We’ve just got back from a trip up to Brisbane for Abbey Medieval Festival and then back via Armidale where we stayed for a few days at Cruickshanks Cottage.

While we were away the following things happened:

• Adam took up spinning.
• Tom finally got his own back-strap weaving kit (he’s been waiting a whole year).
• I finished reading The Handmaid’s Tale and was somewhat underwhelmed.
• I re-read Native Tongue 3 just in case it wasn’t as bad as I remembered. It was, if not worse.
• We acquired a pleasing collection of stuff to add to our re-enactment gear.
• Tom got bitten by a horse.
• Tom engaged me in a discussion of the ethics of the fur-trade right in the middle of a fur-trader’s market stall, I did not try to avoid or put off the conversation.
• All 3 kids had the lurgi.
• We watched sheep shearing, fed the chooks, annoyed some cows, were stared at by alpacas, spotted a furtive fox, and made good use of our viking hats to avoid frozen ears. Mid-winter in Armidale is cold.

Photos and elaborations will probably follow at some point.