Storslett (after the snow)

The snow came last Sunday in the form of a storm, blowing in over the fjord, obscuring everything, coming down throughout the night and well into the next day. In the morning we drove into town, where Marthe and I now both have jobs. At times I think Marthe was really just driving blind into a chaos of white streaks and wind. Then a day or two later the weather turned mild and it started to rain. The snow began to melt and our roof started to leak. I put out two bowls and a towel out to catch the drops.

Yesterday the snow came back again. This time it was gentle but steady. Christmas movie snowfall. It's covered everything for a second time and I hope this time it will stay, because it really is true that it makes everything lighter. For the few hours in the early afternoon when the sun is properly up it's as bright here as any daylight you've seen. The sky is another colour too. This morning it was a kind of bright blue I've never seen before. It looked backlit. If you saw a postcard of it you would say it had been Photoshopped. As I had hoped, the snow even rescued our garden.

This morning we drove into Storslett, which is where we both work and also where we go to speak to the police or the tax office, to visit a cafe, to use the library, post a letter or buy some food. It's around thirty minutes away and by the standards of the region it's a sizable town, though it's only as big as an English village. We have driven this route almost every day since we got here, but this time I had a very different feeling. It's not easy to explain, but I think that if you come from Swindon it's difficult to see somewhere that looks like this part of the world does at this time of year without feeling that in some way you don't deserve it.

 

Storslett library

The local cafe

The view from the middle of Storslett

Once we were finished in Storslett we drove just a little way out to a place between two mountains, where a Christmas market was being held in a small museum on a farm. We thought we were early, so we hesitantly opened the museum door, only to find it fairly busy inside. People were browsing knitted goods, drinking coffee and eating cake. We joined in and took pictures of each other like the out-of-towners we are.