kareina

I am home, everything has been put away. We brought Kjartan's keyboard to the performance, so that the conductor could play our starting notes, and I brought it home afterwards, since I am working from home today. We had only 8 of us for the choir performance (plus Lucia, of course, but she doesn't sing, just stands there looking pious). Two singing bass, two tenor, three soprano, an me for the lone alto. Luckily, it was clear pretty early on that we were short on altos, so he gave us a bunch of arrangements were the altos and tenors sing together, and for a couple of songs he had one of the tenors actually singing the alto part. (Johan can also sing bass, he's got an amazing range).

I told a new friend in the States about the performance, and the fact that even though this is a protestant country, they are really big on celebrating St. Lucia, and he thought it interesting, and wondered where the tradition came from. I didn't know so much about it, so I took the time to look it up, and found a web page that summaries the story. It is in Swedish, of course, so I will give a short summary, and let you also look at the link, if you are inclined.

St. Lucia is from Syracuse, in Sicily, who was an early Christian martyr (died 304 AD), and is thought to provide protection to the blind and those who are otherwise damaged in sight.

13 December was originally the shortest night of the year, so has always been a special holiday in the north, where the nights are short. Even though the calendar reform of 1753 caused the solstice to move to 21/22 December, the tradition of 13 Dec held on here, and was celebrated with extra festivities, because the night was thought to be especially dangerous, with supernatural creatures wandering the earth, and animals granted the power of speech for the night.

The earliest surviving Swedish record of something on that date specifically focusing on St. Lucia on 13 December was written at the home of a nobleman in 1764 in the region of Västergötland, where a candle-bedecked Lucia carried a tray of coffee to the the master of the house (and family). This quickly became a tradition, first in all of the other noble houses, and then across the country.

By the end of the 1800's they started doing a major Lucia thing at the open-air museum, Skansen, in Stockholm (which park built as a tribute to Swedish Nationalism), but it took till 1927 before that form of the tradition became popular among the common people everywhere--that was the year that they had a contest in Stockholm to choose the lucky girl to be Lucia, and she was followed by a train of other people in costumes ranging from "bridesmaids" (wearing the same white dress as Lucia, but no crown), star-boys (holding, or wearing stars), wise men, gingerbread men, and Santa (or other holiday gnomes). That one in 1927 got such a huge write-up in the newspaper that it took very little time before the other cities had to have their own contest to choose Lucia, and their own train of followers, and now pretty much every town, ever school, and many large companies have their own Luciatåg.

The tradition is now so firmly rooted that it is very important for many people, and has become a symbol for Sweden itself, and the tradition is slowly spreading to other countries as Swedes move away, and decide to celebrate anyway, and get their new friends to participate. The main Lucia song (the one we sing as she actually processes in and out at the end of the performance), was originally an Italian tune, which got Swedish words in the 1920's. There are three different Swedish versions of the lyrics.

Our choir sings the 1924 version "Sankta Lucia, ljusklara hägring" written by Sigrid Elmblad. Therefore I haven't heard the other two "Natten går tunga fjät", written by Arvid Rosén, 1928, and "Ute är mörkt och kallt" written by Halldis Ljungqvist, 1958.

(The link to the song includes a pretty good English translation for the text.)

My dear friend Khevron, and his wife Lareena, are busy travelling around Europe just now. They started in Ireland, where they have family, and have worked their way north and west (with a little back and forth in southern Scandinavia as there is just the one train track to Bergen and they chose not to take the boat from there) to Luleå. They were on the night train Thursday evening, which meant arriving in Luelå at noon. So I worked in the morning and finished up in the lab (where we changed out the tubing connecting the laser to the ICP-MS for the first time since getting the machine) just on time to head to town. I have been putting off going to town to ask the optometrist’s office to tighten up my glasses, which had gotten loose where one side attaches to the nose. Therefore after they arrived we put their bags in the car and walked over. Khevron was looking for some clip-on sun glasses, since he left his prescription sunglasses at home. He also asked them if they could adjust his glasses, one arm of which was pointing out in a weird direction after having been stepped on. My optometrist’s office didn’t have clip ons, and didn’t dare try to fix his for fear of breaking the arm right off, but they fixed mine and suggested that he try the one next door.

The shop next door was out of the clip ons, and suggested we try the one two doors down. Both of the first two shops really busy, and we had to wait before it was our turn. The third shop, on the other hand, had no one but the lady on duty, who chatted happily with us about a variety of topics while showing us several different choices on clip ons—some that just clip on, others that both clip on, and then can be raised up out of the way when one goes inside. Some were as is, and others were big and meant to be cut down to better match the size/shape of the underlying glasses, and there were several colours to choose from. Khevron is normally the sort of shopper who prefers to look at all of the options (in many stores if possible), think about it, and then go back and get the one he likes best, and he suggested going away and thinking about it. Laurena and I pointed out that it is a bright sunny day, and that we aren’t going back into town, and that he could just buy them now. While we were chatting the lady insisted that Khevron give her his classes so that she could adjust the arm back where it was meant to be, and after it was fixed he finally agreed to pick a pair of clip ons, and she cut them down to the right size for his classes, and we went on our way. The errands took way longer than I anticipated, but it was fun hanging out and chatting, so I didn’t mind.

Then it was home, eat lunch with David (who had the day off of work, and so had finally made the time to go buy the lists to frame the opening to the office that we made bigger a year or three ago, it looks much better—now it is only replacing the wallpaper, adding a cover over the seam between the hall floor and office floor, and putting up the new chin-up bar and that remodelling project will be complete) and Caroline (somewhat late according to my tummy), get them settled, and then I baked a big loaf of bread with roasted garlic and made a black currant pie for the choir party.

I got the kitchen cleaned back up from that on time to head to the Uni to pick up people for the party. We had about 25 or 30 people who showed up, many of whom took bicycles to the house, so that we needed only Johan’s car (seats four passengers), and mine (seats six, but one of my seats was empty) to get the rest here. We started with making tacos for everyone, and while they were eating I mixed up some yummy ice cream and put it in the ice cream maker to chill while they finished eating dinner.

After they ate the ice cream (except for the serving I set in the freezer to eat today, since I wasn’t hungry at that hour; slight pause in typing while I go get that serving to eat now, having just thought of it) we played a name-memory game: the first person introduces them self and also sys the name of an animal that starts with the same letter. Then the second person repeats the first one’s name and animal, and gives their own name and animal. Each subsequent person repeats the names and animals of all of the preceding (in order) before adding their own. Our choir has many exchange students this year, from countries as diverse as Korea, Poland, France and Germany, so most names were ones that at least some of us had never heard before, adding even more challenge to the game, and most of us were able to remember the animal, but not the name, for some of the people, which meant we had to keep asking. Much to my surprise, some people remembered the names but not the animals. Our list included (and I am forgetting more than half of them, but I could remember more last night):

Dragon
Leprechaun
Panda
Tiger
Jaguar
Ant
Fox
Raccoon
Guppy
Albatross
Antelope
Komodo Dragon
Lemur

Then we spent a nice long time singing along with karaoke videos on youtube, taking care to include songs in every language spoken by someone in the group. While we were singing a couple of wonderful people (at least Gustaf (guppy) and Tanja (Tiger), as I saw those two working as I returned to the living room from the loo) put leftover food in the fridge and washed the things that didn’t fit in the dishwasher. Then we switched to a game—divide into three teams and the first to start singing a song that start with (or the verse or the chorus starts with) a specified letter gets a point. After a bit we ran out of letters and switched to “includes a specific word”, and Gustaf opened a book from the shelf and chose words at random for us to use.

As midnight neared the driver of the other car announced that he was going to he heading home and anyone who wanted a ride with him should come now, and everyone else stood up too, and we all left at once. Since we only had five in my car who needed a ride Khevron came along for company on the return trip (not that it was very long—Porsön is only 4 minutes from here). Then I took time to tidy up a bit more and play dulcimer before yoga and finally going to sleep a bit after 01:00. We have not made any specific plans for the weekend. Khevron and Lareena are here for a full week, so they have time to relax and do laundry and check messages, etc. I have lots that needs doing (like progress on the next grant proposal, packing for the SCA event next weekend and the subsequent trip to Durham, preparing my entry for the bardic competition next weekend, doing an English language check on a phd thesis of one of our students, and getting the fitting done on my new self-supporting undertunic (which has been ready for that step for a couple of weeks now, but if I want it next weekend I had best get to it). But it would also be nice to join K & L on adventures…

Two of the people asked for the pie recipe, so I will share it here too.

Svartvinbärspaj

Crust:

150 g butter
1.5 dl sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used homemade: split open vanilla beans, put into a bottle with brännvin and leave it till needed. Add more brännvin as needed till it quits tasting of vanilla)
1 egg
4.5 dl flour
3 tsp baking powder

Cream together the butter and sugar, beat in the egg and vanilla, add the flour and baking powder and press into a large pie-plate (if the dough is sticky add flour to your hands as needed when pressing it).

Filling:

4 dl Turkish yoghurt
1 dl sugar
1 T vanilla extract
2 eggs
6 dl frozen black currents, lightly chopped (while still frozen) in a food processor

Stir together the yoghurt, sugar, vanilla, and eggs, blend in the berries, pour into the crust and bake at 200 C (or 150 with forced air) for 20 to 30 minutes or until the filling is mostly set.

I just checked, and while I have posted may of the ice cream recipes I have done in the seven years since we bought the ice cream maker, I never posted this one:

Vanilla Ice Cream #3.2
(first made 27 June 2015)

300 ml cream
300 ml milk
4 egg yolks
0.5 dl sugar
2 T home made vanilla extract

Whip the cream. Blend the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract, add the milk, stir in the cream, put into the ice cream maker till done.

Monday I was in the office from 08:15 to 14:15, and at the ore geology seminar from 15:00 to 17:00, did the Phire bbq in the evening, then stayed up till just after midnight.

Tuesday I was in the office from 07:55 to 16:25 and then went to Phire practice followed by choir, then went home and did uni work for a couple of hours, getting to bed about 01:30. Phire was extra fun—the first “open training” of the new term, and we had some new students, one of whom is a gymnast, so she was pretty quick to learn some of the acroyoga stuff. She will have a bit of a learning curve in how to balance on a shaky base, but she has the strength to do the poses. Choir was also fun because there were 20 of us. How nice to have a decent number of people again. Hope it lasts.

Wednesday I was in the office from 08:00 to 16:40, then went to the Phire parkour and aerial silks training (one of the new students has done areial silks before, so we were comparing notes—we are both beginners, but know different stuff), followed by Herrksapsdans class (always fun!), and then flaffled around on line, getting to bed a bit before 01:00

This morning (Thursday), I didn’t make it to the office till 08:30, and by 11:00 I was feeling like I was coming down with a bit of a cold, so I went home and slept for four hours, getting up on time to eat a little something before heading in to the Frostheim meeting on campus (the original plan had been to just stay at work being productive till the meeting). At the meeting I started cutting out another linen underlayer like the one I did for my jester costume, only longer this time. The other one is really comfortable in that it is nicely supportive (being laced up rather tightly across the chest), and since I adapted the Eura dress pattern it moves well—I can stand on my hands without the fabric at the waist moving at all. This new one will be even better as it is a much nicer linen (the jester group ordered some pretty cheap/coarse linen for our jester costumes) that I found for sale at the folk costume table at Spelmansstamman the summer before last. It will also be almost knee length (the other one goes just to my bottom, for easier acroyoga), and so will be a better under layer for my tunics. I also plan to fit it all the way to my waist. The short one is fitted to half way down the ribs, and then the hip gores start already. I think it will be even more comfortable to fit it to the bottom of my ribs, and then start the side gores. No idea when I will have time to sew it though. I would love to have it ready to wear already next weekend at the Gyllengran event, but I don’t know that I can spare the sewing time. Indeed, it is a shame didn’t work today though, I have a grant proposal that needs progress and some data reduction to do.

However, the long nap must have helped, as I don’t feel any worse than I did this afternoon, so, with luck, I will be spared being really sick.

The last couple of days, when my friends in Alaska were complaining of -50 it has bee 5 degrees above freezing during the days. It has dropped below 0 Cat nights, so the melting isn't as bad as it could be, but still I wish we could just have a proper winter with snow that stays snow and doesn't melt and re-freeze into a lower harder crust. So far the record number of days in a row of temperatures below freezing this year is six days (in December the record was 11 days). This morning it is a lovely -7 C, but my phone says that it will be above 0 again in a couple of days. This makes several years in a row wherein winter has been replaced by winter-spring melting-winter-spring melting-etc.

But even if the weather isn't living up to my ideal, the rest of life is going well. Work is fun, Frostheim is fun (we had only three of us for this week's social night, but it was a delightful time chatting with them and making progress on the new pair of Thorsbjorg trousers I started at the workshop last weekend), choir is fun, Phire practice is fun, my love life is wonderful, and I am looking forward to dance starting back up on the weekend (it actually started last Sunday, but D & C were too tired after the costume workshop and I didn't want to stop sewing, so we didn't go.

Yesterday was the first nyckleharpa night of the autumn, and, as always, it was ever so much fun. Seven people playing nyckleharpa, while I worked on my sewing project. I so love living in Sweden!

Today was my first day back in the office after my week of at-home vacation, and I can't claim to have accomplished much, other than battling my way through the pile of email that had accumulated. Then I went home and took a nearly 2 hour nap. But this evening was the first choir meeting of the autumn, and it was much fun. Even though we hadn't done much advertizment, we still had ten or so people, and it felt good to sing again. One of the new girls sings really well. At one point we were doing a round, and our conductor put that new girl and one of the boys into a group of their own, and the other two groups had 4 of us each, and I had to struggle to sing with my own group instead of following the group of two, since they were so loud and clear behind me.

This morning started with meeting a friend at the gym to do the "day one" workout my physical trainer has given me--complete with pushups and lots of shoulder exercises. Then, in the early afternoon, I got a message from another friend asking if I would like to meet her at the gym to do some aerial silks training this evening. Of course I would! And no other conflicts, either.

Luckily, lord_kjar had driven in to work this morning (I rode with him), which meant that after I finished work (at 14:00, since I started later than usual due to the workout) I could walk to his office, head home and take a quick nap, eat dinner, and grab the rolling suitcase full of the aerial silks, which I have had at my place for some weeks now, since the girl who used to have it was going to be out of town during our practice session, and hasn't gotten them back yet. Then I drove back, left the car at his office, and got to the gym before 17:00 (as an university employee, I can get into the gym for free, but only during business hours), so that I could get in the door. Once inside, of course, I was permitted to stay as long as I wanted.

Just as with last time I tried this, I had trouble climbing the fabric when first I tried. Eventually I remembered that with my small hands it really does work better to have one length of fabric in each hand, rather than trying to hold them both together, even though I still wrap them both around my feet for the climbing. We spent nearly two hours climbing, trying interesting poses in the air, and, occasionally, practicing hand-stands as a "rest". Now my hands are a bit sore, and I am so looking forward to doing it again on Friday!

Yesterday we couldn't do aerial silks, as that practice room doesn't have a place to hang them from, so we just did some acroyoga poses, which are just as much fun, just as hard to do, but doesn't hurt one's hands and feet in the same way.

Choir yesterday after Phire practice was also much fun. We have a good group this year.

Tuesdays will be my longest day this semester (side note: I have been in Sweden long enough that it feels funny to use that word in this context, since here that spelling means "vacation"). Today's schedule:

06:00 wake up, start situps
06:19 finish situps (and reading LJ/email)
06:34 start my actual morning workout (phone app)
07:04 workout done (today was a shorter/easier day than yesterday)
07:38 start playing dulcimer
07:44 done playing dulcimer
07:58 start walking to work
08:44 arrive at work and start my day
11:20 pause work and head to the gym
11:30 meeting with my personal trainer (who showed me my first workout routine, now I just need to find time to do it--he promises to email me the details tomorrow)
12:37 back to the office, arriving just as a friend dropped by to say hello
12:58 resume work
15:44 pause work to eat some dinner and check personal email, LJ and FB
16:30 begin Phire practice (today: staff work, acrobatics, head stands (with splits) and hand stands against the wall, and juggling)
18:02 pause in Phire practice for a meeting, during which I did yoga
18:18 resume Phire practice (more staff work and juggling,and some hand stands against the wall)
18:40 done Phire practice
19:00 begin choir practice
20:30 done choir practice, hang out and chat with people for another 30 minutes
21:12 shovel snow
21:18 check mail, look up used pianos and keyboards for sale, and email the choir officers the list so that the group can buy one, instead of us needing to bring ours
22:15 get this far in typing this post. Once it is done and posted I may do a bit more yoga before bed, since my legs could use it...

Choir was much fun today--we started two new songs, both of which are done in mixed groups. The first was Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 (which song could have been a factor in my having been a career student--it came out when I was 14 and convinced me that I never wanted a "job"), and the second was Alice Cooper's Poison (while I had heard this one before, I didn't have hearing aids then, so had never actually heard/understood the lyrics before tonight--Oh, My! I didn't realize that it was a love song, nor that it had such... vivid images).

Tomorrow the only thing on the calendar is work, so I should be home early enough to do something useful around the house. Unless I just sleep.

Those of you who actually read my posts may remember that lord_kjar and I participated in the choir performances at the Masque the evening of the Grand Ball at the Known World Dance event in Germany in April. It turns out that someone got video of the Masque performances, which consisted of first a spoken introduction telling the audience something of a legend from Greek Mythology, then the choir singing about that tale, then the dancers enacting the tale via dance. Hopefully the links work for everyone--they work for me, but then I am part of the FB group to which they were posted, so of course I can see them:

Masque - Entrance of Gaita and Singers

Masque Part 1 - Pizochara - The Argonauts and the Lemnosians

Masque Part 2 - Mercantia - Paris, the Golden Apple, and the Three Goddesses

Masque Part 3 - Anello - Achilles and Penthisileas

Masque - Part 4 - Tesara (Penelope weaving and unweaving the tapestry)

The snow we had had in mid October was long gone, the fault of the +8 C temps we were cursed with the latter part of the month. But then early November greeted us with nice temperatures dropping as cold as -10, giving the ground a chance to get a decent freeze. However, with the lack of snow, the world was looking pretty dark and dismal--grass doesn't hold its green after freezing. Therefore I was delighted to see snowfall this weekend--the world is, once again, looking bright and beautiful with its thin white coat. There still isn't much snow, but it makes such a difference. My phone tells me that this weekend's warm temperatures (high of +2) will go away and we should have decent sub-zero temperatures for the rest of the week. With luck the snow will survive till the cold returns.

I think last winter's pathetic showing may have scared me for life--before last winter it never would have occurred to me to worry about snow being able to last--of course snow stays on the ground all winter and it never rains. But now I worry and look at the forecast--will it stay nice and cold, or will we have another winter of not nice rains destroying the good snow cover?

In other news, we had a great band practice on Thursday--we are ready to perform at the SCA event on the weekend. And last night's choir party was fun. Despite having gotten a slow start to the semester, with a shortage of boys for a while, we still managed to have a total of 10 of us here for the party, and it was five of each gender. I baked two loafs of cardamon bread for it--one with plenty of milk and butter in it, and the other, much smaller loaf with no dairy at all since one of the girls is allergic to milk. I also baked some more pears. I had done a small batch of pears for band night, and it was so good they asked me to do it again for the party. I used fairly large pears, one scant tablespoon of brown sugar for every two pears, and lots of butter--first a thick coating of butter to grease the glass baking pan, and then I used a cheese slicer to make thin slices of butter to cover the top of the pears. I also sifted in a hint of gluten free oat flour (one of the band members can't eat gluten) into the pan to help thicken the sauce, and sprinkled on a bit of water to keep it from drying up before the liquid started cooking out of the pears. I baked them at 150 C, and, once they warmed up and started forming sauce I stirred them occasionally to keep the top layer from drying out or browning. Everyone else brought enough food to the party that there are some pears left over, which is a good thing, because I am getting hungry for them just typing this up.

lord_kjar has been hard at work making some nice chests that are exactly small enough to fit into the trunk of the car so that packing for events will be easier. The first one is done and the second is coming along nicely. I wish I could be helping with the project, but while he does that I have been working on the edits to my paper for publication, gathering info for a class on the History of the SCA. I also want to put together something in the way of a hand-out for a hand sewing class. In my imagination I make small hand-sewn samplers of all of the stitch types hrj has accumulated on her web page on Archaeological Sewing. However, the class is next weekend, so that is probably not going to happen, even if it would be totally cool.

Today (Thursday) is a holiday in Sweden, so we have had a productive day:

*one load of laundry washed
*one wall in the downstairs room painted (2 coats)
*one new strawberry patch location has been prepped including decorative stone fronting and a wooden frame
*one third of the strawberries from one of the two old patches has been transplanted to the new location
*one dead tree cut down
*part of a gravel pile moved so that it is now possible to drive the mini tractor/trailer past it
*one custom fit screen built for the downstairs bedroom window so we can open the window without letting in bugs (really important now that there is fresh paint on one of the walls.

Yesterday was the end of the semester party for our choir, held in conjunction with our normal band practice for those of us in the choir who like to make more music than just singing. We had seven of us here (which, sadly is most of the choir these days). I made nettle soup from the nettles growing in our yard (I could do this daily all summer and never run out of nettles) and they liked it so much that most of them had seconds. I also did a lovely gluten-free apple and red currant crumble, and I have a second batch of (possibly) non-gluten free oat and walnut crumble topping sitting in the fridge to use on another occasion; I remembered at the last second that I should have grabbed the other (certified gluten free) box oats, so rather than poisoning my friend I made more topping (without walnuts, since the last of them went into the first batch), and used it instead. I also made some yummy bread rolls, and one of the other members brought some yummy apricot bread he had made. It was a fun evening, and the last time we get to see a couple of the guys, since they are exchange students and will be heading home to their own countries soon (and one had already left and so missed the party).

Tuesday was our normal choir practice, and Monday was nyckleharpa (and dulcimer!) night, so it has been a music filled week.

Sunday we had Swedish Folk Dancing--we are now doing the final few rehearsals before the summer performances, so it is much fun.

Saturday day we helped lord_kjar's dad cut and split wood for the year. No where near as much as we did last year, since it was such a mild winter no one used up all of what we cut last year, and he and I don't need any, since we still don't have a wood stove, so the only time we used any of the wood was for one camping event.

Saturday night I spent on line at my 30th highschool reunion.

OK, I confess, I typed it like that because that phrase will not conjure up the correct mental image in anyone who didn't go to school with me. Steller was not your typical high school. It was an alternative school aimed at self-motivated students and it was an amazingly fun place to be for the six years I was the correct age to attend. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of Steller's founding, so they hosted a party at the school and Stellerites from all over went home for it, and a bunch of us connected to the event from our computers at our homes (including locations in Sweden, Germany, Main, Colorado, California, and Washington, that I know of).

I really enjoyed the evening. Because of the time zone difference (10 hours) between here and Alaska, I was on line for the event from 23:30 to 04:00, and loved every minute of it (well, except for the short time where the connection broke and it took a couple of minutes to get it back). I got to see some old friends and lovers, I got to meet some interesting new people, of all ages. One woman who was in the internet chat had been part of the first class to attend Steller the first year it opened (and so was just enough older than I that we wouldn't have met back them--she would have graduated before I started at Steller), another (the one in Germany) graduated last year. It was interesting comparing notes with them and learning that the wonderful school I attended was pretty much the same from the beginning, and is still pretty much the same as of last year.

One of the things that has eaten a fair chunk of my time lately was preparing the Memorial Wall, with posters in tribute to those Stellerites who have already died. This was a difficult task that wouldn't have been possible at all without the facebook groups for Steller alumini, but seems to have been much appreciated. One of my old boyfriends, who was actually at Steller for the party, came in to the computer lab to say hello, and let me know that he appreciated the wall, but when he came to the poster for Steven, one of our mutual friends, he burst into tears. This did not surprise me, I cried a bit when I gathered up photos of Steven from the yearbook. His was one of the deaths that would have been so easy to prevent, if he had only made some different lifestyle choices. But it was his life to spend wisely or to squander and I can only hope that he enjoyed as much as he got.

Friday was my student's and my last day in Finland working on the Microprobe, followed by a band practice at my house (which I got home on time for, because we finished with the probe nice and early that day)

Thursday was a quiet evening at my host's house in Oulu while she was at choir, and some fun visiting with her before and after her choir session, and that brings me current on the major happenings in my life since my last update. Hope things are as fun for the rest of you.