Pictures

I spent the last week at Umefolk, a folk music festival in Umeå in the north of Sweden. We met Anton Teljebäck, who runs the festival, at a small festival in the UK and he invited us. Umefolk is well established (the first was in 1986), and Anton was keen to spread the word further afield. We are no strangers to Scandanavian music in Oxford. There is a budding session which has found its feet in the last few months, run by Ed Pritchard, who plays a nyckelharpa amongst other things.

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I’m not normally given to taking photos of my commute, but in the case of the snow I made an exception.

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The thing about living on a boat is that there is more than likely a hatchet to hand. Which means that if you come home from the shops with a can and realise that you have no can opener, you can puncture holes in the lid. Using the hatchet … and get at the insides. Try doing that in a house. I dare you.

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There are few events more sought after and exclusive than the annual Balancing of the Squash. This happens in a secret location, late at night, early in November. This ritual has roots in the ancient culture of a secret society known as ‘the Box of the Torch’. Tonight the participants excelled both themselves and in some cases, each other. It’s a legume.

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