Several months ago Heather and Micheal took me to my first big SCA event in Pennsylvania called
Pennsic Wars. Up until that time I didn't have much to do with the hobby except tag along when I could and I was asked to do so. I thought SCA and the medieval recreation was a little strange and far fetched for a 62 year old grannie from Oklahoma to get involved in but...how wrong would you believe I was? If you are interested in the
Pennsic War story check out my blog post you can find
here. I had so much fun that after the trip Heather signed me up on her family plan to be an official member of the
SCA and this weekend was the first official event I attended in the
Kingdom of Ansteorra which is comprised of the states of Oklahoma and Texas and I am directly associated with the
Barony of Namron here in Norman.
The thing I like about the society is all the different fun people I have met and the different arts/crafts and science things that I am learning. This past weekend Heather and I traveled to the kingdoms Protectorate encampment south of Wichita Falls, TX where battles were fought to find a champion to guard the new king and queen who will be crowned next weekend. Here are a few pictures I thought I would share with you.
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| Heather and my tent at Protectorate. Now it isn't the huge canvas tent that we lived in at Pennsic it is still a far grander tent then I usually take camping. I loved all the room and there was actually a queen sized air mattress bed that was up off the floor...heaven for my old achy bones! |
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Some photos of people I hung out with most at the event...
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| Julie, Monica, Heather |
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| l-r...Monica aka Veronique, Heather aka Droen back l-r Dave aka Jon, Julie aka Caitrin |
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| Jacque in his new finery for the even being totally embarassed as Monica tells us how she | 'did' the fly! |
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| Looking all flustered by our teasing! |
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| Asha |
Asha sitting at her tent where she sells jewelry, clothing, and hats she makes for sale. And here is a class she taught on jewelry beading where we each got to make rings and pendants. I made 4 rings...forgot to take pictures of them and 4 pendants.
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| everyone enjoying learning how to bead. See Heather and the gals in the picture at the very top? They were keeping and eye on me and making sure I behaved!! I think I needed to watch them truthfully! |
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| the pendants I made. I kept the turquoise butterfly one. Probably with use it on a canvas someday! |
Heather taught a class...(me and Monica) how to do
Inkle weaving. It is done on a loom where you wind threads around dowels for the warp (called warp dowels) and you use heddles to separate top threads from the bottom to create a shed where you can throw your weft (shuttle) through. The weaver has to manually raise and lower the threads each pass through. I found a good article here that helped me understand what Heather was telling me. Check it out...
inkle weaving.
Here is the first few inches of weaving. This style weaving produces a flat band that can be used for belts, handbag straps, straps of any sort and if you want you can use the band on clothing as a decorative element.
I took pictures of the rapier fighting...
I was impressed at how friendly all the fighters were even when they were killed and out of the competition. Everyone offered suggestions and words of advice and 'picked up' fights with other rapiers so everyone could compete.
Court on Saturday evening was interesting as it was the last for the out going King and Queen and several people were given honors and it was fun to see for a first time.
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| The Thrones in the royal pavilion |
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| Out going King and Queen |
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| Prince and Princess who will be crowned King and Queen next weekend. |
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| The Baron and Baroness of Namron |
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For some reason I don't have any pictures of the feast after court. It was really yummy...breakfast for supper with yogurt and fruit, quiche and ham, pancakes, and pastries. I wish I had pictures...
Packing up to go home the next morning was sad but I have been told that Samhain at the end of October will be our next event and I am really looking forward to it! It was a fun first event for me in the kingdom!
Wow Vickie, what fun you had! I loved looking at all the photos and reading all about it. When we went up to Bath to the American Museum recently for the Kaffe Fassett exhibition, there was an American Civil War re-enactment going on, which my hubby went to watch - all I knew was that the cannon fire was very loud and made me jump out of my skin!! We met some of the people involved, dressed in costume, and one lady introduced herself, "I am a Confederate wife" lol! All great fun. English Civil War re-enactments are very popular here in the UK and there's an organisation you can join called the Sealed Knot, and there are also Roman re-enactment groups.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your lovely comments, after what must have been quite an extensive visit to my blog! Like you, we are very fortunate here to have been able to do our own renovations and get the house live-able in to suit my needs. Many disabled people are not nearly so fortunate.
I think it's a common feature to M.E. and Fibro that repetitive movements are quickly very fatiguing. I have read of people using electric sanders for the rubbing process in felt making, and there's also a hand-sander with a flat surface which you can tape bubble wrap onto, with a handle on the top, which might make life easier - a hand-massager might do the trick as well. The first week I managed fine, but seemed to run out of steam rather quickly in the second session. It's very variable, and some classes I shall probably find I am better than on others. At home, of course, I can always leave it for a while and come back to it, having rests in between.
Another problem common to both M.E. and fibro is exactly how you describe the problems of brainfog! I find lists of instructions virtually impossible to follow, especially if given verbally - in one ear and out the other! I often re-write things in list form so I can follow step by step, but I know exactly the problem of forgetting how I achieved a certain result, which is one reason why my blog posts can be so detailed - they are very useful to be able to refer back to if I want to repeat something, or do something similar. As I do something, I often write down each step, so I know what to write up on my blog, and take lots of photos. It's awful having a wad of cotton wool between your ears, isn't it!!!
Have a great week.
Shoshi
you girls are always jetting off and having fun! glad to hear you are feeling better and up and about. hope to catch up soon.
ReplyDeletewhat a fabulous time- loved looking at the photos!
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