My last post was sad, so I think we need a happy post to balance it, so here’s a throwback to my visit to Europe in 2023.  One of the things I was told by Swedish friends in New Zealand that I absolutely must do whilst in Stockholm was to go to Skansen. Luckily Elisa fully agreed with them! Skansen is the world’s oldest open air museum.  It helped inspire places like Colonial Williamsburg, and is so iconic that ‘skansen’ is literally the word for an open air museum in Czech. It features buildings from different eras from all across Sweden.  Some of the buildings are only viewable from the outside, but other are open on some days, so you can go inside. The open buildings have docents in clothes matching the era and type of building doing work in keeping with the building.  All of the docents had a particular interest and expertise related to the building and its purpose.  It was fabulous.  Nerdling that I am I asked the hosts 18 gazillion questions. …

I’m in Europe! Starting with Sweden! I cut down on flying except for family back in 2018 due to climate change, so I never thought I’d make it to Europe. The original impetus for my visit is not a happy one, but I’m making joy out of tragedy. I’m also making the most out of the long flight across the world, and getting a nice detailed look at four spots in four countries as long as I’m here. First stop: Sweden! The wonderful Elisa of Isis Wardrobe (I learned on this trip that Isis is a childhood nickname because a young relative struggled to pronounce Elisa, and has nothing to do with the Egyptian goddess in her case) offered to host me in Stockholm. I’ve known Elisa through the historical costuming internet for at least 15 years now – back in the days when the community was based on message boards! We really got to know each other when she helped moderate the Historical Sew Fortnightly FB group for a couple of years. I’ve always …