Well, yes, at some point in time I manage to crawl out from under my comfy rock and actually do things that war the things to do at the moment... like go and watch The Last Jedi. We'd been planning to do that all the while, but first there was this and then that and now we finally managed.

I won't spoiler sthings, in case you have not seen it yet, but I can tell you I absolutely loved it, and that I found many, many interesting aspects and things in the dialogue. The film brings closure to some open questions, and it also opens up the way for a new beginning, and I do hope the filmmkers will go on in a similar way. I really liked how the characters were portrayed, and that there was not so much black-and-whilte as many subtle hints at things being grey, squishy, and not cut-and-dried at all. Some acts would be fine in some circumstances but not in others. Sometimes it is better to retreat than to fight. And the force... belongs to everyone.

There were a few spots where I found it a little overdone for my taste - the comic relief, in some cases, seemed a little much for me. But that's just a minor flaw, and I'd happily watch the film again.

Also... I'm looking forward t the next one in the sequence. I have hopes for exciting things to happen. Probably also soome sad things... but that's how the universe rolls, right?

Aarhus Press is offering "Warfare and Society " as the free e-book of the month, looking at the connections between war and society. This is a complex topic, and the book looks at the connections from anthropological, historical, philosophical and political aspects. You can download the book here.

Ask the Past gives you a 1798 recipe for Snowballs - which seem to be baked apples glazed with a baiser-like concoction. It does sound interesting, though the recipe is a bit short on details.

EXAR is having a Call for Papers for the next conference, which will take place in Unteruldingen, September 27-30. You can find the CfP here; the conference used to be rather heavy on the German side regarding the papers, but it has been several years since I was last able to attend due to time conflicts, so that may have changed.

It's hello 2018, hello work, hello exciting new things! I'm looking forward to many interesting days of work this year, and quite a few fairs.

First thing on the list, though: Finishing the Bernuthsfeld tunic, which is the thing I'm working on furiously at the moment. Here, though, I'll start you off with two links to things:

Naomi Parkhurst has a new stitch pattern up, called "Hedgehog".

If you're interested in belts, there's a new publication available:

"The belt south of Lower Danube – the end of the 3rd c. – the beginning of the 7th c." has just been published. The subject of this dissertation are metal belt elements – buckles, appliqués and strap-ends - from the territory of Bulgaria for the period of the end of the 3rd - the beginning of the 7th century. A classification and typology created for each type of belt sets are presented, and the study contains 2044 catalogue entries. The book is written in kyrillic script, but there is an English summary at the end. You can access it here.

 

Hello and welcome, 2018!

May you bring us all good times and joy, pleasant work and helpful contacts, exciting new projects and successful endings of current ones!

All the cookies are baked, all the urgent things are taken care of, and the end of the year with all its festivities is coming closer and closer... which means it's time for a nice and proper winter break.

We'll be seeing family and friends, there will be food and drink and warmth inside and walks in the cold outside. There will be mousse au chocolat to welcome in the new year, too - and I'm looking forward to all of that, and to all the other things coming up in the next days.

So I'll wish you a good festive season with one of my favourite seasonal songs:


Have a lovely time with loved ones, and a good, safe start into 2018 - I will be back on the blog on January 8!

Time for  a link drop again!

The Time Magazine has chosen "the Silence Breakers" as their Person of the Year. Which I find really, really cool.

Gillian has posted a blog article about her teaching box (which I've heard quite a lot about already, it seems to be a veritable box of wonders!).

Also via Gillian: The Converso Cookbook, a 15th century Jewish cookbook, with a few recipes already transcribed on the website.

If you like reading stories out loud, Escape Artists are always looking for narrators to fit their stories.

There's a computer games company boss in the UK who likes jousting.

And that's it for today!

Me and the Most Patient Husband of Them All like our bicycles. A lot. They are our main method of transportation, and we're riding them year round. Well, I ride my bike with a good dollop of less enthusiasm when there is a significant amount of snow, as it's a 20"-wheeled front-drive recumbent, and that means I pedal more than I actually get forward. Especially when it's up an incline there can be a lot of slip. Still, having a bicycle that it is possible to ride in winter? Totally cool.

To be able to ride said front-wheel-drive 'bent in winter, though, I do have to mount winter tyres. Yes, there are things like that for bicycles - and in contrast to those for cars, bike winter tyres have spikes. (At least most of them do.)

We're also mounting spike tyres onto the tandem, and the bike my husband uses for commuting to work. It's the same brand on all of the bicycles - Schwalbe Marathon Winter - only, obviously, in different sizes.

They do make a hell of a difference on slippery ground. Deep snow will still be awkward to navigate, especially when it has been ground up by cars and there are frozen furrows underneath, but black ice and otherwise icy streets lose most of their scariness. It's a very big boost to security to have spike tyres, and I'm always a bit surprised that so few people know about them.

So if you are in an area where there's snow and ice in winter, and you still want to ride your bike, consider investing into a pair of spike tyres. They are not cheap, but they will last you for years, and the difference between having them to navigate ice and snow and normal tyres is enormous!