Kristinedal!

I would like to tell you a little about the summerhouse, called Kristinedal, since it is a big part of my life during the summer months, and it has been very important to me all my life.

It was actually my grandmother who helped my parents aquire the land, about 7000 square meters of forrest back in the mid-70's, and when they found out I was on the way, they cleared the land and built the house, in 1978, my year-of-birth! :)
Ever since I was a newborn, we've spent summers, weekends and sometimes Christmas there, and I've always loved it! I've gone through bad times there as well, and it was tough knowing how to feel about it when my parents divorced, but it has always had a very special place in my heart, and still does.

Before the divorce my Mum and Dad owned half of it each, and after they split up, my Mum gave her half of it to me, so now my Dad and I own it together. Seeing as how he has got a new family now, I think it's a good thing we both own it. I don't think my Dad and his family would have kicked me out or something, but I still feel good about knowing I do own half of it, and nothing can be done there without my approval and admission.

The land we own originally belonged to a big manor, but after some time, the owners of the manor at the time, decided to split the land. The manor is still there, quite big with lots of land, but there are also three other pieces of land with different owners (ours is one) that used to be part of the manor.
When I was little I got to know the family that owned the manor at the time, they had a girl who was two years older than me, and we used to play togheter a lot!! Unfortunately, they moved when I was 6, and even though the next family also had kids in similar age, we never really got on well.
Lately, the owners of the other houses surrounding ours have changed, the manor still has the same owners, but otherwise there are three Norweigan families around us now ... but then again, we don't socialize much when we're there, so as long as everybody is friendly toward each other, we don't mind much who the neighbours are ...

Unfortunately, the time I get to spend in the summerhouse now, is almost only restricted to the summer, since it's such a long way to travel. From where I live it's about 430 kilometers, and since I don't have a car, and have to think of Zorro, I cannot go up for a weekend or so. I feel a bit bad about that though, because most of the year, I can never ever go there, and during the summer, I'm almost stuck there for 6-8 weeks ... and that gets a bit too much at a time as well ...
Not much I can do about it though, so I guess I'm gonna have to do the best I can, right?! :)




I often think I take millions of pictures of the summerhouse, but when preparing for this entry, I could hardly find any ... Guess I should scan some more soon .... or check back at older digital pictures ... most of the ones I've added to this entry are a number of years old (say at least 10!!) - so most of the trees are a lot bigger now! :)