ENDLESS SUMMER

I'm on my second holiday this summer - after five weeks in Bulgaria I am now in the southern Norwegian town of Kragerø - at the family summer house which has its fiftieth anniversary this year. My parents bought it in 1963, that is my Dad bought it that Easter, and my Mum hadn't even seen it when she arrived for summer holidays in late June that year. With her she had an eight-year old (me), a toddler of three (my brother) and a six-month old baby (my sister). There was an orchard in front of the house, overgrown with weeds and grain, underneath which reptiles, toads and scary insects had made their home. There were apple trees, pear and plum trees, raspberries, black and red currant bushes, gooseberries - and there was a little stream running next to the property. There were blueberries in the woods, and there was a sandy beach a three-minute walk away.

There were summer friends to play with during those endless Nordic days, later we became teenagers and partied just a little bit during those everlasting light Nordic nights. There were visitors from all over the world, boyfriends and girlfriends and just friends. The summer house was our base when our family were on home leave from our overseas "exiles."

In short it was my summer paradise.

The orchard was quickly turned into a well trimmed garden, most of the fruit trees are gone now, and it's a fantastic playing field for the kids - soccer, badminton, boules and trampoline jumping are only some of the activities that take place here.

My mother sat down and cried when she first came here. And she was not crying with happiness! A ten-minute walk from the parking space, all goods, luggage and groceries transported in on a wheelbarrow, water from a well, an outside toilet, three little kids to look after and my Dad commuting at the weekends, then with only a two-week holiday from the bank where he worked in those days. But my Mum pretty soon discovered the joy of spending time away from a city flat, and I think to both her and us the days seemed to bear no grey skies, no rain. Sunny warm days that went on forever - well, for seven weeks anyway.

The first thing my Mum did - together with her sister - was to get a refrigerator. She ordered it from the nearby town of Kragerø, had it transported to the main road, and then the two of them carried it between them from there to the summer house. The fridge is still going strong - out in the shed behind the house now - and chilling my Sancerre Rosé perfectly!

I gather that this summer has been perfect here in Norway - I wouldn't know because I was in Bulgaria where the summer sun always shines anyway. But they say this is the sunniest, driest and warmest Norwegian summer since 1904. Good - after five rainy summers in a row! However - after having come down here last Friday, listening in the car to music recorded by our Bulgarian musician friends - we have experienced thunder storms, heavy winds, a record downpour of rain AND a ruined sun umbrella that was caught by a gust that most certainly had the speed of a hurricane. The electricity came and went, and the only option in order to get some dinner was a barbecue - underneath the not yet destroyed umbrella - with rain lashing sideways.

But the sun's out again today, the temperatures remind me of those in the southern hemisphere - and we have all our girls here! Including two visitors from Australia and my friend Tove from Oslo. Looks like it's going to be a busy evening - with my husband the only man about the place!

And as the nights grow darker and become more like the nights further south, I will hang lit candles in the apple trees at dusk.

A few days of rain did miracles for the yellow lawn (or not...?)