Progress report, late January

As I promised at the start of the month, here's my report on the things I've been doing in the SCA.

Regarding the Drekkar: I published the January issue when I was supposed to, and now I'm working on the February issue. I'm thinking about getting together a memorial issue for Baroness Gracie in March, but I can't do that project now because I have to write a feature article for pay (nothing to do with medieval history!) that's due at the end of February.

The highlight of my SCA month was the second annual Highland Hearthglow, hosted by the Barony of Highland Foorde. Once again, the setting was rustic and cozy, way out in the middle of the woods, and the staff of roughly 40 people paid attention to every detail, from the Arabic and English signs to the handmade chess set. This year's theme was the Golden Age of al-Andalus, with food representing the cultures of Muslims, Christians and Jews in the city of Cordoba circa 900 CE.

Some things were outside the control of the very competent staff, such as the bitter cold outside and the Internet outage that prevented live streaming. We'd heard of the winter storm heading our way, so the staff began and ended the event two hours earlier than planned. The schedule got flipped around a bit, but nothing that ruined the atmospheric charm. I paced my eating a bit better, so that I actually had room to taste things from all four courses without feeling so stuffed I couldn't eat another bite. The dishes I liked the best: monk's beef, the fish and the rice pudding.

(Note to anyone reading this post several months after January: Highland Foorde may archive the website later in 2026 in order to make way for information on the next Hearthglow in January 2027.)

I'm uploading my photos of the event to this Flickr album. My apologies for the lack of annotation.

Today (January 31) was supposed to be the date of Lochmere's Midwinter's Revel, but it had to be canceled because of the continuing deep freeze. That snow-and-sleet storm that hit us on January 25 produced "sleet-crete" that is about as easy to clear from roads and driveways as slabs of concrete. It's been ridiculous. Total misery. We might get temperatures above freezing on Groundhog Day.

Because of the cancellation, I had the chance to attend a class through Virtual AEthelmearc AEcademy in our neighboring kingdom. A gentleman known as Lord Algirdas Wolthus in the SCA talked about the archaeology of medieval Novgorod. Really interesting!