Amazing Camps

There are some very cool camps on site. Wandering around yields many photo ops, and here are a few. The first is the Darkyard encampment. Wandering around at night, it is a bit eerie!

I dont know the next, it is just random lovely tents.

The third is the temple at Familia Gladiatoria down by the lake. The temple is most impressive!

The carved gate is from Norseland, gentles who were gracious in directing a lost lady one night!

The last 3 photos are of Springwood, wherer Meghan spent many waking hours. She met a very nice young man there, or rather was introduced by a mutual friend, and hit it off rather well. Dan is not only good looking but quite polite, evidently bright and charming and enterprising as well, as he has a tea import business. Yummy tea, too. He lives in Pittsburgh, and is coming to visit Meg in a couple weeks. Hmm.

Pennsic is chock full of fabulous entertainments....

first, there was the goat. Yes, I know I showed it before, but this is a way better picture! The next night, it was baconwrapped lamb on the spit.... but I didn't get a picture of that, I just ate it up! Yum!

Marion of Heatherdale is one of my fav performers, she absolutely radiates her love of her music, and everyone around her catches that enthusiasm. Here, she is singing a wonderful, dark, creepy, hauntingly beautiful lullaby to Mordred. There was a dance correographed to this that I learned earlier in the week. Beautiful!

I think the absolute best show this Pennsic was the Evening with the Masters, a group of instrumental musicians who set up a vignette in 14th century Spain, as music teachers meeting after classes at University to discuss their students, eat a little, play the new (!) music and have a little fun. They played a musical game where one began a short phrase, then completed it, and the other had to play that then add a phrase. They went back and forth until one made a mistake, then he had to take a drink of wine. After about ten minutes, it was pretty funny! Midway through the vignette, in walks one of the best medieval vocalists I know of, Owen Phyffe. Fabulous!

The same night there was the Kenneth and Adelaide show. They do modern songs of historical events and filk as well. My favorite of theirs is Band of Brothers, based of course on Henry V's speech. Very very powerful.

Duke Moonwolf also sang, as he does every year, and did our favorite Pennsic IV anthem, as well as I Wish I Was a Flying Monkey (while wearing a flying monkey hat). If only I had a picture of THAT!

Sort of Random Pictures

The days are filled with entertainment! The Clan Tinker does fun stuff like juggling, unicycle riding, sword swallowing and (at night) best of all, fire dancing! Good stuff!

The shop below is where I purchased my pots and lamps, and has the best potter! He is very good about research, and will make whatever you wish of accurate stuff.

The wooden fort sits on the battlefield, and is the setting for several of the battles. This first of the war is a valley battle, deliniated by haybales, and fought in front of the fort. Some battles are actually fought over the fort. There are swords and pikes, of course, arrows and axes, but there are also larger weapons: trebuchets, mangonels, catapults, ballista, even arbalesti.....siege engines of war made not too dangerous! :)

Nights are filled with music and friendship, Duke Moonwolf led off my shows with his annual Benefit Concert.

There were no Cobra Helos this year from the nearby reserve base, just a couple C130 transports, but we did have a couple ultralights show up this year.... really sorta cool. Okay, more later!

The Tale of the Tent

So, when I got to the storage shed, and started pulling out all the various things that make my life easier at Pennsic, I pulled out the 12' x 12' pavillion, loaded the poles into the car, and began looking for the lines and stakes. Then I realized that the lines and stakes that I thought belonged to the OTHER pavillion in my basement actually belonged to THIS pavillion. Oops. I had the setup package for one tent, and a very different tent. Oops. Oops. Okay, so what now? Well, surely, I will just go to Panther Pavillions, and buy a new setup package. Right. So I trucked back to the site, dropped off the stuff, and walked to the merchant area. Yep, they had everything I needed, and at a reasonable price, too. Except they weren't allowed to sell it to me until MONDAY at 10 am. Oops. That left me Saturday night, and Sunday night. What to do? Well, luckily, Lili and Friedrich had rented a big tent from the site and it was already up and empty. Phew, temporary safety. What a cluster! Monday bright and early, I went to Panther and bought what I needed, but still couldn't get it put up until Tuesday, since I had to wait to get help pounding in stakes. Thank you, Guy and Tormunder! So Tuesday I slept safe and secure under my own tent, snug and happy! Lesson learned, match up pavillion with setup FIRST!

And oh yes, the roast chicken was positively delicious!

Wow, what a trip it was!

Arriving at the Pennsic gates, I wouldn't have thought there would be so many cars! It was the first Saturday, and it was packed! Four, or was it five lanes of cars waiting to enter, and by threethirty there were 3400 on site. That is alot of processing, for the trolls!

Waiting wasn't hard though, some played games, some visited friends, some slept, some facebooked... the weather was good, so no complaints there. We waited in line about an hour, I think, then moved into the troll line, and waited abit longer. For those of you who don't know, that is troll as in, stop, pay troll. Then someone said welcome home, and it began.

We camp with Ostgardr, a Crown Province of the East Kingdom, centered in NY city. They are so very gracious and welcoming, and have been for the last 13 years. I love staying with them.
Meg hasn't been there in five years, so therewere the obligitory "holy cow, who is THAT?"s and the inevitable warnings and protective stares. I LOVE the SCA uncles!

I will probably do more than one post a day to get up lots of photos and stories, but I have tons of laundrey to do, lunch to fix, and a fan to buy (the bedroom one died last night). Setup was, well, not smooth. But at least it didn't rain. More later....

Pics

Don't know why these didn't work with the last post, but here are the photos for the post.

















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More pennsic

Yesterday was a day of merriment and entertainment. I have included a photo of the newest knight in our encampment, though it took place Monday because I just like Guy so very much. A true and gentle knight.
The roast is Steve, a goat (purchased after the skin was off, I never knew him!) and leftovers were quite tasty. I was on my way to the concerts, so wasn't there for the main course.
The first concert was Sir Kenneth and his lady Mistress Adelaide, who rocked the pavilion with fabulous music memorializing both modern SCA events and historical battles. The last piece was my favorite, Band of Brothers, Henry V's famous speech set to music... Truly a foot stomper, hand lapped, shoutin' kinda song.
The next set was The Masters, three master instrumentalists, and a vocal master. Fabulous! They set their piece in 14th century Spain as a get together of music masters discussing their students and playing the "new" music of the time. All on beautifully constructed period instruments. They even played a musical memory game, where you have to take a drink when you make a mistake! Period indeed! What a fabulous Pennsic this is developing into.


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Pennsic XL

The war has been declared, and the first sword strokes have been thrown, by Duke Moonwolf, who is also one of my favorite musicians. He has been fighting for the Middle Kingdom since Pennsic III! My stay is half over, and I wish it had just begun. Seeing old friends, learning new things, relearning age old skills, these are all good things, but the real attraction is what brought me to the SCA to begin with... Chivalry, Courtesy, Honor, Commitment.
Drop a twenty dollar bill, and the first five people behind you will run to catch you up to return it. The lost and found is full of items, some of significant value, waiting for their owners to claim them.
If you are a woman wanting to dance, and there is a man present, you have a partner. If you need help pounding stakes, lifting gear, fetching ice, someone helps.
On the field of battle, foes are honorable, valued, even loved. I saw opponents laughing as they fought, shared joy overflowing. Tonight a man of honor sits in vigil on the battlefield, having been washed and prayed, and listens to knights tell him what is expected of him as he joins their ranks, the most revered in the Society.
I am privileged to know him. I wish him well.


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Location:Beautiful AEthelmearc

Chipmunk!

My word, he's cute! He's been coming around but when I get my camera out, he disappears. This time he hung around long enough that I got lots of pics. He was chased by the squirrels at first, they didn't want to share the peanuts, but after he zoomed all around them and still kept coming back for more, they gave up. Now he's hanging with the Big Boys!


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Tarot Card Done!

I will mail them off on Monday, and then have finished everything but the packing! Yippee!

Really, this was an interesting challenge. It is for my TravellersHart group, who decided to do a Nick Bantock (getting back to roots) homage tarot deck. I drew the Hanged Man card....

I really don't know that much about tarot, though it is interesting to me. Turns out the Hanged Man rerpresents patience, passivity, and sacrifice, with the bonus of resurrection thrown in! A most fitting card for me, particularly right now. Funny how God works in these things! I guess if He can use the jawbone of an ass..... ; )

A Busy Deck

Well, they finally got around to retarring the road in my developement, after parking out on the far street three other times. The back deck was a very busy place today, the birds were flitting all over. There were squirrels too, though they were not moving very quickly, unlike the birds. The screen pidgeon carrier seems to make a great resting place. So does the railing, evidently. A pilleated woodpecker and a hairy woodpecker, a yellow chickadee, sparrows, cardinals, bluejays, and a mystery bird appeared. The bird looks alot like a crestless cardinal, but has a black head. I have put up the best pics of it I could get (it was shy) and if you know what it is, tell me!