Summer Night

(Sound of a summer night, a pleasant atmosphere) 

Narrator:  

Have you ever wanted to stay up so late that a summer evening turns into night?  

Here in the far north, everything is kind of different in the summer nights. Things look and sound different. We feel as though we can get close to nature and to our own thoughts.  

It’s a bit mysterious, but there’s definitely something special about summer nights in the north, where it stays light so very late. 

Many years ago, in the middle of summer, when the nights were at their most beautiful, a woman decided to spend all night by a lake. She had decided to do something that almost no one had ever done before. She was going to paint the Norwegian night sky reflected in a lake.  

Right from when she was very young, people had told her that she was very good at painting, but that it wasn’t possible for her to become an artist.  

That was about one-hundred-and-fifty years ago, and at that time, hardly any women were allowed to attend an art academy. But this young woman, who was called Kitty Kielland, eventually managed to persuade her father to allow her to travel to Germany to study. In Germany, she learned to be a professional artist, and she carried on painting for the rest of her life. 

She was tough. For one thing, not everyone would dare to spend the night alone beside a lake. Would you dare do that?  

(Sound of footsteps on a path) 

It’s not easy to see what is hiding in the bushes… 

(Spooky sound of something moving in the reeds/undergrowth) 

Or what might be hiding under the surface… 

(A soft splash) 

But then everything changes back again when the sun rises.

(Sound transitions back to a peaceful/happy atmosphere)