the rest of Visby and the week + after
Aug. 24th, 2016 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaSince we had no electricity in camp, but it is useful to have a working phone, my routine at Visby was to get up in the morning and walk the 5 minutes over to the school gym where we were able to shower, put my phone and bluetooth thingie that pipes my phone into my hearing aids charging, swap out the plastic bottle full of ice from the freezer, and put one of the plastic bottles full of ice water from our cooler into the freezer, then do my workout (the summer program my personal trainer gave me was about 20 minutes long), followed by my yoga for the day (I normally do that before bed, but not that week), then a shower, by which time things had charged enough to return to camp and enjoy the day.
Sunday (7 Aug) was a shopping day for me. I went into town with H., and we went first to Kapitelhusgården, as that is where the really high end authentic merchants are. Stop one was in the booth across the street from the pub, Medeltidsmode, where I picked up some of their nice grey and black diamond twill, which I think will make a lovely dress with fur trim. Then we went into the pub courtyard, where Handelsgillet has a booth. From them I picked up a lovely lightweight dark blue wool twill to make a tunic, and some truly decadent white wool three-twills-in-one fabric (a checked effect caused by squares of diamond twill, herringbone twill, and plain twill, based on the Lödöse find from 1220-1240 AD) to trim the neck, cuffs, and hem (and I will probably put garnet beads onto the plain part of the white). I didn't buy some tablet woven trim in the same shade of blue from the next booth as it wasn't quite long enough to decorate the tunic I have in mind, but I did take a photo in case my apprentice who is addicted to tablet weaving cares to make me a longer length of it.
Once the bags were loaded with fabric we started wandering down hill towards the market and passed a sign saying "loppis" (garage sale), so we stopped in. They didn't have much that was interesting, but they happened to have one antique shoe last the exact same size as my foot. I had been thinking of trying to carve myself one, and this one was only 40 SEK (or just under $5 USD), so I bought it.
Then we continued down the hill and entered the gardens in search of the mulberry tree. Once we found it we carefully set our bags to the side, well out of reach of the juicy berries, then tried to get some berries for ourselves. Of course all of the berries within easy reach had already been picked, but there were some just out of H's reach (he is rather tall), so he picked me up so I could pluck berries. The first few went well, and I was able to carefully pluck the berries and alternate between feeding him and myself. Then, just as my hand started to close around three particularly juicy berries just over there, he helpfully took one step closer, bringing us under the berries as I grabbed them, and they exploded juice all over us. It had been a warm day, so I was wearing a white under tunic over light trousers, which meant pink spots all along the arm and skirt on that side. His tunic was green, so the spots show less. Wonderfully messy, yummy fun! (It turned out that when I tried hand-washing the tunic the next morning the spots faded to a lovely pale blue colour--I am not certain if it was the hand-soap in the bathroom, or the CaCO3 in the water (most of the rock in Visby is limestone, and you can taste it in the water), or if mulberry always fades to blue after pink. I suspect that the spots will eventually wash completely out).
After leaving the mulberries behind we wandered in the main market area together for a few more hours--he was considering the purchase of a Larp appropriate helmet and some nice jewelry, and I also bought a small birch bark box the perfect size to carry a little emergency food with me (usually hais, but plain nuts or dried fruit would work too).
Monday (8 Aug) was the beginner's fighter tournament, which O. entered, fighting for my honour. He had much fun, and F., visiting from the West, who hasn't been fighting in recent years, started twitching his hands in sword blow movements watching the fighting—he has clearly caught the bug again—I predict that he will start fighting again as soon as he returns home. After the beginner's tourney there was a great sword tourney. My friend D. asked me if he could fight for me in that one, since his consort was off shopping, so, of course, I said yes. That one was a "cake or death" battle, done much like a rose tourney, except the loser of each bout was to collect a cookie from the Princess and present it to the consort of the victor. The consorts had the choice to eat their cookies, or collect them, and the winner of the tournament was the one whose consort had the most cookies at the end of the day. I wasn't tempted to eat my two cookies, since they were store bought cookies, but the winner of the day had more than that.
Tuesday (9 Aug) was the Principality Coronet Tournament, and O. entered, fighting for me, one of two beginning fighters in the list (which had no knights, and no viscounts). There were seven entrants (there had been nine who had intended to fight, but one couple was out because the fighter broke her leg, and another was out because the consort broke her leg badly enough to be in surgery during the tournament). They ran the day as a double round-robin (everyone fights everyone else, then, after a short break, they do it all again). At the end of the first half each fighter had a different number of victories: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (O. had 1, and the undefeated guy was my friend D., from Uma). At the end of the second half the list of victories for each fighter had changed to: 0, 2, 7, 7, 7, 8, 11 (O. had 2 :-) and D. had 8. D's consort was getting really nervous at that point, and I think she was relieved when the other guy won the finals).
The site for the tournament was on the far side of the island, at a place where there had once been a hill fort. It was a beautiful location—the fighting field was at the base of a small cliff, and they had a place at the top of the cliff for the princess and the consorts to view the tournament. However, I didn't join the other consorts up there (even though I really, really love "up") for two reasons. 1) they had no shade up there, and it was a sunny day, and 2) (the really important reason), I believe place as a consort is at my fighter's side, helping him with armour repairs if needed, making certain he has food and water, talking about the fights and how it is going, etc. I also like to walk with him to the edge of the field, and watch the fight from close range. So I missed out on hanging out with the other consorts, but I had the fun of tending to a fighter for the first time in a very long time. I had missed that.
The next few days kind of blur together. I know I had gate duty Wednesday evening. The SCA camp was located just outside of the city walls, in the quarry/moat on the north side, with a large fence around it. The only people permitted inside were those of us who are camped there (they gave us a cloth bracelet saying "Styringheim camp" of the sort one typically gets at music festivals and other events where people are expected to come and go regularly and need to prove that they paid the admission fee), those who bought a day or week visiting pass, and those reenactors who were camped in the Battle Of Visby camp next door, who had a different colour bracelet (and we were permitted in their camp, too). Everyone in camp needed to do at least one shift at gate to check to be certain that only people who were supposed to be there came in. When we first checked in O. got his bracelet around his ankle, because he was going to be doing Fire performances, and he didn't want to risk having the polyester band melted into his flesh. I, on the other hand, hate bracelets, and didn't think that it went with my costume, so I also had mine put around my ankle instead of my wrist. This worked fine during the day, since they were generally quite warm, so I was wearing sandals. However, in the evenings, when I had my knee high nålbinded socks over the bracelet plus or minus the leather boots, I tended to either only bother with the gate when someone was on duty I knew, otherwise I just went to the locked place in the fence near the privies, where the truck comes in to clean them, and opened the combination lock there to let myself in (the combination was nearly the same as the one to get into the showers, only two digits shorter, so easy to remember).
I made some new friends at gate, one of whom is now a FB friend, and the other, who isn't on FB, I am in email contact with. One evening I spent in camp, in the circle of tents were the band Sorkar & Strängar were living, enjoying their music while others partied in the background. Another evening, as I already mentioned I went to the Garmarna Återkommer concert held in one of the many ruined cathedrals that are scattered around the island. This band has long been popular with SCA people in Sweden, and many of their songs are regularly sung at events, but they hadn't performed together for many years, and have just started doing so again. I went there with my friend H., and fairly promptly after the music started we got up and started dancing, there being plenty of room between the pillars and the side walls of the cathedral. A short time later a smiling girl danced up to H., like they were old friends she was delighted to see again, and the two of them danced together for the rest of the evening. By late in the evening they were cuddling during the slow songs, and I rather expected he wouldn't be walking back to camp with me. He did come back to our seats to get his coat and hood after the concert as I was putting back on all of the wool I had taken off for dancing, so I asked if she was someone he already knew, and he admitted he'd never seen her before. She turns out to be one of the people in the Battle of Visby camp who were there from the Ukraine, and the two of them spent much of the rest of the week together. I will have to remember that technique next time I see someone I wish I knew—just dance up to them like you do!
I spent much of the second half of the event hanging out in camp during the day, sewing in the shade of the pavilion doorway, often in company of friends. It was a very nice way to relax. In between sewing sessions I wandered around camp and the city itself.
Our Ferry was scheduled to depart at 03:30 Monday (15 Aug) morning, so we broke camp during the day Sunday, during a lull in the rains, so the tent was mostly dry when we packed it. Then F. and I wandered in to the market, where I bought a nice set of four horn bowls and matching spoons. I had thought to only buy one spoon, but the guy talked me into getting four of the spoons too, by discounting the price enough that one spoon was free. We also bought some soup (1/4 the normal price, while any remains in the pot, since it was the last day), and some yummy ice cream, made from a local berry that isn't available in the rest of Sweden.
Then F., H., and I went up the hill to the Folket Universitetet, where the rest of Phire had been staying, to get a nap before time to go to the ferry. O., on the other hand, opted to just stay up all night, and he met us on board the ferry when we got there (note that he is the only one of the four of us doing the drive north who doesn't have a licence, and so wouldn't be driving).
The drive home included three adventures. The first was stopping at the same farmhouse we had visited on the way south to return A.'s armour, which was a delightful stop, which ate quite a bit of time as we hung out with the delightful people there (and I took a nap on their couch). The second was a stop at Skuleberget, where F. and I did the hike/scramble up to the cave (H. had caught a cold so didn't want to push himself, and O. had a slightly sprained knee, so they stayed near the car and relaxed). I truly love that little mountain, and I never drive past without a quick stop to climb on it, though I have only made time to go all the way to the top that first year![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lord_kjar and I went down to Visby and made a couple of day date of the trip. They are not having as good of a berry year at Skuleberget as we are here in Luleå, but I did eat a few small raspberries on our way up, and F. was kind enough to pick a handful for O. and H. on the way back down.
H. had originally thought to come up to visit us in Luleå after Visby, but, since he had caught a cold he, decided it would be wiser to just go home, so we dropped him off in Umeå, stopping to visit long enough for F. to drink a cup of coffee. H.'s home is decorated much as you would expect for a typical SCA/Larp person, with plenty of games, books, and art from the same. His living room wall is covered with a large piece of linen, upon which he (with a little help from friends) has hand-painted a map of Middle Earth. F., at first, couldn't even recognize it, as he had been sitting at the table with his back rather close to it, so when he turned around he could only see a tiny portion of the map—he needed to back off a way to be able to see enough of the map to get his bearings. I would so love to have this map on my wall, it is a beautiful work of art.
Due to the various stops, we finally arrived home at 02:00 on Monday, so not quite 24 hours after arriving at the ferry terminal for the trip home.
I had been smart enough to have Tuesday as a vacation day as well, which gave me a chance to get most of the stuff unpacked and the pavilion and ground cloths fully dried before putting them away, but I worked Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Wednesday (17 Aug) early evening O.'s parents arrived with the chests they had been kind enough to drive north for us, to make room in the car for more passengers than we had had on the drive south. They were on their way to Finland to visit family, so we were on the way, and I cooked them dinner as a thank you. They continued on their way promptly after dinner, and soon thereafter G. & my apprentice, A. came over for Frostheim social/crafts night, and we had a lovely time chatting and working on projects, but I made no progress on putting away the things that O.'s parent's had brought north for us.
Thursday (18 Aug) after work I went over to O's house for a much needed talk and birthday celebration, while F. andlord_kjar played in the forge, starting a couple of knives for F.
Since F. is visiting from California and has never been this far north, it was necessary to take him north of the Arctic Circle on Friday (19 Aug). So I did the same loop I tookaelfgyfu on when she came to visit a few years ago. First to Storforsen, where we enjoyed the morning admiring the rapids and the more gently flowing bits of water to the side, scrambling over rocks, eating berries, and even stopping to take photos of a snake which was resting on a rock. Then we drove north, with a brief stop at the Arctic Circle for photos and on to Jokkmokk, where we visited the museum and a couple of gift shops, before heading back home, not quite 12 hours after leaving the house (less than half of which was spent in the car).
My friend L. in Umeå had a birthday the week before, but since most of her friends were at Visby she decided to celebrate this weekend instead, so we did the three hour drive south for it (as if I hadn't had enough time in the car recently) on Saturday morning, arriving pretty much on time for cake, and staying through to the evening bbq. When about half of the guests had gone home, and the rest were heading back to L. and R.'s apartment to play board games we took our leave and headed over to L. and M.'s place on the other side of town to give her a power adaptor we had promised her, and to go leave in his mailbox the small roll of leather that H. had forgotten in our car when we dropped him off on our way north. We had a very nice visit and short walk with L. and M., and then did the three hour drive home again.
On Sunday (21 Aug) Caroline came home, now that her summer job down south has ended, so the days since have been largely spent getting her settled back in, and (in my case) picking berries to dry for winter. Bothlord_kjar and I have taken this week off of work, so we will use the time to make progress on home improvement projects and work out how things will go with three of us living here.
F. did manage to finish up the knife blades he started last week, and we posted them and some other things he has accumulated in his travels back to California last night. This morning I dropped him at the airport for his flight to Hungary, where he will try to find the area his family came from, before he returns to Dublin for his flight back to California (he had spent a month working as a student on an archaeological dig in Ireland before meeting me at Visby).
Now I have a few more days of vacation before returning to work next week. With luck they will be nice and productive, as well as restful. I am looking forward to some time at home!
Sunday (7 Aug) was a shopping day for me. I went into town with H., and we went first to Kapitelhusgården, as that is where the really high end authentic merchants are. Stop one was in the booth across the street from the pub, Medeltidsmode, where I picked up some of their nice grey and black diamond twill, which I think will make a lovely dress with fur trim. Then we went into the pub courtyard, where Handelsgillet has a booth. From them I picked up a lovely lightweight dark blue wool twill to make a tunic, and some truly decadent white wool three-twills-in-one fabric (a checked effect caused by squares of diamond twill, herringbone twill, and plain twill, based on the Lödöse find from 1220-1240 AD) to trim the neck, cuffs, and hem (and I will probably put garnet beads onto the plain part of the white). I didn't buy some tablet woven trim in the same shade of blue from the next booth as it wasn't quite long enough to decorate the tunic I have in mind, but I did take a photo in case my apprentice who is addicted to tablet weaving cares to make me a longer length of it.
Once the bags were loaded with fabric we started wandering down hill towards the market and passed a sign saying "loppis" (garage sale), so we stopped in. They didn't have much that was interesting, but they happened to have one antique shoe last the exact same size as my foot. I had been thinking of trying to carve myself one, and this one was only 40 SEK (or just under $5 USD), so I bought it.
Then we continued down the hill and entered the gardens in search of the mulberry tree. Once we found it we carefully set our bags to the side, well out of reach of the juicy berries, then tried to get some berries for ourselves. Of course all of the berries within easy reach had already been picked, but there were some just out of H's reach (he is rather tall), so he picked me up so I could pluck berries. The first few went well, and I was able to carefully pluck the berries and alternate between feeding him and myself. Then, just as my hand started to close around three particularly juicy berries just over there, he helpfully took one step closer, bringing us under the berries as I grabbed them, and they exploded juice all over us. It had been a warm day, so I was wearing a white under tunic over light trousers, which meant pink spots all along the arm and skirt on that side. His tunic was green, so the spots show less. Wonderfully messy, yummy fun! (It turned out that when I tried hand-washing the tunic the next morning the spots faded to a lovely pale blue colour--I am not certain if it was the hand-soap in the bathroom, or the CaCO3 in the water (most of the rock in Visby is limestone, and you can taste it in the water), or if mulberry always fades to blue after pink. I suspect that the spots will eventually wash completely out).
After leaving the mulberries behind we wandered in the main market area together for a few more hours--he was considering the purchase of a Larp appropriate helmet and some nice jewelry, and I also bought a small birch bark box the perfect size to carry a little emergency food with me (usually hais, but plain nuts or dried fruit would work too).
Monday (8 Aug) was the beginner's fighter tournament, which O. entered, fighting for my honour. He had much fun, and F., visiting from the West, who hasn't been fighting in recent years, started twitching his hands in sword blow movements watching the fighting—he has clearly caught the bug again—I predict that he will start fighting again as soon as he returns home. After the beginner's tourney there was a great sword tourney. My friend D. asked me if he could fight for me in that one, since his consort was off shopping, so, of course, I said yes. That one was a "cake or death" battle, done much like a rose tourney, except the loser of each bout was to collect a cookie from the Princess and present it to the consort of the victor. The consorts had the choice to eat their cookies, or collect them, and the winner of the tournament was the one whose consort had the most cookies at the end of the day. I wasn't tempted to eat my two cookies, since they were store bought cookies, but the winner of the day had more than that.
Tuesday (9 Aug) was the Principality Coronet Tournament, and O. entered, fighting for me, one of two beginning fighters in the list (which had no knights, and no viscounts). There were seven entrants (there had been nine who had intended to fight, but one couple was out because the fighter broke her leg, and another was out because the consort broke her leg badly enough to be in surgery during the tournament). They ran the day as a double round-robin (everyone fights everyone else, then, after a short break, they do it all again). At the end of the first half each fighter had a different number of victories: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (O. had 1, and the undefeated guy was my friend D., from Uma). At the end of the second half the list of victories for each fighter had changed to: 0, 2, 7, 7, 7, 8, 11 (O. had 2 :-) and D. had 8. D's consort was getting really nervous at that point, and I think she was relieved when the other guy won the finals).
The site for the tournament was on the far side of the island, at a place where there had once been a hill fort. It was a beautiful location—the fighting field was at the base of a small cliff, and they had a place at the top of the cliff for the princess and the consorts to view the tournament. However, I didn't join the other consorts up there (even though I really, really love "up") for two reasons. 1) they had no shade up there, and it was a sunny day, and 2) (the really important reason), I believe place as a consort is at my fighter's side, helping him with armour repairs if needed, making certain he has food and water, talking about the fights and how it is going, etc. I also like to walk with him to the edge of the field, and watch the fight from close range. So I missed out on hanging out with the other consorts, but I had the fun of tending to a fighter for the first time in a very long time. I had missed that.
The next few days kind of blur together. I know I had gate duty Wednesday evening. The SCA camp was located just outside of the city walls, in the quarry/moat on the north side, with a large fence around it. The only people permitted inside were those of us who are camped there (they gave us a cloth bracelet saying "Styringheim camp" of the sort one typically gets at music festivals and other events where people are expected to come and go regularly and need to prove that they paid the admission fee), those who bought a day or week visiting pass, and those reenactors who were camped in the Battle Of Visby camp next door, who had a different colour bracelet (and we were permitted in their camp, too). Everyone in camp needed to do at least one shift at gate to check to be certain that only people who were supposed to be there came in. When we first checked in O. got his bracelet around his ankle, because he was going to be doing Fire performances, and he didn't want to risk having the polyester band melted into his flesh. I, on the other hand, hate bracelets, and didn't think that it went with my costume, so I also had mine put around my ankle instead of my wrist. This worked fine during the day, since they were generally quite warm, so I was wearing sandals. However, in the evenings, when I had my knee high nålbinded socks over the bracelet plus or minus the leather boots, I tended to either only bother with the gate when someone was on duty I knew, otherwise I just went to the locked place in the fence near the privies, where the truck comes in to clean them, and opened the combination lock there to let myself in (the combination was nearly the same as the one to get into the showers, only two digits shorter, so easy to remember).
I made some new friends at gate, one of whom is now a FB friend, and the other, who isn't on FB, I am in email contact with. One evening I spent in camp, in the circle of tents were the band Sorkar & Strängar were living, enjoying their music while others partied in the background. Another evening, as I already mentioned I went to the Garmarna Återkommer concert held in one of the many ruined cathedrals that are scattered around the island. This band has long been popular with SCA people in Sweden, and many of their songs are regularly sung at events, but they hadn't performed together for many years, and have just started doing so again. I went there with my friend H., and fairly promptly after the music started we got up and started dancing, there being plenty of room between the pillars and the side walls of the cathedral. A short time later a smiling girl danced up to H., like they were old friends she was delighted to see again, and the two of them danced together for the rest of the evening. By late in the evening they were cuddling during the slow songs, and I rather expected he wouldn't be walking back to camp with me. He did come back to our seats to get his coat and hood after the concert as I was putting back on all of the wool I had taken off for dancing, so I asked if she was someone he already knew, and he admitted he'd never seen her before. She turns out to be one of the people in the Battle of Visby camp who were there from the Ukraine, and the two of them spent much of the rest of the week together. I will have to remember that technique next time I see someone I wish I knew—just dance up to them like you do!
I spent much of the second half of the event hanging out in camp during the day, sewing in the shade of the pavilion doorway, often in company of friends. It was a very nice way to relax. In between sewing sessions I wandered around camp and the city itself.
Our Ferry was scheduled to depart at 03:30 Monday (15 Aug) morning, so we broke camp during the day Sunday, during a lull in the rains, so the tent was mostly dry when we packed it. Then F. and I wandered in to the market, where I bought a nice set of four horn bowls and matching spoons. I had thought to only buy one spoon, but the guy talked me into getting four of the spoons too, by discounting the price enough that one spoon was free. We also bought some soup (1/4 the normal price, while any remains in the pot, since it was the last day), and some yummy ice cream, made from a local berry that isn't available in the rest of Sweden.
Then F., H., and I went up the hill to the Folket Universitetet, where the rest of Phire had been staying, to get a nap before time to go to the ferry. O., on the other hand, opted to just stay up all night, and he met us on board the ferry when we got there (note that he is the only one of the four of us doing the drive north who doesn't have a licence, and so wouldn't be driving).
The drive home included three adventures. The first was stopping at the same farmhouse we had visited on the way south to return A.'s armour, which was a delightful stop, which ate quite a bit of time as we hung out with the delightful people there (and I took a nap on their couch). The second was a stop at Skuleberget, where F. and I did the hike/scramble up to the cave (H. had caught a cold so didn't want to push himself, and O. had a slightly sprained knee, so they stayed near the car and relaxed). I truly love that little mountain, and I never drive past without a quick stop to climb on it, though I have only made time to go all the way to the top that first year
lord_kjar and I went down to Visby and made a couple of day date of the trip. They are not having as good of a berry year at Skuleberget as we are here in Luleå, but I did eat a few small raspberries on our way up, and F. was kind enough to pick a handful for O. and H. on the way back down.H. had originally thought to come up to visit us in Luleå after Visby, but, since he had caught a cold he, decided it would be wiser to just go home, so we dropped him off in Umeå, stopping to visit long enough for F. to drink a cup of coffee. H.'s home is decorated much as you would expect for a typical SCA/Larp person, with plenty of games, books, and art from the same. His living room wall is covered with a large piece of linen, upon which he (with a little help from friends) has hand-painted a map of Middle Earth. F., at first, couldn't even recognize it, as he had been sitting at the table with his back rather close to it, so when he turned around he could only see a tiny portion of the map—he needed to back off a way to be able to see enough of the map to get his bearings. I would so love to have this map on my wall, it is a beautiful work of art.
Due to the various stops, we finally arrived home at 02:00 on Monday, so not quite 24 hours after arriving at the ferry terminal for the trip home.
I had been smart enough to have Tuesday as a vacation day as well, which gave me a chance to get most of the stuff unpacked and the pavilion and ground cloths fully dried before putting them away, but I worked Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Wednesday (17 Aug) early evening O.'s parents arrived with the chests they had been kind enough to drive north for us, to make room in the car for more passengers than we had had on the drive south. They were on their way to Finland to visit family, so we were on the way, and I cooked them dinner as a thank you. They continued on their way promptly after dinner, and soon thereafter G. & my apprentice, A. came over for Frostheim social/crafts night, and we had a lovely time chatting and working on projects, but I made no progress on putting away the things that O.'s parent's had brought north for us.
Thursday (18 Aug) after work I went over to O's house for a much needed talk and birthday celebration, while F. and
lord_kjar played in the forge, starting a couple of knives for F.Since F. is visiting from California and has never been this far north, it was necessary to take him north of the Arctic Circle on Friday (19 Aug). So I did the same loop I took
aelfgyfu on when she came to visit a few years ago. First to Storforsen, where we enjoyed the morning admiring the rapids and the more gently flowing bits of water to the side, scrambling over rocks, eating berries, and even stopping to take photos of a snake which was resting on a rock. Then we drove north, with a brief stop at the Arctic Circle for photos and on to Jokkmokk, where we visited the museum and a couple of gift shops, before heading back home, not quite 12 hours after leaving the house (less than half of which was spent in the car).My friend L. in Umeå had a birthday the week before, but since most of her friends were at Visby she decided to celebrate this weekend instead, so we did the three hour drive south for it (as if I hadn't had enough time in the car recently) on Saturday morning, arriving pretty much on time for cake, and staying through to the evening bbq. When about half of the guests had gone home, and the rest were heading back to L. and R.'s apartment to play board games we took our leave and headed over to L. and M.'s place on the other side of town to give her a power adaptor we had promised her, and to go leave in his mailbox the small roll of leather that H. had forgotten in our car when we dropped him off on our way north. We had a very nice visit and short walk with L. and M., and then did the three hour drive home again.
On Sunday (21 Aug) Caroline came home, now that her summer job down south has ended, so the days since have been largely spent getting her settled back in, and (in my case) picking berries to dry for winter. Both
lord_kjar and I have taken this week off of work, so we will use the time to make progress on home improvement projects and work out how things will go with three of us living here. F. did manage to finish up the knife blades he started last week, and we posted them and some other things he has accumulated in his travels back to California last night. This morning I dropped him at the airport for his flight to Hungary, where he will try to find the area his family came from, before he returns to Dublin for his flight back to California (he had spent a month working as a student on an archaeological dig in Ireland before meeting me at Visby).
Now I have a few more days of vacation before returning to work next week. With luck they will be nice and productive, as well as restful. I am looking forward to some time at home!
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Date: 2016-08-24 09:18 am (UTC)