Smola and the Lillenes Farm

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I am getting ready for bed at a farm called “Lillenes.” My name is Lilleness (with 2 “s”), the second ‘s’ was added when my great grandfather, Iver Jakob Lilleness Sr. emigrated to the US. Today on Smøla (the island my family comes from) we visited the gravesite of Iver’s father, Jakob Johnson Lillenes, my great-great-grandfather. It is overwhelming to see a gravestone that goes that far back into history.

Speaking of Smøla, it is quite the place! The landscape and terrain is unlike anything I have seen anywhere else. The main island is surrounded by over 4,000 smaller islands, some no larger than a few meters (listen to me! “Meters.” I have been in Europe too long already!). There is not much elevation change, the whole island is very flat and low, with very worn and rounded rocks protruding through the scrub grass and little trees. The sea surrounded Smøla is beautiful, especially at sunset.

I still have relatives living on the Lillenes farm, Else (my father’s 2nd cousin) and Steinar, and their children Wilhelm and Elise. We have been enjoying their hospitality the last 3 days, lots of good food, interesting conversations, and lots more good food. We have been eating some Norwegian specialties, fresh caught crab (Wilhelm pulled it out of the sea today) ‘summer cutlets’ which are smoked and salted pork chops cooked on the BBQ (wow! Yum!), and of course lots of good bread, cheese, and beer. Even though Norwegians don’t normally eat sweets in the morning, Else spoiled us with a little taste of home…homemade waffles with her own raspberry jam! So Good!

The first day on Smøla Chelsea and I went out on a little boat with Else and Elise to a small island called “Deer Island.” They don’t know why it is called that, they certainly haven’t seen any deer on it. We spend a few hours sunbathing on the worn down rocks, reading and snacking on crackers and sparkling water. I got the weirdest sunburn pattern on my chest, it kind of looked like a giant lobster claw….I still don’t know how that happened.
Steinar has been at work this whole time, he is the engineer for the local ambulance boat and he works multiple week shifts at a time. We visited him at work today because we are leaving tomorrow and he won’t be getting home till next Monday. He showed us his boat (though it was the backup boat, the regular boat is in the shipyard being fixed). It is a large 2 engine jet boat equipped with what it takes to keep someone alive on their way to the hospital.

Last thing we did was visit the Vindpark on Smøla. It is Norway’s largest collection of windmills, and is part of their initiative to find long term sustainable energy sources. The windmills are HUGE! It is really incredible to be right under one while its massive blades carve through the air, I find myself hoping the blades don’t slip off with my and Chelsea underneath, because that would be one nasty way to go.
So tomorrow morning we say goodbye to Smøla, it has been a great visit and so special to see the very place where my family has lived for well over one hundred years. Stay tuned for more!

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Photos

Sunset
From the Lillenes Farm.

Deer Island
Where are all those deer?

Wilhelm
Our captain and fisherman catching the bait for the crabs.

Lillenes Farm
Here you can see the barn and the old farm house in the background.

Dinner!
In Norway they eat crab on whitebread with mayo and lemon juice.

At the ambulance boat dock
Chelsea, Steinar, Else, and Whilhelm.

Elise, David, and Chelsea
On our way to Deer Island.

Comments

[cousin john]

I want to visit Smola. how do you get the little line through the o. You must have a norweigian keyboard eh?