It was awesome to catch up with old friends and make some new. Sat and chatted with Baron Christophe for a bit. He will always own a special corner in my heart. 8-) Grouchy gnome or not! And his woodworking keeps getting better and better. I've got my eye on a gorgeous wooden chest with a rose carved on the front of it. Oh, if I have a few thousand gilder on hand, I'll buy him out entirely. There's a lap desk with a little drawer that would be perfect for my calligraphy.
Nora and I had a great visit, and she blessed me with an early birthday gift of some pearl earrings one of the merchants had which I had been eyeing, but knew I could not afford them at the moment. They reminded me of a book and movie I like, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, with Colin Firth (sigh) as the Dutch painter, Ver Meer. So now I am The Girl with the Pear Earring(s).
There was a merchant with card/tablet weaving supplies and book, and yarns/threads to die for, but again, that ghastly issue of lack of shillings. What's a girl to do? My open excuse for not going to Pennsic is that I have no one to care for the animals for me to run off to The Past for a a week or two, much as I would love to. Last time I went was 1999.
The REAL reason I'm not going is that it would bankrupt me. The shopping there is like no where else in The Known World. But yesterday I did indulge in a couple of packs of the small cards for the tablet weaving. I tried it about 25 years ago, but never really had the time to pursue it properly, as Emz was a baby and I was in the midst of becoming a single parent WITH a baby, so things like tablet weaving went by the board. Now I'm an old lady with a house full of dogs and 2 horses to care for, so NOW I can find the time to diddle with things like table weaving.
The entries in the Arts and Sciences Competition were splendid, but of course this was at the kindgom level, and entrants must achieve a certain score at their regional levels in order to qualify for entering at the kingdom competition. The calligraphy and illumination, armoring, leatherwork, textile arts, cooking, brewing and vintning, you name it! Beautiful, wonderful things to see. And the level of costuming for the populace in general seems to have improved, though maybe it was just the type of event, but I think not. I think people in the SCA are moving up a notch in the images they want to present -- to one another as well as to the public. There were some lovely examples of costuming for multiple periods.
And Tom and Nora's son, Devin, became a squire, which brought tears to my eyes. Gosh, he just finished his freshman year of college, and I remember Nora waddling around Pennsic in the heat when she was pregnant with him. I also weighed 118 lbs. at the time, so yes, that was many years ago.
So, a huge THANK YOU to Nora and Tom (Dame Nicolaa Halden and Master Sean O'Seanesy, and I kown I spelled that wrong, Tom, so please forgive me!) And a big THANK YOU to the Barony of the Fenix for hosting this lovely event. I almost drove back up this morning for Crown Tourney, but the lawn is nearly knee high, I have plants to get into the garden, and I'm still giving the dogs each their spring cleanings.
Oh, and I sat down with the heralds and finally worked up the "device" (my coat of arms), since I got my Award of Arms back around 1989 and never registered my "device," or my name for that matter. And now I have to go hunting for that journal of Bishop David of Wales to document my stupid name, and heaven only knows what happened to that book in all the moves. Procrastination, thy name is frustration.
Speaking of which, now I must go mow the lawn and get more plants into the soil. I received a gift of a huge mass of vegetable plants that were going to be pitched as they hadn't all sold in a fund raiser, and I am more than happy to give them a home. I'm going to be canning 'til the cows come home this summer, which will be a long time since I don't have any cows -- yet!
