What a practice

Wow, multiple knights and nearly 20 fighters at yesterday's practice, including a first time female fighter who I got a chance to fight.

Sir Vanian was quite helpful in teaching me a thing or two at the beginning of practice before many had finished armoring up, and Sir Kasmir also took me aside to give me a little one on one training. It was quite a knight's night.

Melee practice was a blast, though I died harshly several times. I have a healthy fear of spears now, not that I didn't respect them before, but after a jab to an unarmored part of my stomach and a shot that almost took off my head, I am certain I will watch for spears in future melees.

I discussed what I would like for a helm with Rocriptus, and he has been wanting to try to make one like I want anyways so I am really hoping I can afford to at least give him a partial payment in order to start work on a helm.

Kellan and I chatted about two stick stratagies and he gave me some helpful pointers on a stance I might find more effective, next practice I will have to try it out.

Mead Making Progress

Ok so I finally have a bottle clean to be used, well sort of, now I have to clean it so that the cleaner is out of it and its truly clean with no trace chemicals, however that's the easy part really. That being said I picked up enough honey to do a small batch, a fermentation lock, and some yeast. Perhaps soon I will have a batch in progress. The siphon hose can always be purchased at a later date really, the fermentation process will take time anyways. I will be taking loads of pictures and such along the way so anyone who might actually follow this blog might be able to view the process.

Mead Making to Commence Soonish

This past weekend I managed to pick up a fair number of carboys for making mead. This provides me with the ability to make a substantial amount of mead, though until I master it I will probably start with small batches. I was hoping to have a batch or two made up for the war of the trillium, but I am not so sure. The carboys need some serious cleaning done on them as they have sat in my brothers shed for countless years.

The only thing I need now is a pot big enough (I think I have one somewhere), a fermentation lock, and some tubing for siphoning, and some stoppers. Then I will have all the equipment I need to start up a micro meadery in my apartment. Of course many other tools could be handy as well, but this equipment will get me started nicely. I already have a host of people willing to be taste testers.

My plan is to attempt a simple mead with very little in the way of additions to it, I may try a melomel (mead with fruit mixed in) metheglin (spiced mead) after that, but I want to get a good base recipe going first.

Persona Development

It's not my persona I am working on developing this time, but rather Lilley's. With the promise of some new garb she wants to work on a persona of her very own. While discussing this she asked me what my persona was and I told her I was Cú Allaidh an 8th century Celt from Ireland. She then replied "Well that's what I have to be then," I told her she was free to choose whatever period and persona she wished. It seems that she was under the impression that she had to pick a persona that fit her being my daughter, I informed her she could if she wished, but there was no real need to do so.

This intrigued her, a persona of her own, in a period and from a location of her choosing. I suggested a late period (1400-1600) posssibly Italian or French. I thought of those due to her love of dancing and that she is in French immersion, though really any local during the stated period probably would have had French speaking aristocrats so she probably would have been fine. It seems that she has her heart set on being a Parisian, this seems right to me, very fitting of her. Paris being the seat of fashionablity both in the period in question and modern times.

So now we have a period and location, it comes to naming now. This I think will be more difficult, I have come up with a few resources thanks to the fine folks on the SCANewcomers yahoo group:

• Paris Tax Rolls 1421, 1423, & 1438
• 1292 Paris Census

I have gone over some of the names with her, and she has a few she didn't mind, but nothing concrete yet, hopefully something will grab her.

A Weekend in the Middle Ages

Wassail all, I have had a weekend full of SCA activities. On Saturday I made my way to the Barony of Rising Waters to partake in Lady Mary. Although I did not compete, or fight at all both my daughter and I had a memorable time. I cannot thank Yvette enough for the wonderful event. On Sunday I made it out to my Shire's archery practice ant got a chance to shoot some arrows off, again a memorable time, and I will be returning.

Lady Mary

Although we could not stay for feast this time, it was quite interesting to watch the fighting, and see the wares for sale. Naturally I could not leave the event without making a purchase or two. My daughter picked out a wonderful little music box and has not put it down for more than a moment since she bought it. Myself I got a new belt and a belt knife.

My new belt knife is what the vendor called a gentleman's bowie knife. Not quite period, but still an impressive knife. The balance is nice, it has a beautiful cherrywood handle, the sheath is nice. It doesn't look overly decorative, which is good, because it is meant to be a functional knife for me and not just look pretty.

Heavy fighting

Alas I did not partake in any fighting at all. I felt the tournament was too prestigious for me to compete in. However all fighters are expected to have a consort for who's honour they fight for. Kellen (aka Rob) did not have a consort that day, I am sure he would have fought for his wife's honour in absentee or perhaps for the honour of the court, however he requested the honour of fighting for Lilley's honour. I granted him permission and Lilley got presented to the court. She is ever so proud of the necklace and carnation the court gave to each consort, and she was pleased as punch to have her own personal champion at the event.

Dancing

My daughter was quite excited about Lady Mary because she recalled Yvette telling her at Winter War that there would be plenty of dancing at Lady Mary. Sure enough the dancing did not disappoint her. Once again my thanks go out to the lovely Yvette, and the wondrous Brandi (not sure of her SCA name), the two of them took Lilley in hand and helped her dance and see what she wished to see, while giving me a chance to watch some fighting bouts. Brandi even offered to be my partner when I joined them in the dance room.

Despite the fact I have three left feet Brandi was a patient instructor correcting me when I goofed up without making me feel like a fool. I do look forward to more instruction in this fine art. While heavy fighting is my main area of focus I can see dancing being something I actually look forward to at events as well.

Silent Auction

There was a silent auction at Lady Mary. Quite a few interesting items up for bid, one in particular was an offer to make garb for children. Lilley desperately needs new garb, and so I put in a bid, I was the only bidder so I bid fairly low, but not obscenely low, and lo and behold I won the item. So now I get to have some garb made for Lilley at a nice cut rate price. I am sure Lilley will be excited once she can wear her new garb. I do have to arrange a time to go to the seamstress and get Lilley measured up and pick out the style. In addition to this a friend of a friend who sewed me my first tunic contacted me with an offer to do some more garb for my daughter and I, so perhaps we will be filling out our SCA wardrobes.

I am glad that the friend contacted me about additional garb, I don't like my black tunic (no fault of the seamstress, my own fault for not knowing what I was doing when I bought the material) the material is not really period, the colour is not right, basically it just doesn't fit my persona well. What I would like is a Leine, trews, a proper brat, and a Inar to really fit the part of early irish celt. I don't know if the seamstress would be willing to do all that for me, but we shall see.

I am not quite sure what period to hit for Lilley, I would imagine she would prefer a more later period, going for fancier dress cloths as it would make her more like a princess. We shall see.

Feast

Alas I missed feast this time around, much to Lilley's dismay. Lilley already has quite the reputation as an up and comming bard due to her singing at Winter War and Masquerade, and she was so looking forward to singing some. Next event I should ensure that we get to feast and that I have some lyric sheets printed off for her so she knows the words even better yet. I will have to ask Yvette for some of the better known songs so I can download the lyrics and get Lilley working on the songs.

Archery

On Sunday I got a chance to go out to Louisa's farm for some archery practice. I shot archery once in scout camp when I was quite young, I didn't do terrible, but I certainly didn't do good, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect this time. I surprised myself by doing half decent. Raithe informed me I was pulling about 32 lbs or so, but I'll just have to take his word on that. After a few rounds with a 30lbs bow I got to try out Raithe's monster 75 lbs longbow. When I say monster, I mean monster, the thing is fantastic to shoot, the arrows whistle out of the bow and hit the target with quite a satisfying thump. The first few shots with the longbow were way off as my arm wobbled under the strain of pulling the string back, but once I got a little steadier the arrows flew truer, but I had to adjust my aim considerably because there was almost no drop to the arrows and most of my shots went sailing over the targets.

Lady Mary

The Baronry of Rising Waters is hosting Lady Mary tomorrow. I think I will grab my daughter and head down there to check out the festivities. Rising Waters is the area I was born in, and the area I would have joined the SCA in if I had heard of it earlier. So in a way it will be like returning home. I already know some of the folk from Rising Waters, including Yvette who has been kind enough to allow Lilley to sing with her at a number of events, and some of my fellow Trinovantians will be there as well including Raithe and Steve, not really sure who else will be there.

Lady Mary is said to be quite the prestigious event, as such I think I will bow out of tournament fighting, but if they are doing secondary authorizations I think I will attempt to get my two stick and thrusting authorizations to add to my card, and it never hurts to get a little extra fighting in there even if I am not outright competing.

Apparently there is a fair amount of dancing at Lady Mary, so I am sure Lilley will be ecstatic to get a chance to learn some new dances. Although we won't be staying for feast so probably won't get a chance for her to work on her Bardic Arts.

I hadn't really planned on going to Lady Mary as I am not happy with my garb, and have not gotten Lilley new garb either and I had been waffeling on the matter for quite some time. The lovely lady Yvette however informed me that I was required to attend with my daughter. This was when I went to Rocriptus' to repair my armour a few weeks back, she happened to be there as well. Apparently she is autocrating the event, and I do so hate to let down a lady, especially a lovely one.

My task for tonight is to repair my swords thrusting tips so that they are a little larger than they currently are as I think there might be a risk of some wood hitting if I thrust at the wrong angle. I also have to make sure my garb is in order. That and make sure Lilley is prepared for the day as well.

If you are going, see you there, if not, why not?

Exhausting Practice

Sir Kasmir came to practice last night, it being his custom to appear the first practice of every month to encourage the troops and give tips on improving our skills. He put us through our paces for sure. Instead of the winner staying in, each fighter remained in the ring for two fights win or lose, and we did not wait for lay on, but rather just charged in. Kellan was trying to get us to fight quicker, with less dancing around sizing up our opponents.

It was a good drill system to get us in shape for mellee fighting. A quick deal with your opponent and move on to the next. Sounds like a wonderful training technique, however it quickly left us all breathless and exhausted.

Before the real training began I had a chance to speak with Sir Kellan and he showed me how to improve my shot and had me work on it considerably alternating between my left and right hand. He showed me how I was telegraphing my hits by cocking back my arm, helped me correct it then showed me that I was still telegraphing by bopping my body a little before each shot. It was a lot to take in, and I hope my shot improved.

I did have a couple of nice kills during the practice. A few that even surprised me, including one against Wolfgang, although to be fair Wolfy was looking pretty winded at the time, and I had just come off a rest.

A Week of Experimentation

Apparently this week is about trying new things.

Although I did try two stick once with Thorld (I think that's Tyler's society name), I didn't fare well and I was using loaner swords. Last week, thanks to Roscriptus, I managed to get my own swords completed and battle ready. Casting off my loaned shield I ran into the fray with a sword in both hands, and thrusting tips on both. Two stick is a unique experience, I move more, I strike more, and blocking requires quicker and more movement. Snag assisted me adjusting my calibration with my left hand (ok my calibration on my right needs work too, but my left is terrible), and I think I made some improvements, but I have to hit harder. I convinced Raithe that he needed to try two stick as well, and promptly learned that a fencers speed is a very good thing for two stick as he killed me with a maddening flurry of hits. I did get some pretty nice kills, some by accident, some intentional. I do have to send out a big thank you to Thorld for lunging into my sword tip like that, I guess its payback for all the times I dove onto his sword.

In addition to getting my swords battle ready Roscriptus also assisted me in improving my knee armour, although they still needs some tweeks to fasten them on my legs better, they are at least legal now. I also had some repairs on my leg armour done. Roscriptus you do good work, thanks.

In addition to trying out two stick, I made it out to Rapier practice as well and tried some fencing. Raithe spent considerable time showing me the ins and outs of rapier, and showing me the massive differences between rapier and fencing, taking out my tows a few times reminded me that below the knee is a valid shot in rapier. I enjoyed rapier and I am sure I will be making more appearences, that being said Heavy Fighting is my main focus for now, I will try doing every other week Rapier practice though, and go from there.

The next thing I want to try is archery. I can't see combat archery as the thing for me (who wants to stand on the sidelines shooting arrows when you can be in the middle of it all slaying foes with a sword), but I do think target practice could be fun.

A Follow Up on My Winter War Thoughts

How could I forget to mention. Not only did my daughter and I have such a fun time at the event. We also both won prizes which we both are proud of and hold dear. My daughter won a wooden horse and soldier to play with, and I won fantastic leather bracers which are now part of my armour gear.

Winter War XI

News reached my ears of a battle brewing in my own shire. I could not ignore the call to battle. My daughter and I made the trip to the battle grounds and she sat on the sidelines while I prepared.

To prove my worth I stood before a marshal and passed the rites of authorization. Authorized and prepared I let it be known that I was available to any captain looking to hire a mercenary. My quest to find work did not last long and a commander from Ramshaven hired me on. We fought many a foe and I believe I earned my pay, though in the end my armour failed me and my knee cop fell to my ankle. I battled against my sword brothers from Shire of Trinovantia Nova as well, and learned how swift their forces can strike.

A market had sprung up around the battle field and I took my daughter to buy her some pretty baubles, her decked out in her prettiest dress and I wearing a battle damaged tunic, we made quite the mismatched pair. Lilley found herself a couple of necklaces she loved, I bought both of them, how is it daughters wrap their fathers around their fingers so?

When it came time for feasting after the battles Their Majesties King Etain au Navaland Queen Valfreya Greenspeare held court before bread was broken. Many foreigners sent greetings from their far flung and backwards lands, I admit I paid little attention to the goings on in court until a man whom I was aquainted with, and would call a friend, Dailin Caulder was called before the court. He was honoured for his accomplishements for the shire and kingdom and was granted an award of arms making him Lord Dailin Caulder. Wasail Lord Dailin of Trinovantia Nova, you make us proud. The most regal event of the court was the raising of Her Excellency TSivia bas Tamara v’Amberview to the Order of the Pelican. her fame had reached even my ears thus it was impressive to see the splendor of such an event.

Baroness Margaret of the E'rain prepared the feast and it was beyond reproach. I do not know if I have words to explain the sheer volume and flavour of the food that was layed before us. I doubt even the greatest of poets could begin to touch on the wonder that was the feast. I have eaten food prepared by the Baroness before, at the Masquarade Ball not all that long ago, and though I knew the food would be superb, nothing could prepare my taste buds nor stomach for the assault that was made upon them. The poached pairs made an appearance as well and I could eat those until my stomach burst and still want more.

The bards voices were not heard as much as they were at Masqurade, but they were heard and Lilley added her angelic six year old voice to the throng, even so far as to sing alone for the king and queen. Though she was to shy to request the audience of Their Majesties herself I made the introduction and asked for Their indulgence. King Etain demonstrated his kindness by gracing my daughter with the language of the aristocrats responding in french to her french song. I admit I knew little of what he said, but my daughter was overjoyed at the attention of royalty. King Etain also gave her a gift, which she will treasure always. Lilley will be a bard of note in Ealdormere before my name is known amongst the warriors, of this I am certain.