn’t see much. Thursday was a gloriously beautiful day. Unfortunately that was the day they left for the trip back south. Friday was equally beautiful with heat. Rain was predicted for Saturday but they were wrong! Another beautiful day. Norway really is the land of extremes. Friday afternoon I picked up my passport from the local police station. My residence permit is stamped into my passport. Now the major bureaucratic obstacles are behind me.
There is a nest of little seagulls near the roof on the parish house. Sometime on the weekend the young ones got out and were walking around on the ground near the front entrance. When I arrived at the parish house on Saturday morning I was dive bombed by seagulls. It felt like I was transported to Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. What an strident screech seagulls make when they are angry.
Sunday morning we had 4 baptisms. There were about 70-80 in church. During the postlude the congregation usually sits quietly and listens. With all the children in church there was quite a racket during the postlude. As I told a few people at church, I would rather have screaming children than screeching seagulls.
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