Arts and Sciences in the Middle Ages

One of the great things about large SCA Events is that you get to see displays of different things that artisans have done. There are some beautiful things being made and I love to see not only the variety, but the level of craftsmanship. Since I have been learning leather working, I was especially impressed with the work of this one person. I have no idea who it is since there was no label, but the work is fantastic. Clearly someone to emulate!

So many fabulous leather items, bottom right are tiny dragons!

This is a book similar to what they used in the Middle Ages, it can be worn folded over the belt.

This leather covered box inspires me! This is so beautiful.

There were also beautiful Illuminations, a Scribal art done in the style of the Middle Ages. Full of symbols depicting the abilities or interests of the recipient, these are Awards given to deserving Gentles in the SCA. The higher the Award, the more elaborate the scroll. These scrolls are for the highest Award given in each of two categories, arts (Laurel) and service (Pelican). The level of skill and detail are impressive.

Order of the Laurel scroll by Mistress Amy Marie MacCormack

Pelican Scroll by Dame Angele Plaisance, Caid

I also happened by a class on silk banner painting. It was interesting to me to see the similarities as well as the differences in methods. I had a great chat with the artist who had also lived in Wyewood years ago.  

Interesting way to stretch the silk, with rubber bands and pins.

The whole design is outlined in resist, and she is painting in the dye with a brush.

Clearly the Arts and Sciences (A&S) is an area of avid interest for me in the SCA. This is just a sampling of the many varied skills I have seen both here and my home Kingdom of An Tir. The re-creation of things once made in the Middle Ages and keeping alive techniques, skills and knowledge our forefathers once had is something that gives me a feeling of being in touch with my forefathers. History coming alive is fascinating.

Kingdom Bardic Competition

Atenveldt Pavilion where the Bardic Championship was held.

   I find that hanging out with Musicians can push the comfort envelope. This is usually a good thing. A couple of my new musicians friends at Estrella urged me to join the Bardic Competition. It sounded like a rather small affair, so I thought "why not?" They said to be there a little bit before it started so I could sign in. It was rather casual and I think they were looking for more people to join the fun. I decided to go for it and sang "Fyrd of Wyewood" to further spread the Word Fame of our great Barony. I warned them that I did not have the words memorized, and they assured me that was fine. However, in the end it did lower my score. It was actually a fun thing to do, and other than being pretty nervous it went well. I got to go first and get it over with, which was a great relief so I could sit back and enjoy the stories that were told, the songs sung, and music played. Who knows, maybe next year I might even come prepared!
   I think a comparable competition in An Tir would be more difficult since I know how many great Bards we have. But maybe I'll get brave enough to give that a whirl one of these days, too!
   Embracing life and new experiences, part of what this trip is about!

Music and accolades

After taking a class on how to make my own lip balm with techniques likely used in the Middle Ages (melting small amounts of beeswax and cocoa butter on a spoon over a candle flame), I noticed that there was to be a practice that evening for the Grand Ball. Showing up to meet the musicians, I got invited to join them and so I had great fun 'cross-pollinating' with musicians in another Kingdom, seeing the subtle differences in how they do things. I got to play along on my tenor recorder, and I also got to dance. This for me was the highlight of the week, finding other musicians and playing many of the same dance tunes from the Middle Ages. I even met Matilda from Madrone in An Tir, the neighboring Barony in my Kingdom. We have played together a time or two when Wyewood and Madrone musicians have joined together.

Matillis and Matilda!

   She had seen a Bubba banner (Wyewood's mascot, a bat-winged hampster) and so I went on the hunt to find out who else was there from my home Barony. It turns out that it is Leticia's, whom I had already found. She said she flies Bubba at every Event.

Bubba of the Barony of Wyewood, flying at Estrella War.

I had asked a man camping nearby if that was his banner. He told me it was Leticia's and she had told him much of the Shire of Wyewood. Of course I had to tell him how we had become a Barony and some great stories around that, plus other fun things Wyewood has done. I was happy to spread some Word Fame about Wyewood! The outcome of this enjoyable conversation was that his 'flame was re-lit' (that's how he put it). The next day, Leticia passed on to me his personal coin in gratitude. Turns out he is a Pelican, a White Scarf, a Court Baron, former Baron of Sun Dragon, etc... So, to Don Diego de Marulanda al Nadil, <<deep curtsey>> Thank you, and I am happy to have been of service!

The coolest fire pit I have seen yet! 

Arriving at Estrella War XXXI

Arriving at Estrella War

In the Known World of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), we live in the Kingdomof An Tir and the Barony of Wyewood. We have traveled far to the Kingdom ofAtenveldt to attend Estrella War XXXI

Step back in time with us to the Middle Ages, where you will encounter encampments evoking the time period with canvas pavilions, Viking wedges, fire pits and banner. Strolling around you will pass Knights and Squires in their fighting armor, Kings, Queens and Barons with their crowns and finery. Merchants peddling their wares of crockery, cloth, yarns, armor, bows and arrows, and many more things to delight the eye and lighten the money bag.

     In the evening, by the campfire glow good gentles gather to tell stories, share music, food and drink. The sound of drums and laughter pervades the cool evening air. Although pavilions and tents are close together, there is a general feeling of comradery and sharing. These are the sights and sounds of the Current Middle Ages, where ordinary people ‘live’ for a weekend or a week the life of simplicity and chivalry typical of the Middle Ages.

     We had visitors who came to see what it was like for the day, people we had met in Yuma. It was fun to show them around and tell them about the things we like to do at an Event. Usually we would be at the Archery Range sending our pointed missiles into the target, but we felt no need to become that focused as we relaxed, shopped and wandered around.

I found Leticia in a pottery merchant booth--a transplanted Wyewoodian.

     We enjoy the luxury of the “Queen Mary”-as our motorhome has been dubbed--and don’t mind the walk to see the period tents and pavilions, the banners and decorations. Although I love seeing the inventive ways that people have come up with to accomplish fabulous meals in a camp kitchen and the medieval ambiance, I prefer mine. Not to mention having my own bathroom!

     Our week at Estrella War didn’t start out nearly as well as it ended. In all of our travels, the Tuesday we arrived was the worst day on the road we had had yet. Starting with that moment, when I realized that our directions were inadequate and I had missed the exit. I was stuck on a freeway heading too far North, wondering where I could pull off the road in a 38’ rig to figure out where I was compared to where I wanted to be. It was aggravating, but I got over it. When we arrived, checking in at Gate went smoothly and I thought that the hour extra travel wasn’t so terrible after all.

Lord Gervais, HL Matillis atte hethe.

     But then after we parked we found the Inverter had died. Not good. I use a CPAP which requires that particular piece of equipment. But, wait! We had a backup. Whew! Then the backup died just as we were getting ready for bed. I was hopeful (despite what I knew to be true about my sleep apnea) that I would get a little sleep anyway. At 4:00 am I gave up and said we were going to start the generator or I was going to a hotel! Grrrrrr. Just as I was about to finally drop off to sleep an hour later, the generator quit! No idea why, it worked perfectly when we started it later. I gave up. But when my neighbor started up his generator at 7:30 am, I was over there in a flash begging some power so I could get some sleep! Fortified with 1-1/2 hours of sleep I went off to Merchants Row while Jerry went into Mesa to buy a new inverter. By 6:00pm he had it installed and I was again able to get some sleep. YAY! I function so much better with sleep.

Lord Gervais Blakglove and Lady Matillis atte hethe in front of the Queen Mary.

     












More happenings to come!

From desert Boondocking, to SKP parks

Kofa Ko-op SKP Park, the next stop, in Yuma.

   On Valentine’s day we pulled into the no-frills boondock parking. This is the closest we have been parked to other RVs and surprisingly it didn’t feel cramped. Maybe because everyone is so friendly! This is a small but nice park with a pool and hot tub. We got in on the Valentine’s Day Dance that evening which was quite fun. We met some great people and I got to dance a bunch. I even got in on the line dancing and pretended I knew what I was doing!

   The next day we went with some new friends to the Arizona Market which is a series of vendor booths set up under a permanent roof. It was a step up from what we saw in Quartzsite and we had fun browsing through the shops. I even found a couple of dresses that made their way into my wardrobe and Jerry acquired a tiny fan to go in the RV fridge.

  That evening after having our own little jam session with the clubhouse piano (and my recorder and BethAnn’s mountain dulcimer and violin), we then moved on to our rig to play cards—Hearts, of course! The next day I had an ‘off’ day with tummy ickies and spent most of it in bed. Happily I was much better the next day which was good since we were off again to North Ranch SKP Park between Congress and Wickenburg.

Methuselah is home to lots of birds.

The name of this large Saguaro!

   Finding the boondocking area at North Ranch not to my liking, we were pleased to find we could get a hook-up site and so we moved. Later that day I discovered we were plunked right down in the middle of some our Boomers group (originally met at Quartzsite) and saw some familiar faces! We enjoyed chatting with them at the Boomers 4:00 Happy Hour.

   North Ranch has deeded lots rather than lease lots. It was very interesting to walk around and look at all the different things that people had done from full houses to just an empty lot with RV hookups and all kinds of variety in between. There were some pretty amazing RV garages or covered areas, some had upper story decks. Easy to get in more walking than expected with so much to look at! And they have this fabulous cactus garden where I took bunches of pictures. One Saguaro dated back to 1600! It was home to many birds and the bird chatter and song around it was fun to hear.

   The next day we went into Wickenburg and went first to the Library (a very nice one!) in order to get some internet and catch up on things. Turns out AT&T has no towers near North Ranch, so we didn’t have any internet at the rig. We drove around Wickenburg a little and poked our noses into a few stores and headed back in time for me to join a Hand and Foot game in the evening. It’s the first time I have had a chance to play that game for years! Great fun and good comradery.

Big trees!

Jerry bearly gets away from the shopping!

   On Friday we drove up (and I mean UP!) to Prescott to see Jerry and Trudy Hokensen. The road up into the mountains was curve after curve after curve. Happily, there is another way that we took back home which was much better. We ate lunch with them in this very cute, very Western themed diner, then did some window shopping in Downtown Prescott. There are lots of great stores there, and someday I want to go back and spend more time checking them out! After being in small towns and out in the desert so much, it was exciting to at least see some familiar big box stores and some nice upscale shops.

Jerry and Trudy

    We had originally thought to leave on Saturday, but Jerry and Trudy decided to come see us at North Ranch, so we happily put it off a day. They trusted their GPS and ended up going around the mountain which took way longer and involved 20 miles on a dirt road, but we had a nice visit anyway.

    While waiting for them, I had a very relaxing day puttering around my little home. It was so nice to have hookups so I could run my food dehydrator which is a problem on the solar panels since it has to run for so long and daylight runs out before I’m done. I got caught up on several things (including laundry in their very nice laundry room) and it felt pretty luxurious to be able to use however much power I needed and not have to make the water stretch quite so far. I wondered if we would get spoiled!

    On Sunday we moved to Casa Grande (south of Phoenix) to the RoVers Roost SKP Park to check that one out. It is the first Escapee park built and is small but with a nice atmosphere, very welcoming people and while they don’t have a pool (North Ranch doesn’t, either) Jerry says the jogging is good there as the desert ground there is soft dirt instead of rocks. And we had internet there. I found the piano to be nice and the showers also. Of course getting in on Hand-KNEE-and-Foot (another variation of the game) was great fun.

   Only two nights here before heading off to Estrella War, but I’ll save that week for another post.