How things stand, mid-April

I enjoyed both Spring Coronation and Night in the Port. The latter was the Barony of Lochmere's annual rapier event as well as its Baronial Investiture. Laydes Fayre performed four vocal selections before the afternoon Great Court, and five of us Laydes performed an instrumental processional for the Last Court of the outgoing Baron and Baroness.

Yesterday I finished up and sent out the April baronial newsletter -- eight days late, unfortunately, but still better than my performance in March. This time last year I fell WAY behind, but my mundane-work-for-pay schedule was different.

Before I get any further, I should probably explain that I have several different "threads" of SCA activities going on, more or less simultaneously (or ebbing and flowing).

First of all: service. I'm serving as baronial chronicler. I'm Sea Tyger Pursuivant, the deputy senior herald in charge of education (though whether or not we'll have a University of Atlantia session in June is still up in the air). Those obligations aren't going away.

Second: Lithuanian studies. Often I shove this topic onto the back burner because so much else is going on in my life. However, I have a few goals in this area: schedule another Slavic Interest Group meetup for Pennsic 53, start working on a display or class about women in the medieval Baltic region, and maybe even start a website for SCA resources about the Baltic region.

Third: dance and music. I participate in the local dance group almost every Monday, even when my feet are hurting. I would really like to get back into instrumental music, because there will come a time when I am just too old and physically messed up to dance. I play soprano recorder and am trying to learn alto recorder (different fingering). I can also contribute percussion if necessary.

Fourth: weaving. I'd put my inkle loom aside for a while, but last Pennsic I took a class in Baltic pick-up weaving, and I love it. I'm slow at it, but I don't care. For once I am doing a craft that feels authentically aligned with my persona! I'm keeping a Flickr album of my work so far. I'm hoping to get as much done on the second band (gold design on a brown background) as possible before Storvik Novice Tournament on the last weekend in April, so that I can enter it into the competition A&S display there.

Fifth: Everything else ... making garb, fixing garb, knitting, making lucet cord and kumihimo braids, wire weaving, writing pysanky (called marguciai in Lithuanian), and doing all the other things I've tried over the past two decades.

Another new year

I hope all who read this are enjoying the new year, despite any upsetting mundane news. Each January is like a shiny new penny before it accumulates all the scratches from circulation.

As I said in my last post, I want to spend this year -- in which the SCA will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding -- documenting exactly what I do within the context of the Society, both in terms of arts & sciences and of service. My first idea was to make weekly posts, but when I told this to one of my friends, she said that might prove to be too much of a burden. So ... twice a month? We'll see how that turns out. If I stick to that schedule, that will make the most posts on this blog since 2009.

So, here we go.

Service as chronicler: The Drekkar, Storvik's newsletter, is due out on the 5th of each month. So I'd better finish up the January issue. I've got all the materials for it. At some point I will make a special memorial issue for Baroness Gracie. But I also need to earn some freelance money to keep my head above water.

Service in heraldry: I need to recruit some teachers for the Tri-Kingdom University session that is rapidly approaching. 😱

Musical arts: Dance practice resumes tonight after a couple of weeks off for the holidays. Laydes Fayre continues to rehearse for two upcoming events, one at the Lochmere Midwinter Revel on the last day of this month and another at Kingdom Arts & Sciences Festival (KASF) in March. The Laydes primarily sing, of course, but some of us play musical instruments, so we're rehearsing an instrumental cantiga for the Lochmere revel. I play soprano recorder semi-competently; recently I was given a used alto recorder, so I should try to learn that too. But someone else has already claimed the alto recorder part for this cantiga, so I'll play soprano melody. No big deal. It's a simple piece.

Tangible arts: I have warped my inkle loom for a second Baltic pick-up band. (Woven band, NOT musical band!) One of these days I'll have to write an entire post about Baltic pick-up weaving, but this is not the time for it. I am also planning what to wear to Highland Hearthglow later this month. Some alterations are in order, and maybe one new thing, but I don't have time to create an entirely new outfit from the inner layers out.

I think that's it. For now. 

Links and more links!

Recently I have been exchanging Facebook messages about medieval Baltic topics with a couple of my Slavic Interest Group (SIG) friends, Mistress ffride (Kingdom of Lochac) and Lady Magdalena (Kingdom of Aethelmearc). As a result, I have lots and lots of browser tabs open. Before my computer's memory gets tied up in knots, I really ought to save those links somewhere and close those tabs. What better place to save such links than right here?

Without further ado:

Link that mentions the Gediminas Sceptre in the context of Baltic cosmology. I really wish this page provided some sources.

Academia.edu page for a Lithuanian graduate student in archaeology. Her name is Augustina Kuriliene.

A Vilnius museum's exhibit on Grand Duke Alexander.

History of the palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

Some tiles from a cathedral (in Lithuanian). One of those medieval tiles shows a woman wearing what may be a very tall, flat-topped hat. In another tile, two rabbits seem to be consulting a recipe book while cooking a stew. In a third tile, two rabbits appear to be roasting a human chef over a spit. (Revenge of the bunnies!!)

PDF of a 2003 article on Lithuanian archaeology by Daiva Steponaviciene.

Website of some Lithuanian group called Vita Antiqua (I believe Daiva S. is involved with it).

This page seems to list all the commemorations of Lithuanian historical events that will take place in 2015.

Evidence of Lithuanian platform shoes. (Somebody wanted to look taller!)

Another 16th-century tile, this one showing rabbits fending off the hounds. (Somebody really, really liked bunnies!)

Finally, here are a few links that are not specific to the Baltic and Slavic regions but that I find interesting anyway:

The Tudor Tailor website is a companion to the series of books on 16th-century clothing.

Free, downloadable monographs on various topics pertaining to English archaeology.

A Web page on inkle weaving.

Beautiful clothing that one of my friends made for the Baron and Baroness of Dun Carraig (a nearby SCA branch).

And, finally, did you know that there's an authentic butterbeer recipe from the Tudor era? Now you can combine your SCA brewing with your Harry Potter fandom! :-)

As far as the rest of my SCA life goes, well, things are always quieter this time of year. Earlier this fall I skipped a couple of SCA events that I really would have liked to attend because of cash-flow issues. At least I had great fun participating in a "medieval maker faire" demo that Storvik was invited to organize as part of the University of Maryland at College Park's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the publication of Lord of the Rings. This fall Storvik has been welcoming a number of newcomers, both from the university and the region at large. And our barony is planning a performing-arts event in January 2015. And I'm still knitting socks for Lady Sonya's sock classes. So things are quiet but good.

Post-Pennsic Post

Yeah, I like alliteration. :-)

I spent last week at Pennsic 41 (the second half of the event). Of course I had a fabulous time despite the periodic bursts of wind and rain. My "modern" canvas tent, which may be as much as 35 years old, held up like a champ.

The Slavic Interest Group (SIG) meeting is always one of the highlights of Pennsic for me. Some of my SIG friends were missing -- either they didn't get to War or they were off doing something else -- but it was a pleasure to chat with newer folks, and a happy surprise to find out that one or two of them remembered my past classes on Lithuania. We shared snacks and booze (*smile*) and left with tentative plans to have another Slavic University in central Pennsylvania, perhaps sometime next year.

I also took an afternoon class on basic inkle weaving and even bought myself a small inkle loom. I really want to practice good, consistent weaving with constant tension. Also, I suspect that an inkle loom will be the perfect platform for me to practice the kind of pick-up weaving that I see in Lithuanian woven bands. However, I've got to learn the basics thoroughly first.

Finally -- and this has nothing to do with Pennsic -- back in July there was a Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival in Boston. Wow, I would have loved to attend it, at least as a spectator. I want to peruse the website more, but I'm just posting it here as a placeholder now. So many interests, so little time....