kareina

Last weekend was my sixth Spelmanstämman in Gammelstad since moving to Sweden. This event has always been one of my favourite times of the year. This year's was still fun, but slightly dampened by health issues.

lord_kjar caught a cold some days before, and was coughing so much Friday night that O. and I went to the concert at the church without him (yes, he could have relaxed just as much at the concert as at home, but then his coughing would have disturbed the amazing music they were playing). I hadn't caught his cough, but had been feeling just on the edge of maybe could get sick if I didn't take it easy, so, of course, I went out anyway.

After the concert I hurried straight to the Gillestugan, as always, to enjoy the dancing. It would have been more fun if

lord_kjar had been there, as he is still my all-time favourite dance partner, but I managed to find others to dance with (and occasionally danced alone, as one does when one isn't willing to sit out of a dance and there is no one left interested in dancing who isn't already doing so). Before I knew it it was 23:00, and time for our shift at the hamburger stand (working this shift gets us free entry to the above mentioned concert, and we have done it every year).

lord_kjar arrived on time for our shift, not coughing as much, since he had taken yet another pill to help that, and he, O., and I had a pleasant hour hanging out, flipping burgers, and occasionally selling them to dancers and musicians needing a food break.

We were all feeling tired, so rather than staying and dancing or enjoying music we went home to get some rest, since Saturday was going to be a full-on day.

lord_kjar wasn't feeling any better in the morning, so while he came along to be sociable and enjoy listening to music, he didn't join in our dance performance. This meant that no one got to fly this year, since he is the only one of us strong enough to be the base for that. It also meant that each of us ladies had to sit out one dance, since we had to do a six-person show instead of an eight-person show. Ok, we did have our teacher's daughter join us in his place for Zappo, the fun Finnish folk dance we do, but her recent knee injury meant that her limit was one dance.

The weather over the weekend was rainy, but we lucked out for the performance--there was a bit of sun peaking through the clouds in the morning for long enough to dry the dance stage, so we could do the performance without worrying about slipping. There is a video of the dance (

lord_kjar was able to film it, since he wasn't dancing), and I will try to get a copy somewhere so that at least mom can see it (they have shared it in the secret FB group for Danskul, but that version isn't downloadable, and there is no point in trying to link to it, since you all would just get error messages, but at least I know that, despite the last minute changes to the set, we did ok).

By about 14:00 I was feeling really tired and ready to go home, so

lord_kjar drove me home, where I took a couple of hour nap, while he went back to listen to more music and take it easy. I woke up with enough energy to cook a yummy soup, and my friend V., who had been in town and Luleå Pride with O. and a bunch of the other Phire people, came over to help me eat it before heading to the folk dance with us that night. That evening

lord_kjar did come along, but, since he was sick he opted not to dance till shortly before our shift at the hamburger stand at 23:00. The band that was playing just then felt kinda smug that theirs was the only band to which

lord_kjar danced all evening, since he usually has a reputation for dancing all night.

Once again we went home directly after burgers, and it felt really good to do my yoga and get to bed. Sunday I chose to stay home and work on stuff for our Medeltidsdagarna på Hägnan event that I am helping to run, but

lord_kjar went back out, participated in the parade, performed with the nyckleharpa group, and listened to music. I was sad to miss out on the final day of the event, but since I didn't want to actually cross the line into being sick, I think it was wise to stay home, rather than spending the time outside in the rain.

Monday and today I met my Master's student to work on data processing from the last laser-ablation session, and it went really well. Tomorrow I plan to work from home on that grant application in progress that has been neglected recently, and I have taken Thursday and Monday off of work. Since Friday is a holiday (Midsummer is a big deal in Sweden), that means I will have plenty of time to try to catch up on stuff and relax, both.

Friday will, of course, be more folk dance, and the traditional dancing around a flower-covered phallic symbol with balls hanging from a cross-piece.

Midsummer is a huge holiday in Sweden, and, since midsommarafton (midsummer-eve) fell on a Friday this year that meant a long weekend, since that day is always off of work if you don't work in a field that means working on holidays is necessary.

Therefore our weekend started Thursday afternoon, when

linda_linsefors and her new boyfriend walked home with me from work to spend the afternoon and evening with us. They were in town visiting his family for the holiday, and took advantage of the opportunity to go through her Larp and SCA stuff, which has been in storage at our place since she moved to France, to find things they want for the Robin Hood themed larp taking place later this month. While she was here she mentioned wanting to make a better carrying bag for her pair of recorders, so she and

lord_kjar then spent the evening making her a smaller version of the bag he carries his flute and recorders in. They managed to get it cut out and the machine stitching done that evening, leaving her some hours of hand-sewing left to do before it is completely ready to use (but she was able to put the recorders into the pockets to take home with her straight away).

linda_linsefors and M went back to his parent's place a bit before midnight and we got some sleep before getting up and putting on folk costumes for the midsommarafton dance performances. As always we first joined the members of Luleå Hembygdsgille for an early lunch at the gillestuga, and, as always, I ate only the salad, potatoes, cheese, and flat bread, while everyone else feasted on multiple types of fish (both fresh and pickled), meatballs, ham, and various vinegar-containing sauces. Sometimes it isn't easy being a fussy eater. However, when desert came out I ate way more than my fair share of fresh strawberries and cream, so I got my moneys worth out of my free lunch.

Then, as always,

lord_kjar took off for the park in town to set up the sound system, and the rest of us went across the street to do the traditional raising of the leaf-and flower covered cross with rings dangling from the arms, all of the traditional songs and dances around that pole, followed by the more formal folk dance performance on the stage, before hopping into cars and heading to town to repeat it all at the other park. It was nice to have C along with us this year, because that meant that I had someone to pair up with for the several traditional around the pole dances that need a partner, and I didn't have to dance with a random child in the circle.

After all that one of C's friends came over for dinner with us before heading down to Piteå for her family's midsummer celebration that evening (and/or the next day, I wasn't clear on that point, just that she had to get on the road at 19:00).

Saturday we had a lazy day a home, including exchanging proper massages, on the table, with oil and everything. It has been too long since we made time for that, and with three people it means that 45 minutes is enough for two sets of hands to work on the full body before switching whose turn it is on the table.

Sunday, much to my delight, we finally managed to start on the earth cellar project! First we tested the new concrete drill we bought earlier this week (we had been using his dad's, but decided it is time to invest in our own). We drilled a line of holes along a large rock that was nicely rectangular on five of six sides, such that the holes define that missing flat side. Then started using the sledgehammer to tap the steel spikes into four of the eight holes, in hopes that would be enough to split the stone. They weren't, so resolved to head to the store to buy more spikes, but then C pointed out that since it was hot (19 C, or about 68 F) we should also go swimming.

The store in question is over near a nice sand beach on the Luleå river, so we packed swimming stuff, went to the store, where we ran into a couple SCA friends also doing summer projects that needed more supplies, and then off to the river. I can report that the water is cold. Because my swimsuit is a wet suit my legs and torso were fine, but it is a sleeveless model, so my arms were covered only with a wool shirt, and they were cold enough that I wasn't able to stay in very long, though longer than

lord_kjar and C, both of whom have only modern nearly-no-fabric swimsuits.

So after only an hour at the beach (and not much in the water) we returned home, where we split the rock into a nice, use-able rectangle, and moved a set of large rocks into place ready to concrete as soon as we go concrete shopping.

Today

linda_linsefors is planning on coming back over, to finish looking through the larp stuff, and perhaps I will finish reading aloud to her the last few chapters of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Just like every other holiday in Sweden, Midsummer is celebrated on Midsummer Eve, not the day itself. However, in our case the day started the day before that. On Thursday one of our (exchange student) friends from choir, came over for dinner for one last visit before he returns to Germany next week, and then we took him with us to the park in town where the Luleå Hembygdsgille (folk music and dance group) runs a Midsummer celebration, where we helped to wrap leaf covered branches around the midsummer pole thingie for the next day (I try not to think of it as a cross, so as not to be uncomfortable participating in someone else's religious ceremony).

Friday we got up early enough to unload the huge lathe he dad is lending us from the giant trailer (which we hauled here with the tractor on Wednesday, after having loaded it onto the tractor on Tuesday--remind me to post photos of the loading at some point if you are interested in seeing it). It now sits in the car port, awaiting our creating a concrete platform in the shed with a window for it to live upon.

Then we went to the Gillestuget (the little old school building in Gammelstad where the Hembygdsgille does folk dancing, meetings, etc.), and

lord_kjar loaded up a trailer of stuff to take to the park in town to set up the sound system for the stage there, and I practiced the day's dance program with the others. (

lord_kjar used to do the dance performances on Midsummer too, but in recent years (and for as long as I have lived here), he runs the sound instead, saying it is a nice change from the dancing, and he thinks it is fun, too.)

After the trailer was loaded and the dancers were happy that we all know what we are doing, everyone sat down to a lunch of traditional Swedish food. As is usual when that is what is being served, there was not much on offer that I eat, since I don't care for fish and don't eat meat (other than the occasional wild game, which doesn't cause the same issues with my digestion as store-bought meat does), so all I took was a couple of tiny boiled potatoes, a couple of thin slices of cheese, a little bit of salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber), and half a hard boiled egg. The tiny amount of food on my plate got comments from the others at our table, since they each took two to three times as many different items as I had taken. However, I rarely eat much at one sitting, since I prefer to spread my food intake more evenly across the day time hours, and I had food in by back pack for later, so it didn't worry me to have only a little. I did, of course, take plenty of strawberries for desert, with cream, when that was put out.

After lunch

lord_kjar departed with the trailer for town to set things up there, and our group, in our folk costume finery, gathered at the entrance to the open air museum at Hängnan (not far from the Gillestuget) and paraded in to the stage, musicians playing. We dancers left our baskets and bags on the stage behind the musicians and then we went out into the dense crowds (literally thousands of people gather in this park for Midsummer; some years it has exceeded 10,000) to do the traditional raising of the leaf and flower covered pole, which includes carrying it in a loop around the area and then standing it up in a hole in the ground, followed by dancing around it.

I am told that everyone in Sweden who is old enough to dance at all has participated in these dances--all families make certain that their kids get a chance to do the dances around the midsummer pole, whether at a large celebration like this one, or at a private one at someone's summer cottage, and everyone knows the songs well enough to sing along. At our celebration the musicians play the traditional songs and a group of us join them on stage to sing the words into microphones, while the rest of us lead the dances around the pole (I, of course, was with the dancers). The dances all fall into the category of "mimed dances", which is to say there are hand motions. For one we play the part of bunnies, horses, and elephants, and use our hands to show the relative size of each creatures ears, tails (and trunk!), for another we mime playing musical instruments, and a third involves leaning one way and another ("hit" and "dit"). The sequence of dances takes a good 10 to 20 minutes all told, and is fun, and the part of the crowd closest to the pole, which contains lots and lots of children, and a few adults, all dance with us, and everyone sings.

Then we moved over to the stage for a folk dance performance, and as soon as that was done we went to town and did it all again at the park there, for the much more reasonably sized crowd there (probably still more than 1000 people, but the people density was better).

For the second performance, since there was more room to move in town, we added in a promenade dance involving as many people from the audience as we could persuade to join us, doing all of the traditional patterns of couples splitting up, coming back together, reversing the line to walk under the arch of joined hands of the couples following, splitting the line into two by alternating couples going either left or right around the dance area, and then joining back together in groups of four, and again in groups of eight (I have done this with the dance group in Australia, and at the end, when everyone is lined up in groups of eight across the room, they followed it with a pattern dance that needs dancers to be in groups of eight--a great way to start an evening of dance).

However, on this occasion, the groups of eight was the last set in the figure, and marked the end of the dancing for the day. Therefore, we all helped

lord_kjar load all of the sound equipment and other items back into the trailer, and he and I took it back to the Gillestuget to unload. Then we returned to our house, where his parents (who had joined us at the park in town for the performance) joined us for coffee and to see what all we have accomplished in the way of home improvements since their last visit.

Then we were both tired, and

lord_kjar wasn't feeling so good, so we went to bed early (21:30!), which meant that I was awake and doing my morning situps at 04:30 today. This is good, because it gives me plenty of time to accomplish a few things before I fly to Copenhagen later this morning, where I will participate as one of the panelists in the session "New concepts of mobility to foster career development and gender balance in Europe" at the Euroscience Open Forum. This session is sponsored by the Marie Curie Fellowship Association. They asked me to participate in it since I had done so much work for the booklet of role models for mobility of women scientists that we put together a coupld of years back.

I never really liked the idea of traveling to a city at midsummer, when I could be home in my nearly country setting working on the earth cellar, but they managed to talk me into participating anyway, since they cover the travel costs to get there. So I fly down today, and will arrive around 15:00. My cousins, who live in Denmark, will pick me up at the airport, we will drop my stuff at their place and relax a bit, then I will head to the conference venue for a meeting with the other panelists at 17:00, then back to my cousin's house to hang out with them for the evening. Tomorrow morning we have the conference session, and then in the evening I fly home again. I am looking forward to seeing what

lord_kjar does with the tractor while I am gone, now that we finally have it here.

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.

This morning we left the house a bit before 10:00 and went to the old school house in Gammelstad where our folk music and dance group gathers. There were around 50 to 60 of us, mostly in costume, getting set up and ready for the day. After everything was ready to go we sat down to a nice lunch of too much good food, and then went over to the folk museum and commenced the official Midsummer celebration. While our musicians played Swedish folk music on the stage the rest of us got the huge pole (which, sadly, looks like a cross, but at least it has a couple of leaf-covered hoola-hoops dangling from it, to give it a festive air) stood up.

Then it was time to dance around it. Because it was a lovely sunny day the crowd was huge and densely packed. This meant that only four of us from the folk dance group danced--me and the three little girls (around 12 years old), in a tiny ring around the pole. Around us was a slightly larger ring of little children and their parents who were dancing, and tightly packed around them was an audience. We danced a series of traditional songs while others from our group stood on stage and sung the songs into a microphone and a large percentage of the audience sang the songs, too. I sang, too, even though I don't really know the songs like the others do--I have always been able to sing along to songs I don't know by reading lips, a skill that comes in handy on occasions like this one.

After the set of traditional dances around the pole for children our folk dance group put on a performance on the stage, and as soon as we were done we all returned to the cars and drove into Luleå city center, where we repeated the whole thing, setting up a new leaf & flower covered pole and dancing around it, and then doing a few more dance performances. It was much fun.

After our last dance performance I had to change out of costume to return the skirt (which is a special, hard to obtain pattern of woolen stripes) to the lady I had borrowed it from (she didn't need it this year, because we don't have enough men in our dance group, so she dressed in a man's costume and danced as a guy). After I changed I glanced at my phone to discover that I had missed a call. This was a bit of a surprise, no one ever calls me, save for

lord_kjar, who was busy all day running sound for the musicians at the second park.

The call had been from one of the students in the choir we sing in--the boy from Finland. I returned the call and he explained that he was back in town for the weekend and out at the Midsummer festival in Gammelstad, and were we by any chance there? I explained that we weren't, but would be there soon as we needed to bring back the sound equipment. So we agreed to meet up when we got there.

This turned out to be a very luck thing for him. In addition to putting away the sound equipment the small group of us that were still around had an additional duty: eat left overs from lunch. So the Finnish boy and his mother joined us for the meal, and really enjoyed it. He said that he has been craving new potatoes, but there weren't any in the stores that he has checked. Therefore he was really delighted to join us for a meal that featured plenty of new potatoes. Not many tourists visiting a town's mid summer celebration get to join the meal for the behind the scenes workers.

By the time dinner was over and we finally headed home it was already 19:30, and we were quite content to come home and relax a bit in a quiet environment.

We have nothing particularly special planned this weekend, which sounds nice after so many weeks in a row with stuff on. We did hear of a garage sale being held by one of the older couples in our dance group, so we will probably stop by there--it may be a good chance to get a glass button, which is the sort that is appropriate for my folk dance underdress.

Later next week we will probably pop over to Norway to enjoy mountains, but we haven't done anything as rash as make a plan of where to go, what to do, or where to sleep while we are there...

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the lull between Spelmanstämman and midsommer

min femte midsommar i Sverige

Swedish Midsummer falls the day before

Spelmansstämman

MidSummer

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May 2025

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