kareina

 I woke up at 08:00, did a 45 minutes yoga session, had breakfast (yay for skyr! Which we bought while at the store last night. The plain version isn't available in Sweden, but I like it even better with my muesli than yoghurt) and then Keldor finally woke up.

It is now almost a week since we arrived on site, and there was so much more to it than just Keldor's Writ that feels worth recording, so I will give it a try, and see what I can remember.

Friday evening was the usual; catch up with people I haven't seen in a long time, and get to know a few new people, both of which was lovely. Of course I sat in the hall and made progress on my sewing as I did.  I don't recall how much, if anything, I have mentioned about this project already, so...  At Drachenwald 30 Year coronation last summer Keldor saw someone wearing a Viking Age tunic in Byzantine style, and decided he wanted one.  He didn't remember to take a photo of the tunic that inspired him, but Duke Rolf in the West has often worn Byzantine tunics, so we looked at some of those photos to decide what to make Keldor.  He found some affordable black linen, and we stumbled upon a fancy gold brocade tablecloth in a second hand store and thought they would look good together, and suit him.  However, this autumn and winter have been unusually busy. I managed to make a pattern for the neckline in September, but didn't find time to start cutting the body rectangles and sleeves and attach them to one another till mid November. At Glotta Gillet, at the end of November, I managed to cut the brocade for the neckline and start attaching it to the body, and then found time to work at it again at Reengarda's crafts afternoon on my birthday in December.  I didn't touch it again till January 1st, after I had started recovering from the push to finish the thesis enough to submit on 30 Dec.  At that point I wondered aloud if it might be possible to finish it on time for Keldor to wear at 12th Night, and he was very skeptical about my chances, since I was sewing by hand, and project creep meant that in addition to gold brocade trim on black fabric, I was also doing purple osenstich embroidery along the seams between the gold and black, and decided to do some very simple outline embroidery in the diamond shaped bits of the trim. 

( more sewing details )

All of above, plus additional sewing time during the conference and travel to 12th Night had the costume almost useable by Friday evening, so at 21:45 I set aside that project and joined the sewing party in the Royal Meeting room, where I had lots of fun sewing meters worth of possament that her Royal Highness had made to the dress she would wear the next day.  I didn't manage to get all of it done, but when I finally put the project down at 04:45 Saturday morning I had both dragon heads and some of their upper body done (including beads for their eyes), which seemed to be good symbolism--the dragons are just starting to rise out of the ocean (blue dress) at the start of their reign, but will become more and more visible as it progresses.  One of the fun bits of the evening was around 01:40, when their soon to be Majesties heard that I had gotten Keldor's tunic *mostly* good enough to wear for morning court, but that it would be good to change out some safety pins for basting threads, and do a better job tacking down the edges of a couple of bits. Since they had plans for Keldor in court they happily helped me with that basting, as I kept going with her dress, and both outfits were wearable for court!

Most events it is Keldor who is up talking until 04:00 or 05:00, and I who goes to bed around midnight. Therefore I got a few comments from people who were on their way to bed and saw me still up and sewing, hours after Keldor had given up and went to sleep (the generosity of Erich Olavsson Haane with tasty things to drink certainly contributed to Keldor's readiness to sleep). Strangely, even though I was getting tired by 04:00, it was more knowing that I *should* sleep for a while before morning court that got me to put the project down. That and how tired the others (who were working on Stigot's Coronation tunic) looked. Therefore, when they finished that tunic and I was at a good pause point for Lofnheiðr's dress, I put it down, did my yoga, and went to bed.

I woke on Saturday with energy and in a happy mood, despite the short hours of sleep. Keldor wasn't quite so chipper. I told him how late I had been up sewing for Lo, and then suggested that he put on his new tunic for morning court. His first reply was "I don't have a new tunic", as he was convinced I couldn't possibly have managed to finish enough to wear it whilst I was sewing someone else's clothes. I smiled, took it out of the bag, handed it to him, and said "yes you do".  His surprise was so much fun!  We got dressed and went up to the hall, where Lofnheiðr asked me "have you shown him the photo yet?", he said "what photo?" to which I replied:



And he laughed and confessed that he now understands how I was able to pull off making it wearable while doing her sewing.  Soon it was time for court, wherein Sven and Siobhan gave out some backlog scrolls, then some well-deserved awards, including a Queen's order of Courtesy for Ellisif, and an Albion for Vilhelm.  

The Coronation was wonderful.  First Stigot came in to claim his due, and they asked who will reign by his side, so he answered as they do in the old sagas with a Norse-style poem/riddle (but in English):

Then in came the answer to his riddle, the wise and beautiful Lofnheiðr, standing tall upon a shield, being carried by four strong warriors. I really loved the effect, even though I knew it was coming, having heard mention of the plan the night before.

They did the usual Coronation ceremony, with Sven and Siobhan Crowning their heirs in unison, followed by fealty from all the usual officers, peers, and anyone else who wanted to swear. Then they surprised Keldor, and their first court was over. After court there was a bit of time to congratulate people before lunch, and then Keldor and I went upstairs to get him into the armour he'd borrowed from Sir Jon so he could enter the Queen's Champion tournament.  That accomplished I got my own lunch, and looked in at the market. Someone was selling a pair of orange hose in a lovely twill fabric that I thought Keldor would like. Since he and I have no problem wearing one another's trousers I tried them on, saw that they were a good enough fit, and took one leg with me to show Keldor, to see if he was interested. Yes, yes he was, so I did a quick quest for the seller, which turned out to be easy, as he was armouring up right next to us.  He agreed to trade us that pair of orange hose, and a pair of dark grey/blue with thin red lines making a diamond pattern (much more my colour) for either one of Keldor's knives, or, if Keldor is willing, a period-style awl.  (He has since sent us a sketch and some documentation for the awls, and Keldor will try making a handful to see how they go--forging at that small of a scale has its challenges, but he thinks he will be able to do it, and it sounds like a fun challenge).

Because I was upstairs for the tournament I didn't really get to participate in the Peer Garden--I did take one of the flowers, but while I spoke to many delightful people, some of whom were at their first event, no one asked me any questions that are at all related to Order of the Laurel.  I would have liked to have actively participated, but I didn't wish to miss the salutes from my champion during the tournament.  Keldor had a lot of fun in the tourney. He did get a minor injury--the first loaner helmet didn't fit him quite properly, so that one face shot brought something into contact with his forehead. He didn't notice that it had done any actual damage till later, when he was out of the helmet for a break, and Jon noticed the darkness of the fabric on Keldor's forehead, and wondered if that was blood or sweat.  We lifted up the fabric, and saw that, yes, he was bleeding. So Jon suggested that Keldor use the other loaner helmet (which Keldor had repaired last summer so that Jon would have an extra loaner helm), so he did, and there were no further problems. After his shower we found a bandaid in the building first aid kit that was a brilliant shade of dayglow yellow/green that he wore for a couple of hours, before changing it out to a smaller round one in a bright shade of happy blue, just exactly big enough to cover the small hole in his head, which has since healed up nicely.

After the tournament I was feeling super tired, and seriously contemplated heading back to the cabin to take a nap, even though I knew that if I did I would likely sleep through next court. However, then I saw Aethstan, who was arranging the shuttles to the train station the next day, and realized that I really shouldn't put off making those plans any longer, so waved at him, and he started to come over, and just then a couple of new people came up to him with a question.  That totally takes precedence, so I sat and waited. Their conversation took long enough that after he came and helped me figure out what time we needed to get the train in order to be at the airport in good time, and thus what time we needed a shuttle in the morning, it was time to rearrange furniture for afternoon court, so I didn't go back to the room, but instead helped a little with set up, and then settled down into a seat up front, and resumed work on the embroidery stitch around the trim on Keldor's new tunic (after fighting he'd put on an older silk tunic that I had made for Crian when we were together, and which Crian gave back to me when he decided not to play SCA any longer).

I was very glad to have attended court--I was tired enough I can't recall every award, but I recall the joyful surprise shown by Aelric of Battle when he was chosen as Queen's champion (for extreme chivalry and joy displayed under the tournament), and his surprise when the Knights pulled him from behind the throne and presented him to their Majesties to be presented with a Writ to contemplate joining the order of Chivalry.  I was very pleased, as when they called for the Knights, and it was clear that "their number is not complete", my mind went through the list of unbelted fighters who had participated in the tournament that day, and came to the conclusion that Aelric was a good choice before the choice was revealed.  There was also much joy for the Writ to contemplate joining the Order of the Pelican for Alienor de Salignac, but I wasn't close enough to see her reaction, and I don't recall any sort of humorous set up for that one.  I will blame my then-sleepy state for my inability to remember the other awards from that court, but I do know that they were all well deserved.

For the feast they had tried a new thing--making it possible to sign up to sit in a specific place by filling in your name on a seating chart in advance, which I gather worked very well for some people, and not at all for those who were late to find out about it and thus the parts of the hall where they would have chose to sit (if they had known about it on time) were no longer available. It didn't really matter for me--all of the feast servers were sitting together at one table, which was longer than we needed, and our head server wrote our names randomly on that table long before I knew the sign up was a thing, but told us all that it didn't matter where at the table we sit, so long as we kept the space at the end closest to High Table for the mother of the two children who had been invited to sit at High Table with their Majesties.  On the chart the spot reserved for the mother was the right hand corner of the table, so when it came time to put out feast gear I put stuff for Keldor on the left corner, and a little extra stuff next to him to mark a spot for me. Then we reported for duties as servers, got our (plastic) holly wreath crowns so that people could easily see who is serving (and the two servers for high table also got wings, because wings), and served the first course. When we went to sit down there was a lady sitting alone at our end of the table eating from the feast gear we had put out for Keldor. Yes, the mother of the kids sitting at high table, who had been told she would sit at that end of the table, and that feast gear would be provided.  I assured her she was very welcome to continue using that feast gear, and went and got a second set from Maggie's box (we hadn't brought any ourselves, as we flew carry on, so Maggie brought her extra sets for us), and we had a nice time chatting with her during the feast. (The next day I found out that when Aethstan went to that table with the feast gear she was meant to borrow he saw what looked like a single serving already set up for her, assumed that someone else had already taken care of it, and put his set away.)

During the feast there was pleasant conversation, randomly interspersed entertainment, a small bit of court business (mostly thanking the kitchen crew) and the traditional toasts. The three act play was very silly, which feels like a terrible thing to say about a tragedy in which everyone save the Little White Kitten with the Pink paddy Paws (the title character) dies, but it kept us laughing, even through the multiple deaths. The other entertainment was a live action explanation of why the event tokens contained both a carp and a goat, and when Aethstan called for volunteers to be the Fine, Upstanding Citizens of the town I was one of them that came forward, and we had fun being Fine and Upstanding, and all the other things that Aethstan's narration called for. This was in marked contrast with the people chosen to play the Terrible Folk besieging our town.  Luckily, our town had the goat (Duchess Siobhan), who did a beautiful goat-dance on the town ramparts to convince the invaders that we still had plenty of food, despite weeks of siege, and they departed, leaving us in peace.  (I think you had to be there...)

Aethstan had made some announcements during the course of the feast, and for the last one said "this is the last announcement", and everyone applauded.

After the last course of the feast was served I was feeling super tired and ready to go to bed, and said as much. Then I saw Aethstan providing bunny ears, tails, bow ties, and glasses with fake noses and mustaches to a few topless men who were getting ready to clean the kitchen, and I hurried over to join them, took of my tunic, added the accessories, and we all (a rabbit-eared Laurel, a rabbit-eared Pelican, a rabbit-eared Knight, and a cat-eared Little White Kitten with Pink Piddy Paws) marched/danced one lap around the hall singing about how the party is starting in the kitchen. This was a creative way to call attention to the fact that we needed help in the kitchen, without doing one more announcement.  Then we went to the kitchen and started cleaning, and singing, and having lots of fun. Some people laughed at us, but others joined us for the kitchen cleaning party.  I stayed in that party till I had put all of the leftover food I could find into bags or bowls in the fridge, and started cleaning work surfaces. Then I stepped in a puddle deep enough to soak right through my nålbinded socks, and decided I had had enough.  So I went back to the hall, returned the bunny accessories, and put my tunic on. Then Keldor mentioned that they were dancing upstairs, so I hurried upstairs and danced. So much fun!

I eventually went to bed at 01:00, which meant I had enough sleep to be able to pack up early enough to be able to help with a bit of cleaning in the hall before we needed to leave for the train station.  All in all it was a wonderful event, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

The flight home involved two trains and four flights, but we made every connection, and managed to get home not long after midnight, and spent a good ten minutes after going to bed telling one another what a wonderful event it had been, and sharing reminances.  

On Thursday morning last week Keldor was feeling recovered from the cold he'd had at the beginning of the week, and I was showing no symptoms, so we decided that yes, we can go to Crown. However, since he'd been sick and thus had had no energy to do the armour repairs that we had determined were needful when we armoured up the week before, we had Thursday during the day to do them, in addition to packing.  We managed to get it all done, and got on the road by 17:00. First stop (after leaving the cat's at his dad's for the weekend) was in Luleå, to drop off the box of Halloween stuff my friend L had bought from someone who lives a five minute walk from me, so I picked them up for her (weeks ago), and this was the first chance to deliver them.

Then we drove over to the normal Thursday evening folk dance session (that I used to attend when I lived there), and I got in three quick dances before we continued on our way (total time elapsed from arriving there to departing: 20 minutes. Value in terms of joy from seeing old friends and getting to dance? Priceless!)

Then we went on to Oulu, arriving at my apprentices apartment around 23:00, where stayed up talking probably later than we should have, but we don't get to see one another in person often.

Friday we were on the road again around 09:00, which got us to site at around 18:00.  As we were checking in, we were summoned away from the table to feast our eyes on the beautiful "stained glass" windows they had made, showing all of the couples entering in the tournament:



Because I was fighting for Keldor, and he for me, and that brought the total number of couples to an even number, the artist drew us twice, once with me in armour, and he holding a rose, and once with he in armour and me holding a rose. I really, really love this!  They used photos of the fighters in garb and in armour to make us all recognisable!  The best part? The whole is made up of individual panels, so everyone who is featured in the art got to take their panel home with them. So we now have ours in the living room window.

I asked her how she did it, and it turns out that she used coloured silkespapper (tissue paper) and intarsia technique, and then laminated the result.  Therefore, before I even finished that conversation I found a source for a packet of silkespapper, in all the colours. I am so going to use the technique for decorating events!  Alas, I don't think the paper will arrive on time to be useful for Oktoberfest, which is in one more week.

Friday evening I went to bed early (just after 22:00), so that I would be well rested for the tournament, and, even more importantly from my perspective, our boasts. After the tournament I noticed that there was a merchant table selling ceramic stuff, which made me realize that I had forgot to set up our box of stuff for sale (oops). But, of course, the first thing I did was go look at what she had.  One quick glance was enough for me to hurry over to Keldor and summon him to the table.  He has been actively looking for a "big enough" tea mug for a long time. This merchant, Savivompatti, had lots of "big enough" tea mugs to choose from!  After looking at all the options, he bought one of the octopus ones, and he is very happy with it.

Then he returned to fight pickups and packed away his mug and my armour, took a shower, and then got permission from the autocrat to put Keldor's axes and knives and other stuff for sale on a table, and made a quick announcement that they were there. We didn't really expect any sales, but one woman really liked his unfinished knife with copper in the blade, and the unfinished knife where he had layered stainless steel and hardened steel (just to try it, as it isn't easy to weld them together), but she thought that they would be out of her price range. I told her that he loves to barter, and introduced them, and they agreed to a trade--he will make her a new knife, with a copper layer in it, and do something nice for a handle, and she will do him a metal brocaded silk tablet woven band.  He is pretty certain that he will win on this trade.

I even managed to join in the afternoon "group singing, mostly in Finnish" a bit before going to the Laurel meeting. They offered me a paper with the lyrics, but for me it is easier to read lips to sing along with a song I don't know, in a language I don't speak, and I enjoyed the session. I would have loved to have had more time for that, but it wasn't an option. After the meeting Keldor and I looked at the Ferry schedule and cost, and decided that it wouldn't cost any more to take the ferry home than it would to drive the full length of Finland and then over and south to Lövånger again, so we booked the Sunday evening Ferry. This turned out to be a very good thing.

Friday evening I was on retainer duty, so I served high tabel, and took my duties seriously enough that I even rinsed their bowls after the soup in the first course.  During the feast there was more singing (mostly in Swedish, with some English), and there was a short session of dancing, so the event included at least a little of everything I love most about the SCA (my top four, in alphabetical order: company, crafts, dance, song, closely followed by "everything else!").

Towards the end of the feast my energy suddenly vanished, so as soon as I had served the final course of food I returned to the cabin and got ready for bed (note that 4 others in the cabin, all of whom had participated in the tournament, were doing the same). My nose started running as I returned to the cabin, and I wondered if it was the temperature difference between the hall and outside, or if I was getting sick? So I took a hot shower and put tiger balm on my nose, which cleared things up beautifully, and went to sleep.

Sunday morning as I packed and loaded the car my nose was again runny every time I went outside. Temperature difference? Getting sick? I tried to keep a bit of a distance from others, and for those that got hugs, I kept my head turned well away, just in case. Keldor was still feeling healthy, having recovered from last week's cold, but he mentioned that during the tournament he noticed that most of the sound in his right ear had gone away, which was a bit annoying.

By the time we started driving I was feeling really tired, so I was glad we only had the four hour drive to the ferry terminal, rather than needing to do 13 hours driving time all way way home. Around 14:30 I suddenly felt like I wanted ice cream.  Normally I eat only homemade ice cream, but on some road trips I will make an exception, as one can't really make ice cream whilst driving. Besides, sharing photos of road trip ice cream is a Drachenwald thing. So we pulled into the next supermarket we passed and had a look. They had the standard large plastic boxes of super sweet commercial ice cream (no thanks), and some tubs of Ben and Jerry's (I know many people love that, but I don't like chocolate, and all of their flavours included chocolate), and a few flavours of a locally produced ice cream from Närpes Glassfabrik (this is a Swedish speaking part of Finland, so while the company also has a Finnish name, the packaging was mostly in Swedish). The store we were in was small, but they had four flavours of Närpes ice cream to choose from:  Banana toffee (nope, Keldor doesn't care for banana flavoured things, even though he eats banana), raspberry licorice (nope, I don't like licorice), white chocolate with strawberry sauce (nope, I don't like chocolate), and old fashioned bourbon vanilla (we have a winner!)

On our way out of the store I bought a packet of roasted almond pieces, and we happily ate ice cream with almond sprinkels till the container was empty and I had completely licked the box clean. That was amazing. If you are ever in southern Finland, try Närpe's ice cream--they make it by hand in small batches, and it is yummy!

We arrived at the Ferry terminal around  17:00, and I lay down on the bed in the back of the van and slept while Keldor started writing his event "berättelse".  I woke up when it was time to board the ferry, and we found the "comfort lounge" that we had paid for. comfort. Humph. Not so much. The chairs there recline a little, but so not enough!  I am a side or belly sleeper, I can't/won't sleep on my back, nor sitting up.  Also, the pairs of seats have armrests between them so one can't even cuddle up and snooze on one's partner.  Luckily, the floor is carpeted, so I did my yoga, and then lay down on the floor at his feet and hugged his foot  as I slept (he is happy to sleep in the chairs provided, mutant that he is).

We reached Umeå at 23:00, and he had the energy to drive us all the way to his dad's house, where I took a hot shower, and was in bed by 01:30.  Since he was still having problems hearing in his right ear he decided that rather than trying to work on Monday he would plan to sleep in till it was late enough to call our local health center and book an appointment to get it checked out. I was totally ok with sleeping in, especially as I was by then pretty certain that I was fighting off a cold (I have no idea if it was the same one he'd had the week before, which, according to the test he took then, wasn't covid, or something else).

Once he'd done his call we drove the cats home, and I went straight back to bed for a nap, not getting up and having breakfast till after 13:00! I took it easy for the rest of Monday, and by Tuesday morning I was feeling better, and resumed working on my thesis. So whatever I had, it didn't bother me long, and the only symptoms were being tired (which part could have been nothing more than doing a roadtrip, event, and tournament) and a a couple of hours with a slightly runny nose and a little bit of something that was almost, but not quite, a sore throat.  Hopefully no one else got it.

His call to the health center got him an appointment for Thursday, during which the doc saw nothing wrong with his ear, and hypothesized that the cold he'd had caused some fluid to get backed up in the wrong area near his ear, partially blocking sound. So he's been prescribed some nose spray to use once a day for the next several, and if that doesn't clear it up make a new appointment.

My apprentice Bjarni followed us home after Frostheim Medieval days, and stayed here nearly a week, during which time we used an old sheet that came with the house to devise a pattern for Viking trousers for them which are only a little poofy, and fitted over the calf and use pretty much all of the 1.5 meters of really nice wool twill they bought at the event. Then we drew it out on the good fabric, marking every piece by pinning a label to it showing which direction is "up" on the trousers, and which is the outside of the fabric, and what piece it is. After triple checking the layout and measurements we cut the fabric and went looking for something to sew them with.

I prefer to use a decorative and heavy thread for osenstitch for seam finishing because the stitch is nice and elastic, and the seam becomes very durable. However, we have still never really sorted in the various yarns we got from Keldor's mom's stash, and we weren't finding anything of an appropriate weight in enough quantity for the project that I was willing to part with. Just as we were ready to give up and decide that we would have to go shopping the next day (which would mean riding in with Keldor to work at 05:30, and then waiting at his dad's till the stores open, then waiting for him to get off of work in the evening, since we still haven't had time to fix the brakes on his car) we found a ball of royal blue cotton yarn I had found at a second hand store (for 10 kr), with someone's crochet project still attached at one end. I had bought that intending it for seam finishing some of my own trousers, but given that we had only the one week to get this project (their first hand-sewing project) to a point where they can finish it on their own, I donated it to the cause, and we started sewing.

Back stitch for the first pass of the seams, and then fold the fabric edge under to make an external flat-felled seam using osenstitch. I prefer to work without pins, constantly adjusting the position of the fabric, and, for the finishing, rolling in the edge as I go, so that I never have pins stabbing me as I work. However, that is a lot of details to keep track of at once, so I pinned each seam Bjarni would work on (using safety pins for the first pass of each seam, positioned just past where the seam would go, so that they wouldn't even have to be removed as they stitched, but straight pins for holding the rolled edge in place for the second pass of each seam) and used chalk to draw a "sew here" line. Then we worked side by side, me on one leg, they on the other, starting with frequent "is this stich right?" questions that gradually decreased in frequency over the course of the week (sometimes the question got a "yes", and sometimes it got a suggestion for which direction the needle should move to give a better result).

By the time Saturday morning rolled around all of the pieces, save the waistband, had been attached to one another, and many of the seams had been finished. So I spent my fortnightly Zoom call with my sisters sewing on my own, to get the seam finishing past the seam junctions in the crotch of the trousers, and then worked on my own during the 1.5 hour drive to the Umeå ferry terminal to attach the waistband to the trousers.

We arrived before the ferry, so I kept sewing, and Bjarni, who was feeling the nerves that can come with an impending journey involving multiple public transit connections, opted to let me, but not sew themselves, which meant that I was able to get the waist seam finished, and, by the time it was time for them to board, there was only one leg seam left that they will need to finish on their own.

The apprentice safely on their way, we asked the GPS how to get to the store that sells fish for aquariums, and it soon had us turn off the main connecting road between the highway and the harbour area. A minute or two later we saw a sign that says "Skeppssättning". Neither of us knew that there were any ancient burials outlined with standing stones in the shape of a boat this far north, so, of course, we turned, and were soon admiring what the sing assured us is the furthest north example of such stone ship graves, which was located next to a couple of Bronze Age burial mounds. photos over on FB

Just a short way from there we found Smultronställen, a "handelsträdgård", so we stopped, looked around at the many trees and plants for sale, admired their cute little arch bridge, and sat for a bit in their garden as he enjoyed a coffee and cake and I tried their homemade mango ice cream before we bought a pear tree and two åkerbär (Arctic raspberry) plants. The pear tree we chose is a Vekovaja (Pyrus communis), which is described as:

Höstpåron zon 6

En rysk höstsort som ger stora (ca 170 g), saftiga frukter med rodnad på solsidan. Gott och friskt päron med sötsyrlig smak. Helt sjalv fertil.

Then we continued on our way and bought him some fish (20 of the cute little blue and red ones that like to stick together, plus 10 larger ones, (4 and 6), some of which are silvery and have graceful arching not-wisker things, and the others prefer to swim near the bottom (no, of course I didn't learn any of their names), before continuing over to Drake's to give him some scrap sheet metal for making helmets for their new fighters. We lucked out on timing on that delivery, as he'd baked some bread rolls, so he gave us a handful, still warm, which we happily ate while diving, two before we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some things that aren't available in the small store in our town, and the last as we left the city.

During the drive we passed a lot of cars from the 1950's, there having been a classic car event in Umeå this weekend, and at some point in the conversation the word Maserati was mentioned, at which point I a few words from the song ("My Maserati does 185, I lost my licence, now I don't drive..."), but he didn't recognize it, so, of course, I had to pair my phone to the car stereo, find the song on Youtube, and play it for him. He liked it, and countered with another good classic rock driving tune, so we spent the rest of the trip home listening to good music (and trying not to drive too fast), and pulled up to the house just as the last one (Still Rock and Roll to Me) ended.

The drive having been a fun date, we arrived home with good energy, so he cleaned the fish tank, installed the new pump we'd also bought, and replaced the behind the tank backdrop to one in a happier shade of blue before moving the fish in, while I changed the cat litter, washing the litter box and scrubbed the toilet, and vacuumed up the litter that didn't manage to stay in the box.

Then we planted the tree and the åkerbär and I moved enough things in the garage to be able to get the hose out of the closet in the garage and install it outside for the summer so we could water them.

By this time the artichoke (which I started cooking before all the other chores), had pretty much steamed enough to eat, so I melted some butter and added rosemary, garlic, lemon, and pepper to go with it for me, and he fried up a couple of spicy sausage to eat with the leftover soup from the other day for him.

Thus fed he took a nap on the couch, and I started some laundry, did a bit more filling in the low spots on the wall where the basement shower will be, and then did a bit more much-needed cleaning and organizing in the garage. I even finally went through the big bucket of broken tiles from the wall in the laundry room, and sorted it into organized piles by shape. I then boxed them up and put them in the closet, where we had previously packed the tiles that hadn't broken when we removed them.

Now that I have a rough idea how much of the white we have I can go look at the stacks of coloured tiles in the attic, and get an idea of if we have enough to do some sort of mosaic for the new shower enclosure, or if we are going to have to buy or scrounge more.

Here is an English translation of Keldor's trip report on our adventures to, from, and at Drachenwald's Crown Tourney ( cut for lots of photos )
We drove 2,500 km south to have the pleasure of serving a high table. Was it worth it? The answer is: yes! So, if you have the opportunity to make a similar trip, do it. If not, I hope this little insight into such a journey may be of some enjoyment.

By the pen of the humblest of all, your storyteller, Keldor, translated with the help of Kareina

It does that when one is busy. What have I done. No, there is too much, I will try to sum up. Wish me luck that I don't get distracted typing lots of details that feel worth sharing...

Coronation! Ok, I got distracted with details for this one, so instead I posted my event summary on the Frostheim page, so you just go there to read it, and see the photos.

A week at home, and a week in Luleå. After spending the weekend feeding 150 people in a small, understaffed kitchen, Keldor was exhausted, so he called in sick on Monday. And Tuesday. And Wednesday. On Thursday he had his monthly massage scheduled (one of the nicer perks of the company he works for), so he returned to work. That left me a couple of days, plus the weekend to finish all of the Coronation unpacking and washing, and to pack for the next SCA event and have it all ready to go. Then I dropped him and the cats at his dad's house (very near to his job) on Monday morning and I headed north. On the way I stopped in Hortlax to pick up a free dryer that someone was giving away (ours had quit heating last week, and while we probably could have fixed it, since it would only be a matter of replacing the heater, we haven't much time, so just getting another, especially at the price of free, made sense), and then in Antnas to give Baron Egil his Pelican vigil book, which had been left on site for more people to sign after the group he was traveling with had to leave site earlier than planned due to a sick child.

I spent the week working at the Archives, where I made good progress--I am now over 750 Volumes of papers from the Luleå älvs flottningsföreningen that I have entered into the database and packaged up in archive boxes, only a two or three meters worth of shelf space left and that project will be complete. I have one more week of work in February, and then I need to decide if I want to extend the contract, if they are still interested in doing so (they were as of the end of the year, but it wasn't discussed this visit). I love the job, but the commute is a bit long. But I only have to do the drive once for a week's work, and I get to see friends there. Heck, bonus this time, I went to the Phire jester group training one evening, and met a new person who does acroyoga! She taught me some things I didn't already know, and I shared some of my favourites with her. So. Much. Fun!

Herstory road trip I managed to get my forty hours of work done by Thursday afternoon, after which I stopped by Master SvartulvR's house to drop off his scroll he'd received on Saturday, but which got left behind when his group had to leave site early due to a sick child, and then I headed home, picking up Keldor and the cats on the way.

We had enough time to unload the car, unpack everything I had brought to Luleå for the week, and do the last minute packing stuff (food, toiletries, pillows) for the next road trip, and even take a short nap before the others arrived to pick us up. Five of us from Reengarda, in one car. We drove all night (well 8 hours of it, anyway) on Thursday night/Friday morning (the driver for that shift normally works nights; the rest of us slept as she drove) to Gävle, where the aunt of one of us lives, and we all curled up on proper beds to sleep away the morning, arising around 11:00 for a leisurely breakfast before setting out for the final three hours drive, which we extended by a stop in a second hand store to have a look (I bought 6 meters of fine very dark blue with widely spaced white stripes wool twill for only 400 SEK, Keldor bought a backgammon game board for only 100 SEK, and I think most of the others found small treasures, too).

The event itself was lots of fun, but as Keldor wrote it up, and google translate exists, I will just link to his summary (a few things didn't translate that well, but it is mostly good enough. However, you should know that "möhippa" is a "bachelorette party", not a "bachelor party").

Then we did the long drive home, in one go, not counting a stop to look at a runestone on the way (see his event writeup for a photo), and many stops for toilet, and even one to fuel the car.

A week of trying to be a student again Now that the major events for the month were past, it was time to focus on trying to finish up the X-ray diffraction data processing for my research for my Masters in Archaeology, so I can get that data into the paper in progress. That is finally going well, and the end is in sight. I also managed to get everything unpacked after the event, and tidy up the house a little, and do some Swedish studying, since I signed up for the Swedish For Immigrants course again--this time to focus on trying to learn how to properly pronounce Swedish, since I haven't managed to do that in 12 years of living here.

On Line Kingdom University Given the success of the pandemic era online University events, we have decided to do one online, and one in person University every year, so to increase the chances for participation. There were many of us who attended this weekend, and lots of interesting classes. I spent Friday evening hanging out in the University Zoom, both attending classes, and just visiting with folks, while working on a computer-based art project, and attended a couple of classes on Saturday, Saturday night's bardic, and a class on Sunday. During the hours we weren't at the event we made progress on home renovations (a serious upside to online events!). Now we have removed all of the loose plaster (or whatever one calls the layer between the concrete wall and the old tiles) in the area where the downstairs shower will be, swept up the dust after it settled (a full bucket worth), and have painted the concrete with the primer that needs to go on before we build the wall back up again ready for the tile.

Last weekend we went down to Sundsvall for the V.Ä.V. SCA event (the letters stand for the swedish phrase for "violence is beautiful"), and it is a fighting event. There were many people there that I adore, and I was really looking forward to seeing folk. However, when we got there Friday night I was feeling tired and not so interested in human interaction as I would normally be. I wondered if I was feeling a little off from having been vaccinated Thursday, even though I had had no other symptoms, but wasn't certain. When we were arrived (a little after 22:00) they were in the middle of the "Ask the Knights" session, so Keldor and I sat down at a table and he listened and participated in the conversation, and I worked on my sewing and half listened. These days, when at full energy I should have been able to follow the Swedish conversation with no problem, but my ear was bothering me a little, and I had trouble focusing on the conversation, so I heard/understood only a litte, and was happy sewing. After a little while I realised that I had most of a very long bench to myself, and that the bench had a padded top and was broad enough. The room is very small, and full of people, so I decided to do my yoga right there on the bench, and it felt great. After a very nice yoga session I then lay down on the bench, put my head on Keldor's knee, and took a nap while the Ask the Knights conversation continued. I woke when the formal conversation ended and Keldor and I went down to the sauna for a bit before heading to bed just after 01:00.

Saturday the plan for the event was fencing and archery in the morning, and heavy fighting after lunch. When Keldor was ready to get up at 08:30 I was feeling like I could sleep more, but we'd driven 344 km to get there, and there were friends I hadn't seen in ages, so I got up and joined them for breakfast. However, by 11:00 I was so sleepy I went back to the van to sleep (we had planned to sleep in the hall, on our own indoor SCA event bed of thermarest camping mats and sheepskins, but the poor autocrat discovered when they arrived on site that instead of the hall having the 19 bunk beds they'd been promised, all the upper bunks were missing, so they put out a frantic call for help, and all of the locals who had cots brought them, so that everyone who had asked for a bed got something much like a bed, but cots on the floor take more space than bunk beds, so by the time we arrived on site there wasn't a place where one could put a double wide bed/nest on the floor. Since we have the 90 cm wide bed that lives in the back of the van it made sense to just sleep there. Which, since we parked right by the door both nights (moving the car away during the day time hours), meant that I had a shorter walk to the ground floor toilets than I normally do on that site, since the sleeping rooms are on the third floor).

I slept nearly an hour, woke briefly when Keldor came to armour up, decided that, no, I wasn't going to armour up after all, and slept another 30 minutes. Then I got up, had some lunch, looked out the window, and saw the fighters gathering for the footwork class with Sir Krake. That sounded fun, and like something I could do without armour, so I joined them, enjoyed it, and had a few things click for me that hadn't in other foot work classes (wherein they used different words to try to communicate the same thing. "lean forward till your start to fall and your food will automatically go forward" describes the same thing as "shift forward, leading with your hip until your foot automatically follows", but the latter makes sense for me, and just works, while the former felt terrible).

As the footwork class wound up the hint of rain we'd been having turned into something one can actually describe as rain, so I went into the hall, where there were lots of people sitting around the tables talking and working on projects in small groups. I managed to find a place to sit and sew, but wasn't really in any of the circles and felt myself very outside of it all, happily sewing, but not feeling any connection with anyone. And my ear was bothering me. My ears often itch (it is a downside of hearing aids), and while I know better, sometimes I scratch, and when that happens sometimes my nails do a little damage to the skin. My right ear had clearly been scratched open at some point, and it wasn't feeling nice to have the hearing aid in there (but neither did I want to go without in a place where someone might talk to me, never mind that I wasn't interacting much with folk).

I went out to the car a bit before the fighters finished up, and just lay on the bed a bit looking at my phone, feeling vaguely like I was wasting an opportunity to spend time with friends, but not having the energy to do anything about it. Then Keldor joined me, and comforted me a bit for feeling out of the event, and I comforted him a bit for having taken a blow that probably cracked one of his lower ribs. As we were talking Count Æriker came over to point out that I was the second highest ranked person site, after him, so when it came time for toasts during the banquet it would be him for Drachenwald, me for the King and Queen, then the three Viscounts could take Nordmark, the Prince & Princess, and Gyllengran (the local shire).

This reminded me that, yes, even though I wasn't going to be hungry that late in the evening, I should still attend the banquet, so I did, and had a pleasant time half listening to the conversations around me, working on NÃ¥lbingning, doing the toasts in the proper time, but I never really felt connected, and my ear was bothering me. Not bad, like a full-on ear infection (those really hurt), but definite discomfort bordering on light pain.

After folk had eaten some of them moved outside (the tiny hall gets really, really loud with so many people talking at once, which made standing out in the crisp autumn air by the fire really appealing to about half the folk). I suspect that had I been my normal gregarious self I would have joined them, but it was easier to just sit in my corner till the crowd cleared enough to do my yoga, and I went out to the car and went to sleep before 23:00. (Keldor stayed up happily talking to folk till 02:00, and normally I would have, too.)

Because I went to bed so early I half expected to wake early, and contemplated just driving home very early in the morning, and letting him sleep while I drove. But no, I slept in as late as he did, neither of us waking till 09:00. Since we'd slept in the car it was only grab the box of feast gear from the hall and check to see if we'd forgotten anything and get on the road.

Having gotten a total of 10 hours of sleep per day I was awake enough to enjoy the trip home. We stopped at an antique & second hand store, where I bought a nice wall mount cabinet for holding spools of thread and stuff, which came with spools of thread and stuff, and he bought a wide leather weight lifting belt that he thinks we can modify to be a better belt to hang my leg armour from. We also stopped at Skulleberget and went for a short walk up the hill--not all the way to the cave, but probably about half way there felt like plenty for both of us.

Monday morning first thing I called the local health center, and got an appointment for 13:00. When I got there and the nurse looked into the ear that was bothering me they became very worried, and said that it looks like I have a hole in my eardrum. I explained that I had one when I was little, but had surgery to fix it when I was 10 years old, and had it come back? The nurse decided that he wasn't qualified for this visit, and fetched a doctor. The doctor looked, said that she couldn't see a hole in the eardrum, but that it was covered with scar tissue (yes, I know--that surgery when I was ten, and lots of infections and tubes in my ears when I was little). She said that even if there is a hole, and she doesn't think there is one, the antibiotic ear drops she prescribed will still help the minor infection in the ear canal. I thanked her, and happily went to fetch my ear drops.

The drops contain an anti-itch component, so I felt better pretty much right away after using them (though it took a day before the swelling went down so that I could put the left hearing aid in without discomfort). This week has been busy, with at least a couple hours of research each day, putting stuff away from the event, prepping for this weekends event, Monday night fighter training and armour repair. Tuesday cleaning, waxing/polishing the van (which took all evening--it is slippery now! I had never touched a car that has been waxed before--it is going to be so easy to brush the snow off of it now). Wednesday Keldor came home from work so tired that he just slept on the couch while I worked on replacing the zipper on the soft ice chest we use for road trips.

Yesterday morning I noticed that the house across the street, that had been slightly damaged in a fire before we moved here, and which the owner has been fixing up with intent to sell, finally has a For Sale sign on it. So while we did our normal 30 minute phone call as he drives to work, I got on line and checked it out. They are asking nearly three times what I paid for this house! It will be interesting to see what it sells for. While I had hemnet open I looked at the other properties in this town, and then at things in the countryside. Oh, look, a cute farm house with a forest only 8 minutes from here, with a viewing that evening. Way out of my price range, even if we were done fixing this place up and could sell for top dollar, but, why not go look?

So I did (he didn't get home from work on time to join me). House is cute, nice location. The forest is actually three distinct properties--a good sized parcell the house is on, and two, much larger, forest plots further away. The realtor mentioned that the owner wants to keep living in the house one more year before transfering the property, and I wonder if it is worth asking if perhaps they might be willing to sell me the house and few hectares adjacent to it for whatever we can sell my house for, and let someone else buy the actual forest?

Keldor got home around the same time I did, and we managed, after some difficulty*, to load the large, pretty, china cabinet that came with the house into the van. This would have been much easier if the top decorative edge hadn't been both glued and screwed into place, since it was only that bit that made it impossible to slide the upper cabinet through the door and onto the bed. Instead we needed to unscrew the bed from the floor and take it out, so that we could tilt the upper cabinet at enough of an angle to slide it diagonally through the door, and then lift it up and over the lumps of the wheel wells, at which point we propped it up at a slight angle on our beanbag chairs so that it would sit far enough in the van to make room for the base as well. Luckily, the base is narrow enough that we could also fit in the chests and bedding bags for this weekend's SCA event. With all the soft stuff packed around the cabinet it shouldn't be moving at all on the drive.

This weekend is Höstdansen, one of my favourite SCA events, since it is all dance, most of the time. Also some of my dearest friends will be there, including Hjälmar, who moved to southern Sweden at the beginning of the pandemic, and then to the Uppsala area this spring. He will be renting a trailer and taking the cabinet south with him, and I wish him much joy in it. It is pretty (by far the prettiest of the three china cabinets that came with this house), but it is also the largest and least useful as an improvised pantry (which is what we are doing with the other two), so I am looking forward to the extra space with it gone.

*loading the cabinet in the van would have been easier if not for the road construction on our road--they are digging the road down more than a meter deep, then putting a thick layer of stone base before they put the road itself over all--so far they have gotten as far as the thick stone base just as far as our house itself, but not as far as the driveway. The stone base is still a good 20 or 20 cm lower than our lawn, so it isn't possible to drive right to the door, so we had to carry the cabinet bits across the lawn, and then carefully down over the edge to the road level, and then try to put it in. It would also have helped if Keldor hadn't broken that lower rib at the event, and then further damaged it at work yesterday. The only good bit in that injury is that this morning he was moving so stiffly he took the day off, and, since the car is already loaded, he can take it easy. Well, for him. He is busy in the cellar now, carving on a decorated horn copy of a Viking artifact. The plan was for him to do that while I did a bit of work on my paper in progress, so I had better close this here and get to work.

 I am so behind on posting, things that would be worth their won writeup, had I the time...

• Norrskensfesten 
• Road trip to Scarpetta di Novembre 
• House hunting
• Packing to move
• Job hunting
• Relationship joys

Suffice it to say: life is wonderful,  busy, hectic, relaxing, joyful, stressful, and winter has finally (happily) arrived. (Having just been in southern Sweden I can report that winter's edge is spread out over the greater Sundsvall area just now.)

On the way home from Nordmark Coronet a couple of weeks back we stopped and climbed Skuleberget, and, at the peak, we did acroyoga (as you do), and our friend Geri took photos (as they do).

I couldn't resist this one for my new FB coverphoto, since I look so nice and strong holding Keldor up like that.




But this one was really tempting, too:





And Kheldor chose this one for his new cover photo: