Month: April 2012

Behind the scenes

A few weeks ago, I visited Kristiansand, Norway for a project kick-off. The evening activity was a visit to Dyreparken, or Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park. Since this was a private tour, we were allowed into some of the animal enclosures, especially in the tropical house.

One of the animals we could visit was the ring tailed lemur, a sweet little animal from the south end of Madagascar. Very curious and trusting, we soon had them eating out of our hands.

Got any food?
Ah, food

We also saw some rainbow lorikeets that flew free inside the tropical house. Watching them was a real display of sweet love 🙂

Colorfowl Couple

We also got to go backstage to the Siberian Tigers, more on that in a later post…

The return of winter

Two weeks ago, we had the feeling of real spring around here. All the snow was gone, the roads had been swept for gravel and the kids were bicycling in the streets. In the back of my mind I knew it was early and maybe even a bit naive, but the voice of reason drowned in the joy of spring… Of course winter struck back with a vengeance and at the moment we have around 40 cm/15 inches of snow. We had decided to spend the Easter holidays at home to enjoy the spring, but instead we had to find other ways to enjoy our holidays.

The local riding school had an offer out for free riding of school horses for experienced riders, so that the horses would get their holiday exercise. (You can also read more of all the acitivities in Norwegian here) My wife and daughters are enthusiastic horse riders, so they have spent some days in the riding hall and out on the track.

My wife on the fredriksborger Calypso
Smiling from ear to ear

In between the snow showers it was also possible to ride outside. The constant weather changes made for beautiful light.

Past the winter tree
Riding through the snow

And of course, my dog Theo was ecstatic as always in the fresh snow.

Running through the snow I
Diving in the snow

 

Running through the snow II