Heimspikka village is a gem hidden in the forest close to the Swedish border. A seemingly random group of very different people (occupations spanning from stage artists to computing) with a shared interest in Do-It-Yourself and a combined base of know-how acquired some land just a couple of years back, and without further ado started knocking down a few trees, putting up a shelter or two and inviting folks to help out. In a few seasons, it’s already grown to a well-equipped camp site that can comfortably accommodate a tenfold of happy campers. The spirit is collective, sharing is caring, and should you wish to help out you will be duly accredited with toast and boast. I can see this project grow as a very including community.

It is truly impressive what can be accomplished without the aid of professionals. Go there if you have the chance, get inspired and say hi to Nils the squirrel from me!

Signature totem:

One of several trunkheads

Came for the mead making workshop, stayed for the atmosphere.

Man, look at all that honey!

A huge cag of honey brew is now  waiting to become honey wine, making promiseful little blopping sounds next to the warm, cosy server that serves Murmeldyr and other happy sites.

Gotta love it.

Please click the image - it looks so much better in full size

I’d just like to remind you that those exotic animal travel gifts tend to be made from threatened species. You wouldn’t buy a tiger fang, but what about a coral necklace? You can’t assume it’s a fake and the seller will say what you want to hear. Those pretty bugs in crystals are probs real too. Do you know which are threatened and which are not? Me neither - better get something else for everyone back home this summer.

When the Flotilla was recruiting, I was thrilled and dreamy-eyed. In another situation I might have registered for enrollment. I’m not sure what exactly it was that fascinated me so deeply. Something about the ocean being the same for all, the perceived freedom inherent in boats - not constricted to roads, they can go wherever there is water, which is the bigger part of the globe. Something about the optimism and yes we can-spirit in the project.

There are a few things one simply isn’t as short-thought as to do - opening fire on a widely publicized, civilian ship loaded with aid certainly is one of them. Even as I can see how it’s one with a provoking message. Countering rocks with fire is one thing, going apeshit on a shipment of aid is plain bad publicity. Maybe the international community will finally get a move on and do something drastic about this jam of a region.

I smell that this may be a turning point in the locked and extraordinarily frustrating situation that is the Middle East. Can the Flotilla bring Freedom in a very real and unexpected sense?

Now this was just a blurb to satisfy an intense urge to communicate this wrack-up. I still intend to keep murmeldyr apolitic, just can’t help it when disaster strikes.

When I saw the treetop huts in the hostel catalog I was immediately fascinated, and booked a weekend in easter.

The place is just north of Hamar, but not paying attention to signs and too much relying on GPS lead us some 20 km astray, on the wrong side of the lake, on a road ending in this:

Cute cows

So it was almost dark when we got there. To a fully equipped cabin in the treetops, 8 meters up in larch trees.

Except for the latitude, it looks just like any cabin. It can accommodate up to seven people, so us two had lots of space. Hot water, shower, indoors wc and fridge makes it comfortable, even without electricity.

No worries, the stairs are rock solid.

The car looks small from up there.

8 is a lot of meters

This cabin is brand new, we were the 4th party to write in the guest book. How neat to be among the first to experience this very unique place.

The host offers a range of nature activities, and we were going to try dogsledding. Because of the unusually mild weather this was not possible, but we had a nice walk in the woods.

Lots and lots of birds, at most we managed to capture six birdies in the same photo! No wonder, with all the classy bird’s houses in the area. If I were a bird I’d live in this!

Guitar house

They all took off when this guy came for the seeds:

A stay in the treetops can be recommended to anyone wanting to take a few days in the deep woods, maybe especially for tourists wanting a taste of Norwegian cabin culture.

The loftroom:

Welcome to the decameter high club!

One of the major theatres had its occasional costume sale. Over a thousand people turned up and were let in a hundred at a time. Thanks to early bird Marius we were first in the line, but were run past and down before even reaching the shelves.

An entire hall filled with hoard. Each item marked with the name of the play and the actor that has worn it. Most hand-sewn, well made and all friendly priced. *shriek of enthusiasm*

I’ll get some pics up to show off:

From Phantasma

Pretty pretty corset -it’s all in the details

Beautiful white silk dress from Which Witch that I have no idea when I’d wear, but couldn’t let go

Serk -gown for wearing underneath during my upcoming viking endeavors -hooray! I was assuming I needed to make one myself (like, where do you get one unless at a theater?) and was not looking forward to it.

Gorgeous little handbags

And the sweetest shoes I have ever seen, much less worn or owned. They are, perfect. Tiny little ash-pink pump sandals that fit like no shoe has fit my feet. When they also were the exact same color as the details on my dress, I had to assume this was no chance event.

The rest of the day I have been staring at my feet a lot, and not for being shy.

An hour in the haze of one-of-a-kinds and people, people and people is exhausting down to the bones, but for these findings it was worth every ache.

Will bring more cash and sharper elbows next time.

(Note the interested onlooker under the table)

So, this weave is just a bunch of cardboard pieces with holes in the corners. Make your own with some coasters and a puncher. The whole setup looks like a cobweb to start; however, follow the instructions and beautiful patterns start appearing. The clue is alternating between two directions of turning the plates. How someone was able to come up with this is beyond my comprehension.

Close-up of the result:

Not hard once you get used to which threads go where. Only for all your life never let go of the plates! I did for a split second, and was in the same instant back to cobweb state.

But there is more! I have spent my hour-long commutes needle-binding the past week. I’ve found this technique very bus-friendly as it can be put down any time without worrying about losing a loop -just pull the thread and chuck it in your bag.

This sock I made using a paper clip as some gremlin seems to have borrowed my needle. I feel McGyver-ese.

Finishing another pair, working the clip:

One is still waiting for its colorful top band, I was just too impatient to get something up here. Obviously there is one bigger and one smaller in the pair. For the first one, I was instructed to make it huge, as it will shrink. So I made it huge. Now, “huge” is a pretty loose standard when matching up a pair, so I’ve later stuck to fitting them on while already wearing warm socks. We’ll see if that’s sufficiently huge.

Cutesy wrist warmers (mittens not included):

Both the weave and the needle-binding (not the clip amendment) are over a thousand years old and forgotten by most, still completely functional and in several ways even better than current techniques. I feel lucky to have gotten to learn and utilize them. It is all thanks to my treasured teacher Anette Kvist. This dear lady lives way out by the ocean with her chatty parrot, in a house that’s full of crafts.

There had been a crafting group for some time, but only after Anette joined in did we really get stuff done.

The rest of the crafting group can hardly be called experienced crafters, yet suddenly we all have self-designed wear to show off. That is how inspiring it is to work with Anette. Somehow, she makes us good. Last time I learned needle-binding, I couldn’t quite get the hang of it. With Anette, it’s easy as peas.

What I love about these grand old crafts is their serenity. No fancy nicnac needed, and as such this stuff is quite non-materialist. Imagine the price of a “proper” weave  - not student friendly, I can assure you. Also when knitting, each and every recipe requires a different set of sticks, which alone makes the price of the finished garment touch the price of a fabricated one.

Ecosia is a new (as of december 2009) eco-friendly search engine. The choice of a search provider may not seem like the biggest one you are making in the course of a day, but imagine the hellofalot of searches you do in a year - even a small difference in, say, energy consumption or investment of revenue becomes substantial when scaled up.

The fact that web search is big business is no secret,  and frankly I’m happier with the profits ending up in a non-profit than with stock brokers.

As far as I have been able to make out, Ecosia’s algorithms are provided by Yahoo and Bing, but the data grinding is powered with renewable energy (like Murmeldyr!) and all profits from the sponsored links go to a WWF program for rainforest protection.

The search page is beautiful, and by hitting “install” you can get it in your search bar (not an annoying separate line, but the search function you probably already have in the header of your browser). I’d say this one is a no-brainer; just simply do it.

Video

And now for the real gem: Search for murmeldyr on Ecosia, and murmeldyr.no comes up first. (Do the same on Google and it’s on a boring page 40-something) Mind you, I did the search before writing this post.

There’s all sorts of requirements for this ritual exchange of stuff. The present should be personal and unique, sustainable, not too much but not skimpy (though where the line between these goes, you’ve got to find out yourself), and possibly even useful. Pitfalls are many and the danger of overseeing an unspoken rule is overhanging. Much safer skipping the whole thing than risking an unintended “overkill” gift.

A few ideas to save you the sweat:

nice bottlery

lol candy

soapery

Tired of dispensable made-in-Chinas, I am hoping for consumable gifts this season. Following the good principle of picking gifts you would like to receive yourself, all season’s presents I’ve fixed or planned so far can be eaten, drunk or used in the bath (except for one gadget that was specifically requested a long time ago).

Taking it one step further, this readily applies to other gift-involving occasions as well. This is one reason why the one thing I’m wishing for my upcoming birthday is a great night out (the other being not wanting to ruin my friends, as I’ve chosen to have the party at a restaurant).

Happy holidays!

So the people here are juggling all these projects and don’t seem to even need to think about the order of stuffdoing. One stopwatch running in each pocket, they all seem comfortably relaxed while not missing a step. I stand amazed.

There are tons of papers and protocols and names to know and I am glad I skipped the mid-term break to get the week in the lab. The building is intricate (all floors look the same, and just for complicating things further there is a 4-way symmetry within each floor ) so the  few extra days to sort everything out are well spent.

Thankfully, everyone is in the same situation in this respect as the building is new and few know where everything’s at.

Everything about the Cancer Centre is ambitious, so also the street signs. This piece of unintended humor sits right outside the centre. Moss is over 70 km away.

Walking route to Moss

Don’t worry, you can bike too!

The project assignment process was recently reorganized to ensure fairness. Still, in the allotment of projects it seems that making everyone happy/evading complaints is more important than fairness. The result is a ratrace like before where the demanding students choose first, only now covertly and unpredictably. As a qualified and less-noisy candidate I was “relocated” multiple times, until I too knocked the door to say; sorry but this is not what I was expecting. And was offered a brand new, shiny project that had never been mentioned before, at the head cancer centre in Northern Europe. What’s to learn from all this? Sharpen your elbows and doors will open?

So I’ve spent the evening trying to find out what this all is really about, and in addition to a recent article on the mathematics of tanning, found what will be my best friend in the protein world for the foreseeable future:

Curly, colorful cartoon

This little guy is called S100A4 and he is exceedingly uncanny. Although devoted serious amounts of laboratory time, it keeps its purpose and daily duties a secret. Yet somehow; if you have a cancer, you really want to have S100A4 as patients who have it live. Who are you, mysterious molecule?

EDIT: Quite the contrary, the gene turns out to be so strongly correlated with death in cancers that it is postulated as a diagnostic marker. This is why you should not trust Wikipedia.

Both advisors seem very sympathetic. The professor is an accomplished veteran who was happy to host a student who could get some work done, and appreciated my eagerness to get started.

My 2. home for the next good year

Niceness.

I am a very blessed person.