Norway

Reaching toward the heavens
July 24th 2006
N.Etnedal, Norway

Being in the mountains naturally draws my gaze heavenwards..."Your love, o Lord, reaches to the heavens; Your faithfulness stretches to the skies; Your righteousness is like majestic mountains..."

On vacation in a comfortable cabin in the Norwegian mountains. It's a gift to be here with my friends, Hilde and Marcia (and, of course, Honey!). Fireplace, outhouse, scenery, no running water, reading and talking, no electricity, relaxing and not looking at the clock, hiking trails up high and moose-lookouts early in the morning and at dusk. It's light most of the night - none of us can remember that it was really dark-dark at any point during the night. Middle-of-the-night trudges to the outhouse are easy to navigate in the perpetual dusk/dawn.

This is Hilde's family cabin - gracious people who have welcomed us to make use of their private and quite isolated forest palace called "Sjeggebo" (named for the beard-like moss hanging on the trees). Hilde is gone for the weekend to celebrate her father's birthday close to Oslo, leaving me and Marsh to enjoy this hideaway.

Yesterday Marcia and I took a walk on a small road next to a brook when we encountered sheep. The sheep run loose here in these hills and wear bells on their necks like their bovine counterparts in Switzerland. In fact, when you're driving you really need to keep on the lookout for these sheep because they like to lay down in the middle of roads. Honey has made it his duty to be the sheep-lookout and he's pretty good at it. And so, when we came upon this ewe with her two lambs, Honey ran point position. He was loose, as he often is in the hills, and edged towards them. I'm sure the sheep wondered what this little white animal was! At first the sheep seemed curious but as the mother ewe picked up Honey's scent she switched to defensive mode which included stamping her hoof and lowering her head. It was a toss-up who was going to be the dominant figure in this scenario. First Honey was in the lead and the sheep backed up and then started to run away. Well, this kicked in Honey's hunting instincts fully and we laughed to see this small white terrier chase the three sheep down the road at full gallop for about 50 meters. It was then that Honey realized his short little legs could not catch them and he slowed to a stop. The sheep also stopped and the ewe then started trotting towards Honey. I called Honey back to me and he soon realized why: He had become the hunted! They ran all the way back and Honey hid behind my legs. The sheep was not at all deterred by a huge human - her focus was entirely upon that little white wolf behind me. In fact, I had to shoo and then shove the ewe back from me. At that point, Honey skirted off to the side of the road and the ewe closed in and lowered her head, butting Honey! Honey tumbled and recovered and was soon out of reach. Then and only then did the ewe relent and leave. It was quite an adventure!
Blessings,
Belinda (and Honey - the sheepdog!)