Coronation

Travelled to Coronation with fitzw, ellid, and Conannan. One small detour, but otherwise the trip down was fairly uneventful. Site was packed with people, we had marvelous weather, many awards given out, fealties were sworn, old friends were greeted, and the Bergental travelling dayboard was quite good.

Baronessmartha received her well-deserved Pelican. She spent most of the day in happy tears, I think :) Annaliese made a lovely silk 'braid' for her, with fringe on the end, and someone make a beautiful Persian coat for her with the pelican embroidered on the back of it.

Nazrynn received her also well-deserved Silver Crescent (see her post for more details).

fitzw and I made our fealty to TRM Lucan and Jana, and I managed to remember all of my lines! It was kind of surreal in some ways, as it's the same oath I used with Etienne to the same RM when I was baroness the first time... thankfully I'm getting better with practice.

EDIT: fitzw remembers that Et and I did it slightly differently, and I recall that before I did the entire thing in French and then he did the entire thing in English. We agree it works better doing it line by line, which is how fitzw and I do it now.

This particular court was Russian, I think. I believe the intention this reign is to 'travel' to different eastern European countries - should be fun! It was a lovely setup, with the divans and the furs and pillows and everything, and of course TRM's clothing was beautiful. Sorry, no pics, but I'm sure someone took some.

The flashes all going off during one of the knightings that day were somewhat off-putting (and against EK law). But the rest of both courts were both excellent. There were only a couple of times folks weren't in right in the room, so very few delays in what were full court dockets. Some members of Concentus filled in one of the times with singing and were joined by some others, which happily ended up settling a restless crowd and processing in one of the chivalry candidates -- it's nice to know the same music as folks from other places.

Eleanor leB brought a few things for folks to try out at lunch time. She's experimenting with different things for dayboard at Crossroads at Canterbury. Some people liked the dip, which I thought was okay, but needs a different color bowl and/or some greens to give it more visual appeal - have to write her about that as I ran out of time for chatting. She also brought a savory pie (squash and onion, and probably eggs and stuff) -- that was absolutely scrumptious! Of course, while many people thought so, not everyone felt the same way, but fortunately there will be a variety of food for a variety of personal tastes. Oh, and also a dariole, which was subtle but pleasant. I think she's going to try some other dariole recipes as well.

A number of us didn't stay for dinner, needing to get home sooner for much-needed rest. We stopped at a place in Attleboro, MA at the corner of 1 and 1A called the Hearth and Kettle. Everyone had something different and we all found our food excellent, whether fish, poultry, or beef. Pagan's lobster stew had rather large pieces of lobster in it -- there could be no doubt that it was real lobster! My nut-crumbed salmon was excellent, and I have a bit of it left over for today, as they were generous with their portions. The nuts were almonds and macadamia, and overall was a ginger-orange sauce. I had butternut squash and mashed potatoes for sides. I don't usually have potatoes, but I had a feeling these might be worth having, and they were - real mashed potatoes, not pureed or instant ickiness. They also had their own brand of root beer, which compares favorably to IBC and stands up well to ice. We were all too full for dessert. Everyone hit the restrooms before leaving; fitzw was singing quietly outside them by the kitchen, waiting for the rest of us to come out, and we happily joined in for a song before leaving the restaurant. We leave a proper tip of course, but a song is something they can carry with them for a while longer. Even the manager was happy :)

The ride home was even more uneventful than the ride out, and everyone got to go home at a reasonable hour. A perfect end to a perfect day!

Flatware and...

I was checking out CostPlus World Market (got there from a site on Free Trade goods), and found some flatware I thought would be acceptable for SCA use. Not perfect, but the handles are straight, not flared out, and a lot of extant pieces have a knob, curl, or some sort of thing on the end. The spoons don't have the typical pear shape, but overall I think they'll do. Plus they're metal, as opposed to our current wood ones, so more appropriate for nobility. The knives are also decent. What also appealed to me is that while you have to buy them in sets of 4 pieces, it's by the _type_ of piece, not a whole 'set'. So, 4 forks, 4 spoons, etc. I ordered spoons and knives, as we've decided to try not to use forks so much. Yesterday at the event I noticed that I mostly used my fork to get the food from the serving dish onto my plate, so I suppose it won't be too difficult a transition. I ordered two sets of each, in case we might give some out as gifts or prizes.

You can see them here: http://www.worldmarket.com/kitchen-tabletop/flatware/Mercury-Flatware-Collection/lev/4/productId/3866/Ne/1100001/Ns/NEW_ARRIVAL_FLAG%7c1%7c%7cCATEGORY_SEQ_2983%7c0/N/1100140/Nty/1/view/10000/index.pro

Also, I spoke with our seneschal and some others about service and appearance and such, and they've agreed to try out having the servers all wear a long white napkin over the shoulder.

I think laver bowls would be cool too, but right now I can't think about it, with Ashfield Fall Festival less than a week away. So, perhaps not this winter, but in the future? I was reading something somewhere (forgot to note it) about how they washed both before and after the meal, which I don't think I've seen at events yet, just the washing before. Has anyone seen this happen?

More later. Off to watch Inspector Lynley!

Things done and to be done

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.