Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Odda, Eidfjord, Granvin and Jondal, is located inside the county of Hordaland. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hardanger was a petty kingdom with its capital at Kinsarvik; the area is dominated by the vast Hardangervidda plateau in the east and the large Folgefonna glacier on the central Folgefonna peninsula. The district was selected as the millennium site for Hordaland county; the Old Norse form of the name was Harðangr. The first element is derived from the ethnonym hǫrðar, or from harðr meaning "hard"; the last element is angr "tight fjord". The region is one of Norway's most important sources of fruit and constitutes 40% of the national fruit production, including apple, pear and redcurrant. Apples have been cultivated in Hardanger since the 14th century, the agricultural experience brought by English monks who first arrived at Lyse Abbey in 1146.

The climate and seasonal conditions of the region are believed to be beneficial to the growth of apples. In 2005, juice produced from Hardanger apples became Norway's third product to be granted protection of origin name, with applications pending for other regional produce. In 2006, an Ulvik farmer and producer of sparkling cider, Nils Lekve of Hardanger Saft og Siderfabrikk navigated the narrow and complex directives of Norwegian alcohol laws, completed a distribution agreement with monopoly alcoholic beverage outlet Vinmonopolet, making Hardanger Sider Sprudlande available for national sale by July 2006. Lekve's efforts earned him a top 3 finalist nomination for the Bygdeutviklingsprisen, awarded by Innovasjon Norge. Krotekake is a type of lefse unique to the region. Hardanger embroidery is a type of whitework, it is made with geometric designs of kloster, "ships", other embroidery techniques. It is worked on linen fabric which has a "count" of 22 to 29 threads per inch. Traditionally it is worked on white fabric with white cotton thread but in recent years other colors and threads are popular.

Norwegian bunads from that region feature this embroidery on the bottom of the white apron. Hardanger lends its name to the Hardanger fiddle, produced there. Hardanger travel guide from Wikivoyage

Yi-Jia Susanne Hou is a Canadian violinist. Born in Shanghai and raised in Mississauga, Hou grew up in a musical family. At the age of nine, she studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music, she went on to attend The Juilliard School where she studied with Dorothy DeLay, Naoko Tanaka, Cho-Liang Lin. At Juilliard she received the Artist Diploma. By age 17, the young violinist performed Paganini's Twenty-four Caprices for Solo Violin in Toronto and Aspen, she has performed all ten of Beethoven's Piano and Violin Sonatas in New York as well as the complete collection of Brahms's Violin and Piano Sonatas and Piano Trios. Hou continues to perform as an international soloist and has recorded the Sibelius Violin Concerto and short works by Sarasate on her CD Fire & Ice with the Slovenia Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra among other recordings, she captured 3 gold medals with unanimous decisions at international violin competitions: Concours International Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud, the Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition and the Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition.

She won first place in the Canadian Music Competition for three consecutive years, the Juilliard Dvořák Concerto Competition, the Juilliard-Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra Competition, the F. Nakamichi Sibelius Violin Competition at the Aspen Music Festival. Hou has been awarded the loan of the 1729 "ex-Heath" Guarneri del Gesu violin by the Canada Council for the Arts Instrument Bank Competition, she is the first violinist to earn First place twice and did it consecutively. In 2003 the instrument was valued at US$2.75 million. Her bow was made by Alec Hou. On Christmas Day, 2006, Susanne performed for the first time together with her father in China; the emotional Shanghai orchestral performance, with Alec conducting and Susanne as the soloist, was the focus of a CBC The National documentary called "Return to Shanghai" by journalist Mychaylo Prystupa. It aired in May 2007 on CBC television. In 2009, Susanne Hou was granted the use of the 1735 "ex-Mary Portman, Fritz Kreisler Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, Cremona" by the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

The historic violin is famous as being once owned and bowed by Fritz Kreisler – regard as one of the most famous violinists in history. Hou's music video'The Devil's Delight', produced by Rhombus Media premiered on Bravo! TV in 2010, she performed the violin solo in the Atom Egoyan film "Adoration" which won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Festival de Cannes, featuring music composed by Mychael Danna. On Nov.27, 2013, Susanne Hou used the Kreisler violin to record Beethoven's 1806 Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 with the London Symphony Orchestra. Hou chose the music as a "tribute" to Beethoven and her parents Alec and Yvonne Hou; the Beethoven concerto, with Kreisler's cadenzas, was the same music that her father Alec performed the night she was born. The London recording was filmed for a documentary by Toronto's Know Rules Media in association with UK's HiBROW production company; the film is expected to explore the rare violin's nearly 300-year history, including how it ended up in Hou's hands.

Sir Yehudi Menuhin referred to Hou as "absolutely phenomenal… one of the greatest young talents of the future…" and Jean-Jacques Kantorow, member of jury in the Concours International Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud said, "By the final round of the competition, Ms. Hou had the entire jury at her feet." Winner, Canada Council for the Arts Instrument Bank Competition Gold Medal, Concours International Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Gold Medal, Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition Gold Medal, Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition First Prize, Juilliard Dvořák Concerto Competition First Prize, Juilliard-Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra Competition First Prize, F. Nakamichi Sibelius Violin Competition at the Aspen Music Festival you can never have too many suites: de Falla Suite of Spanish Folk Songs, Shostakovich Four Preludes, Kreisler Liebesfreud, Schön Rosmarin & Syncopation, Yang Wong Luo Bin Suite of Folksongs & Dances, Tang New Face of my Motherland, Li Ci Li Flower.

Fantasy: Schubert's Fantasia and Ave Maria, Gounod's Faust and Sarasate's Faust Fantasy Chen Yi: Momentum / Shui, Hou, Singapore SO Fire & Ice: Sibelius Violin Concerto and shorter works by Sarasate Official website

U. S. Highway 83, dedicated as the Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway, is a U. S. Highway in the U. S. state of Texas that begins at US 77 in Brownsville and follows the Rio Grande to Laredo heads north through Abilene to the Oklahoma border north of Perryton, the seat of Ochiltree County. It is the longest highway in Texas at a length of about 895 miles, besting the east–west I-10, which has a length of 879 miles. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, US 83 is a freeway, at or close to interstate standards from Brownsville to Penitas. In May 2013, the Texas Department of Transportation applied to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to designate this 48-mile section as I-2. After the Special Committee on Route Numbering disapproved the application, the AASHTO Board of Directors approved the I-2 designation, conditional on the concurrence of the Federal Highway Administration. On May 29, 2013, the segment of US 83 was approved as an I-69 connector using the I-2 designation extending 46 miles from Harlingen to west of Mission.

US 83's southern terminus is at a concurrency with I-69E/US 77 on the south side of Brownsville at the Brownsville – Veterans Port of Entry at the US/Mexico border. It remains co-signed with I-69E/US 77 until Harlingen, where I-69E/US 77 makes a sharp turn northward and US 83 maintains a westerly route to McAllen, concurrent with I-2 until Palmview. From there, the highway parallels the Rio Grande until Laredo where it makes a northwesterly turn toward Carrizo Springs, the seat of Dimmit County; the speed limit on US 83 is 75 mph through Dimmit County. Merging with I-35 just south of downtown, US 83 remains co-signed with the interstate until an exit at Botines, Texas. From there, it continues northward. US 83 is co-signed with I-10 for 8 miles, turning northward and leaving I-10 at the Kimble County Airport. After continuing northward through several rural western Texas towns, US 83 merges with US 84 east of Tuscola, where it makes a sharp turn back to the north. US 83/84 remains a co-signed route until Abilene, where US 84 turns to the northwest and US 83 remains northbound, merging with US 277 on the west side of the city.

US 83/277 remains a co-signed route until 2 miles north of Anson, where US 277 turns northeast, US 83, northwest. After merging with US 380 in Aspermont and sharing a route, US 83 continues northward, merging with US 62 in Paducah. US 83/62 continues as a co-signed route until 15 miles south of Wellington, where US 62 makes a sharp turn eastward, leaving US 83 to continue northward, where it crosses into Oklahoma 6 miles north of Perryton. Texas portal U. S. Roads portal Business routes of U. S. Route 83 in Texas Media related to U. S. Route 83 in Texas at Wikimedia Commons