Since moving to Norway 5 years ago I don't think a day has gone by where I haven't looked around me at how beautiful everything is and thought 'wow'! Living here has really taught me how amazing nature can be and to enjoy the great outdoors. I've always enjoyed walking and now we have a 7 month old Golden Retriever called Toby I have a fantastic excuse to go out and have a walk with him everyday. 

Below are some photos I took a couple of days ago while out on a walk with him, as you can see we have a fair amount of snow at the moment and everything is looking very pretty. We are lucky enough to live in a rural area surrounded by fields and we just have to walk up the lane above our house to have an amazing view of the lake and mountains before reaching the forest. 

I love this time of year because you can see all the tracks from deer, moose, birds etc and an occasion you may even be lucky enough to see a deer or moose. 

Toby loves the snow too, he truffles along in the deep snow at the edges of the lane and leaps into piles of it wagging his tail happily.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the silence, have you ever truly heard silence? No car engines, no voices, music, nothing but nature. It isn't something I ever hear when I am at home, with two young boys I'm sure you're not surprised, but when out alone with Toby I can enjoy the silence and have time in my thoughts to realise just how lucky I am to live in this wonderful world.

I'd love to hear about what is wonderful in your world too!  

It has been a strange and difficult few days over here in Norway, almost like a bad dream that you are hoping you are going to wake up from soon.
To hear about the bomb in Oslo was shocking enough for this peaceful nation but to be closely followed by the horrific shootings of teenagers on the nearby island Utoeya really was beyond belief.
As a British expat living in Norway one of the most amazing things about living in this beautiful country is how safe you feel. The BBC described Norway as losing its innocence following this attack. Perhaps Norway has been a little naive with some of its security arrangements but as the perpetrator turned out to be a Norwegian I think it is much more tragic than that. Norwegians have such pride in their country that for one of their own people to cause such devastation and sorrow is almost like breaking some silent rules that have up until now been set in stone. 

Going round the supermarket yesterday was a surreal experience, the shoppers going about their business as usual but the normal background noise of chatter amongst shoppers was missing. We are most definately a nation in mourning.  
The horrific incidents of Friday 22nd July will take a long time to recover from, and my thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends that have lost loved ones.

To add to the difficult time Norway is currently experiencing many of us here in the districts of Telemark and Buskerud awoke in the early hours of this morning to find that the huge amount of rain we have been suffering from has caused massive flooding of the lakes. Fields full of crops, roads, railway tracks, and houses have been destroyed by the extensive flooding, and the rain hasn't stopped yet. Here are a few pictures we took in our local area (Notodden) this morning:

With a further week of rain predicted it is worrying to think what the extent of the damage will be by the end of it.

One thing I am sure of though is that the Norwegians will remain strong and pull together to rebuild their beautiful country.