the best batch of concrete ever, and other highlights of the week

[kareina]

We bought a few more bags of concrete early this week, since we had run out the last time we worked on the earth cellar. I have no idea if it was the new bag, or if I was just feeling paranoid since the very last bag of the old batch we had done turned out to be to wet to use for wall building, and instead we used it to fill in some of the gap between the platform we made for the huge lathe we now have in the shed and the stone foundation of the shed, but on Wednesday I wound up mixing the best batch of concrete I have ever seen. The consistency was absolutely perfect and thus it was a joy to work with. I could set it on any surface, at any angle, and it would happily sit there waiting for whatever happened next. I could even set it on the underside of a rock, and it wouldn't fall off. Such a joy to work with! I only planned to mix that one batch that day, since I was working on my own after spending the morning at Uni working on my paper revisions and applying for a job, and I just had the one small section of the wall to finish leveling out so that we can start using the nice large cut stones on that side, too. I think it was probably a good thing that I stopped there--it would have been terribly disappointing if the next batch was more normal. Much better to stop for the day after the one batch, and be left with the feeling of satisfaction and joy.

One of our friends, who lives three hours inland and a bit south of here, had a birthday last week. She had plans to be in Umeå (three hours south of here) on Friday for a friend's farewell party, so she decided to invite people to a picnic in a park in Umeå for Saturday. lord_kjar, linda_linsefors, and I decided to go, so I spent Friday afternoon cooking food for the occasion--I made raspberry filled bread rolls, home made noodles with a spinach-avocado-pistachio sauce, and a broccoli-egg pie. Yum! We ate some for Friday's dinner, and the rest went to the picnic with us.

I managed to finish the cooking and get the upstairs vacuumed before lord_kjar's dad arrived for a visit. I am pleased to report that I spent a good half an hour talking with him in Swedish before the others arrived, and we did just fine understanding one another (he doesn't speak English, though he has a few words here and there, I try to avoid using it when speaking with him). Granted, once lord_kjar and linda_linsefors joined us I was mostly content to just listen and work on my sewing project whilst trying to guess the topic of the rapid conversation.

Since we had his company on Friday evening we did the drive south Saturday morning, arriving in Umeå on time to drop off linda_linsefors at the home of some of her friends she wanted to see, but who were going to be busy later in the day, before heading to the park, where we had a good 20 minutes to visit with our friend before the next guest arrived, and soon there was a small group of us, and a few more (including linda_linsefors) trickled in over the course of the afternoon. We spent the whole afternoon in the park talking, listing to the violin and nyckleharpa that two of us had brought, and doing silly people tricks (I love being hoisted to a shoulder and holding my body out flat like I am flying!). Then some of us went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and then over to another friend's house for more conversation and music.

Eventually we decided that it would be smart to head home, so we did. The first part of the drive she slept and I read out loud to lord_kjar, but then I got tired and linda_linsefors moved to the front seat and I took a nap. This meant that when we finally got home, just before 01:00, I had energy to not only unload the car but also empty the ice chest and put away a few things before massaging the back of the poor, sore driver.

This afternoon some of our friends from choir will be coming over to discuss what we will be doing to try to recruit new members now that students are arriving once again, and folk dance will start up the first week of September. Summer is pretty much over. There may be a few more opportunities to work on the earth cellar before snow flies, but the project will take a least three years to complete...

Comments

[corva.livejournal.com]

"and it would happily sit there waiting for whatever happened next"

*grin*

Thank you for your updates!

...I cannot decide if they make me miss you more or less but they do remind me how and why I love you.