Weekend, Sommer Draw

[helwen]

The Sommer Draw event was most excellent. Hot but not nearly the humidity of last year, which had quite flattened me. Good meeting with ellid and countessinn. Chatting with various folks both new and old to the SCA, looking at art, watching a bit of the spear tourney. fitzw got into armor and did get in some kills as well as being killed. Needs the practice before we go off to Pennsic end of next month. Since we can't make events before then I expect that means we'll be down to Springfield for some of the practices there.

Did manage to talk a bit with Kai of Ravenglas, ohsusana, gwynt_y_storm, Jannat, Diarmit (the D-Man), Seamus, lady_jade_01 (who repaired my purple chiton), yewhall, Li Kung Lo, Lord Alexei, Harold Orm, countessinn and many others.

I did finally make it to the archery field to test whether or not I can shoot now. Answer? Yes! Only shot two ends, and I did feel it a bit today but mostly as an ache, not pain. Will have to start doing particular PT exercises again to work more on some of the muscles I need for that activity. And while I didn't excel, every arrow hit the cardboard on the two targets I aimed for -- not bad for not having shot in 1-1/2 to 2 years. Now I think it's worth setting up to do target practice this summer :)

countessinn, islenskr and lj user=masteralcuin> were all working on calligraphy (the first two) and illumination (the last). The papyrus invitations look even better in real life than in the photo, and the illuminated letter is really something.

Courts ran through the day, as one person we weren't sure would make it through the entire event (recovering from an illness), plus fitzw ran a couple of mini ones for to hand out prizes for the spear tourney and the 5-man tourney. Main court we managed to hold early enough in the afternoon that we could get the rest the business done before some other folks had to go home.

- Casimir was inducted into the Order of the Fountain (Service), for his exceptional help at Pennsic, with building siege and CA weapons, and in general at events.
- Seamus O'C was inducted into the Order of the Sable Bear (Martial) for his work in siege and CA -- both building and training.
- Jannat R was inducted into the Order of the Hourglass (A&S) for her lovely illuminations of scrolls. She also makes some excellent clothing and kumihimo. (Jeni for my non-SCA friends).

All very good exemplars of their orders!

Had dinner Saturday night at China Dynasty with some folks - Halfdan, Brigitha, Angelina, mizpagan, Eli, and ellid, which was excellent.

Didn't have much time for shopping as it turned out, too many things to do, and people to talk to and stuff. But there were many lovely things there and I did commission something from Fallon (non-SCA), and picked up some items from Ewan of Longship Trading, a fun item from Aidan Tinker, and some brass safety pins from Gwendolina (they are far superior in quality and durability to normal safety pins, plus they're decorative in appearance).

Sunday morning we planted most of the second batch of corn seed that had come in, before going to the site for cleanup. With the weather that's forecasted for the week, it was probably our last opportunity. It'll still be interesting in the fall...

Poor Ewan -- packing up his stuff to leave the site, he tossed his belt and stuff into the van from the passenger side and it hit the driver's side window just right and smashed it into little bits. The sound was much louder than I would have expected. Four of us spent some time picking up the pieces, which were mostly safe to pick up -- even safety glass can splinter, as we discovered. Fortunately he only had a 1-1/2 hour drive home, and I believe he left early enough to outdrive the worst of the storm that came in this afternoon.

Helped break down some tents here and there, did a bit of picking up although most of the field was already done -- good crew! -- site was closing at noon today so needed to get at least all the guests off-site by then. Kitchen was made all spic-and-span by Emma, Eleanore, Efa, islenskr, lj user=countessinn> also I think, plus others I'm sure. Awesome job by everyone there.

ohsusana and all the folks from Quintavia did a terrific job, and there was a lot of fun had this weekend! Really, I think the only thing that could have made it better would have been more time, so that I could have talked/hung out with everyone who was there. Like I only got to chat with baronessmartha very briefly, and not even a 'hello' with calygrey, for instance. Ah well, I know I'll see them at other times, and it was nice meeting a number of the newer folks.

Oh, and happily it didn't really rain last night, and the big downpour waited until shortly before 1:00 p.m. today, so while there was a heavy dew this morning I don't think anyone has absolutely soaking canvas tents to deal with.

***
Wore some of my Roman this weekend to give it more of a workout now that I have a stola made, and it worked pretty well! I figured out how to pleat the shoulders of the stola and secure them with safety pins, which I'm pretty pleased with. Being able to do that instead of basting the pleats means I can pack the stola flat for Pennsic.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that there was also youth fighting, and there was some fencing, although not a tournament. We'd originally hoped to do some non-fighter physical activities, but I expect there was more than enough going on with the archery (loaner equipment and instruction). Next year it would be nice if we could schedule some arts/sciences classes too. Had an interesting conversation on old tech like abacuses and astrolabes for instance, that could make for nice classes.

Comments

[lady-jade-01.livejournal.com]

And I rather enjoyed my first fencing lesson even if I was swimming in sweat under that denim fencing jacket.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Great! I used to enjoy fencing, it was a lot of fun. A bit hard on the wrist at times, being a leftie. Doesn't seem to be as much of an issue for righties...