kareina

Saturday I focused on trying to catch up on thesis work, though, to be different, I tried setting an alarm to take a break at 50 minutes and then do 10 minutes of handstand and other strength training. Only managed two repeats of that cycle in between other stuff, but it was two ten minute sessions of movement that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t tried setting the alarm, so I will use that trick again. Managed that many on Sunday, too, before David came over and we changed to summer tires on Styx. We could have done it earlier, but our driveway only just got clear enough on snow that I was willing to consider it. Not long after we finished that and it was already time to head to Folk Dance for the evening. This week was one of those rare special occasion sessions, where instead of being just the few of us in the Sunday class learning advanced skills to recorded music, it was quite a few people from the local Folk Music and Dance community, with live music (four violins, one guitar, one bass, and one nyckelharpa). They were in the mood to play lively tunes much of the evening, so the dancing was vigorous, and ever so much fun. After dance I managed to refrain from touching the computer again, and just did yoga and had a shower before bed, which resulted in almost 8 hours of sleep (for the first time in quite a while).

On This morning I took the car in to the service place so that they could look and see if the ABS warning light, which had been shining for some weeks now, was something that actually needs attention, or if the light is just triggering over nothing (the car has done that before on some lights). Luckily it is only a 20 minute walk from there to my office, which meant I was at work by 07:40, so I had time to set up a laser experiment before meeting Johan for our acroyoga practice at 11:00, and then hurried back to tell the laser to do the standards, too, while it was at it. (I can’t set it all up in advance, as I change the max movement speed for the laser stage depending on which task it is doing.)

Then I decided to sit in the office and actually do some data processing before going home, which turned out to be a good thing, as our new PostDoc (who officially starts on Monday) stopped by to say hello, and C. brought by a student who is visiting for the week and made an appointment for him to view a laser session next week. I also got a call from the car service place, explaining that the car needs a new "yttre drivknut vä fram", which, I gather is something important (David confirms that it is), but google’s literal translation doesn’t give me any useful information as to what it might be called in English. I do know that it will cost 5000 SEK to replace it, including labour and tax, so I told them to go for it. They tell me they need to keep it over night, as a part they need isn’t in stock.

I happened to finish work at a time compatible with the rare buses to my place, so I took the bus home, which gave me almost an hour to relax with some food and a book before time to head to Nyckelharpa night, where I enjoyed much more beautiful Swedish Folk music while I made some good progress on my new Viking Coat to replace the one which vanished at the Helsinki Airport.

Now I need to go do my yoga, since I need to get up early enough to take a bus into town for a check up for me (I only recently found out that the uni provides regular checkups through a private provider, and so booked one).

We arrived at the school which serves as the main base for the event at 16:00 on Friday, and spent some time hanging out in the entrance area waiting till the people doing check in were ready to take our money. (We got a really good deal on the weekend--not only is the Luleå Hembygdsgille paying for bus rental and petrol, they also organized us a huge discount on the entrance fee--instead of the advertised 950 NOK, we paid only 350 each.)

After checking in a couple of us hurried off to the concert that started at 17:00 at another venue, while the rest of us moved into our classroom, ate some dinner, and relaxed. I was disappointed to discover that the cute little loft play area that I slept in last time I was here (year before last) has had its stairs removed and the entrance nailed shut, so I had to sleep on floor level like everyone else.

The next official thing on the programme was the concert in the gym across the hall from our room, at 19:30. The performers were a trio I have seen and enjoyed on other occasions, and four of their numbers are songs I have heard before , and also the ones with choruses, so also the ones they encouraged the audience to sing along, so, of course, I did. Sadly, the guy running lights and sound turned off even the along the side of the hall lighting that I had been using to work on my embroidery project while waiting for the concert. Gee, I move a lot when not working on a craft project. I massaged my own feet, hands and arms, re-braided my hair, drimmed along to the music, etc. Luckily, I was sitting at one edge of a row (so I had the best pre-concert light for my sewing), and no one sat next to me, so my constant motion didn't disturb anyone.

After the concert I changed into my dancing skirt and grabbed the bag with my dance shoes and joined the folks out front of the building waiting for a ride to the dance hall. After what seemed much longer than it was the bus finally arrived and took us the 6 minutes up the road for the dance, arriving right at 22;00

I spent not quite three hours dancing (often with others, but occasionally alone when I couldn't find someone to dance with), till my feet were really hurting. Then I and one other from my party (and a few people I didn't know) got a ride back to the school where, having done my yoga before the concert, I went straight to sleep and didn't get up till 10:00! (Not counting going to the loo about every two hours all night, having drunk plenty of water whilst dancing.)

That gave me time Saturday morning for breakfast and paying for the song course (classes cost extra), before it started at 11:00. I really enjoyed the course, which was taught by a couple of the ladies in the group Kongero. I wound up buying one of their CDs and their songbook, since the songs they taught were featured therein. I am thinking that it might be time to try to find some friends to sing folk songs with regularly. I keep attending these workshops once or twice a year and then never singing those songs again (most have parts, so sound better with enough people to cover the parts).

After class was a long enough break for a quick lunch before the afternoon concert, which included performances by the talented school kids who have been doing music workshops over the course of the event (which had been running a couple of daus before we arrived). Another of the afternoon performances was a couple in traditional Sami dress performing some very nature inspired pieces. The first was the man playing an etheral tune on a flute while the woman sang sounds that managed to be both lovely to listen to and also sound like a mosquito. During that piece the littler school kids ran gleefluy through the audience prending to swat mosquitos between their hands, often pretty much right in the faces of the audience members. The kids sermed to really enjoy that. Another of the Sami nature songs the children paraded through the audiance with their faces covered by leaves/branches (a different sort for each kid).

Then there was another break before the next performance, which was part of the Family Day of the music festival. This was two women who portrayed a story through the use of song, words, interpretive dance and violin playing. My Norwegian isn't good enough to have followed all of the little nuances of the tale, but I had no problems following most of it (and could have understood a fair bit of the story even if I hadn't understood any of the words).

After that show I had a quick dinner and a half hour walk to enjoy the beautiful mountain views. I also laughed to notice the one peak with a flat top that kinda reminded me of Flattop mountain in Anchorage--what got me to laugh is that Flattop (and all of the peaks of the Chugach Range) are to the east of the city, which means that the sun rises either from behind them, or, in mid winter, to the right of them. To see something that looks kinda like Flattop with the evening sun just to its right was a bit disconcerting.

The concert Saturday evening started, as is traditional, with the allspel(everyone plays), followed by performances by pretty much every group on site, all of whom are good. Then, after intermission, was the performance by the featured group, MäSä Duo who had flown up from Finland just to perform for us, and perform they could! One plays violin, and the other a tiny accordion, both with amazing energy, tallent, and impressive speed. They tended to start many of their numbers slow and dreamy, and after a lovely intro, kick it up several notches in speed/energy, and then do it again a couple more times. I couldn't sit still, but was pretty much dancing in my seat for the hour they played. Then there was a short break to clear the chairs out of the way and set up some tables in the back half of the gym before the dance started. The Finnish duo played the first dance set, and were kind enough to keep the music at a medium tempo (for them, which meant nice, fast dancing). They also played more repeats of each dance tune than is customary in Norway, which I really appreciated. After there set all the other groups took a turn playing for dancing, which meant lots of beautiful music all night long. Once again I only managed not quite three hours of non stop (unless you count running to the loo when they changed bands) dancing before my feet couldn't take any more, so I walked across the hall and went to bed around 01:30.

I woke at 07:00, which gave plenty of time to pack up, have breakfast, do some yoga, and just hang out with my travelling companions before our bus picked us up at 09:00. The trip home took just over 10 hours, some of which I slept, of course, some of which I typed much of the above, and the rest we sang songs and just enjoyed the travel.

Now that summer break is over regular activities are starting to pop back onto the calendar. Tonight was the first Nyckleharpa session of the autumn (note: it really is autumn--not only does it now get dark at night, the birches are pretty much all yellow in their leaves). We meet every other Monday, though, come October, when our Finnish Language class starts on Monday nights, we will be missing some of the Nyckleharpa nights.

I brought my dulcimer and the Norrskensbard Cloak in progress. I still only know a couple of the tunes they play, which means that it is a perfect sewing night for me--I get to listen to them playing beautiful Swedish folk music and sew, with one randomly timed break to join them for a couple of tunes before sewing again. I invited the group to come to Norrskensfest and perform during the feast, and explained about the Norrskensbard competition, and how the winner will get the cloak for a year, till their successor is chosen. They are all keen to come and play. Too soon to say if any of them will be tempted to participate in the competition, but one can hope.

I have been doing the usually late summer harvesting--drying black currants and nettles (not on the same session!), and freezing berries. The strawberries and smultrons are done, as are the red currants. The raspberries are still going, but there aren't enough of them to bother freezing--I could easily eat more each day than are ripe. Today I put some black currants into the freezer instead of drying them. It is a tough call as to how much we should freeze--we still haven't finished last year's frozen currants, but we don't want to run out before next year.

This weekend was the Sorselse Folk Music and Dance week 25 year Jubliee. Sorsele is a small town two river valleys south and far enough inland that one can actually see some small mountains in the distance. One of our good friends, L, from both SCA and Lajv grew up there and now lives in the city of Umeå. She and our friend D, who also lives in Umeå, had come up to Luleå this summer for our Spelmansstämma (gathering of folk musicians) and stayed with us that weekend. We has so much fun hanging out together that weekend doing music and dance that we agreed to do it again when her home town did their music and dance weekend this autumn, and I am so glad we did. The whole weekend was a delight.

Friday was a rainy, blustery day, so I was not surprised to get a text message from her that afternoon saying that there were storm warnings for drivers heading to the mountains, and we should drive carefully. However, as luck would have it, lord_kjar wasn't done with work and other responsibilities before 18:00, so we weren't on the road till 18:30, which meant we missed the bad weather. Sure, it was still raining a bit when we left the house, but it ended a half an hour into the trip, and the roads were clear and nice (though occasionally still damp) for the rest of the trip. The storm had brought with it warmer weather--it has been dropping just under freezing at night the last week or two, but this weekend it stayed just above zero, so we didn't even see places where the roads were icy.

We did, however, pass a place where the storm had caused a problem for someone else earlier in the day. In an area where the land to either side of the road is quite open and not forest, and rather prone to high winds in the best of weather we passed a semi-truck on its side and lots of emergency vehicles dealing with the problem. I hope the driver wasn't hurt.

We had hoped to go the folk singing workshop on Friday evening, but given our late start we weren't able to get there before it started (it is a 3 hour drive), so instead we just drove straight to L's parent's house to meet her and D. After a short visit there with her folks we drove on into the forest to the family's summer cabin, where we would be staying for the weekend. We wound up needing to take two cars to the cabin, since we had brought his nyckleharpa, and violin and my dulcimer, and had packed all three instruments into the back seat (filling the trunk with folk dance costumes, change of modern clothes, and jackets and boots in case it got cold), so there wasn't really room for two more people in our car (and it wouldn't have been worth trying to move everything into hers).

Friday evening we were all tired, so the boys played violin and nyckleharpa whist I did yoga, and we all went to sleep before midnight. Saturday we slept in till after nine, which makes this the longest I have slept at one go in ages. I have been having an issue with minor pain in my back in the muscles along the right side of my spine in the area between my waist and the bottom of my shoulder blade. This issue only comes up when I sleep, and, when it first started coming up it only happened if I slept for more than 7 hours--then I would wake up with that area hurting a bit, but as soon as I got up and started moving around it would go away.

However, over the months since this first came up it has been happening during shorter and shorter sleep sessions, and now sometimes only four hours of sleep is enough to have the (still minor, yet annoying) back pain wake me up. I haven't been able to figure out what was causing it, since I hadn't changed anything in my sleeping position. Some time back lifeofglamour complained that she had been having back pain when sleeping, and that the solution for her seemed to be sleeping on her back instead of her side. I did try that, but, really, I can't sleep on my back. I may get tired enough to drift a little bit into sleep in that position, but it isn't real rest, and soon I need to turn onto my stomach/side for proper sleep, so that solution wasn't going to work for me.

Somehow, a couple of days ago, I suddenly wondered if the problem was the position of my arm. I have always slept with the downside arm up, over my head, tucked under the pillow my head is on, but on top of the pillow half under/half behind that pillow. It is a nice, comfortable, warm nest to keep that arm in, but the muscles that have been complaining if I sleep to long are, in fact, engaged to lift the arm to that position. Thursday evening I tried instead having that arm down, along side my ribs, and woke up Friday morning with no back pain at all. It wasn't the best test of the theory, mind you, as it was only 5.5 hours of sleep, but since that much sleep had been causing the issue recently, I still took it as a win.

Therefore I tried that again on Friday night, and, indeed, as of my 04:00 trip to the outhouse to pee there was no hint of back pain. Sadly, I then fell deeply enough asleep that autopilot came into play and I rolled over into a normal sleeping position, so that when I woke up at 07:00 my arm was up over my head between the pillows, and my back hurt. No one else was stirring, and I was still tired myself, so I moved my arm back along side my ribs and went back to sleep. Much to my delight, unlike so many nights in the recent past I was able to go back to sleep, and by 09:00 the pain in my back was noticeably less than it had been at 07:00 (Note for people who experience real pain in their lives: this isn't it. It is enough to notice that my muscles are sending a "something is wrong" message, but it isn't anywhere near bad enough to cause me to even consider taking an aspirin for it.)

Saturday's program had one workshop in the morning that we weren't interested in, so we had a leisurely breakfast and relaxed a bit, then took both cars to her parent's house and dropped hers off, since her dad wanted to do something with it, and we took only one car to town, along with one violin for each boy, and only one nyckleharpa--we left D's nyckleharpa and my dulcimer at the cabin. We got to town in plenty of time before the "allspel" (everyone plays), so we were able to hang out a bit, greet friends from Luleå and Umeå who had also come out for the event, and get introduced to a variety of L's friends and family members who were there. lord_kjar joined the "allspel", but D, who is on the shy side, choose to sit with us girls in the audience instead, which I thought a shame, since he is so talented a musician. The stage was totally covered with people playing, and a fair few standing on the floor in front of the stage with their instruments, and there was lots of room in the audience, so I counted. From where I sat I could see 46 people playing instruments during the "allspel", and another 46 of us in the audience.

Before we arrived on site L had told us of her high school Spanish teacher, who was one of the few people living in Sorsele who didn't grow up there or move there because of work or due to marrying a local. Instead he decided that he wanted to move to the mountains and left Spain to settle in northern Sweden just because it seemed like a good idea (I can relate to this interest!). Because life is full of little coincidences it did not surprise me that pretty much the first person L introduced me to was said Spanish teacher, who was at the event with his 7th grade students, who were doing a bake sale to raise funds for their upcoming trip to Spain. None of the four of us had cash on us, so after the "allspel" we walked over t the bank so that we could all get cash so as to buy snacks from the kids to support their cause. (Never mind that I had baked and brought more than enough food for all four of us for the weekend.)

The rest of the afternoon we four spent in one of the side rooms of the hall, the boys playing music, we girls took a nap (I got so rested this weekend!), and I worked on nålbinding projects. Then we ate dinner in a local pizza place (I wound up having only fresh tomato and the tomato sauce on mine--Swedish pizza places have NO other toppings I am willing to put into my mouth. Where is the spinach? broccoli? artichoke heart? Anything else I put on home made pizzas? "shinka"!, yuck! Ok, I do eat pineapple and banana, both of which appeared on lord_kjar's pizza, but I don't like them cooked, and I don't want them on pizza.

After dinner we went to the concert by Alberg, Ek och Roswall. Oh, wow, are they GOOD! These three musicians (Emma Ahlberg, who plays fiddle, Daniel Ek, who plays harpguitar, and Niklas Roswall, who plays both moraharpa and nyckelharpa) did some amazing things with their instruments. Their sound blends so well, and they so clearly play together really, really often, so that they are perfectly in sync with the changes in dynamics. It isn't often I feel like it makes sense for those of us in the audience to be paying for the privilege of listening to something, but this time, it so did. We also bought both of the CD's they had with them for sale.

This was the first time I have seen a Swedish moraharpa in use. It looks so tiny and delicate compared to the huge one I bought from Harry Wass in Tasmania. I kind of want one--it is so cute, and Niklas Roswall makes it look so easy to play. However, there is no point in my getting any other instruments until I get good enough with my dulcimer and have a large enough repertoire that I can bring it along to the Sunday afternoon folk music sessions in Luleå and actually play along with most, if not all, of the songs.

After the concert was the dance, which, lets face it, was why I was there. L and I had both put on our folk dance costumes before the concert, and so were wearing them when we arrived at the dance hall. The band started playing as I changed into my dance shoes, and no sooner than I had them on and a cute little lady with silver hair asked me if I waltz (what they were playing). Of course I said yes, and we started dancing. We were the only couple on the floor, which is really no surprise--often lord_kjar and I are the only people dancing for the first few dances of an evening. Why would the others come on time to a dance only to stand (or sit) out the first few dances?

I, of course, danced every dance that evening. Often with the silver haired lady, who comes from Finland, but has been living in Soresle since 1965, often with lord_kjar, L, D, and also with L's mother and her friend. I occasionally tried asking someone else, but only one other stranger said yes all evening. Silly people to miss out on dancing. I understand all of the musicians who were ensconced in one of the rooms in the buildings across the field doing music--they have an excuse to miss dancing, but the ones in the room who just sat there while a few of us danced, that I can't understand.

The dance ended just after 23:00, so I only danced for 2 hours, and 15 minutes, but it seemed like enough--while I could have kept dancing, I was also satisfied. So we four went across the field to the building where the musicians were and the others ate sausages, since they were feeling hungry (I, of course wasn't--I don't recall ever feeling hungry at night), while we enjoyed listening to the music there, and then we returned to the cabin, where, again, they boys played for me while I did yoga. However, this time the boys took turns playing while the other did some stretching too, since they had also been dancing.

Sunday we didn't have anyplace to be before dinner, so when I woke up I went for a half a hour walk, enjoying the forest, and then we spent a lazy day relaxing, cuddling, and doing music (yes, I even played the dulcimer). Then we went to L's parent's house for dinner. They had asked us the day before if we eat lamb, and I explained that I don't eat store-bought meat. They said that the lamb wasn't store-bought, so I said it would be fine, and oh, was it!

On the drive L explained that her mother loves to cook, and that she had never had better food at a restaurant than she could get home at her mother's house. When we arrived her mother had just finished adding cream to the gravy, and I begun to understand why L felt that way about the cooking. My family always used milk in gravy, and it never occurred to me to use cream instead. My, does that do lovely things to the texture and flavour. Sadly, her mother likes salt more than I do, so the gravy wasn't exactly to my taste, but the next time I get my hands on a piece of meat that would benefit from roasting that came from an animal I am willing to eat I am so going to try making my own gravy with cream in it. Her lamb roast, on the other hand, was perfect--the meat was tender and falling off the bones, and she served it with a plate of roasted root vegetables, and the mix of red (beet), orange (carrot), with the potato (+/- other white roots?) was pretty. She also had tomatoes and capsicum from her garden, home made lingonberry jam, home made pickles (I, of course, didn't try those, since I don't do anything pickled or containing wine or vinegar), and a few other things.

After dinner we said farewell, and we drove back north and east, while L & D drove south and east. We, as expected, got home too late for folk dance here, but still plenty early enough to do yoga and get to sleep at a reasonable hour.

This morning we had a home inspection. We have decided to switch insurance companies, and the new company wants an initial house inspection. Ours did just fine, of course. The inspection was by the same company who inspected the house before we bought it, and they did't find any new problems with it, and we were able to report having solved the mold under the floor in the one room in the cellar issue.

Tonight is nyckleharpa night, Tuesday is choir, Wednesday some friends are coming over for dinner (in part to thank them for loaning me so much nice Viking stuff for the larp earlier this summer, and in part because it has just been too long since we have seen them), Thursday is a meeting of the folk music and dance society, and Friday our choir band meets here at the house. In addition I start my new job on Wednesday, so it looks like it will be a busy week.

This weekend was Spelmansstämman, the big gathering of folk musicians and dancers from all over northern Sweden and further away (including a buss of 20 from Norway, a couple of guys from Germany, one of whom comes every year). It is always a fun event, but this time it was even more fun than usual. A couple of our SCA friends from out of town came up for it and stayed with us. She arrived on Thursday evening early enough to join us for dinner and we spent a delightful evening hanging out with her.

Friday morning lord_kjar had to work, but since I have finally finished my report and can't do more with the paper until my colleagues at the mine get back to me, I had Friday off, so she and I used the time to make her a pattern for a Viking apron dress for the Viking themed larp we are doing in August (the one where I will be playing a (male) warrior chief). She will also be able to wear the dress for SCA events, of course, which is part of why the organizers, who are also SCA, decided to do one set in this time period.

Friday afternoon the other house guest arrived, with his violin. lord_kjar picked him up at the bus stop and we all enjoyed lunch together, then spent the afternoon hanging out and doing lessons for them in Swedish Folk Dancing, since they had little experience with that (she had also had a lesson the night before). We also baked a pound cake, since the next day was his birthday. Then we went to the opening concert for Spelmansstämman, followed by the first night of folk dancing.

I have loved these dances since lord_kjar brought me to my first one (this is my fourth year!), and this time was even more fun than the previous years. In part because we had a couple of friends with us, and also because I have gotten to know more people in the local Folk Dance group, so there were lots of people I was comfortable asking to dance, which also meant that I also asked people I didn't recognize to dance as well. Sure, some of those declined, but I managed to dance nearly every dance that happened between 20:00 and 22:00 (only missed the ones that happened when I needed to go use a toilet--the short breaks where they change musicians aren't long enough to accomplish that errand, especially as there is usually a line, since the old school house we dance in has only the two toilets).

Then it was our shift to go outside and work the hamburger stand (most people in the folk music and dance group wind up working a few shifts over the weekend to ensure the event happens), so I missed an hour of dancing, but we danced more from 23:00 to nearly midnight, when we went home, everyone did some yoga/stretching, then I took a hot shower and went to bed, since we had to get up in the morning to make it back in for the final rehearsal before our dance performance. I am glad they all joined me for the yoga, since the company meant that it was easier to do enough stretching to keep my legs from hurting after all the dancing.

Saturday morning we were back on site by 11:00, our rehearsal was at 11:15, and then we spread the ground cloth in the shade near the stage and settled in to enjoy the performances that happened before our dance performance (well, our guests did a fair bit of wandering around, since he had never been to Hängnan before, but I mostly stayed at our spot with the musical instruments and lunch bag). The music was wonderful, as it always is, especially when the Luleå Hembygdsgillet (our folk music group) played, and our dance performance was fun. lord_kjar got mid-dance applause when he did the flying trick with the smallest girl in our group (he can, and has, done it with me, too, but it looks more impressive with the smaller girl, since she will float higher than I do). This trick involves the girl placing her hands on the man's hip bones as he wraps his hands around her upper back, then then start spinning around one another, and once they are going fast enough she picks her feet up and flies. It is lots of fun!

After the performance we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on site listening to music, chatting with one another, and with a variety of other friends who made it to the event (including one of the exchange students from our choir), and passing out flyers for the Medieval days we have, at the same location, next month. We also found a birthday present for one of our guests: the booth that sells folk costumes and accessories happened to have one men's cap which was in exactly the correct size and the perfect colour to go with the beautiful blue-black herringbone twill wool vest he was wearing. The hat looked so good on him we bought it for him.

Then we went home, ate dinner and the pound cake with berries and cream to properly celebrate our guest's birthday, took a 20 minute nap, and then went back for the second night of folk dancing. This time I didn't have a shift at the hamburger stand, but lord_kjar did, so I just kept dancing all night. I did not, however, manage to dance all morning too--around midnight (after about four hours of nearly non stop dancing) my legs were getting sore, and the others were also feeling like they could be done, so we went back to the house, enjoyed more yoga and conversation, followed by the boys playing violin and nyckleharpa for us (neither had touched their instruments during the dance and were both itching to play) and then I took another hot shower to finish making the legs feel better before going to sleep around 03:40 (note that this far north and this time of the year the sun is not just on the way back up, it has long since cleared the trees at that hour).

Sunday we went back to site on time to participate in the parade from the old stone church to the stage over at the open air museum, we girls just wearing our folk costumes, which we had been wearing all weekend (hers was her mother's wedding dress and is very pretty) and the boys playing their violins with the other musicians. Then we settled down in the same shady spot as Saturday to enjoy the day's "allspel" (everyone plays) (which lord_kjar participated in, but our guest decided that the stage was too crowded and he would just as soon sit and listen with us).

lord_kjar had played his nyckleharpa for Saturday's "allspel", but had his violin on Sunday, and said that it was easier for one big reason: with the violin he could hear his own instrument over everyone else's playing (since it is so close to his ear) and so had the feedback to let him know he was playing correctly. However, the nyckleharpa is played holding it down at waist level, so is harder to hear one's own instrument.

After the "allspel" it was 13:00, time for our last duty shift--sitting the gate this time. Since there were not so many people coming in our gate (which is over by the back parking lot that is used by those of us who are on duty, and we were all already on site) we took the opportunity to enjoy some lunch while we worked, and then at 14:00 we closed the gate for the weekend--anyone who wanted to show up for the final hour of the event needn't pay.

Then we walked back up to the church so that our guest could do some photography, and then we popped by the home of the other laurel in the shire, since he lives between the church and the open air museum. He had just finished taking a break from some yard work, and offered us Popsicles, which we happily accepted. Even me--yes, it is just sugar water, and I don't normally like or eat such things, but with all of the dancing and walking I had been doing all weekend, on short sleep, I think my body actually appreciated the energy boost. While there we asked him about the Viking themed larp, since I had asked him some weeks ago if he would be able to participate. It turns out he isn't available, but will happily loan me some of his costumes, armour, and accessories for that weekend, which will make it so much easier to appear to be a high-status warrior chief.

His wife got home just as we were about to leave, so we got to say hello to her too, and see how much their daughter has grown since I saw them last in December. That little girl has the biggest eyes! (Which will, no doubt, come in very handy many times in her life.)

We returned to the event, but the final act of the day had ended, and they had already closed down the fika stand, so we went home and enjoyed more cake, cream and berries there and a bit more relaxing and conversation (and copying some of lord_kjar's anime collection onto a hard drive for our guest to take home with her for later viewing before she had to start driving. His bus was a bit later, so we took him into town and did a stroll there--he hadn't ever been to Luleå before, and then dropped him at his bus at 20:00.

After dropping him off we went home and spent some time snuggling with one another before concluding the evening hanging out on skype with linda_linsefors. Yoga was done while we talked on skype, which meant that I got to bed before 02:00.

Today I spent the morning doing vacuuming, several loads of laundry (all of the guest bedding and our own bedding), tidying, and minor home improvement projects, followed by an afternoon on the computer, where I started putting together slides for the conference talk I am doing on the weekend (in Copenhagen) and replied to emails from a colleague at the mine (who will defer the decision as to if my paper is sufficiently vague about the details of the 3D model I created to be published as is, or if they are going to have to censor anything), and my Master's student (who returned the books he had borrowed from me by leaving them in the cabinet in the microscope room before he departed for his summer job, so I will need to go pick them up later and return them to my office).

This evening we had rehearsal for the Midsummer dance performance. lord_kjar won't be joining us for that performance (he never does these days--for Midsummer instead of dancing he runs the sound equipment for the performances at the park over near the city center, as it is a fun change for him after so many years of doing that dance performance), but he came along tonight so that he could stand in for the people who couldn't make it tonight, but will be dancing with us on Friday. So he spent part of the night as a 12 year old boy, and the other part as the boy's mother.

That took only about 30 minutes, which gave him time to check some of the sound equipment he will need on Friday (yes, the item that had been broken last summer has, in fact, been repaired in the mean time) before we went home, where we finally got around to measuring the two sheds we have, and all of the items in them, so that I could then sit down and draw them up in CorelDraw. Now we have a better idea of where/how we would be able to fit in his dad's lathe, which we may be picking up later this week when we go get the tractor.