Letter for Ingrid

This is what I wrote in the Guest Book in Ingrid's hytte.
FOR INGRID

May 1 to May 10, 2020.
And the sun shone every day. We arrived on May Day (public holiday in Norway) in retreat from the covid-19 pandemic, now overtaking the world. We were lucky to be staying with our family in Stavenger when European borders began to close.
Midway through our family stay, so as not to overburden them with our presence for too long, we booked Ingrid's hytte for 10 days at the beginning of May.
We had not anticipated that it would be the most perfect place to “retreat” to, while much of the world trembled in fear and perturbation!
No radio, no TV, no internet, no phone…
Sweet quiet, have I found thee here
And Solitude, thy sister dear ? (I misquote from Andrew Marvell, The Garden).

Spring unleafs, green graces the hillsides, the lambkins struggle into life, and start to suck enthusiastically, tails wiggling ecstatically.
We go for walks, over the bumpy ground, or steepish slopes, or beside the shimmering lakes. Only the sound of the birds and the soughing wind.
Each day is different. Inside me, deep silence grows.

David and I recall our long years together, rejoice in all that we have shared, remember and discover things about each other, check our boundaries, laugh at our trespassing, give thanks that we found each other when we did (that was our dear son Daniel’s doing).
I sing, David works on his book dealing with pandiagonal magic squares (now on Chapter Nine),  I cook and bake bread, knit garments for the dolls of my granddaughter Rachel (what else, as my friend Jenny remarks, should a Granny do?!)… and we gaze out at the greening trees, lift up our eyes to the hills and watch the clouds’ soft passage across the sky…

Peace reigns. We heard a cuckoo call. We saw some tiny violets, deep purple.
This is a forever place.
We wish there were more people like Ingrid.
We would love to be here again.