A little late for PhotoFriday perhaps, but here’s my entry for this weeks challenge, “Blur.” I thought July would be a good time to visit Norway and see the sights, but the the weather had other plans…

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Curvy.” I’m entry number 66.

The “Climate” — this weeks PhotoFriday theme — in Oslo, Norway is typically cold and wet. Even the statues have large jackets on.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “My life.” I’m entry number 46.

Yet another long gap between entries to PhotoFriday, but when I saw that the theme was “Structures” I immediately thought about, first, the Sagrada Família. But I didn’t have any pictures of the outside that I liked so second thought was the Oslo Opera House. I think this picture of the inside shows the structures better than any image of the outside.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Pattern” and here is my entry, taken in the new Oslo Opera House last year. Can’t say I’m a big fan of opera, but the building was amazing!

Oslo’s new Opera House is bright and “Vibrant” — this weeks PhotoFriday theme — literally to the point that it hurts your eyes when the sun is out. (Fortunately this doesn’t happen very often in Norway!)

This amused me but didn’t quite fit in with the “story” I was trying to tell in my blog about Oslo…

I Have really fond memories of summer 1994 when I did a summer job in Ipswich. (Yes, I’m talking about Ipswich in a blog entitled “Oslo.” Bear with me.) Now Suffolk isn’t a glamorous location necessarily but it was a good time for me and it was a great, hot summer. A few years ago I stopped back in the town on the way back from a wedding. I really wish I hadn’t. Maybe it was the grey and the rain or maybe the years had not been kind, but Ipswich just wasn’t what I remembered.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Mother Nature.” I wanted to do something a little better than a pretty landscape or a beautiful landscape. Sure, they’re both by mother nature but I don’t think that’s all there is. I wanted to show the creation and the power and, to a certain extent, how little control we have over the whole process. Iceland is about as good as it gets for that kind of thing, with the volcanos and geysers. We didn’t see any volcanos when we were there — which would have fitted the theme even better — but this is an image at Geysir. It’s dark and miserable, even at 11.30, in December but it’s still spectacular.

With a startling lack of originality, I present my entry in this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Polished.” I say unoriginal as it’s a pretty literal interpretation of the theme and it’s also an image I used for an earlier PhotoFriday (“Shiny“). It was taken in Stockholm, Sweden.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Ethereal.” I’m entry number 173.

One of the great things about Norway is that you’re never very far from the country-side. Even in Oslo you’re only twenty minutes on the t-bane from Nordmarka. I couldn’t find a picture of that that I was happy with, though, so I went for the above image taken overlooking Bergen (the fjord capital of Norway).

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Human Form.” I’m entry number 165.