Clans on the Coast

I'm sunburned. So is Adam. But for some reason the kids seem fine, at worst they have a slight rosy glow on the cheeks. Yeah, I completely forgot to take sunscreen with us today...look, it was DARK when we left the house, the sun was the last thing on my mind!

We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:00am and managed to be on the road a bit before 6:00am with half a lumber yard in the back of the car. Pretending to be Vikings involves lots of wood. Made it to Nelson Bay by about 8:00am and got all set up for the day. We were at Clans on the Coast, an annual Celtic festival - lots of bagpipes, dancing and tartan everywhere. Will definitely go again next year if the Huscarls are invited back, but we'll make it a weekend away instead of a day trip I think.

Tom started off with enthusiasm on his back-strap weaving but lost interest before any members of the public actually arrived, he did go back to it later in the day - after most of the public had left - ah well, he still managed to charm several women with his weaving expertise.

Adam got the pole-lathe up and running, which brought people over from the other side of the field out of sheer curiosity wondering what on earth that thing with the big stick was for, and I alternated between yet more tablet weaving and working on the dress I've been making for Caitlin. I do not like sewing. So swapping back and forth between the two activities works quite nicely.

The Huscarls gave two fighting demonstrations during the day, Adam's swordfighting lessons seem to being paying off, he reckons he threw the last fight on account of thinking it would look bad if he won every bout he fought. (Fellow Huscarls, if you're reading this? Consider yourselves challenged - take him down!)

Woz showed off his woodworking skills in front of his gorgeously carved tent, chest and stool as he worked on a new chest panel.

The best bit of the day was when David decided to have a go at woodturning and then asked me to teach him to do tablet weaving. Two new things tried in the one day!

Tom the poet

A Poem About Spring

Birds sing
Flowers spring
Trees growing
Animals awakening
Water warming
New life blooming

by Tom aged 7 yrs

(This was an optional part of this week's homework. Tom never does the optional bits but he was inspired this time - he's a big fan of Spring.)

Link-fest No. 12 + DUFC

One of the reasons there's been so little blogging going on around here lately is that I'm re-reading The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett at the moment. In fact I'm fighting the urge to go back to my book right now! Here's why: Guest post by Linda Gillard at Rhapsody in Books reviewing the series
ETA: Another lovely review of the Lymond series - Been There, Dunnett by Marjorie Leithead at Textualities

Anyhoo, have some links:

The 16th Down Under Feminists Carnival this month is hosted by Hexy at Hexpletive.

Ariane's Unsolicited careers advice for high school kids.

Lauredhel's recent posts on birth looking at a Canadian study on homebirth and WA birthing statistics.

Jo Tamar at Wallaby on Perceptions of medical risk.

Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony on Men, Women and Risk.

Do You Want to Date My Avatar


Yum Yum Yum kitty

Here, have some crafty type stuff

Adam made me an arm guard for archery, since he made it I've only hit myself with the string once, no more huge dramatic bruises for me!

I've been doing some more tablet weaving, I'm still experimenting with patterns and I'm kind of wishing that the 5.8m batch was a bit more interesting.

This took 2 weeks of picking it up when I was watching TV in the evenings.

Two different patterns, the bottom one I've finished, the top one I've just started.

And I finally got around to making some more jewellery on Friday:

Botswana agate necklace

Sodalite bracelet

Kids say the funniest things

Jo Tamar has a post up over at Wallaby which was prompted by one of those emails that gets forwarded around. The email was a series of questions about mothers and the cute/amusing/weird answers from 2nd grade kids. Jo's post focuses on the assumptions behind the questions and the implications of some of the kid's answers and you should pop over there and have a read and join in the discussion.

Some of us have asked our own kids the same series of questions and because I can I'm going to share with you the answers Tom gave me.

Q1. Why did God make mothers?
God didn’t actually make mothers, evolution did.

Q2. How did God make mothers?
Same answer as the one above.

Q3. What ingredients are mothers made of ?
Lovingness, kindness, huggles (mischievous giggles) and laughs.

Q4. Why did God give you your mother and not some other Mum?
Evolution made my mum the way she is!!! (By now we have a hint of exasperation) I bet whoever wrote these questions believes in God.

Q5. What kind of little girl was your Mum?
A nice, intelligent little girl.

Q6. What did Mum need to know about Dad before she married him?
Whether he was going to be a good husband.

Q7. Why did your Mum marry your Dad?
No idea.

Q8. Who’s the boss at your house?
Mummy (Why?) You just are. (I couldn’t get him to elaborate.)

Q9. What’s the difference between Mums & Dads?
Dads are not so good to have kisses and cuddles in bed with ‘cause of their beards.

Q10. What does your Mum do in her spare time?
Twitter, look on people’s blogs.

Q11. What would it take to make your Mum perfect?
Nothing, you’re already perfect.

Q12. If you could change one thing about your Mum, what would it be?
Nothing. (He even came back a few minutes later to say “Seriously, there’s nothing I would change about you, you’re perfect just the way you are.” I told him he was a crawler. And gorgeous. And that I’d keep him.)

15th Down Under Feminists Carnival

The 15th Down Under Feminists Carnival is up, this month it's hosted by Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town. Go! Click! Read!

Seems I haven't forgotten how

On Sunday we headed out to North Richmond for a Huscarls training and crafting day. Tom was all set to spend the day weaving, so I decided I should break out the tablet weaving loom and get back into doing that for the first time since October last year.

The only question was, would I be able to remember how it worked? Oh, and "where the hell are all the bits of the loom?" (We found everything except the patterns so I made one up.)

Turns out the answer is yes, I do remember, and here's the results - just over 1m of braid representing about 3 hours work. The tension is a bit wonky and I kept losing track of where I was up to so the pattern isn't quite regular in spots, but it'll do.

Now all I need to do is make about 6 times that much again and I should be right to trim a cloak.