The Second Cup -- Part 3

Snowy greens

 Today my walk was graced with snow, but you could still spot a few signs here and there of the passing seasons. When I got to the workshop, I worked for about 1 hour on the sanding machine, then spent the rest of the time sanding by hand, before venturing out into the snow again.

This is the sanding machine I was using today. There are two sanding options, the wheel on the right, and the belt on the left. I decided to use the belt and platform to finish shaping the outside of my cup.

I love this orange table!

Almost finished on the outside, you can see I was a little reckless and cut too deeply into the one side. This also happens to be when I broke the sand paper on the belt, so we had to fix that, too.

Now I need to use the huge belt sander from last week to finish off the bottom, rounding out the sides as you can see they're uneven. I forgot to take a picture when it was done...oops!

You can see a bit more of the outside, I've finished it off. Now it's on to hand sanding the inside, which takes longer than the rest of the cup. Didn't someone once say "patience is a virtue"?

Here Comes the Sun!

Finally the sun has arrived, if only for a short while! We went out on our bikes to see if there was anything interesting out, and sure enough it was a rewarding trip!

What beautiful light!

The sun through the trees

Some macro shots of dew on leaves, I love the way the blue sky is reflected in the droplets. It seems so peaceful, and reminds me of those beautiful summer days.

Severdighet -- A sight worth seeing

This symbol means that there is something of interest in the near vicinity. Usually traditional buildings, tourist sites, natural beauty, etc. This one I found near the Stavkirke, or Stave church. The Stavkirke was built around 1250, long before Christianity came to Norway. There are dragon heads all around steeples of the Stavkirke, and when Christianity came to Norway, they simply added crosses to the building to make it a Christian church.

Here you can see both the dragon's head and the crosses; taken last winter.

Close-up of a dragon head

The graveyard around the Stavkirke, with the hills in the background, is not an angle most tourists get pictures of when they visit the Stavkirke. I think most people want to get as close as possible, and forget to take a step back to take in the whole picture--I know I have done that!

Snow on the Mountains

It snowed on the mountains last night, so it won't be long before winter arrives here as well! It's freezing every night now, and our apple tree has lost all it's leaves. The past few days have been sad and grey, hopefully we'll have a few more days of sun before the snow falls.

I like the fog-clouds in this picture, how they flutter by before floating up to join the clouds. There is a river that runs parallel to the mountain, so we see these fog-clouds quite often.

I also enjoy the contrast between the seasons; fall in the foreground, winter in the background. It really shows how quickly the seasons change here in Norway.