Classic Challenge - De grønne skyggers dal

A classic with a colour in the title

As a part of the Back to the Classics-challenge, I saved my Christmas gift De grønne skyggers dal (The Valley of Green Shadows - Entering the Challenge in the "Colour in the Title-category") by Poul Nørgaard until January 1st. But writing about it almost took longer than reading the book.

It is written in 1946, by a Danish farmer and writer born in 1899. He is mostly known for a series of books for girls (which I've never read).
     De grønne skyggers dal tells the story of 3 friends, Peter, Philip and "The Professor" who after Peter's finding an old document travels to Tibet to find a far avay monastery where the monks seem to have found the fountain of youth.
     It is a book sritten for children, but the characters are three dimensional, and loveable. The story is fascinating, involving intruigues, drama and excitement. The ending is refreshingly untraditional. Some tecnicalities on flying may be obsolete; to me they were plain boring, but quickly done with. It is a book, I'd let my children read any day.

Kastanjeskaller -- 2 -- Chestnut Husks

     Af og til er Uglemor smart. Hun kan i hvert fald læse sine egne blogindlæg. Og der står jo højt og tydeligt at kastanjeskaller skal KOGES for at give ordentlig farve. Altså på'en igen, Uglemor.
     Jo der var mere farve i skallerne. Nu blev det orange. Hvor mon min røde fra sidste år blev af?
     Der kommer helt sikkert flere skaller og flere forsøg.

Some times MotherOwl is smart, at least she can read her own old blog post. Didn't she write that chestnut husks had to be boiled to give off colour. If at first, you don't succeed ..
Yes, more dye was to be had rom boiling the husks ... And we got orange! Where did my red go?
More husks and more dyeing uocoming.

Leg - Playing

     Uglemor arbejder stadig på sin plantefarverblog, men der sker også andet i Ugleboet. Solen skinner af og til, Ugleungerne gror langsomt Uglemor over hovedet, planterne vokser og vi laver sære, sjove og ind i mellem kedelige ting (dem gider jeg ikke skrive om).

-- 👣💣📓🔨🎁 --

 MotherOwl is still writing on her plant dyeing blog. But that's not all that's happening in the Owlery.  The sun shines now and then, the Owlets are growing bigger, they're almost all taller than MoterhOwl now, the plants are growing, GardenOwl is grumpy, we're doing lots of stuff, fun and boring together (the boring parts are mostly left out of this blog).

- o -

     En hvis Uglemor har haft fødselsdag. Og ja der står ugle (fukurou)  på lagkagen. Vi drak kaffe i havem og om aftenen kom der søreme en fødselsdagsbyge, så vi sap for at svinge vandkanden.

-- 🦉 -- 🍰 --

A certain MotherOwl celebrated her 57th birthday. The kanji on the cake says fukurou = owl in Japanese.  We had coffee in the garden and in the evening a shower passed by and freed us from watering by means of the watering cans.

Piraten fylder stadig lommerne med kastanjer som Uglemor putter i farvegryden. I år blev det gult!

-- 🌰 --

 The Piate still stuffs his pockets with chestnut hulls for MotherOwl's dye pot. This time we had yellow!

 Pirat med hestekastanjer  --  Pirate and chestnuts

GULT! - YELLOW!

- o -

Og så har Uglemor fået er origami-flip. Denne gang søde, nemme rammer. Uglemor synes at rigtig origami kun er foldet - ikke klippet, så de her rammer er bare fine.

-- 🎨 - ✂ --

And then MotherOwl is once again folding paper. Origami does not involve scissors - at least not after the paper has been cut to the rigth size, these frames are perfect.

Plantefarvning -- Plant dyeing

Hvis I synes at Uglemor har været lidt stille, så er det rigtigt. Jeg har haft travlt med at plantefarve og ikke mindst rydde op i mit plantefarvede garn. I den forbindelse har jeg været ret aktiv i diverse plantefarvegrupper her og der. Og jeg synes, jeg fortæller den samme historie om igen. Derfor har jeg nu taget billeder af alt (OK meget af) mit plantefarvede garn og oprettet en ny blog: Farveuglen. Der vil mange af plantefarveindlæggene på denne blog langsomt blive kopieret over - og renset for uvedkommende kager, bier, høns og Ugler ;)
     Så vil jeg lave en side med hver af de planter, jeg har prøvet, og der lægge mine noter og beskrivelser.
     Det vil lette kommende farvesamtaler, at jeg bare kan henvise til Farveuglen.
 

- 🥀🌼🌸 -

MotherOwl has been unusually quiet, she has been busy plant dyeing, winding a zillion plant dyed skeins and making a new blog: Farveuglen (ColourOwl). That's where all my plant dyeing talking shop will happen from now on. So far only in Danish, but with lots of photos.

Oprydning i plantefarvet garn -- Winding my plant dyed yarn

Sommerminder -- Summer Memories

     Efter en herlig, lang sommerperiode, hvor Uglemor hver dag var ude i haven og nød det skønne solskin, er den danske normalsommer med skyer og køligt blæsevejr tilbage ige. Her er nogle billeder fra de skønne, forgangne dage.

- 🌬 -

     After a wonderful sunshiney period the Danish standard Summer has returned with cloudy skies and windy, cool weather. MotherOwl is reminiscing and missing the sunshine.

 Frøer nyder vandet - Frogs frolicking. 

Det første, tidlige jordbær - Our very first strawberry.

Skønhedsøjerne blomstrer  -  Flowering coreopsis. 

Valfarten til Aasebakken  - Pilgrimage to Aasebakken.

 Sommer

     Og så var der én dag med regn i hele perioden, men der var vi så fyldte med glæde og helligånd, at vi ikke rigtig bemærkede det.

- 🕊 -

Well we had one day with rain, but it was so filled with happiness and the Holy Spirit, that we did not care.