spring in the northlands
It is well and truly spring now--we have more daylight than dark each day now, and the amount of sun is increasing noticeably each day. Sadly, my beautiful snow is melting. Happily, it isn't doing so very quickly--while it has been getting to around +5 C at mid-day, it is still dropping to -9 C at night, which means that it is still safe to walk on the snow machine tracks on the lake (how I will miss that shortcut when the ice under the snow starts melting!)
Our house has lots of windows on the south-facing side, and the view out those windows is mostly across fields, which means that at this time of the year, if it is sunny (which it has been!), we get lots of sun shining directly into those windows. This has made a huge difference in the temperature in the house.
There were a couple of times this winter when the temperatures were this warm, with temps a bit above freezing during the days and a bit below freezing at night, but during the winter there wasn't much sun shining directly on the house--it was only up at all for a few hours, and it only cleared the trees on the far side of the field for a bit at mid-day. As a result inside of the house during the winter, even on those relativity warm days, it was cool enough that I always needed to wear long sleeves. Usually only a cotton sweater, but I couldn't run around with bare arms.
Now that the sun shines directly on our windows the sweater is too much--these days I am wearing sleeveless shirts inside the house, and closing the blinds against the sunlight at mid-day to keep from over-heating. Clearly we could use a bit more insulation. The good news is that it is unlikely to continue to be a problem--by the time the snow is completely gone the sun should be high enough in the sky as to be shining directly on our roof, instead of into the windows, and, with luck, it won't get too warm in here.
This weekend was a holiday weekend--in Sweden we get both Friday and Monday off of work, so lord_kjar and I celebrated by staying home. On Friday I walked to Gammelstad in the morning. I have been wanting to do this since we moved in--the Old Church Town is 7 km from here by road, but I knew it would take less time to go through the forest. Indeed, the trail which starts 100 meters from my door leads right to that part of Gammelstad, which is were the other laurel in our shire lives. He and his wife have been down in Umeå (three hours south of here) for work for a couple of months, and will be there another couple of months, but they came home for the holiday weekend.
I had forgotten my long cast-pewter nålbindining needle at the last event we had (back in December!), and he picked it up for me, but we hadn't gotten together to get it back to me before they went south. Not to long back liadethornegge had been up here for a visit, and she had a scroll for the above mentioned laurel, so she dropped it off with me, since he wasn't home.
Therefore I combined these into an excuse for a walk. I walk to their house Friday morning (4.51 km, took 57 minutes), picked up my needle, and met lord_kjar there. He brought the scroll, which we dropped off, and the laurel was very, very pleased with it. We made time for a cup of tea with them, then left him in the shop happily casting stuff (he has missed his shop), and we tried to run errands, but the stores were closed. So we spent the rest of the day happily working on projects at home.
Saturday I did an even longer walk (6.23 km, took 1 h 17 min), taking one of the other forest paths further than I had before, and coming out on another road and then looped back by the road to the house. It was the first time I had walked down that road, and while I found it cute, I am pleased to report that none of my explorations in the neighbourhoods near where we are living has showed me a property that I would rather have than the one we bought. We were terribly lucky to find a place that suits our needs and wish list so well. Most of the other houses in our neighbourhood would have been way better than the apartment we had been living in, but so far I haven't found one I would rather have than this one.
Sunday we spent the day working on projects, and I nearly forgot to go for a walk till nearly sunset, so I just did a little loop (2.67 km, 29 min)
Today lord_kjar's little brother and his wife came up from Skellefteå (two hours south of here) for a visit, so I used the excuse to bake pizza. Three pizzas was enough to feed the four of us and leave a fair bit left over for tomorrow's lunch (which is good, since I have to go collect samples tomorrow, so I need to take food with me). Today's pizza contained broccoli, zucchini, spinach, fresh tomato, Parmesan cheese on everybody's corners, plus sausage and pineapple and grated cheese on everyone else's sections but mine. I am not certain I have ever made pizza for a group with such compatible tastes before--normally when I do pizza for four each quadrant has toppings that are different from each of the others. This time only my corner was different, and then only because I don't eat meat, think cheese is better raw than melted, and eat my pineapple only raw, not cooked.
This evening we went to nyckleharpa class, and I am pleased to report that while I cannot yet play the few tunes I know at full speed, if the others slow down I can play along with them. I am, of course, getting further and further behind the others, since they are all experience musicians and they are making time to practice in between classes (which happen every other week). I usually manage to practice once or twice in those 14 days, which simply isn't enough. However, I am still having fun with it, so it doesn't matter if I am slower. The others have already learned a fair few of the Allspel (everyone plays) songs (press "nästa" to page through all of the songs available via that link) that all the local muscians play at the really big Spelmansstamman(musician's gathering) we have in the summer. I can play (sort of) only a couple of them so far, but now that they are talking about playing at Spelmansstamman I suddenly want to make more time to practice and learn the tunes.
Sigh. There are so very many things I want to be doing with my free time--learning to play music, going for long walks, reading books, sewing projects, nålbinding projects, dancing, writing an app to replace my food log (which I have been keeping in Excel for so long the file size has become huge), improving things around the house...
In between all that I also have tons to do for work, with sample collecting tomorrow, a grant application deadline looming on the 11th, and lots of actual science to do with the data I have so far...
I should probably close this, do my yoga, and get some rest, in hopes of accomplishing some of that tomorrow...
Our house has lots of windows on the south-facing side, and the view out those windows is mostly across fields, which means that at this time of the year, if it is sunny (which it has been!), we get lots of sun shining directly into those windows. This has made a huge difference in the temperature in the house.
There were a couple of times this winter when the temperatures were this warm, with temps a bit above freezing during the days and a bit below freezing at night, but during the winter there wasn't much sun shining directly on the house--it was only up at all for a few hours, and it only cleared the trees on the far side of the field for a bit at mid-day. As a result inside of the house during the winter, even on those relativity warm days, it was cool enough that I always needed to wear long sleeves. Usually only a cotton sweater, but I couldn't run around with bare arms.
Now that the sun shines directly on our windows the sweater is too much--these days I am wearing sleeveless shirts inside the house, and closing the blinds against the sunlight at mid-day to keep from over-heating. Clearly we could use a bit more insulation. The good news is that it is unlikely to continue to be a problem--by the time the snow is completely gone the sun should be high enough in the sky as to be shining directly on our roof, instead of into the windows, and, with luck, it won't get too warm in here.
This weekend was a holiday weekend--in Sweden we get both Friday and Monday off of work, so lord_kjar and I celebrated by staying home. On Friday I walked to Gammelstad in the morning. I have been wanting to do this since we moved in--the Old Church Town is 7 km from here by road, but I knew it would take less time to go through the forest. Indeed, the trail which starts 100 meters from my door leads right to that part of Gammelstad, which is were the other laurel in our shire lives. He and his wife have been down in Umeå (three hours south of here) for work for a couple of months, and will be there another couple of months, but they came home for the holiday weekend.
I had forgotten my long cast-pewter nålbindining needle at the last event we had (back in December!), and he picked it up for me, but we hadn't gotten together to get it back to me before they went south. Not to long back liadethornegge had been up here for a visit, and she had a scroll for the above mentioned laurel, so she dropped it off with me, since he wasn't home.
Therefore I combined these into an excuse for a walk. I walk to their house Friday morning (4.51 km, took 57 minutes), picked up my needle, and met lord_kjar there. He brought the scroll, which we dropped off, and the laurel was very, very pleased with it. We made time for a cup of tea with them, then left him in the shop happily casting stuff (he has missed his shop), and we tried to run errands, but the stores were closed. So we spent the rest of the day happily working on projects at home.
Saturday I did an even longer walk (6.23 km, took 1 h 17 min), taking one of the other forest paths further than I had before, and coming out on another road and then looped back by the road to the house. It was the first time I had walked down that road, and while I found it cute, I am pleased to report that none of my explorations in the neighbourhoods near where we are living has showed me a property that I would rather have than the one we bought. We were terribly lucky to find a place that suits our needs and wish list so well. Most of the other houses in our neighbourhood would have been way better than the apartment we had been living in, but so far I haven't found one I would rather have than this one.
Sunday we spent the day working on projects, and I nearly forgot to go for a walk till nearly sunset, so I just did a little loop (2.67 km, 29 min)
Today lord_kjar's little brother and his wife came up from Skellefteå (two hours south of here) for a visit, so I used the excuse to bake pizza. Three pizzas was enough to feed the four of us and leave a fair bit left over for tomorrow's lunch (which is good, since I have to go collect samples tomorrow, so I need to take food with me). Today's pizza contained broccoli, zucchini, spinach, fresh tomato, Parmesan cheese on everybody's corners, plus sausage and pineapple and grated cheese on everyone else's sections but mine. I am not certain I have ever made pizza for a group with such compatible tastes before--normally when I do pizza for four each quadrant has toppings that are different from each of the others. This time only my corner was different, and then only because I don't eat meat, think cheese is better raw than melted, and eat my pineapple only raw, not cooked.
This evening we went to nyckleharpa class, and I am pleased to report that while I cannot yet play the few tunes I know at full speed, if the others slow down I can play along with them. I am, of course, getting further and further behind the others, since they are all experience musicians and they are making time to practice in between classes (which happen every other week). I usually manage to practice once or twice in those 14 days, which simply isn't enough. However, I am still having fun with it, so it doesn't matter if I am slower. The others have already learned a fair few of the Allspel (everyone plays) songs (press "nästa" to page through all of the songs available via that link) that all the local muscians play at the really big Spelmansstamman(musician's gathering) we have in the summer. I can play (sort of) only a couple of them so far, but now that they are talking about playing at Spelmansstamman I suddenly want to make more time to practice and learn the tunes.
Sigh. There are so very many things I want to be doing with my free time--learning to play music, going for long walks, reading books, sewing projects, nålbinding projects, dancing, writing an app to replace my food log (which I have been keeping in Excel for so long the file size has become huge), improving things around the house...
In between all that I also have tons to do for work, with sample collecting tomorrow, a grant application deadline looming on the 11th, and lots of actual science to do with the data I have so far...
I should probably close this, do my yoga, and get some rest, in hopes of accomplishing some of that tomorrow...