Falling for Harvest Break

October 3, 2007
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Its fall break in Norway this week. That means a week off, at least for families with children, since the school is closed. I’ll get back to what a break at this time of the year comes of, just to mention that with all Norwegians having 5 weeks vacation per year (most take three weeks in the summer time), its good to have a break to charge your batteries before the dark winter. Today, the duration of daylight is 11 hours, in three month it will be 6, but then again in mid summer we’ll have 19 hours.
As I often say, I like the significant four seasons. This is an example of fall:

Fall at Akershus Fortress, Oslo #1 Fall at Akershus Fortress, Oslo #2
These two pictures are taken at Akershus Fortress in Oslo. I had a similar post last year with more fall colored pictures (also my 6th out of 360 most polar picture at Flickr).

Then back to this weeks break: As in many countries in the Northern hemisphere where farming was the main industry (up until 50 – 100 years back in Norway), the tradition is from when all children were needed at home for the harvest. Even when I was a child, I remember we were at a friends family fram to pick potatoes and carrots on fall break. I think what I’m remembering the most though, was jumping in the hay in the barn :-) .
This was what my wife and I talked about when going home from a great party last weekend. A friend of mine lives 1 1/2 hours north of Oslo and had his 60th birthday, and also has been married for 40 years (yea: 100 years anniversary!). During the drive, my wife was saying: ‘Hey, look at this lovely scenery! – you are looking for the right nature in fall colors for your blog my dear – it’s there!’
Let me show you some before I go on:


It was a gray and misty day so the light condition was less then perfect, but I hope you get the idea. At least it took me down the memory lane and we had great fun in yet another quality time sharing the good old days from childhood together. BTW: The last three pics are from the golf course, we haven’t given up the golf season yet you know!
Do any of you have harvest memories from childhood – fun in the hay maybe? :D

Fall, Nature, Tradition