I sent you 2 kroner for your birthday today. Congratulations on turning 12. Happy birthday!

You are getting to be such a big boy now, so you need to use your mind and your abilities in order to become a good and clever boy. I know that you have always been a good boy, but I think you can do better in school, because you can if you want to.

Here in Ålesund, there are a lot of trawlers with motors that they use for fishing. When they bring the herring in, they are piled high around the mast. You would enjoy seeing that. The seagulls come all the way into town, and they sit in a row on the boathouse roofs, always with their heads facing into the wind—every single one of them.

There are some very high mountains and deep fjords here.

Sometimes we fish with a big net that we throw potato peels into. It looks like this:

When we pull up the net, there are lots of small pollock in the net.

Say hi to everyone at home.