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I’ve been back in Albuquerque three weeks. I didn’t sleep enough last night so, before coming to theater-sit this afternoon, a nap seemed in order. As I dozed, trying to sleep, my king-size, ever-so comfortable bed in New Mexico wanted to morph into beds at Neset, on board the Linden and the Finnmarken, in Trondheim, in Stavanger and all those other Norwegian beds—wide and narrow, hard and soft, rolling and still. Sleep… Read More
Saturday was crisp and sunny, the perfect day for a stroll along the periphery of Neset Camping, taking in the everyday landscape of the little boy Svein who would grow up to be my dad. Neset means small peninsula or outcropping in Norwegian and that describes this scenic spot of land sticking out into Byglandsfjord. Olav Neset and his ancestors have owned this land for a long time, building it into one… Read More
Sunday, September 16, 2018. Just as I prefer my Sundays to be…it’s a grey rainy day and I have too little to do. I should explain. I have been working somewhat diligently on book organizing ever since arriving at Neset Camping on Tuesday. The book that has emerged in bits and pieces over the last years. The book that has potential, people say. That book, which if I do not write… Read More
Have been without internet for a few days and in the midst of meeting new family members and visiting familiar places and people. Although I have started posts about much of this only one is completed so I’ll begin catching up by posting this sentimental (in a good way) paean to NESET (Now Neset Camping) in Byglandsfiord, Norway. NESET I am home. Byglandsfiord, Norway. From whence the small Neset family, Asborg and her… Read More
United States history and geography are all about journeys. From the first Asians across Beringia, the land bridge between Asia and North America, to those pious Pilgrims, to yesterday’s Mexican or El Salvadoran child, we came and are still coming down a long hard road. Every regional history has these tales to tell, but our U.S. immigrant history is so present, so relatively contemporary, making the journeys easier to imagine and to research…. Read More
“I’m Norwegian,” I say whenever I have the chance. “Oh really, how long have you lived in the U.S.?” Then I have to admit I was born here. “But I’m full-blooded Norwegian,” I insist—ignoring that wee bit of Irish, English, Russian, Lichtensteinian blood that Ancestry claims flows in my practically pure Norwegian veins. Up North, my history/geography/travel memoir will have a very long introduction or a first section steeped in Norway and… Read More