kareina

Our roadtrip to Kingdom University continued Thursday evening, rolling into early Friday morning, with us taking turns who got to nap in the back seat, who was driving, and who kept the driver awake.

After posting about the first part of the trip napped for almost 2 hours, and relinquished the back seat to Þórólfr, who had bven driving at 23:40 and moved to the passenger seat as Keldor took over driving. He drove 2.5 hours, and we stopped at a rest area to use the toilet, realised that none of us were really awake enough to take the next shift of driving, and that we would be on site 10 hours before it opened if we drove straight through.

Therefore Keldor and I lay down in the back seat and Þórólfr reclined a front seat, and we slept for nearly three hours. Having been the one to sleep most on the first half of the drive, I woke enough to be willing to continue driving at 05:30, and after a toilet visit we were on the road again at 05:44. Keldor didn't move when I got up, other than to shift to a more comfortable position for sleep, so Þórólfr kept me company for the next 2.5 hours that I drove, and we waited for the sun to come up so we could start the adventure part of the trip.

At 8:16 we reached our first runestone of the trip, and Keldor finally woke up, because runestone. From there we went from one runestone to the next, choosing them at random from the runestone map and skipping many more, till it was late enough to reasonably head to the event site. We visited:

• 8:16 Runsten Nastastenen, Nä34, L1981:9172, Rinkaby 5:1 i Örebro, Örebro

• 10:41 Runsten Vg6, L1963:7449, Fägre 9:1 i Töreboda, Västra Götaland

• 11:09 Runsten Vg3, L1963:9543, Bällefors 3:1 i Töreboda, Västra Götaland (this one is in the middle a of a farmer's field, and one shouldn't walk on the crops, so we didn't get close enough to see the runes, of if there is also art, but we could see it standing tall out there.

• 12:06 Runristning i gravkontext Vg93, L1961:3736, Rådene 6:2 i Skövde, Västra Götaland

• 13:15 L1961:9655 Stenkammargrav (this one isn't on the runestone map, nut we saw a sigh for it, so, of course we had to stop, and I looked it up to see what it was https://pub.raa.se/visa/objekt/lamning/c19c47d1-f5d2-4324-b8e6-1c5a9c59c5b1 )

• 14:02 Runsten Vg130, L1962:2548, Grolanda 19:1 i Falköping, Västra Götaland

Then the they both decided that it was time to head to a grocery store to get snacks and beverages for the event, which we did, and we arrived on site at about 16:00, only one hour before it was supposed to open. However, the event crew was so on top of things that they had already gotten gate set up, and signs on the rooms to say who was sleeping in which.

So we unloaded the car and Keldor made the bed while I did a short workout with the DownDog pliaties app set to boosts of glute strength and back strength, to make my hips forgive me for sitting so much during the journey (it worked, so far, it always does).

Then we got dressed, I put on my beautiful Norrskensbards cloak over my tunic, we grabbed our mugs, and our banners and we went up to the main hall. (Þórólfr, as the herald for the event was sleeping in the main hall, in one of the rooms near the royals, and he reported for duty pretty directly after our arrival).

We had a couple of pleasant hours to greet people, with hugs when they wanted them, before it was time to walk up the hill to the chapel for court. I sat in the very front row, because hearing impaired, and Keldor sat with me, because he loves me, though he is Swedish enough that he would prefer further back. However, as we were there others were willing to sit in the second row, so we had people close enough to talk to while we waited (I bet thst if we had taken row two, the others wouldn't have come closer than row three).

Court was fun, though it was a shame that the first several awards were for people not on site yet, so they had to be set asside for the next day's court. But I happily worked on my nålbindning and waited till the moment I knew was coming, and they called us laurels forward, to say that our numbers are not yet complete, and we brought forth the Honorable Lord Getulio d’Amalfi, who is a very good craftsperson that does deep dive research for all that he does. He has a 12th century craftsmen persona, and takes care to make everything right for his time and station. He was presented to the Crown, we briefly sung his praises, and their Majesties announced their intentions to give him overnight to contemplate accepting admission to our order.

Then Her Majesty asked us would this make our order complete? And we chorused "No!", and the herald called forth Viscount Gilliam Blackthorn, who had provided the home brewed beer for the vigil, as he knew that Getulio would be offered a laurel.

He was within my line of sight, so I got to see his jaw drop and an expression of total disbelief cross his face as his brain tried to process the information. He really looked like he was certain he had misheard, and it took a bit before he managed to start walking to the Crown, in disbelief.

With both candidates forward the traditional ceremony continued, letting them (and everyone present) know the seriousness of the offer they were to contemplate, how it is both an honour and a burden. Then the group split in two, and half of us escorted Getuilo to his vigil room, and the other half escorted Gilliam to his.

We let Getuilo know what to expect for the evening, and what decisions he would need to make before tomorrow's court. We didn't do a hand washing ceremony, as his "in case of peerage letter" had indicated that he didn't want one, but we assured him that, should he accept the Laurel, the ceremony would change how people react to/interact with him.

Then we left him in the room and we all went out to get on the list for individual visits with each candidate. This time they did a very good thing with the list. Instead of writing on paper i a notebook, and crossing off people as they go in, they had a stack of index cards, one for each candidate. People wrote their names on cards, and when it was their turn they were handed the card to give to the candidate, who could take notes about each conversation directly on the card.

This also made it easy to adjust the order if someone wasn't present when their turn came up.

Keldor and I went in together, so I wrote "Kareina and Keldor" on one card, and Keldor and Kareina" on the other. We went into Gilliam first, and he was still looking a bit shocked, and asked us both what we look for in a Laurel, and why he should be here. Keldor explained that it is important that an artist inspire others to want to create, and that Gilliam does this regularly. I said that word-fame in their art matters, and that even though I do not drink and have zero interest in alcohol, still I know that his brewing is renowned and loved throughout the Kingdom. We chatted a little longer, and then moved over to Getulio's room.

When last we saw Getulio, at Crown in Germany, he was selling off some old clothes he didn't wear anymore, and Keldor was selling knives. They got to talking, and Getulio said that he'd been looking for a smith to make a sewinf awl after a specific archaeological find, but it is a hard enough project that he hadn't found anyone to do it yet.

Keldor said he'd give it try, and we traded an awl to be delivered when next we meet for a couple pair of wool trousers, which we took home directly, and he sent us photos of the original. So, we greeted him with an "this isn't exactly a vigil gift", and handed over the double ended awl, which came out very well, and Getulio was pleased.

I tried staying up and talking with people after we finished talking with Getulio, but I was tired (getting up at 03:30 on Thursday, being busy till we started driving, then only napping for short stretches under the journey is the likely reason for that). So, after yawning my way through some conversations, I decided to head to bed.

Of course, as I started walking I passed Erick Dalkarl and another violinist playing some period dance tunes over near the campfire. So, of course, I had to stop and dance. I was the only dancer, but my invisible partners were exactly where they should be, and they played me at least six or eight dances before I decided I needed sleep even more than dancing.

I did manage a couple of minutes of yoga before crawling into bed at 23:05. Keldor crawled in at 05:00. I woke at 06:00 with my legs and hips aching, so I got up and did another 25 minutes of the pilates app, which really helped.

I went up to the hall at 07:30, and was delighted to see that they had already set out a lot of breakfast stuff, so I nibbled on some apple slices while I waited for the oatmeal to finish cookin, which didn't take long. Sadly, they had no butter, only some sort of margarine, so I had my porridge with only milk. It tasted good, but I missed the butter, because my mouth is convinced that everything is better with butter.

Just before 09:00 my cousin Carola arrived. She is actually the grand daughter of my great-grandfather's baby brother, but we just say cousin, as that is easier.

She lives not that far from the event, so when we booked I tried to convince her to book too. But she had a lot going on in life just then, and wasn't certain at that point if she'd be able to attend.

I forgot to check back in as the event got closer, until we were almost on site on Friday. Carola was busy Friday evening, but could drop by for a couple of hours to see me on Saturday morning, if that is ok?

So I asked the event steward, who said that was ok, and the plan was made.

So when she arrived I took her to my room and dressed her in my bliaut, which fit as well as I expected it to. She is a little taller, but just as skinny as I am. She even has the same size feet, so my 12th century shoes fit too. (Her mom wasn't kidding when she told me that I look just like her Carola when we first met in 2010, on my first visit to Finland.)

Then we we went up to the main hall and I introduced her to some people, till it was time for my class on Swedish steatie artefacts. Alas, other than Carola, no one was interested in my class, there being plenty of other interesting classes to choose from, but that meant I was able to give her a direct one on one conversation about my research, and we both enjoyed it.

Then there was an introduction to the SCA class, taught by Queen Isebetta, so I brought Carola to that. There were five new, or reasonably new people, and three of ua old timers, and lots of info about the SCA was given. I hope they enjoyed it.

Then there was a lunch pause. Carola, not having paid for the event, ate her own food, I half wished I had brought my own, as the vegetarian option was some sort of fake chicken breast thing that looked and tasted like dry chicken breast, plus the rice that everyone got. I love rice, but I wanted to eat something that looked and tasted like meat, I would eat meat. But I don't miss eating meat. So while I got plenty to eat, it felt a bit weird to feel like I was eating meat.

There was some raw cabbage available, of which I took a little, as that was the only vegetable available. I am quite happy to very occasionally add a little cabbage to a steamed vegetable dish, but raw and on its own? Not so interesting, but still better than no veg at all, and it did add a nice texture change to the rice and "chicken". There was also some sort of herbed vinegarett, which I am certain would have been a lovely addition to the dry fake chicken (or the moist real chicken most people got), but alas, I can't stand anything with vinegar in it, so I skipped that part.

After lunch Carola and I went to the class on how to Iron Age before the Vikings. The teacher, Matti, has clearly done a lot of research on this period, and took us on a whirlwind tour of many (all?) of the relavant archaeological finds for costuming for this period, showing the contrast between the Roman style baggy tunics (one size fits all at once) and the more fitted Germanic tunics, and did a compare and contrast of the various very different cuts of trousers. He had both photos and a pile of clothing to show different styles, as well as examples of feast gear for the period.

I would have liked it if he also had a hand out, or a slide show with the names of the finds he mentioned in writing, plus or minus links or citations to books or papers on them, in part because my hearing problem makes it easier when I can also see things in writing, and in case he knew of any sources I didn't already know (I think I already knew most of them). But he had so much info that it would have been a lot of extra work to also write it down.

I imagine that Carola, who had never done any costume research, had a very different experience with the class than I did, since for her it is all new, while I have made many of the styles he mentioned. But I think we nith enjoyed it.

After that class it was time for her to head home so I helped her out of my clothes; the really long, and very tight sleeves on my 12th century underdress being a challenge to remove when one is used to it, and much harder on one's first try.

After we said our goodbyes I went up to the main hall, where fika had been served and I ate more than my fair share of the yummy apple cake. Soon thereafter it was time for court.

This time some of those who hadn't been present on Friday were there to get their well deserved awards, but there were a few that were only read out, but need to be kept secret till the recipients get official notification. They also, as is tradition, called up the newcomers to welcome them, and then the children to thank them for coming. This time there were only two children, both babes in arms, who were wide awake and all eyes, watching everything. When we cheered them "For the future of Drachenwald!", it was a very quiet cheer, so as not to scare them/hurt their ears.

At long last it was time for the Laurel ceremonies. The speakers for Getulio were all people to travel extensively to events, as he lives in Germany, and has lived in a variety of other Kingdoms before. I have only met him a couple of times, so it was good to hear stories from folk who have known him longer.

The highlight of his talks was when King William stood up from the throne to speak from the heart. I checked my bag for the cloth napkin I had taken to breakfast and didn't use, but it had been taken out earlier in the day luckily one of the other Laurels had something he could dry his tears with. It is very unusual for the King himself to be one of the speakers for a candidate (I am not certain I have seen it before), but it added weight to his words.

The medalion made for Getulio is beautiful. Made by mistress Orianne, patterned after one of the enamels on the Coronation mantle of Roger of Sicily. Copper base, enamel, with silver under the laurel leaves, and gold plate over the visible copper bits.

But it was the "robed as befits his state" gift that I really wanted was the beautiful dark blue (my favourite colour) garnache, a sort of hooded tunic, with the Laurel wreath embroidered on the hood such that it is perfectly on display on his shoulders when the hood is down.

After Getulio's elevation they brought fourth Gilliam and started the Ceremony, which was promptly interrupted by Countess Beatrix, who wondered if the candidate was truly worthy? She called for witnesses to speak to his qualifications. "Is he chivalrous enough? I mean, sure he us a knight, but that was long ago..." to that Johan, Viscount Nordmark, weilding the sword of state from behind the throne, bade her be silent and then told the story of the day when he and Gilliam, both young squires, sat in the back of court and the knights were called forward, and they looked at one another, and realised they were the only two likely candidates in the room, so it would be one of them, and at the moment the hand came down on Johans shoulder to draw him forward for the acolade, Gilliam showed only joy on behalf of his friend, and no trace of the disappointment that may have accompanied that moment.

Beatrix conceeded the chivalry point, but what about service? "Sure he's a Pelican, but that wasn't exactly yesterday...". One at a time the Devil's advocate called for a speaker to defend Gilliam's fitness for the order, and Beatrix gradually came around to the wishes of the order on this point, and we all hoped that Gilliam himself was also being convinced, as he had never before yesterday's court imaged that a Laurel was in his future. So once the ceremony would to its climatic question "will you accept?" we all waited with bated breath...

He explained that he had contemplated the question all night, had heard many words of wisdom, and he still feels that there are many people more worthy than he... and then he said "yes" and there were sighs of relief and whoops of joy.

When they called for a medellion Duke Sven stepped forward and explained that it doesn't happen often that one is a member of three orders, and he was passing on his medalion which has a knight's belt around a laurel wreath around a Pelican.

As he went to put the medalion on he took off Gilliam's hat. The cute pointed hat that he usually wears. Once the medalion was in place they wrapped around his shoulders the Drachenwald Kingdom Laurel cloak, and then put on his head a new hat, in the same style, but this one decorated with a wreath of laurel around the brim.

Then court ended and we all went to the hall, where Keldor and I helped serve the feast. I shared high table with our youngest server, who may be somewhere in the vicinity of 15 years old. We bonded by meowing at one another and doing poking battles. It was fun.

After the third course of the feast his Majesty held the final court of the event, to thank the kitchen crew and event stewards then they presented the final award of the weekend to one of the event cooks, Druga, a Panache (arts award) for cooking.

After court I stepped up in my role as Norrskensbard, and performed my play about the Snaptunsten (the one which won me the title), and I was delighted to get a few compliments on it afterwards, so I guess a few people enjoyed it.

Soon thereafter dessert was served, and I was feeling tired, but I didn't really want to go to bed. So I gathered up my box of play props, and took down our banners and took them back to the room and did a little packing .

Then I did my yoga, brushed my teeth, and whet back to the hall, till around 01:00, when Keldor said he was heading to bed, so I joined him, and slept happily till my hips woke me demanding motion at 07:00. So I got up, did my morning workout, by which time the others in our room were also awake (I did the workout in the neatby empty classroom, so as not to disturb them), so we packed things up and went to breakfast.

Then we loaded the car and said some good byes, and started driving at 09:30. That was 13 hours ago, and we are now 20 minutes from home. So I will close this by saying that it was a delightful weekend, and I am glad we went

This was a busy week at work. Normally I manage to work from home at least one day a week, but this week I had meetings every day, plus picking up my new glasses on Tuesday and getting my hearing aids adjusted on Wednesday. Well not Friday. Friday is a vacation day for the road trip.

We did most of the packing Wednesday evening, getting the clothes into one chest, transferring the accessories form its usual chest to a smaller one, and double checking that the feast gear box is packed correctly.

I had thought to do a little more event prep on Wednesday. But the US election results were out, and I was feeling worried enough for my friends and family there that I spent the evening on the couch reading and trying not to think about the real world.

This morning (Thursday) I woke at 03:30 to use the toilet and realised that I was feeling awake enough to do a short workout, so I did, fully expecting to go back to sleep after, as we didn't need to get up till 05:30.

Then I remembered that I had planned to change out the bulky sticks (tree branches, 2 to 3 cm diameter) I had used for handles for the signs with pictures of my characters for the play I had performed for the Norrskensbard contest. Keldor found some smaller sticks, only 9 mm in diameter that I could use. With three people in a car for the road trip having the signs take less space would be a good thing. (I had emailed the Kingdom uni event stewards to ask if they would like the play performed during the feast, and they said yes).

So after my workout I cut the tape from the signs to open them, removed the big sticks, put in the small ones, taped them shut again, and transferred the numbers from the handles, to the new sticks. By the time I was done with that it was getting much closer to time to get up, so I decided I may as well pack lunch and get ready to go.

Then I could have gone back to bed for 10 minutes, but on the way to the bedroom my nose told me that one of the cats had done something particularly unpleasant smelling in the litter box. So I used the time to empty the box, at which point Keldor was getting up.

So I ate breakfast and he walked me to the bus stop, which he could do because he had a work course Fire saftey, which they need to do on a regular basis), and it didn't start till 08:00.

After my morning meeting I could have taken a 10 minute nap before the next one, and I even went downstairs to the "vilorummet", but it was already occupied. So nap.

My final meeting ended early enough that I was able to take an early bus home, getting there at 14:10. I had reached a good breaking point in work as the bus got near, so I flexed out the rest of the day and got to work on the last things.

By 18:00 I had:

Baked a "smulpaj" with the last of the homemade vanilla sauce and som frozen raspberries
Baked a mix of rice porridge, eggs, spinach, kale, nettles, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, sesame seeds, mushroom powder and spices.
Cleaned the kitchen
Packed sewing projects
Packed modern clothes
Packed pillows and sheets
Packed the banners
Packed the ice chest, except for the new baked stuff, which was still warm, so I just put them in plastic boxes, and set both the ice chest and the boxes between the inner and outer doors so they would be cold while waiting.
Packed a small chest with knives for sale (there is no official market at the event, but...)
Took out the trash, compost, and emptied the litter box
Did my yoga for day
Washed my hair
Oiled my boots.

I felt pretty good about that, as it was everything I wanted to have done before leaving . By that time Keldor was home, and quickly packed his modem clothes. Then Þórólfr arrived, we loaded the car, I built a nest in the back seat, and we started driving.

I slept the first hour, then woke to use a toilet at Umeå. I tried going back to sleep, but didn't, so I typed this instead. Now we are south of Örnsköldsvik.

Google Maps says that if we don't stop we can be on stie at 07:30. We will stop. We have to be there early enough to change clothes before Þórólfr needs to report to the Crown to prepare for Friday evenings court. I think we can manage that.

Now I am tired again, so I will see if I can sleep some more before it is my trurn to drive.

On Wednesday we took down my pavilion, which has been standing in the back yard to dry since we got home from Double Wars, Thursday I managed to get the last of the things organised so that we could pack for this weekends event, and most of the rest of the things we had brought have been put away. Therefore, I think that I can claim to be recovered from the event. This means it is time to reflect on it, and share thanks.

Our trip south started later than we wanted, for reasons outside of our control, so we skipped the runestone sort of adventures we normally do on a road trip, and just drove first to the rest stop at Tönnebro, where we slept a few hours, and then to the Stockholm area, where we picked up Harald.

As we headed back to the highway the van made a weird noise, and then threw a wheel across traffic and into a field. Luckily, there was a bus stop just there, so we parked the van, fetched the wheel, spoke with insurance, and only three hours later we, and everything we had brought with us, was in a larger rental van and we were on the way again.

We arrived on site just before 23:00 on Friday, 25 hours after leaving home, and were shown the location for Camp Northern Lights. That far south it is rather dark at that hour, and we were tired, so we tucked his armour bag on the floor by the passenger seat and covered it with sheepskins to make a nest to sleep. Sunrise at home was 02:00, but on site it didn't come up till 04:00, and I got up and spent a couple of hours sorting things into piles trying to find everything needed to put up the tent (no thought or care had gone into the emergency transfer of stuff from one van to the next).

Eventually I found everything and Keldor woke up, and we set up the tent. Neither of us had any idea what the time was, having lost all sense of time during the long drive. Therefore I apologise to everyone we woke thereby. There was no malicious intent, I assure you...

The good part of starting set up that early was that we had our tent and sunshade up and the car out of the way before the other Camp Northern Lights people arrived. They are the first people I really need to thank. Daniel, Gerdis, Þórólfr, Askar, Bjarni, Hjalmar, Silubrein, and Geiri were all delightful to have living (some more full time than others) in camp. So often I would think "I should (insert camp chore here)" but then decide that I needed to do something else first, and when I returned, the chore was already done.

Everyone always forgets something when packing for an event. Therefore I am grateful to Aleydis for loaning me a hat for the week, so that I didn't have to buy a fourth to go with the three I left at home, and to Sighvald, who was willing to return the hat to her after the event, so I could keep using it after she left site.

After we were moved in and properly set up my focus switched to hiding in the hall to attach the wonderful embroidered roundels people had made for Keldor’s elevation caftan (as that was a location I knew he wouldn't come, so I didn't need to worry about the surprise being spoiled). As a result I missed many fun activities and classes I would have liked to attend, but I think the result was worth it. Certainly Keldor loved it. I will do a separate post with thanks for that, as FB doesn't want me to tag people more than once.

I did, however, make it to the Laurel Sponsored Display, where I enjoyed seeing all the wonderful things people are working on. I love the way our hobby sparks hobbies! I also made it to one of Helga's classes, and loved every second of it. I hope I get another chance to learn from her when I am not distracted preparing for a friend's elevation.

On Wednesday I managed to find time to trade a much-needed massage with Eira, just before the bardic circle we hosted in our camp, both of which I really enjoyed. Thank you to everyone who came and participated!

Thursday during the day we sold a few of Keldor’s knives at the market, and enjoyed visiting with everyone who came by. Thursday evening was Keldor’s vigil, complete with a "fiskedamm", from which people could pull out one of four categories of prizes: candy, tiny bottles of booze (with a single lingonberry in it--apparently this is a Norrland thing), cute toys or hats made by Keldor’s late mother, or small things he's made in the smithy. It was fun for me running it, the visitors seemed to enjoy the "fishing", and I really appreciated the company and help of Emma working with me behind the curtain.

I am also grateful for the help of everyone who helped me set up for the vigil--the food buffet you created (while I was inside setting up the vigil space) looked amazing. I know that the list included most, if not all, of our above-named campmates, with help from (at least) Jörgen (who doesn't actually recommend setting up one's own vigil) Tobias, Annette, Wilhelm, Kokko Sylvi, and Erin. Huge thanks also to Mari who sent the vigil book, and Ermina, who decorated it.

On Friday was the elevation court for Keldor’s laurel. Thank you to Haakon, who sent touching words and a "scroll" (drinking horn, the cast bits of which were made by SvartulvR), John, who made the medallion (out of iron he'd forged from bog ore, using period instructions for doing enamel!), Ermina, who made a lovely scroll on parchment, William, Jovi, Egil, and Þórólfr who all spoke from the heart. I always love seeing our peerage ceremonies, because of the love that is shared, but to be able to be the spokesperson for my own beloved partner, and to hear words from people who have known him decades longer than I have been in the Kingdom is extra special.

Saturday we took everything down, helped with camp take down tasks and started driving north. We had no car troubles, so we visited a few runestones before returning Harald, then slept some hours at Tönnebro, before taking an inland detour to see the 31-monumentet at Ådalen and crossing the Sandöbron. We arrived home on Sunday 27 hours after leaving the site.

Ten years ago, I visited Nordmark for the second time to attend the St. Cecelia’s music and dance themed event, and had no idea how that trip would change my life for the better. I had been living in Italy, and my first post-doc job contract was winding to a close, and, despite many applications, I hadn’t yet lined up a new job. I really didn’t want to go back to the US, and while I had a shiny new Australian Passport, I felt that I would rather go to somewhere with a better winter next. Therefore, I devised Plan A: travel around Scandinavia for the three months an Australian/American can be in Europe without applying for a visa and keep applying for jobs; perhaps something good will come up.

While at the event, I shared this plan with people there, and many of them said “I have crash space, come visit me”, but David said “I have crash space in the north”, which really got my attention. He and I then spent the next month talking over video call for 2 to 5 hours a day (and longer on weekends), and Plan A changed to “move to Luleå and live with David”, which brought about other changes as well.
At St. Cecelia’s I attended all of the dance classes, and tried one of the singing classes, but my inability to control my voice and change tone/pitch appropriately was a bit painful for poor Natfarí, who smiled and encouraged me, even as he winced (and was probably relieved that I could at least manage to remember the words and had good timing. But David sang in a student choir and the university which has only one entrance requirement “you must enjoy singing” and they welcomed me with open arms.

Ten years later my singing is still not up to professional performance levels, but I am singing regularly and often, my pitch/tone is far more reliable, and more often correct, and I have even gotten SCA awards for my bardic contribution. Thank you Natfarí, your event had much further reaching effects than could have been predicted in advance.

the choir on the stairs at St. Cecelia's

the choir on the stairs at St. Cecelia's

At that event, when the choir performed on the stairs I sat at their feet to sew to enjoy the sound. If we were to do it today I would be singing with them (though I might still be sewing as I did).

Crossposts: https://kareina.livejournal.com/569557.html

This weekend was Drachenwald Kingdom University. If you didn't know it was happening then you have been living under a rock that shelters you from a large number of social media streams used by the SCA, since the team did an amazing job with publicity, including video trailers for the event and pre-recorded classes released one a day in the week leading up to the event (each of which had a corresponding Q & A session during the event).

You can see the Event End Credits here. Have a look if you enjoy seeing lists of the many, many people it took to create such an event, and if you enjoy post-credit in-jokes aimed at people who follow popular culture and movies.

As a result of their efforts we had around 500 people participating via eight different Zoom streams plus a Discord server for social chatter. The participants and teachers came from every continent save Antarctica. I was able to help out in a small way, being one of the co-hosts for the Leiden Zoom class room. This means that I spent much of the weekend in that room, ready to help out as needed. We had a total of four people on duty in our room, which meant that we were all able to step out now and then to catch other classes and still always have two people on duty to take care of muting and unmuting people at need, playing the trailer for the next class in between classes, giving directions (in the form of links) to people who wandered into the wrong room, making the teachers co-host so that they could share their screens, and recording those sessions that would be recorded. Our classroom was one of the large ones (up to 500 people could be present at once), so it was the one which included things like the opening ceremony, feast, and court, which I thought was great.
( what I did each day of the event, and how many hours of bardic I attended )
I spent all morning today in zoom to be available for answering questions as a couple of colleagues used the laser lab following the checklists I had prepared (and which I edited as we went whenever they asked questions). Then I spent a lazy afternoon, and this evening met with the Nordmark Seneschal and Exchequer to finalise the budget for next summer's Drachenwald Coronation, for which I am the event steward.

Tomorrow evening I will attend the Drachenwald Law Council Meeting, Wednesday and Thursday I will host the zoom session as Their Majesties have private audiences with some of their subjects, and next Sunday there is another online bardic. It is a good thing that I love video calls!

Crossposts: https://kareina.livejournal.com/568269.html

It has been a busy couple of days of travel prep: packing for SCA event and getting ready for the conference and Durham trip. I finished the poster for the conference on Wednesday and sent it to my advisor, who thought it looked great, but suggested that it would be good to include the Durham logo and sent me a power point poster template that the department (possibly the whole uni?) uses. She will be doing the printing for me, and would happily have accepted the CorelDraw file I already had, but the uni print shop told her they would rather have powerpoint. So I spent three hours today fighting with powerpoint to re-create the same poster by copy-pasting in each text box and each photo and then using the painful ppt interface to get them to be the correct size and shape again. Then, after a break to do more event packing, I went back and spent another couple of hours on tweaks and edits.

Once it was truly done I sent her the file, and then went in to the office, where I had planned to print some flyers for the Uma XXV: Hostdans & Norrskensbard event that the autocrat had sent me (I asked her to, so I could give them out at Cudgel War), pick up the rock samples I want to take to Durham for analysis with the XRD while I am there, and then go to the grocery store to get a few things for the road (especially fresh fruit--I am totally out at home).

However, it took some time to make the printer work (had to re-install the uni printer authentication system and reintroduce my computer to the printer system). Then I decided that rather than taking the samples as they are that it would make sense to cut the bigger ones into two pieces and take only a small one of each with me to Durham (to keep the luggage reasonable in mass). This meant labelling new sample bags for all of those, and taking photos, etc. by which time the store was closed. Therefore I also took the time to enter into the spreadhseet which ones are cut and which ones I am taking the entire sample, and I even re-named all of the photos with their sample number and the word "-cut".

Now I can go get some sleep. David has to work in the morning, and has a few more things he wants to pack into his wooden chests, which need to go in the bottom row in the car, so car loading won't happen till he is home. He hopes to work only a half day, but he is in IT, so it could happen that he gets stuck having to fix something that takes hours... But we will get on the road when we do, and then it is 10 hours driving (plus breaks) to Cudgel War. I don't expect to get another chance to post again till I get to Durham on Friday the 13th, since last I checked it wasn't possible to post from my phone...

Edited to add: just taught the phone my password so I can log into the web page. So not as nice as the LJ app, which doesn't work with DreamWidth...

Crossposts: https://kareina.livejournal.com/515754.html

2018-07-01

No idea if they actually broke any...

I had a delightful weekend at the Frostheim Broken Arrow event. As the name might imply, the theme for the weekend was archery, and it is the first event run by the Frostheim archers (all of whom joined the shire a couple of years ago as a group, and who got their AoA's as a group this spring).

They had asked me if I would be willing to cook the breakfasts at the event. Since I did that for both Norrskensfests I ran *in addition* to running the event and entering in the Bardic competition, I thought that doing *only* breakfast at an event sounded easy, so I said yes. It turned out to be even easier than I though, since I didn't even have to do the grocery shopping, the archers took care of that part when they were getting the other food for the event.

Styx has been due for a service since when I did the Trondheim trip last month, and, as I forgot to mentioned in my post-trip report, two different sorts of “check breaks lights” had been glowing since soon after leaving the workshop in Sollefteå. (Having just spent 10,000 SEK on fixing breaks in Sollefteå, and another 7,000 for a different problem with the breaks in Luleå the week before, we chose to ignore those lights for the rest of the trip, and some time thereafter, too.) ‘But Cudgel War is coming, and we want a working car for that, therefore we took the car in for service a week ago, and asked them to see if they could figure out what was wrong with the breaks this time.

The figured out the problem, which involved a sensor connection rusting away, but they needed to order the parts. So we booked a time for the following week, and they day they had available was Friday, so we took it. So I dropped it off in the morning, went to the lab ran an experiment, then went home, read for a bit (which counts as studying Swedish, since I was also listening to the audio book) and finished off the last of the event packing (most had been done on Thursday evening). The shop didn’t call till 16:00, at which point David was able to drive me in to pick it up (I had tossed my trike into the car and pedalled home from the shop that morning). This time the combined service and repairs cost 8,000 SEK, and I am really hoping that it is now done needing any work for a couple three years, since I don’t expect to have a budget to replace it till then (given what we have spent in the past couple of months on it, this counts as having replaced it this year—next time something major goes wrong we had probably better replace it with something newer instead of trying to prolong its life again).

Given that I didn’t get home from picking it up till after 16:30, at which point I needed to eat and then do all of the car loading myself (David returned to work to finish up what needed to be done before the weekend), it was no surprise that I wasn’t on site till after 18:00, by which point the Archers were relaxing next to the Frostheim grill set up, all of their pavilions and the archery range already set up. They had kindly saved a place next to the grill for our sunshade it is worth clicking that link if you haven’t already seen it on FB—it is a 360 degree photo taken from inside the sunshade, so you can rotate the image and look in any direction (including up and down). You can even see my stone carving in progress in its tray).

I managed to get both the sunshade (with the help of a couple of Archers, Alfálrin and Mågne, the Norrskensbågskytt) and the pavilion up and had started unloading the car into the pavilion when David and Caroline arrive, and with their help the inside of the tent was soon in order. They hurried out to join others at the evening meal, but I wasn’t hungry, so I started working on my stone carving. This was my first chance to do so since the Trondheim trip You can see the post from after that trip for a photo of how the cooking pot in progress looked after one day in the workshop there), which also shows the wooden trough filled with sand/soapstone powder to hold the stone while working on it. Part of the reason I hadn’t made any progress on the project since getting home on 13 May (besides being flat-out busy) is that I didn’t have such a trough here (though I did have a bag of sand/soapstone powder to put into it). David, wonderful man that he is, made me the trough during the week before the event, so that I would be able to do carving for the event. I am really happy with how it came out:

stone carving

It was 23:30 when I started carving Friday evening (I love living far enough north that sunset isn’t a problem in the summer), and I could have happily worked on the project for quite a bit longer. But I knew that I needed to get up to make breakfast, so I put it down at at 00:15 and was in bed by 01:00. I managed to get up by 06:20 and went to the kitchen, where I set a bread sponge then whipped cream to make butter. The buttermilk went into the bowl with the yeast, flour and water and I put a pot onto the stove to boil eggs and started some oatmeal cooking in the rice cooker. By that time Ragnhild was also up so she chopped the tomato and cucumber, made coffee, took over the eggs and porridge and setting stuff out onto the serving table while I mixed up and kneaded the bread dough and baked it.

After I was done cleaning up the baking mess I took a much needed 1.5 hour nap, and then got up and spent the day working on stone carving and visiting with people (most of whom were curious as to what I was making and why). I only made it to the archery range once to wave hi to the people who were there, but everyone else on site seemed to be enjoying the shooting. One thing that made the carving possible is that David has invested in a couple of gadgets to repel mosquitoes. I am not clear as to how or why they work, but one puts a tiny fuel cannister in one end, and a chunk of something blue in the other. When you turn it on it ignites a very tiny flame under the blue stuff, and something about what it emits (which I can’t smell at all when it is burning outside) keeps the mosquitoes away. When I started carving Saturday morning the mosquitoes found me right away and started trying to “help” (themselves, to my blood), so I went and got one of the gadgets and they promptly disappeared, so I could concentrate on what I was doing.

One of the nicest things about being in the SCA is the useful skills one picks up. In addition to archery and stone carving this event also had an open smithy. So I asked Keldor (who was in charge of the smithy) if he could make me a tool for my stone work, and he agreed. I gave him photos of the one I had used in Trondheim, and in an hour or three he had completed the tool, and David attached a handle out of a chunk of tree we found lying on the ground in the forest.

That evening was a bit colder, so put on my wool. I have a rule: no stone carving wearing my nice wool clothes. Therefore I joined some of the others at the camp fire on the beach for conversation and singing. While I would have enjoyed staying up later, I was aware that breakfast comes early, so I went to bed around 01:00.

This morning I got up at 6:10. Ragnhild and I worked more efficiently, so I had the cooking mess cleaned up and was laying back down for a nap by 08:50, after which I woke up and we broke camp. By the time my pavilion and sunshade were down many others had already left, and the archers were finishing loading the Frostheim gear into the trailer. I gave them my thanks for the event, apologised for leaving before the site was spotless (and they thanked me for doing breakfast so they (except for Ragnhild) didn’t have to) and went on my way. I had just enough time to get the stuff that goes into the basement unloaded through the shop door and into the places where they belong when David and Caroline got home, so after I drove the car around to the upper driveway he helped me carry in the chests. I delayed long enough to empty the ice chest, and then curled up on the couch with a book for a bit (they ate their food on the couch swing on the porch) before he and I sat down to discuss what needs to happen before we leave for Cudgel next weekend, and then we started to make some of it so.

We added wood glue to the pavilion hub that started to split a bit, and he cut a board into a double-Y shape to be a better holder for the rope for the rope bed than the stick we have been using. I wrapped the rope on it, determined that it needed a wider handle, so he cut a slot in a round pole segment and glued it to the rope holder. I am very happy with the result—it will be ever so much easier to set up and take down the rope bed with this tool. After he went over to the apartment I caught up on email, then did the mending on one of his and two of my tunics that we noticed needs doing. Between now and when we leave on Friday we need to make a bag for the new poles for the sunshade, do the laundry (plus check to see if anything else needs mending, and if it does, do it), re-pack the SCA stuff (and I need to pack stuff for the Durham trip and finish the poster for the conference), and make food for the trip. It would also be nice to make better, medieval looking, holders for the mosquito things, acquire two more poles, so that I can have my pavilion awning up even when the sun shade is in use, buy one of those LED fake candles to keep in the candle holder at the event (Cudgel is so far south that the sun actually really sets instead of just flirting with going behind the horizon to the north briefly).

Crossposts: https://kareina.livejournal.com/515169.html

When last I left off posting I had put in a couple of long days at the lab so that I would be able to head out of town at a reasonable hour on Thursday. However, I did stay up after working till midnight on Wednesday that I didn't wake up Thursday till 10:00, and then I needed to do all of the event packing. As a result I didn't have the car loaded till 13:40 (stopping to cook lunch was a factor in that timing, of course). Luckily, Oulu isn't far away. Google tells me that if we didn't stop between here and there we could have done the drive in 3 hrs and 10 minutes. However, we did stop for petrol and let Oscar & Nina buy some dinner to go. This meant we were on site around 19:30 (Finnish time) on Thursday.

I managed to stay up visiting with people till nearly 23:00, but then decided that sleep was more important. Then I slept till 08:00 on Friday, nicely catching up on some of the sleep I had been behind on. The event had a very heavy archery focus (as one might guess from an event called "Frozen Arrow", but I chose not to participate in that, but instead brought projects to work on. Over the course of the weekend I made good progress on my nålbinding, a sprang project, and my Viking cloak.

Friday evening a bunch of us went Ice Swimming (an odd name for swimming in water that just happens to have ice bordering it), but I only managed to go in to the tops of my thighs, at which point I realized that I couldn't feel my feet, and went right back up that ladder! I think it would have been much easier to jump in than go in slowly, but the locals I was with insisted that it isn't safe to jump in and one must take it slow and easy. I am not 100% convinced, since "slow and easy" meant "not at all" in my case (everyone else actually went in deep enough to swim, though no one put their head in the water (we had all been advised not to).

While we were off site the others started on the Snow Shoe making workshop. They used cut branches and some twine to make snow shoes, which were to be used the next day for the archery contest that involved tramping through the forest to shoot at paintings of animals. That contest was done in small groups (one for each canton of the barony (all of Finland is one barony), and another group for each SCA branch outside of Finland that had people at the event. (There were three of us who had come over from northern Sweden, three who flew over from Ireland, and one that came up from Belgium.) I thought about trying to make myself snowshoes, as I could actually use a pair at home, but when I heard that part of the contest was "whose snowshoes survive their first use?" I decided that it would be easier to just work on my nålbinding project.

Friday I managed to stay up till midnight before heading to bed, but then woke at 06:00 on Saturday, for another delightful day of working on projects and visiting with people. So many delightful people in the SCA in Finland, and the Irish folk were also delightful. Oddly enough, a couple of them had also been at the event I went to in Ireland last week, but I didn't meet them there!. Both events were around 40 people attending, yet somehow I didn't managed to meet and talk with everyone at the event in Ireland. Therefore I tried harder at the Finnish event (which was a longer event, which made it easier to manage).

Saturday night I was having so much fun I stayed up till nearly 03:00 (so much for having caught up on sleep...). Sunday morning they did yet more archery outside, and so I worked a bit more on my sprang project before finally switching to packing and cleaning up. We got back on the road a bit for 13:00 and went straight to a grocery store, where I stocked up on Leipäjuusto and Oscar & Nina stocked up on Finnish sausages. Then we went to Haparanda, where they sat down for burgers and I went for a short walk. I might have walked a bit longer, but the neighbourhood streets were a little on the icy side, it having been so sunny and warm over the weekend (by warm I mean "it went a little above freezing"), so instead I joined them in the restaurant, but not before a lady in the street asked me if I was the Easter Witch (I was wearing my witch's hat, it being such a sunny day, and hadn't changed out of my costume, either) and wished me a happy Easter (in Swedish, of course).

The rest of the journey home was full of pleasant conversation, clear, mostly dry roads, and went quickly, getting us home by about 17:00. This gave me time to unpack before my houseguests arrived. Henrik, who used to live in Luleå (and mom might remember meeting, he certainly remembers her fondly), and his girlfriend Sapphire, who I hadn't met before, but rather liked. They stayed with me Sunday and Monday night, which was nice. Tuesday morning they went with me to the lab to see the laser in action (Henrik has used ICP-MS before, but never with the laser-ablation, too, so he was curious to see it), after which I came home (and worked from home the rest of the day and into the night, thus missing both Phire practice and Choir) and they went off to visit Henrik's family before returning to southern Sweden.

Wednesday I also worked from and didn't go in for Parkour training, but I did make it to the Herrskapsdanskurs (since it happens only once a month I am loath to miss it), which was much fun, as it always is.

It snowed Wednesday evening, a good 10 to 15 cm of wet snow, so I spent 45 minutes this morning shoveling one of the driveways so I could drive to work without driving on the snow (not wanting it to later freeze with ridges from the tire tracks). I worked all day (some on each job), and then went to the Frostheim social night (only on campus once a month this term). (The link to my cloak above, if it works and isn't behind privacy walls) is a photo from tonight's social night.) Then I did some grocery shopping before coming home, to discover that we'd had a mini avalanche: one of the shed roofs finally tossed its snow. When it did that last spring the total was about 1 to 1.5 meter wide pile, not quite a meter deep. This year we have had a much better snow-year, so the pile extends to about 5 meters from the shed wall, and is more than one meter deep throughout. I am so glad that I wasn't walking next to it when that snow came down, or it might have been the last thing I ever did.

Now it is 01:20, and I should go to my yoga and get to bed, unless mom and my sisters have a moment to do a quick video call first--mom is finally out of the hospital! She has recovered from the pneumonia and infection, and from the heart attack and being resuscitated, had her veins cleaned out, stents put in, and a defibrillator installed. She also lost about 15 pounds in the 10 days she was in the hospital, which, given all the trauma she managed to overcome, is not surprising. With luck she is now good to go for years to come.

Crossposts: https://kareina.livejournal.com/505628.html

This got long, so I will break it into chapters:

( Friday Morning )

( Saturday morning )

( music classes )

( mid afternoon meal and court )

( Sunday morning )

( Sunday afternoon and evening )

( Monday morning )

( Monday afternoon and early evening (and first bad news of the day) )

( Sunday night (and some very worrisome news) )

( Tuesday day and evening (and some quite encouraging news) )

Therefore I have taken the time to type this up (just over five pages!) so that they can read it to her. However, I suspect that they will need to take it in chapters.

Crossposts: https://kareina.livejournal.com/505210.html

Today was Frostheim's annual Jul event, a nice, low-key potluck dinner at the same Gillestuga where we do folk dance each week. I had baked an apple pie yesterday for it, and since it is easier to do a big batch of pie crust at once, I also filed a large pie plate ready to fill with broccoli, eggs, and cheese today, and then set three more dough filled pie plates into the freezer for later use. I was up way too late last night, so I had a lazy morning.

The only thing productive I did in the morning was to set up the new humidifier, now that the cartridge for it had soaked for 24 hours. When I turned it on it told me that the humidity level in the house was 24. Now, 11 hours later, it says 34. I am hoping that the crack that runs across the front of the dulcimer will close back up again. It is usually hard to see in the summer, and quite gaping in the winter. Right now it is still more than 1 mm wide, but then the humidifier which is already running is in the living room. They shipped the other one separately, and it didn't' arrive till a day later, so its cartridge is soaking now, and we can turn it on in the office (where the dulcimer is living these days) tomorrow.

Around 13:30 I decided that perhaps I should head out and shovel a little snow (not that we had much new, but if one keeps on top of it, it is easier), so I put on my coat and boots and opened the door, to David, who was just arriving. So instead of shoveling snow I just took down the compost, picked up the mail, and chatted briefly with the neighbour* who was out lighting candles at the base of his drive, presumably to mark the house for a party later. Then I went back in and helped David make the broccoli pie and gathered up the few things I wanted to take with me for the event before changing into my jester costume.

David and I pulled into the site at exactly 16:00, when the site was supposed to open, to discover that the Archers were already there, and that some other group had been in the hall setting up for their party there tomorrow. So we took down their decorations and cleared away the stuff they had on the tables, and we called the woman in charge of bookings and she said that she would contact the other group and let them know that we had cleaned their stuff out of the way for our party.

With so many of us to do the work it took only a few minutes to change from a balloons everywhere (I think they are celebrating a baptism tomorrow, or perhaps a wedding--the site is a very short walk from the old stone church) to medieval banners, and those of us who were there already were sitting down to eat by 16:47. More people arrived later, and there was pretty much always someone eating. The other Phire members didn't start to arrive till around 18:00, and, of course, they needed to eat before the show. I did my yoga as a warm-up starting just after 19:00, and by the time I was done they had the outside set up and ready for the fire show, so first Ellinor and I did our Acroyoga performance inside, and then everyone went out for the fire show. After the performances and more visiting (and more food for those who wanted it) we did some dancing. People started trickling out kind of early. Once enough had departed the rest of us went into cleaning mode, and were done and ready to leave site by 22:43, at which point I sent the other group an SMS to let them know we were done. They replied hoping that it wasn't too much of a problem for us that they had set up before we got there, and I assured them that it was fine, but we felt bad for them that they had to do their work over again, and at 23:45 they replied that it wasn't a problem, it went faster the second time, and they were already done.

Tomorrow we will head out to visit David's parents, and then there is one more week of work before the Christmas holiday. My friend Linda will arrive on the 26th, and Stephanie and her family on the 29th. I am looking forward to seeing them all. Come January life will get really busy as I start the new PhD program for real.

* The neighbour tells me that it is quite different working at Uppsala instead of LTU--they have much more bureaucracy (no real surprise, the Uni in Uppsala was founded in 1477, so it has had plenty of time to build up a serious bureaucracy, while LTU wasn't founded till 1971, and didn't become a full University till 1997, so it has some work to do to catch up with the paperwork levels). I still find it funny that he spent 15 years living in Uppsala and commuting to LTU, and then finally bought a house up here, and a couple of years later got hired away to work in Uppsala and commute from here. When David and I first bought our house he was still living in Uppsala, and when I told him that I liked having a place that feels kind of like living in the country, yet is only 4 km from the office, he said "that's too close!" and told me how long he had been commuting from Uppsala. A couple of years later the big house on our street came up for sale, and he bought it, making him a couple hundred meters closer to campus than I.

Crossposts: https://kareina.livejournal.com/492183.html

(finally making time to post about this)

Last weekend was a fun adventure--Mom and I drove Thursday evening as far as my friend K's house, which took five hours, because we dropped

lord_kjar off at the airport on our way out of town. Twice. (We got to the airport the first time, and he said "Where's my back pack?". It was right where he left it, on the floor by the door at his office. As a result what should have been a 15-20 minute detour took pretty much an hour with there-and-back again driving. Luckily, he still caught his flight on time.)

We arrived late, so pretty much went straight to sleep, and did our visiting with people in the morning over breakfast. Then mom, K, and I hopped in the car and drove south. We stopped at Skulleberget, where I had planned to do a quick climb up the mountain, at least as far as the cave, while mom relaxed in the visitor center. Sadly, it turns out that the visitor center isn't open this week--never mind that it was last week, and will be again later in the month.

Undaunted we instead drove across the highway and took the small road in to one of the other park entrances, just because none of us had ever been there before. That road leads past some cute old farm houses and a small village with lovely views out over the fjord, and ends at a park trail head. Since mom isn't up for hiking we just used the outhouse and then got back on the road.

The next stop was at a hotel with lovely views of a bridge, in hopes of getting mom some coffee. However, even though they serve lunch, they wouldn't sell us a cup of coffee, so we kept driving.

The next stop was the winner--the museum in Sundsvall, where we and a few other SCA people had a guided tour of the Högom find exhibit (but first we ate lunch at the cafe and mom got her coffee). I first read Margareta Nockert's book on the textiles from that find in 1998, and it was a delight to see the display. Not that they have much of the textiles here--the rest are apparently in Stockholm, but what they have were wonderful to see. And they have the buttons! Ok, round decorative things that attach to a clasp, not buttons in the modern sense. But they are every bit as stunning as the photos make them out to be. I want some. (Ok, I now have some--mom bought me the postcard with a photo of them, because she loves me.)

After that we drove across town and walked about on the burial mounds themselves. The local SCA kids grew up sledding on those hills.

Then we went out to the SCA event, which was held in a cute little scout cabin in the woods on the bank of the river. Lovely setting, nice hall (save for the part about sleeping on the third floor but the only toilets being on the first floor, I prefer a shorter trip for those middle of the night runs to the loo).

Friday night I did a talk on the history of the SCA and read Dorthea's story about the first event. Saturday after breakfast they started with a lecture on various types of embroidery during various SCA periods by an embroidery/research laurel. Then those of us who were doing hands-on workshops each had a quick turn to describe the stitch or technique we had on offer, then we each took a table and people came to us to learn (many people rotated through more than one workshop). Some of them learned osenstitch by working on the cloak, others on a scrap of fabric they could take home with them to look at later.

This mixed class approach worked really well in terms of everyone getting a chance to try everything, and made for good energy in the room. However, the cloak may not have gotten as much attention as it might have if the workshops were totally separate rooms or something. Not that I can complain, as of today (three days after the event), the cloak is up to 109 hours: the musical instrument is nearly done and the first set of northern lights is nearly done on the green part and well along on the red. It is looking likely that we will be able to finish this before the event (13-15 Nov).

Saturday evening was a pot-luck feast, which turned out to be a great feast for all carnivores and cheese lovers, but I felt bad for the poor woman sitting next to me, who has so many allergies that she just eats vegan to play it safe--not so much on that table in that category.

During the feast the Prince and Princess held court and gave my friend K her award of arms, which pleased me greatly (especially as I hadn't checked the registration list in advance, so didn't know they were coming, so I hadn't sent any award recommendations myself). They also gave another friend of mine an award for arts and sciences, to which my reaction was "She doesn't already have one?!". They also did a very nice speech to the new people, welcoming them, and encouraging everyone else to do so as well, since new people are the future of our society.

Sunday we helped out a bit with cleaning, and then got on the road early enough that even with one stop to visit friends on the way home we still got here on time for me to drop mom and the stuff at the house and head to our normal Sunday folk dance class, where I was delighted to discover that we have a couple of new people!

However, much though I would have loved to stay and keep dancing, I had to leave a bit early to head to the airport and pick

lord_kjar.

Monday was our first Finnish class (which I already posted about), and Tuesday was choir. Today some friends came over to help me work on the cloak, and tomorrow is Frostheim's A&S night at the uni. This weekend is the first one without something planned in a while, and I am looking forward to it. Perhaps I will finish unpacking from the event--I have been too busy doing stuff in prep for Norrskensfest in November to get to that.

The rest of the weekend

Roadtrip to Kingdom University

Double Wars trip

ten years in Sweden = ten years of Singing

Drachenwald Kingdom University

so many last things to accomplish before we go

No idea if they actually broke any...

the past eight days

the rest of the adventures in Ireland, and after

Frostheim Jul

Glöta Gillet and the Högom find

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