This portfolio represents an adventure of a lifetime for me. In 2013 I went to Norway to visit my best friend, Eirik Bråtveit, who I’ve known since he and I went to Hallingdal Folkehogskule in the town of Gol, in the late 1970s. We stayed at his cabin, known as Red Cabin (Eirik’s Cabin), which is situated high in the remote mountains of south western Norway.
In Lunch with Eirik he can be seen enjoying the reindeer hamburgers he prepared us for lunch. My culinary contribution for the trip was introducing Eirik to the idea of putting wild blueberries directly into the pancake batter rather than on top. The image Blueberries shows them stunningly in situ.
The image High Mountain Grass shows an example of the grassy flora we found at the end of a two-hour hike up a nearby stream bed to a high plateau. Eirik caught 22 trout in the lake seen in the background of The Pool.
The image Bråtveit Moonrise was taken in Bråtveit, Eirik’s ancestral village, near the shore of that same lake, while the moon rose through the beautiful, long twilight of the northern, summer sky.
Welcome to Vangen, the farm that’s been owned by my Norwegian ancestors for centuries (Vangen). It now serves as a vacation retreat for my cousin, Svein Erik Fjellstad, who has been lovingly restoring the farm’s old buildings. In the image Svein Erik he relaxes in cabin’s living room.
The image Sod Roof shows the sod-over-birch-bark roofing method that’s been employed here for millennia. It’s durable and natural, as well as beautiful and functional. Such a roof can last up to 70 years before the bark needs to be replaced.
Troll shows the figure another cousin of mine carved to protect the farm. The entry shown in the image Guestbook is one in which the kids complain about having to go back home to Oslo. In Bunk House, Svein Erik holds the 500-year-old key to the bunk house door. The logs, original to the structure, are aging gracefully, despite the World-War-II bullet holes in the south wall.
Eirik’s cabin waits on a high, mountain plateau, at the end of a two-hour hike. Here he fishes, hunts, and picks berries.
Having reindeer hamburger for lunch with my friend Eirik in his cabin.
The cabin is in a meadow above the tree line filled with beautiful grasses and wildflowers.
A calm pool overlooking the valley.
If only you could taste the picture.
Moonrise over Eirik’s ancestral village of Bråtveit
My ancestors have owned, and come to, the Vangen for over 500 years.
My cousin, Sveinerik Fjellstad, in the 250-year-old living room at Vangen.
Every few-hundred years the birch-bark-and-sod roofs are renewed.
A troll, carved years ago, by a cousin of mine.
Kids complain in the Vangen guestbook about having to go home.
Sveinerik in front of the 500-year-old bunk house