Last two days in Lofoten this trip

[kareina]

 While my hip felt better Saturday morning when I got up, oth it and my lower back started complaining after I spent some time carving (the back hadn't once had issues this trip till then) but the pot was close enough to done to inspire me to continue working, and I carefully used the borad, toothed, chisel to smooth out the surface, from the rim towards the middle, working my way systematically around the pot, starting on the side with the most issues. Eventually, even though I hadn't come completely around the pot with the current pass of smoothing chisel work, I tried switching to using my curved stone dressing axe (the handel of which I cut short so that I could reach the bottom of the pot) to start to smooth out the lines from the chisel 

 

Over the course of the day, each time I stood up to go to the loo, get a bit of food from my lunch box, or move into better hearing range of a soft spoken visitor I found myself leaning more and more heavily for support to leverage myself up, and it was harder to lift my leg over the bench (which I straddle as I work). 

 

By 16:00 the discomfort in the hip and back, combined with seeing how much more work would be needed before the pot inner surface would be smooth enough to polish, concinced me that I wasn't going to get it done this trip, and I should call it a day.

 

So I went back to the house, had a hot shower, and put my stone carving clothes into the wash. After the laundry was done and hanging to dry I went over to Sandra's house and spent the evening hanging out with her and her partner, and their cats. They have a house that appeals to me. No nearby neighbours, wonderful views mountain views in every direction, a view of the water on the fjord in one direction, plenty of raspberries, strawberries, and red currents growing on the property, and even some blackcurrants. It is also a very short drive to the museum.

 

I also liked their couch, which is one of those big ones that wraps around a coffee table on 2.5 sides. I was still having hip issues when they picked me up, so I hesitated a second before sitting down on the couch, as the one at home seems to make my hip worse if it is a problem. But even as I hesitated I commented that I love the couch, and she replied "I warn you that it sucks you in and is hard to get up from" I was tired from 8 days of stone carving (55 hours, including breaks and stopping to talk with visitors), and not getting up for a while sounded wonderful, so I sat down cross-legged and pulled out my nålbindning.

 

I had a wonderful time hanging out with them, getting to know them, and I finished the fingerless gloves I was working on. Eventually I needed to get up to use the toilet, and found to my delight that my legs and hip moved effortlessly, and with no discomfort. I really like their couch!

 

Since I was up, I got the tour of the house, which they have had for a year, and have started fixing up. I love the dark purple they have painted the area at the top of the stairs! (About the same tone if darkness as midnight blue, only purple.)

 

While doing the tour I saw the chin up bar, and had to test how my arms were doing after eight days of stone carving. Much to my delight, I grabbed the bar and pulled myself all the way up on the first try! I couldn't do that on our chin up bar before leaving home. To be fair, their bar is lower than ours, which makes it easier, but it still felt good. I stopped after just the one test pull-up, as I was tired/sleepy even before I tried).

 

Then we sat back down on the comfy couch for a bit before I was so sleepy I needed to head back to my place to sleep. They decided they would continue on to town to do grocery shopping, and I considered joining them for that, as Iwanted to get som fruit and yoghurt, but was too sleepy. 

 

Sunday morning I slept in till 06:00, considered doing my workout directly, but then remembered that I had never checked in with a friend who, last I heard, lives in Abisko, to see if he was still there, as I would be passing through later that day.

 

So I sent him a note, and he replied directly. Yes, he'd live to see me, but he moved to Tromsø. We chatted for a half an hour or so, agreeing to look into the schedule, perhaps it might be possible to meet up half way between during the fiur weeks I am in Kiruna?

 

Then I got up, joined Keldor over zoom for the morning workout, and he kept me company as I packed my now dry laundry and other things I hadn't pre-packed the night before when the laundry was in the washer. 

 

I loaded some of my things into the car, and then drove up to the longhouse around 09:30 to load my own soapstone pot in progress and carving tools into the van. Then I left the car in the nearby staff parking area and went back to clean up the rock carving station, take photos of the nearly done pot (but not so nearly that it would have been worth continuing on it this trip), and say goodbye to a couple of people. Then I walked over to the visitor center, and used my employee discount to buy a rain poncho with hood and sleeves and a pocket on the chest into which the poncho folds away when not in use. I had been considering buying something like that this trip anyway, and this means I don't need to stop anywhere else to do it.

 

Then I went back to the house, ate lunch and boiled my last two eggs to take with me, loaded the last things in the car, cleaned my room, and started driving by 12:25.

 

My first stop was not far up the road, at Aalan Gård, to buy some of their yummy cheese. I try to stop there every time I am i Lofoten. This time she wasn't busy, so she gave me the tour, showing me the viewing windows to the cheese making rooms, the cheese aging rooms, the lovely upstairs dining area suitable for large gatherings, the view from there to their herb and edible flower garden, and the drying room full of racks of drying herbs and flowers from which they make the tea they sell (which room smells amazing!)

 

In addition to the planned cheese purchase I also impulse bought a brown cheese ice cream, which was amazing. I need to try making some of that when I am home to my own kitchen again.

 

Google says that from Lofotr Viking Museum to Kiruna it is 6 hours driving time if one doesn't stop, and one does the speed limit all the way. I stopped often to enjoy the view, and rarely did as fast as the speed limit (and didn't get that fast till after I was out of Lofoten and was on straighter, wider roads), which meant that I reached the rest area at the commemorative sign for the Battle of Narvik at 20:45. 

 

I had Keldor’s company on the phone off and on for most of the day as I drove, and we were both getting tired, so I stopped here for the night, there being a toilet at this rest stop.

 

I recognise the stop as one I did yoga at in 2012, when David and I did our vacation to Lofoten. On that trip I did my yoga on the stone picnic table, as it was a dry, flat surface. This time the table was wet from recent rain, so I did my yoga in the van before saying goodnight to Keldor and going to sleep at 21:45.

 

I woke at 00:15 to use the toilet, and praised my yesterday's self for the purchase of the rain poncho and its sry pocket in which to carry the roll of paper to the loo.

 

Then I took the time to type this, and now I will sleep a bit more. I will get up in a couple of hours to keep Keldor company for his drive to work as I continue driving.

 

Google says it is two hours driving time to Kiruna from here, so I should arrive in plenty of time for a nap before my colleagues arrive and my work day starts (they will be coming from Luleå, which is four hours from Kiruna, and they don't plan to start till 07:00) .