Kaarnemaa's Harvest Festival
Sep. 3rd, 2017 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaOn Thursday evening I asked GoogleMaps how long it would take to get to the event (three hours driving time), and I determined that I could get there by the time site opens at 19:00 if I were to leave by 15:00 (one loses an hour when one crosses the border to Finland). Therefore, if I wanted to stop by and visit my friend Å, who lives about 1/3 of the way to the event, and return his SCA stuff that he left here before heading south for a visit some months back, I should leave by noon, so I would have time to chat a bit before heading on. By that point in the evening I was kinda tired (I didn't look this up till getting home from the Frostheim social night), so I decided that I could just do yoga and go to sleep, and pack in the morning, since I planned to travel kinda light (but not as light as I will need to pack for Crown, to which I will be flying carry-on only).
This was a very good plan. I got up at a reasonable time Friday morning, and gathered what I wanted to bring with me. Right up to the point where it was time to put the food I was bringing into one of the soft-sided "ice chests". Everything else had been packed into period looking containers, but all of the soft ice chests we have look totally modern. No one but me will ever care, but I care. So I decided that it was time to make a wool cover for one of the medium sized ones which have the silvery metallic fabric outer layer. At that point it was 11:00, so I had an hour to spare if I were going to do the stop to visit Å, and, since it is just a cover for a modern item, I figured I could use the treadle sewing machine, and it would go pretty fast. And it did, too, right up to the point where I realized that it would be hard to make the attachment of the wool to the area next to the bag zipper with the sewing machine, so I decided to do that part by hand, and, while I was at it, the second pass of covering the bright red nylon webbing strap, too, so that no machine sewing would be visible.
Since I was putting in the extra time, I also took a sewing break to have some lunch, which meant that I didn't actually finish up, fill the bag with food, load the car, and start driving till 15:30. This meant that I arrived at the ferry about half an hour after site opened, which was still in very decent time.
The site is on an island, to which they are in the process of building a bridge--it is now possible to walk across the bridge to fetch the hand-crank car ferry, but it isn't yet possible to drive upon the bridge. Since I don't read Finnish the autocrat told me in advance that I should just come to the ferry landing, call him, and he would come help me get across the water. I am really glad that he did. While it turned out to be a fairly simple task to put in the lock so that one can drive onto the ferry, then unlock the ferry, and spin the wheel to drag the ferry across the river, then put in the lock on the other side so that the car can drive off the ferry, I wouldn't have wanted to make guesses as to what to do without someone there to show me.
The site was a lovely one--pretty in the same sort of way as our new Norrskensfest site--lovely old red building clustered together on the banks of a lake. This site is smaller--it has only 40 beds, but that was a generous plenty for the 23 of us who attended the event (8 of whom were small children who seemed to spend most of their time smiling). When I arrived the downstairs beds had been claimed, so I explored upstairs, and decided on the top bunk in the gable room at the back of the house that has a balcony in it (who can resist a balcony?). As it turned out, no one claimed the other bunk, so I had a room to myself, though I had to walk through a room with two single beds in it, both of which got claimed.
The event had been advertized and a low-key, relaxed event, and, indeed it was. The only things which were on the published schedule were meals, and the fact that the sauna would be available in the evenings. Everything else was optional "do it when/if you feel for it". I brought my dulcimer, and had it out to play with on four different occasions (once on Friday, and three times on Saturday), including providing tiny hints of music during the lulls in the Baroness'es court (sadly, the Baron, who had been looking forward to heading north for the event, got sick and couldn't come) while waiting for people to come forward). That was more playing than I had done in the past several months, and I feel inspired to do more of it.
I had brought with me a variety of projects, but only took out the nålbinding, which is much closer to done than before I arrived. Since the event was a harvest festival I made a point of doing some harvesting. I noticed that the red currant bush near the kitchen and parking area had berries on it, so I asked the kitchen if they wanted some berries to add to the lunch and/or feast. Of course they said yes, and handed me a large ceramic bowl. That first bush had lots of berries (compared to my poor bird-stripped red currant bushes at home), but they still barely covered the bottom of the bowl. However, I figured that there were plenty more bushes in the area, so I started working my way around the perimeter of the lawn, stopping to eat raspberries at each raspberry bush I passed (the raspberries wouldn't have been worth picking for the kitchen--they were a bit too juicy (too much recent rain) and often had mold or worms, so one had to actually look at them before eating, but the ones that passed inspection still tasted ok. Sure enough, I found another bush or two in that quadrant of the yard, but then, when I worked my way around behind the sauna I discovered the main red currant area--so many bushes that I quit picking berries because I was tired of it, not because I had run out of berries to pick (at that point the bowl was more than half full). The kitchen was pleased--they put berries out for lunch, and still had enough left to use as garnish for some of the feast dishes, which, combined with the fresh salad greens, meant that everything served was really pretty.
I didn't partake of the smithing workshop, nor the archery, but the others seemed to enjoy both activities. The only dancing we did was late in the feast--the children wanted to dance, so a handful of us adults joined them, and we did several bransles before the parents announced that it was bedtime. I let one of the Finnish speakers call the dances (I provided the music from my phone, projected through the CD player the autocrat provided), so that the kids would understand the instructions.
This morning I packed up my stuff and loaded the car, feeling somehow "wrong" to have the car so empty. Then one of the parents asked me if I had extra room. Their family has no car anymore, so they had gotten a ride from the other family, but between the two families there were too many people to all fit in the car at once, so the car had to do two trips. The driver did *not* want to have to go over the ferry two times to get all the people and stuff to the other side. Of course I was happy to help, and not only took the overflow stuff and extra people across the ferry, but all the way to the home of driver, so that her husband and kids could stay home while she took everyone else home. Then I set off north towards the border, while they went south to their home.
Even with that extra delay I was home by 14:30 (gaining that hour back at the border helps), which meant that I had time to unload, relax with a book and some food, take a nap, and put away most of the things I had brought with me before it was time to head out to the first Folk Dance night of the season. That was much fun, and since getting home I have had a chance to check mail, update logs, and write the above. Now I had better get my yoga done and get some sleep, since I work tomorrow.
This was a very good plan. I got up at a reasonable time Friday morning, and gathered what I wanted to bring with me. Right up to the point where it was time to put the food I was bringing into one of the soft-sided "ice chests". Everything else had been packed into period looking containers, but all of the soft ice chests we have look totally modern. No one but me will ever care, but I care. So I decided that it was time to make a wool cover for one of the medium sized ones which have the silvery metallic fabric outer layer. At that point it was 11:00, so I had an hour to spare if I were going to do the stop to visit Å, and, since it is just a cover for a modern item, I figured I could use the treadle sewing machine, and it would go pretty fast. And it did, too, right up to the point where I realized that it would be hard to make the attachment of the wool to the area next to the bag zipper with the sewing machine, so I decided to do that part by hand, and, while I was at it, the second pass of covering the bright red nylon webbing strap, too, so that no machine sewing would be visible.
Since I was putting in the extra time, I also took a sewing break to have some lunch, which meant that I didn't actually finish up, fill the bag with food, load the car, and start driving till 15:30. This meant that I arrived at the ferry about half an hour after site opened, which was still in very decent time.
The site is on an island, to which they are in the process of building a bridge--it is now possible to walk across the bridge to fetch the hand-crank car ferry, but it isn't yet possible to drive upon the bridge. Since I don't read Finnish the autocrat told me in advance that I should just come to the ferry landing, call him, and he would come help me get across the water. I am really glad that he did. While it turned out to be a fairly simple task to put in the lock so that one can drive onto the ferry, then unlock the ferry, and spin the wheel to drag the ferry across the river, then put in the lock on the other side so that the car can drive off the ferry, I wouldn't have wanted to make guesses as to what to do without someone there to show me.
The site was a lovely one--pretty in the same sort of way as our new Norrskensfest site--lovely old red building clustered together on the banks of a lake. This site is smaller--it has only 40 beds, but that was a generous plenty for the 23 of us who attended the event (8 of whom were small children who seemed to spend most of their time smiling). When I arrived the downstairs beds had been claimed, so I explored upstairs, and decided on the top bunk in the gable room at the back of the house that has a balcony in it (who can resist a balcony?). As it turned out, no one claimed the other bunk, so I had a room to myself, though I had to walk through a room with two single beds in it, both of which got claimed.
The event had been advertized and a low-key, relaxed event, and, indeed it was. The only things which were on the published schedule were meals, and the fact that the sauna would be available in the evenings. Everything else was optional "do it when/if you feel for it". I brought my dulcimer, and had it out to play with on four different occasions (once on Friday, and three times on Saturday), including providing tiny hints of music during the lulls in the Baroness'es court (sadly, the Baron, who had been looking forward to heading north for the event, got sick and couldn't come) while waiting for people to come forward). That was more playing than I had done in the past several months, and I feel inspired to do more of it.
I had brought with me a variety of projects, but only took out the nålbinding, which is much closer to done than before I arrived. Since the event was a harvest festival I made a point of doing some harvesting. I noticed that the red currant bush near the kitchen and parking area had berries on it, so I asked the kitchen if they wanted some berries to add to the lunch and/or feast. Of course they said yes, and handed me a large ceramic bowl. That first bush had lots of berries (compared to my poor bird-stripped red currant bushes at home), but they still barely covered the bottom of the bowl. However, I figured that there were plenty more bushes in the area, so I started working my way around the perimeter of the lawn, stopping to eat raspberries at each raspberry bush I passed (the raspberries wouldn't have been worth picking for the kitchen--they were a bit too juicy (too much recent rain) and often had mold or worms, so one had to actually look at them before eating, but the ones that passed inspection still tasted ok. Sure enough, I found another bush or two in that quadrant of the yard, but then, when I worked my way around behind the sauna I discovered the main red currant area--so many bushes that I quit picking berries because I was tired of it, not because I had run out of berries to pick (at that point the bowl was more than half full). The kitchen was pleased--they put berries out for lunch, and still had enough left to use as garnish for some of the feast dishes, which, combined with the fresh salad greens, meant that everything served was really pretty.
I didn't partake of the smithing workshop, nor the archery, but the others seemed to enjoy both activities. The only dancing we did was late in the feast--the children wanted to dance, so a handful of us adults joined them, and we did several bransles before the parents announced that it was bedtime. I let one of the Finnish speakers call the dances (I provided the music from my phone, projected through the CD player the autocrat provided), so that the kids would understand the instructions.
This morning I packed up my stuff and loaded the car, feeling somehow "wrong" to have the car so empty. Then one of the parents asked me if I had extra room. Their family has no car anymore, so they had gotten a ride from the other family, but between the two families there were too many people to all fit in the car at once, so the car had to do two trips. The driver did *not* want to have to go over the ferry two times to get all the people and stuff to the other side. Of course I was happy to help, and not only took the overflow stuff and extra people across the ferry, but all the way to the home of driver, so that her husband and kids could stay home while she took everyone else home. Then I set off north towards the border, while they went south to their home.
Even with that extra delay I was home by 14:30 (gaining that hour back at the border helps), which meant that I had time to unload, relax with a book and some food, take a nap, and put away most of the things I had brought with me before it was time to head out to the first Folk Dance night of the season. That was much fun, and since getting home I have had a chance to check mail, update logs, and write the above. Now I had better get my yoga done and get some sleep, since I work tomorrow.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-04 04:56 am (UTC)/Eva
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-04 08:06 pm (UTC)