Kalvaag Kystkulturstemne

Went to an exhibition opening on Wednesday night. Didn't expect that. It's called 'Minne om Maria' and it's an exhibition celebrating the lives of some local women, one of them the artist's grandmother, who eked out a living under extremely trying circumstances in the early 1900s. They had lost children and husbands to sickness or the sea and were left with mouths to feed and no support or income. So they took over their husbands' smallholdings, fished, looked after the animals, tended what little crops they could grow and did whatever was needed to provide for their remaining family.
The artist- Reidun Ovrebotten - has made outfits which symbolise each woman's particular struggle. For instance one has a bodice made of fish shapes and another is embroidered with the names and birth dates of the lady's children.
The local member of parliament opened it and even sang a few verses of an appropriate song. We were served rhubarb cordial and lumpa (like potato bread) with brunost: the sweet brown cheese which is made here.
Last night we had some people for dinner. It was P & J's 9th wedding anniversary so I had decided to make them a special meal. But my trying out of three new Indian recipes for the 3 of us turned into a dinner party for 6! No pressure then. Haugefisk needed to be taken from Bremanger to Kalvaag for this weekend's coastal festival so I went with Skipper Jostein along with Kare and a lady from Flaam - at the very end of the Sognefjord which as you all doubtless know is the longest fjord in the world (I think). So those two came for tea along with her partner.
Jostein had liberated some cod from a fishing trip with Russians so we had cod steaks baked in a spicy tomato sauce, gobi aloo saag, rice & peas and naan as well as boiled cod and boiled potatoes in case the Norwegians couldn't do the indian.
As it turned out there was very little left of the indian and lots left of the other so I was well chuffed:) We had baked nectarines with home made yoghurt for pud. Was clearing up at 2am so the evening was a resounding success. It was great craic even though I only understand about 5% of what was being said!
The Festival started today and the village is full of people. I went down to the Atelier to bring P a sandwich at 1pm and got away at 5.30pm! I'm absolutely wrecked. We're going soon onto Haugefisk for fish soup and then on to a musical evening run by the Kystlag (www.kysten.no) a national organisation which promotes the keeping alive of coastal traditions.
Will let you know how that turns out in my next post.
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