The market in Tannenberg was a sunny, relaxed and very funny ending to a nice summer season of 2012. Now it's really getting to be autumn, the days are noticeably shorter, it's getting cool early in the evening, and the leaves are turning yellow and red.

I'm back home and now there's the usual work stuff to be done after a season - cleaning, checking and repairing all the things used during the summer, re-organising storage to make enough space for the new things (such as the Great Wheel), thinking about changes or additions to the assortment of goods to sell, and so on.

And in addition, there are some exciting ideas for new projects in my mind and some of them already half in planning... it will stay interesting. For today, though, all I have planned is to clean as much of the medieval gear as possible.

Technically, I have a lot to write about - the experiment at the Forum; my happiness with how very well my Great Wheel works (it's workout for the right arm, by the way) and how well it is received by the public; how nice it was at LEA; the garden in its autumn beauty and many more things.

However, tomorrow is when I leave for Tannenberg, and I have neither the time nor the energy to write about all that right now. There's also still enough stuff to prepare that I will not be able to pre-blog for the next few days. So no blogging tomorrow, and no blogging until October 4th (when I will be back from the season's end event, and hopefully a bit restored again).

And now... packing and preparing.

I'm back from two weeks full of exciting things to do and new things to learn and wonderful people to meet, and accordingly I spent most of yesterday asleep, catching up on the hours lost to discussions and work.

We had a small, but very intense and very successful Textile Forum in Mayen, with a dyeing experiment that surprised us all with the outcome. After the Forum, I got to spend some more time with friends that had come to the Forum from Netherlands, Germany, England and Sweden, visiting Maria Laach in lovely weather.

After this, I went to see the new abode of my friends from the Wollschmiede and helped them a little bit with their renovation. It's a lovely old house that now has a new roof and will soon be their home and workplace, with much better opportunities for both dyer and blacksmith than the old apartment could offer.

And to top off all of this, I then was part of the programme for the opening of LEA in Mayen this last weekend, demonstrating wool preparation and spinning techniques to a very interested public. We had immense luck with the weather - it rained on Friday evening and night, and it was a little cool on Saturday morning, but then the sun came out and we had a wonderful time both Saturday and Sunday.

And now I'm looking forward to a few days here to reorganise myself and catch my breath before going to the traditional season's end market - Tannenberg. This year, however, I'll have to go without the most patient of all husbands, who ruptured his Achilles tendon last Saturday and now moves around on crutches... and those are not very compatible to the uneven and possibly muddy Tannenberg grounds.

I'm at the Textile Forum this week, and thus there will be no blogging. Since I will be away from home for a few more days after that, blog as normal will resume on September 25.

Meanwhile:

The Textile Forum is from today to Sunday, September 16; the programme is here. Day passes are available, so please drop by to meet other textile persons!

On the weekend after that, there's the official opening of LEA, where I will be showing wool preparation and spinning techniques.

There are still some places left for the embroidery workshop in Erlangen on the 27th of October and the 28th of October 2012. Here's the link for more information and booking.

And finally, Maney Publishing offers free access to its Journal of the Month, the European Journal of Archaeology, until October 15. All articles from the last three years are available.

Enjoy!

It's getting cooler and slightly autumny outside; the sunlight has a different, more golden colour in the afternoons, and it is actually nice again to stand in the sun and having it warm oneself. It's still quite dry here, and during the day it gets warm enough (or even hot), but summer is definitely coming to an end.

The Forum, on the other hand, is about to start. We are looking forward to an interesting week with lots of discussion and practical stuff about historical textile techniques, and if you can and want to come to Mayen for a day or more, day passes are available and you will be very welcome!

As for me, I will finish the last preparations and start packing for the event today. Hooray! It's almost starting!

Here's some stuff you might find amusing...

Care to take a small quiz about German cities? Try to find out which city is hinted at by the clue.

Archaeologists have dug in the house that Albert Einstein was born in. You can read the (German language) article here.

And finally, here are some musings about age, old cats, and the quality of life.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I will start packing for the Textile Forum - I have a hard time believing we actually start on Monday!

Speaking of Gender Issues (and giving a different, less classical-gender-typical example), there's a female knight doing knight stuff over in the US. I stumbled across her when reading about the great tourney last weekend, on another blog, but she also has her own website.

Not only a "lady knight", she also works as stuntwoman, actress, and model. It really is very, very impressive, I think!