viking imaginings

there are times when you come upon a scene that transports you, just for a moment, back in time. i imagine that this scene wasn't all that different in viking times...cows grazing on the shore and a long viking warship at anchor in the lake. a crisp autumn day, birdsong in the air and a light breeze of the sort that the vikings undoubtedly enjoyed. i didn't see any actual vikings, but i suppose they were at the nearby kro, having lunch and a few beers...just like in the old days.

it kind of makes me want to pillage something...

taking shape

thank goodness husband's shoulder is feeling better

part of the 10-year plan for the country house is a new and improved (yes, better than the blue room) garden structure in the backyard. for one, the backyard is much bigger than at the old place, so there's much more space to work with. and for another, we learned so much from our last project that we are even clearer now as to what we want and how we want it to look. so down at the bottom of the garden, we're planning a garden house. it will be a long, rather narrow structure, a bit like something diarmuid gavin once made.

bad nighttime picture of inspiring page from diarmuid gavin's outer spaces book.
because i can't wait for proper light.

the building will be made of recycled materials (husband didn't tear down that house up in vildbjerg for nothing) and will serve as a quay of sorts. up to the quay, we are creating a ship made of a hedge. in the midst of it is a picturesque old apple tree and we will also place the grill table we had made. the grill table will have a mast in the middle so that it can be turned to avoid that pesky old smoke in the eyes.

the shape of the ship (ship shape?)
grill table frame is in the middle w/a plastic swimming pool draped over it.
nothing was tidied for the sake of this photo.

last sunday, we tilled up the form of the ship and planted a whole lot of little baby beech trees to begin the hedge. we hadn't gathered quite enough on our trip to the forest, so we're not done, but we got a good start. and it was a lovely afternoon.

the stern of the beech hedge ship

so many sources of inspiration for this...viking ships, viking excavations, my time in the maritime world, garden programs, nature, thinking about the way in which we live in our surroundings and ways of coping with the reality of our rather unpredictable weather. the structure itself will be a chance for husband to practice various old building techniques and a chance to use recycled materials that have loads of soul. strangely, tho' it's not a structure that we NEED, it may be one of the first things completed in this project. but on the other hand, who is to say one doesn't need a retreat and a place to get away from it all. and it will definitely be that.

and i must find a way to incorporate this:

oh how i love this bit of rusty metal.
and how it reminds me somehow of what's important. and substantial. and of what's not.

stay tuned for updates...

we interrupt this interview thing for some pretty pictures

just a note up front to all who requested interview questions...i am still writing your questions and if you haven't received them (tho' it's been a week), they are still on their way. it's just that i'm writing specific questions for all who have asked for them and so i'm taking the time to catch up on your blogs before i write. so please be patient and know i haven't forgotten you...and i really appreciate the response to this. it's so cool that so many wanted to participate!

and now, back to the pretty pictures from my day at the viking harbor museum in bork havn, denmark. it's a little tiny town on the ringkøbing fjord, nearly on the west coast of denmark. i can tell you that i wanted to move in and i will definitely be going back in two weeks when they have a big viking festival with 300 folks from all over the nordic countries who go around every summer dressed as vikings (gotta get me one of those gigs, i tell you)....

hello viking man!

the tattoo i want is something along these lines.

tho' this would make a good tattoo.  a little smaller, of course.

a chapel that must be a replica from the period just after the vikings accepted christianity.
it was a very cool mix of pagan and christian.
not that most of christianity isn't that.

building through traditional methods.

next up, basket weaving classes...

this viking lady was dyeing cloth with flowers she'd just gathered in the adjacent field.
she used alum (sp?) as a mordant - it's apparently a natural mineral, which i like the sound of (sorry for the preposition).
she said those yellow flowers were going to make a lovely green.
because my memory is like a sieve, i can't remember what she called those flowers.

check out the "j"
this must be MY room.
there is, after all, a loom! 

a whole selection of naturally dyed fabrics and yarns.
heaven, i tell you.
and the fur-covered viking beds with embroidered curtains.
very inspiring.

of course, as a viking harbor, they had some viking ships.

and that's your little tour from the weekend. interviews resume tomorrow and i will be sending out questions all week! there are some great interviews coming up, so stay tuned!

so far so good

granted, it's only day four, but my daily art in my moleskine calendars is going very well. i'm motivated and when i sit down to work, i clear my mind and just see what comes out. and i'm finding myself drawn to watercolors. and oddly enough, the lines aren't bothering me at all. i'm able to just ignore them.

musings stamped into the journal yesterday resulted in an experiment involving my beloved helleristninger or petroglyphs, my gocco printer and some natural linen cloth. what could be better than ancient ships, natural fabrics and ink?

i'm really pleased with how they came out. next, i need to use them.

kraka fyr

we spent our saturday at the viking ship museum in roskilde. husband joined a "laug" last year on the replica vessel, kraka fyr. it's basically a club whereby you pay 200DKK (that's $42 these days with the dollar so low) and for a whole year, you're a member of the museum and get yourself and a friend in for free. but, even better, on wednesdays all summer long, you can go sailing like the vikings sailed, in a vessel with a square sail out on the roskilde fjord.

part of the deal tho', is using some of your time on maintenance of the vessel. so, that's what we did yesterday. "our" vessel is called kraka fyr.

here's husband painting on a toxic tar mixture which protects the wood from the salty sea water. you can see the difference between the bits that were already painted and those that needed it.

i worked on these oars. they also received the tar treatment. and then it rained on them, making them look rather pretty with droplets of water on them.

husband rolling linseed oil onto the benches. luckily they don't have to have tar, otherwise it would be all over your clothes.

here we are working on the various pieces of the inside of kraka.

it's an interesting and international group who belong to club kraka. there is a german guy who works for the museum who sort of heads the group, a woman from the netherlands who is posted in copenhagen with her job and american me. additionally, half a dozen other danes were there. it was really a fun day--we worked hard, tarring everything, including the ropes!! and the weather wasn't really on our side. at one point, after getting thoroughly soaked by a shower, sabin and i went into the museum to warm up. inside, they have beautifully displayed 5 viking ships which were recovered from the roskilde fjord in the early 60s.

anton, the guy who works for the museum, had to go into the boat-building workshop to repair one of kraka's benches and sabin and i tagged along and watched him make new wooden pegs for holding the bench in position. i asked what kind of education people need to work there...there are archaeologists, conservationists and boat-builders. what a fascinating place to spend a saturday! next weekend, kraka will be put in the water and filled with her ballast rocks and her mast will be mounted and all of the final preparations will be made to make her ready for the sailing season.