Giving thanks

I've been busy with non-SCA things for a couple of months, but of course "my medieval life" is never far from my mind. Let me summarize things here on Thanksgiving Day.

First of all, service. A few months ago, I took over the role of baronial chronicler. The previous chronicler had been doing the job for seven or eight years. Guess I'm stuck with it for a while. 😃 It's really not that difficult for someone who has been writing and editing for a long, long time. The two hardest things are (a) remembering to get going on the next issue and (b) making the notes of the last baronial business meeting sound coherent.

My other piece of general service is my role as Sea Tyger Pursuivant -- the "heraldic education deputy" for the College of Heralds and Scribes of Atlantia. (I don't do the scribal education part, though.) My task over the next couple of weeks is to contact some people and convince them to teach heraldry classes at the next University of Atlantia session, which is completely online. That session also the weekend after a virtual Known World Heralds and Scribes Symposium; I guess we'll be having those every winter now, because not everyone can get to the summer sessions in person.

And now for A&S...

I am still a member of Laydes Fayre and enjoying it. At one of our rehearsals in September, we held a mini-shower for a member who was expecting a baby. She gave birth, right on her due date, to a healthy baby boy named Declan. We'll also have a cookie exchange at our December rehearsal.

Several of us Laydes who also play instruments have formed an ad hoc mini-consort to perform at an upcoming event called Highland Hearthglow. The Barony of Highland Foorde (the whole northwestern region of Maryland) is holding a cozy day-long banquet event at a lodge in Thurmont that is usually affordable to the wedding-industrial complex. It sounds very posh in a 14th-century, High Middle Ages sort of way. Our mini-consort will be performing several pieces that are NOT dance music. I am no expert, but in general these pieces are slower and easier to play than most of the dance music of the era. You just have to watch out for a few weird bits like occasional irregularities in the time signatures. I think we will sound great together. (Incidentally, I'm playing the soprano recorder. No way do I know enough ukulele for this. I've really put the uke on the back burner with all my mundane work lately. I should really get back into it.)

(Also, the whole Laydes Fayre group will perform at both Hearthglow and Lochmere's Midwinter's Revel. One of the pieces we're rehearsing is called "Ave Maris Stella," which I believe means "Hail the Star of the Sea.")

Of course I am still a member of Three Left Feet. We still rehearse on Monday nights during Storvik fighter practice. I went to a couple of dances at Pennsic 51 (since I helped publicize them, after all). Pennsic wasn't even my biggest dance event of the year; that would be the Known World Music and Dance Symposium, held just outside Indianapolis at the fairgrounds where the SCA 50-Year event took place in 2016. It was a long drive, but I'm glad I went.

With all this musical stuff going on, it's not surprising that I haven't done other A&S stuff lately. At least I've finally hit a holiday lull in my mundane work, so I can pick up a needle and thread again. I have some mending projects to do and a linen chemise that I started sewing two years ago. Plus, I would like to make at least one totally new dress. To that end, I picked up a bin full of really nice fabric -- mostly linen and wool -- from the estate of the late Dame Brenna, who was quite the fabric hoarder in her lifetime. My non-SCA partner is annoyed that I acquired a bunch of fabric when I don't have much storage space, so I'll have to figure out some place to put my new stash until it gets sewn. I'm thankful that I received a copy of The Medieval Tailor's Assistant (2nd edition) for my most recent birthday; it will certainly help with all that sewing!

One final thing I am doing: I am knitting myself a pair of socks. Nothing special or SCA-accurate. Just a pair of socks, because I have not knitted socks in several years.

Report on Pennsic 51 (finally)

On August 9 I returned from Pennsic War 51, up there at Cooper's Lake in western Pennsylvania. I spent 12 days at war, instead of a week like last year. It was the 20th anniversary of my first Pennsic in 2004 -- a personal milestone, though I didn't crow about it much.

This year's war was ... harder than usual. It rained buckets on the first full day I was there (Tuesday of Peace Week). We had some more rain off and on, especially on Saturday morning of the middle weekend, and then more downpours came on the Tuesday of War Week. We were supposed to get hit with Tropical Storm Debby on Friday of War Week, but fortunately we had just drizzles and the bulk of the storm went farther east.

When it wasn't raining, the weather became instantly hot and very humid. It was as if a giant switch had flipped. I had a hard time feeling comfortable at any time. My tent (probably the side windows) leaked during the downpours and the puddles lingered despite my attempts to mop them up. Some of my dirty laundry got soaked. By the end of my time at Pennsic, even the "dry" items inside my tent felt slightly damp and clammy.

Our Southwind camp kitchen at the end of one downpour:

On top of all this, one of the 9,235 people who entered the Pennsic site left in a body bag. After one of the big rainstorms, Pennsic leadership sent out a Facebook message that Wroxeter Road was closed because it was so muddy, although I don't think it was any more rutted or muddy than the other roads that cross grassy fields. (My household camps on the corner of Wroxeter Road and Long Way.) Several of my campmates have been in what can broadly be termed public safety jobs: cop, 911 dispatcher, ER nurse, Army medic. So perhaps they are used to seeing state police cruisers and the coroner's van roll by. I personally felt a bit rattled. That evening my encampment had a heartily humorous bardic circle (under the round canopy we call "the Onion," because it was still drizzling), but I decided to crawl into bed early.

Still, not everything at Pennsic 51 was bad or sad. Several friends received well-deserved awards from Their Majesties of Atlantia. I volunteered at the 25th Children's Fete, where I saw the SCA versions of the Disney Princesses:

I took one class (on beginner ukulele) and taught one class (on "circle dances" such as Sellenger's Round and Gathering Peascods). Normally I'm too hot and tired to go anywhere near the European dance tent during the day, but I wanted to help my friend Patches, who served as Dean of European Dance for this year's Pennsic. To help give her programs visibility, I wrote an article about European dance at Pennsic 51 and it made the front page of the Pennsic Independent. (This sounds like a huge deal, but the Independent changed ownership this year and was hurting for content. Still, I'm pleased that my friend's dance-organizing efforts got such great publicity!)

Here's a selfie of yours truly near the sign that points to, and shows the mileage to, all the different kingdoms of the SCA:

(Yeah, of course, you can't see the whole sign, just the Atlantian device on it.)

* * * * * *

As I write this, Pennsic has been over for six weeks or so and is starting to fade into the mists of the SCA's own history. I enjoyed Battle on the Bay in early September, but I probably won't attend any events until November or December, because the October events are way down south in our fair Kingdom. And I've got mundane work to do. But I have plans and hope to share them soon!

Starting a new year

Six days into 2024, and things are already happening, SCA-wise.

On New Year's Day my barony had a silk-banner-painting activity at a community center here in the northern part of Storvik. Our current Queen has been handing out banners painted with the word "Inspiration" at the events she attends within Atlantia, and our own Dame Emma West is in charge of the project. She did all the fabric preparation and the outlines of the design, and about 20 of us took turns coloring in the design. It's rather fun and not stressful at all. We finished painting two banners and probably could have done a third that afternoon. Here is a picture I took:

That's the one I worked on.

On Wednesday I commemorated a special day in my life. It was the 20th anniversary of my very first SCA event, Storvik Yule Revel. Here's what I posted in our baronial Facebook group about it:

Twenty years ago TODAY, I went to my first-ever SCA event: Storvik Yule Revel! It was in our fighter practice hall at St. Andrew's.

Outside the hall, a friendly young couple named Pedro and Devora accosted me and introduced themselves. Once we got past Tirzah at troll, Pedro and Devora introduced me to their Peers, Herveus and Megan, who explained tablet weaving to me -- I had never seen it before. Taira no Akiyo taught a class in spinning wool with a drop spindle. I watched some people dance and sat in the audience for Baroness Johanna's court. Finally, Pedro and Devora invited me to sit at their table with their Peers for a delicious feast.

I was just blown away by how welcoming everyone was to me! Obviously, I decided to stick around and get a membership and you all know the rest of the story.

Sadly, not everyone who was at that Storvik Yule Revel is with us today (Dame Brenna, Sir Gauss, Pedro...). Because of that cozy little event, though, the SCA has become a big part of my life. I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has welcomed me along the way.

I hope I brought some warm memories to folks. Also, I hope that just maybe someday we will hold another Storvik Yule Revel in the community center. (It's been 10 years since Kingdom Twelfth Night was held in northern Atlantia ... fancy event sites are just too expensive around here.)

Incidentally, Storvik has also revived the tradition of a monthly A&S night in person. I couldn't go this week, but I hope to attend in February.