noon on Sunday

[kareina]

Here it is Sunday afternoon, and it is time for me to be thinking of my uni work once again. I took yesterday completely and utterly off (well, unless you count doing my 1000-words of reading, and even then rather than reading a journal article I simply read the entry for the mineral staurolite in my book on the Rock Forming Minerals).

Saturday was the Tourney of the Forest Gate, held in the small town of Geeveston (for a link to a map of the area page back through my old posts till you get to the one which describes the Medieval Mayhem demo we did down in mid-April). Geeveston is located at the edge of a portion of Tasmania state forest lands which has been developed for tourism--when logging they've left the trees which line the road, and they've got an "Airwalk"--an elevated walkway set up so that people can walk amongst the tree-tops and actually see the leaves of the trees which don't have any branches down at human heights. No doubt this is why they chose that name for the tourney.

I rode down to the event with baronsnorri and the Signifer of his Classiarii (the Ynys Fawr version of a Baronial Guard), which made for much pleasant conversation for the journey (about 1 hour, which counts as "distance" by Hobart standards ;-) It being just about mid-winter here, the day was cool and crisp, and the frost on the (otherwise lush, thick, green) grass was quite crunchy when we arrived on site a bit after 10:00. I was ever so grateful that I'd had the sense to dress warmly--long underwear on my legs, a heavy linen dress, two wool tunics, a cloak and a wool hood. Only my feet were cold, and soon after we arrived I mentioned to someone that I wished I'd thought to put on a second pair of socks. To which she replied that I could probably get a pair in one of the shops. Since people were still setting things up for the event I had the time to spare, so I wandered the very short distance from the park to the town main street and soon found a news agency which had a small selection of socks for sale. It is a good indication of just how cold the day (and my feet!) were to note that I grabbed a pair of wool socks and while standing in line to purchase them I took off the wrappings, set them on the counter for the lady to scan when she was ready for me, and put the socks on, *before* asking what they cost (there was no price marked on the rack). (fortunately, the price was only just over $11, but I would have paid more at that moment to have warm feet!)

Pausing only to answer questions from a local in the shop about my costume and where we were gathering and why, I returned to the event, where I was put to work being the voice herald for opening court. I don't mind doing court--my normal speaking voice is reasonably loud, and it has never troubled me to get up in front of people and speak, but as a "court junkie", I'd really *rather* be in the audience working on a sewing project and watching it all. But there aren't a lot of folk who are comfortable enough with public speaking to serve in that role, so this weekend it was my turn, and if my Baron asks it of me, I will forgo the fun of stitching for the joys of making certain that court goes smoothly.

Fortunately, it being a small, low-key sort of event, all that was needed for morning court was to have the folks running the various tournaments explain what the plan for the day would be. The day was very enjoyable. During the various tournaments I made some progress on a project I haven't touched in over a year (I think)--a rectangular wool cloak for colvis_t. This wool is felted enough that it doesn't fray, so rather than hemming it I am doing a tablet woven reinforced edging, using only two cards with two threads per card, giving a blue & white chevron pattern edge.



Tablet-woven edging in progress

Someday, once I finish the edging, I intend to appliqué contrasting coloured bits of wool to it to give an effect not unlike what one could get by attaching actual gemstones and jewels, much like what I did for the decoration on our wedding tunics back in 2005.



Wedding tunics made back in 2005

Fortunately, there is no hurry--clovis_t has been choosing to skip events in favour of staying home and making progress on his uni work lately. (I am very, very much in favour of approaching my sewing projects *without* a deadline! I want to work on them for the joy of having a project upon which to work, not rushing to get them done by a specific time.)

There were three main activities (plus lunch) at the event--the rapier tourney, followed by the armoured combat tourney, (then the pot-luck lunch! I received many compliment on my fresh-baked rolls filled with a yummy fig jam (sweetened with grape juice, not processed cane sugar) and slivered almonds), followed by archery, wherein the archers, in armour, shot at one another. We then did closing court, and then the family of locals who'd spent the day watching were permitted to do some target shooting. I suspect that they had enough fun that we will see them at another event.

The sun sets in that valley around 5pm at this time of the year. The day was cold enough that it was necessary to stay in the direct sunlight all day long, so everyone packed up and went home promptly as the sun was threatening to drop behind the ridge.


I kind of miss the days of after-revels, where a large sub-set of the event gathers in someone's living room for an evening of social time and revelry lasting well into the night, but my current work-load means that I can't offer to host them, and wouldn't be able to attend if someone else offered. Oh well, with luck I will finish the degree this year and will once again be able to allow myself the extra play time...

Comments

[baronsnorri.livejournal.com]

It *was* a good day--glad that you could be there to enjoy it!