It's been a while

Hei!  It's good to be back in touch!  Life has been busy these past few years what with buying the farm, setting up for our Soay and Icelandic sheep, and learning all about farming. Yes, I'm still teaching and as always, enjoying nature!! The music continues! We keep learning - isn't that great?!?  Lifelong learning keeps us all going!

I was just going to mention that the items pictured in the heading photograph above are very special Norwegian traditional items! 

​The horn is a bukkehorn or billy goat's horn, and has long been used for shepherding and tending other livestock.  It is similar to the blashorn (cow horn which is blown like a trumpet) but the bukkehorn has holes in it to help create a melody.  They are very loud and can be used in two ways.  One is to trumpet loudly out over the land to scare away predators that are after the livestock.  The other is to play a tune to entertain oneself on those long summer nights while watching over one's livestock.  This one was made by Magnar Storbækken of Naturinstrumentar.  Sadly, Magnar is no longer with us, but his legacy lives on in the voices of the instruments he's made.

The other item pictured here is a smør box made of birch by my Norwegian grandfather, Knut.  It is for carrying butter.  He gave it to me many, many years ago when I was a child.  I keep small special treasures in it to this very day.