Last friday I moved my house out of the building site. Or, I had it moved since I failed my drivers exam for the extension needed. A minor setback.

Winter is, indeed coming. Actually, it’s already here, and it was about time to get the little owl on her wings over the mountain. Bergen is pretty much cut off from the rest of the world, landwise, during winter. if I am to have any hope of spending winter under a warmer sun, or any sun at all,  I had to have it moved. So I hired a fellow from Bruvold service, a local company, to drive the house from Bergen to the east of Norway, where the climate is better and the roads lead southwards. Of course, I have not moved the hanger or house since I started building, and all the calculations were just that, calculations. I had no idea if they would actually work.

It was probably the most nerve wrecking thing I had ever done. I did not sleep at all the night before, with feverish horrors of houses gliding towards me and smashing into the front of my car. Also, there was a certain amount of sceptics among family and neighbours concerning the height and the light-framed construction of the creature. This, of course did not help. I’m not used to having anything to prove, but this time I felt a certain responsibility on behalf of weirdos everywhere.

And the morning came, dark and full of rain. And as we attached the house and pulled out of the driveway, we did so under a cover of autumn gloom. But she stayed on the road for the first turn, so I had a pretty good hope that she would last a while longer.

At about an altitude of 6000 feet, the skies cleared, and the colours of autumn came forward to match those of the house. And she glided through the landscape as part of the green and gold.

But then, at the plateau, the wind started to pick up. Now, this is a fairly tall house in relation to the width and weight, and there were a few times when part of the roof-shingles flapped unsteadily. And just to make sure, I stopped the caravan and climbed up on the roof to fix the tiles, trailers and semi-trailers thundering by and together with the icy wind making the house shift and shake nervously. But we all stayed on our feet and on the road.

The rest of the drive I spent pretty much in a sort of tense disbelief that it had actually worked. And so here I am, at the edge of a forest near a lily pond,which is not only beautiful, but solved the question of how to cool the champagne.

I’ll be staying here for a little while, improving and adjusting the house, getting the details of daily living, the new routines of the new space and how I will move in it on a daily basis. And hope my health will last while I do so.