Managed to get class materials together for Novice Schola. Both the event and our class went well.

I got to one class, and managed to successfully melt glass for the first time! When I remember, I'll take a picture of my lovely little bead. I made mistakes, but I still like it. Not sure how far I want to go with it, but I think I'd like to try it again. In particular, I would eventually like to try it with more medieval equipment, but modern equipment is likely safer to use at an event site, since we were indoors.

Had lots of great conversations, both with old and new friends.

Between not always eating right, not enough time for soaking in the tub, and poor and/or completely lacking ability to sleep, I'm in quite a bit of pain right now. I still managed to get clothing washed though, and we delivered a whole bunch of eggs yesterday. And though it's quite windy out, the sun is shining; I'll take it.

(1) So, it looks like I'll be teaching a textile class. Oy. Not being an expert by any stretch of the imagination, this should be entertaining...

I'm not even sure how to write up the class description so that it sounds interesting, but I'd best get to it!

I'll have examples of various fabrics, and discuss the basic properties of different materials. MizPagan suggested I include a bit of history of textiles in the SCA, so I'll likely do that. I will NOT be doing a detailed timeline of when each material was used in each country SCAdians commonly make clothing and accessories for, but I'll mention some examples. Seriously, one could do a class just on cotton, in that case, and yes, it could take an hour to do that.

I will not be going into deep detail on things like appropriate patterns, although I'll probably bring some exemplars for that as well. The one thing I want to help folks avoid is buying upholstery fabric with a rubberized or other type of backing that keeps the fabric from breathing.

Ah, and I should include a handout that lists some useful fabric web sites, like fabric-store.com, fabrics.com, denverfabrics.com...

***
(2) Fitzw is teaching a song class this year. Period rounds, easy enough to learn, and I'll be one of the 'shills' in class, for when we break up into parts. One of our baronial folks has been after more music that everyone can sing, so Concentus only has a couple of choral pieces for this event -- for the rest we'll be singing rounds at feast, with the choir breaking up to help each of the sections of tables.

Great event, lots of good conversations. Lots of happy learning.

Very tired now.

Excellent day yesterday! We did have a few things happen, like one of the teachers being too ill to come and teach. harpnfiddle filled in more than adequately, with a Celtic Music class (emphasis on Scottish, as that's her area of interest) and the intro to harp class.

Learned interesting things about written music (like how to tell if it was for lute and definitely not for harp - accidentals), working songs, etc. We talked about the various reasons for a lot of music not surviving.

Also made it to the juggling class late in the day. I'm not good at it, but it occurred to me that it might be another useful exercise for the arm, so I'll keep giving it a try. That was a popular class :)

The fighter classes were both popular, with the one on why fighters should dance having people spilling out into the hallway because they wouldn't all fit. Aethelhawk/Taz was teaching that one. I talked with him about it over lunch, and he was pleasantly surprised at how well it had been received. Sir Jeff assisted from time to time with supporting thoughts and examples, which he was very happy about too. Taz's hope is to encourage there being more men on the dance floor and more women on the field, so that there's more parity in both.

I was going to go to masteralcuin's class, but ellid and I and Magnus needed to do judging of the A&S entries, and that went over about halfway through his class. I didn't want to come in late and disturb the class, but I'm hoping it went well.

Picked up the armor & stand, cloak, blackwork piece, for the demo next week. Today we'll assemble a few thing out our work.

Got to chat with lots of folks, including one of our new people that I hoping to meet in person, J. Nichols, and also his daughters. Lovely folks! He looked sort of familiar but I wasn't sure why, so I asked his name and sure enough he was who I thought he was -- turns out he found out about us through the demo we did at the Springfield Quadrangle. L was answering questions on the handbound books he had on display, and I do remember chatting with him at the time. Got to chat briefly with one of our new teachers too, by virtue of taking the juggling class.

I usually do a random 'survey' of students and teachers too, and overall everyone was pretty happy with their classes. Light attendance in some, heavy in others -- you never know from year to year, which classes will have peak attendance. But even if there's only one student, if it's an enthusiastic one it can make a teacher's day (speaking from experience).

I'm hoping we have dance again next year, but that will depend on if schedules can mesh.

sorcieredeneige came in first thing in the morning to help out a bit and check in with folks, before she headed back out to work on getting more stuff out of the flooded basement. They can't get the furniture out though, at least not yet -- too heavy. I expect that means she's sleeping in the spare bedroom upstairs right now, since the basement was essentially her own little apartment. Sigh. She lost all the fleeces. She at least still has her prepared fibers, but that's still quite a blow. And I'm sure many other things besides the fleeces, like some fabrics and books and such. And of course all the holiday stuff is stored in the furnace room down there, so some of that is likely gone as well.

She did get a lovely stack of books from Small Churl Books while there. And she's been getting deeper into research on bread and finally found more info on types of wheat in the medieval and renaissance period. Good for her!

gwynt_y_storm's work on the Roman marching kit was well received too, another highlight from the day. Although I don't think I have much to do with it really, I'm still proud of her and the work she's doing.

***
A little headachey this morning. Novice Schola tends to kill me physically, no matter how much other folks are doing to help. And it was a rather long day too. But we need to take advantage of the clear weather to do some work in the sugarhouse, barn, and apartment, moving things. So, I'd best do some of my ROM exercises, and get to work!

Thursday (hey, it's a _very_ long weekend, for me!):

Had a lovely dinner last night with fitzw. We got to Greenfield early enough to get to the bead store first, where we got the most beautiful silver hawk pendant. I'd seen it the last time we were in town, for the winter fare farmers market, and it was still there. My plan is to secure it to my crane bag with a really good pin, so that it can represent air most of the time there, but I can still take it off to wear on occasion.

The restaurant was crowded but we were seated in about 5 minutes. Service was still good in spite of the workload, although probably not as high as they'd like -- when it's quieter the waiters do things like prepare your chopsticks for you :D Had a most excellent discussion about the Coligny Calendar. L has been working away at studying it in more detail and wanted to lay some of it out in discussion, to help him sort things out. Since I'd been having some trouble following some of how it worked (in spite of gwynt_y_storm's good lecture - I'm just slow on some things), it was great for me too, as L was able to explain some things to me so that I could keep it in my head. It took a few tries, but I have the basics down finally. The math of the system is what intrigues him the most, of course. I believe it goes well with the sacred geometry stuff he's studying, too. We also talked about the calendar in relation to other calender systems, and a bit about the language as well (old Gallic). A wonderful time!

Bought some little composition books for the teachers at Novice Schola last night. Just little ones, but handy for taking notes at a museum, library, someone else's class. Or jotting ideas in, that kind of think. Don't like the covers though, so I tried decoupaging some nice paper onto the covers of a few of them.

Friday:

Decoupage isn't strong enough, will try some double-sided tape I have. That sticks to pretty much anything. Need to finish covering the gift notebooks today.

Also:

- Pack green bog dress (loaned from gwynt_y_storm, the cat clan's cheese slicer, L's teaching materials, feast gear, baronial chairs, coronets, harp(s) (although they won't go into the minivan until tomorrow morning). Pouches or bags for notebooks and other odds & ends. Travel snacks and water. Site donation check from a friend in NH.

- Ready clothing for tomorrow

- Clean minivan, put in two seats for the folks we're taking to the event. May have to put cartop carrier on as well, because of the stuff we'll be picking up at the event.

- PT and a little weaving. And maybe a bit more spinning, although if I do it'll be the Icelandic, as I want to get further along on that project.

Saturday:
Novice Schola. Long day. Have to get Eli there for helping with setup, so we'll be up super early, since we have to get down the mountain, pick up him and Sarah L, and then get to Springfield by 8:00 a.m. We'll be staying for dinner of course, which from the sounds of things will be a nice intimate affair. Then cleanup (at least a little, before the event staff kick me out), take people home, go home.

During the day:
Do baroness stuff (hold hands as needed, chat with folks, check out the arts displayed, help out where needed, and of course, be decorative and spiffy-looking). I'm sure everything will go wonderfully, although we always have a glitch or two -- part of the fun :D Hm, maybe I should browse through my class handouts and see if I can throw together another class, in case we need it...

Collect items from Sir Jeff, Mistress Caitlin O'D, and Mistress SD ellid, which will be displayed at Wandering Moon in Shelburne Falls on Feb. 23 (part of a renaissance-themed fundraiser for the local food pantry).

One of my apprentices, gwynt_y_storm, has been working away at various things Roman. I've been reading up on her progress with various projects in her journal with great interest, and she did show me a couple of things a few weeks back, which only whets my interest in the rest of what she's been making. The greatest holdup for her has been lack of a proper place to do metal work/forge work, but she's been doing a good job working around that lack so far. Hopefully we can do something about this soon, perhaps later in the year.

Sunday:
- Trip to transfer point for recycling.
- L and I think there was something else, but can't remember what it was. Hopefully it will come to one of us....
- I don't expect to do a whole lot Sunday, being the day after an event. I still get tuckered out after being out and about all day.
- History Channel is showing Life after People at 8pm. We caught a few bits of it last time, but not the whole thing. Hypothetical scenarios on what would happen if people suddenly weren't living in various given places (degradation of structures, how domestic and wild animals will fare, etc.). One of the bits we caught last time was from an actual place -- cities and towns do get abandoned, even today; it was really something to see how quickly the place they were at had gotten overgrown. Not completely surprising to me, with the stuff I've had to deal with in my own semi-tended garden spaces, but still interesting.

Monday:
L has the day off and my PT is on Tuesday! Lady Alfdis will be coming by sometime in the morning to pick up the items from Novice Schola, as well as some items from myself and fitzw. (We'll have to pack up those things Sunday and/or early Monday morning). After that, who knows? We'll probably give Una/sorcieredeneige a call, to see how things are going. The basement flooded and she and her mom and a couple of friends have been working on cleaning up. ellid will be going over Sunday to see what she can do. Hm, I'll talk to Una at the event Saturday and see how things are going. If she knows that she'll have help on Monday, she can put some things off until then so that the weekend isn't quite as hard on her.

I'm sure we'll still have some time to ourselves in there somewhere. Good thing we're used to flexible schedules!

***
Time to get busy!

-Yoga stretches
-A bit of walking
-2 loads of laundry (1 massage sheets, 1 clothing)
-S-twist spinning, white Icelandic
-Wound some Z-twist white Icelandic into a ball
-Brought spinning wheel in from studiolo and removed bobbin for windoff
-Bank deposit
-Began looking at Egyptian art
-Correspondence, general and one for Novice Schola
-Caught up on entering receipts into Quicken
-Paid a bunch of bills online

Plans for tonight:
- Wind off z-twist white Icelandic from bobbin onto niddy noddy for setting
-Take some Emergen-C, throat's a little sore and have a bit of a headache
- Work on court doc for EK 12th Night
- Possibly spin more

A number of things changed this week, up to and including on Friday (doesn't something always happen just before an event?)

( Yule Prep list )

Lots of folks were at Yule! Beautiful weather, the forest got set up, although it was a good bit of work because everyone's batteries kept dying of the cold, so not all the trees went up. Still looked pretty good and people really seemed to enjoy playing in it. At least one tree went home with someone to be a holiday tree for feeding outdoor birds and such. The fighters knocked down most of the forest by the end. We were theorizing that between ships and boar hunters, this is why England got low on wood after a while.

( more on Yule )

Long day, long night. But a very happy day all around.

fitzw had a good talk on the phone with Z. I talked to Una about Novice Schola event notice stuff. She's working on it tonight, then meeting with Fiona, the other autocrat, to finalize things.

Got about half of the blue and green Shetland into balls of roving. fitzw read more about weaving. We watched MacGyver DVD as nothing on tv really interested us. MacGyver is very cool, and some of the stuff he does is even handy in real life :)

Tomorrow, more work on clothing, porch, possibly wooly stuff, and no doubt other stuff, then go to work.

Off to play backgammon. G'night!

Not a lot today, really. More sorting of things, found something I wasn't looking for, and still haven't found a couple of things I've been looking for, for a while now. Stressful. Went to the mall and looked at matt board, but it was too wet out, so not picking any up until tomorrow. Did happen upon some beautiful silver beakers in a new store there, and bought them all 4 for $40 (plated, I expect, but an excellent job).

Talked with Una for a while, had supper, made some tea with a bit of lemon in it, talked with Mom for a while, with petting of cats interspersed throughout. Good if sad episode of Inspector Lynley.

Tomorrow a.m., taking Roselynde to the vet for a blood test, to see if her creatine level's normal. Keeping fingers crossed, because if all is well, we can finally get her teeth cleaned. Roselynde, for those who haven't met her, is my beautiful, smart, and queenly cat -- mostly black short-hair/wire-hair, with the conformation of the old-style applehead Siamese. Fortunately she has a sweet voice (although penetrating at times....)

Calling St. Paul's when we get back -- assuming the secretary is in, I'll put in a request to add Novice Schola to their schedule.

Then getting matt board, then painting. I was going to get some more wood boxes for decoupage, but don't have time to go all the way to Michael's for them. AC Moore won't do for that.

Business meeting in the evening.