Aug 2009 a

Sorry folks, no July"b" since about the only things going on for those 2 weeks were having coughs, working hard, and packing for our USA adventure.

So without further ado, here's a very long entry, with a whole bunch of photos!



Sat 01 Aug 2009
Left the house at 7:15am heading to Heathrow. Our plane's take off was delayed for one hour which meant we missed our connecting flight at JFK airport. Our airline was nice enough to offer an alternate flight, but from Newark airport (the other side of town). So we got a taxi across town, got the flight, and were picked up at Pittsburgh airport - thanks to Himultrude for getting us, and to Margaret and Kira for relaying our new arrival time. Finally made it to site around 1am. It was a total of 24 hours door-to-door, no thanks to Heathrow. Ggrrrr - we hates it, we do!

Enormous thanks to Marcus and Marguerite for purchasing, transporting and setting up our tent, airbed and sleeping bags - legends!!!!

Sun 02 Aug 2009
So we awoke here at Pennsic, the world's largest SCA event - camping for a week with more than "10,000 of our closest friends" as they say.
We woke early and had a relaxing lie-in, and skimmed through the 80 page event programme.
10am was time for our local campsite muster, to accompany our King and Queen to the grand Opening Court.

Steve had fun in the afternoon fighting in the Bridge Battle. Jen turned up to a class only to find the teacher was a no-show. So she wandered around the markets instead.

Above: There are some truly amazing structures on-site, all temporary. Some with an "upstairs" too!
Below: some amusing signs at the markets. (click on the photo to see it big enough to read)


Above: one encampment's front gate!
Below: a lovely viewing gallery for Royal Ladies, overlooking the main battlefield.


Above: Home, the banners flying over the Drachenwald encampment. Because the banner poles were attached to the porta-privvies, two of the banner owners felt the toilet their banner was attached to needed to make a statement. So they had a jokey competition where they could only add one item per day. Items included: air freshener, fluffy seat cover, plastic flowers, flashlight, mirror, and even a guest book.
In the evening we accepted a personal invitation from our friends in the Barony of Small Grey Bear encampment. The food was great and the company even more so!

Mon 03 Aug 2009
Today Alaric armoured up and spent most of the day at the river battles and gate battles. Jen helped with escorting the Queen for the morning. Luckily, this mostly meant hanging around the battlefiled and getting in a few kisses.

Above: here we are by the battlefield
Below: the Lochac fighters pose for a quick pic


Above: Jen escorted Queen Judith to the arts and sciences display area, and here's one exhibit that impressed - a portative organ.
Below: At 2pm Jen dropped off Her Maj at the dance pavillion, and you can see Judith in her flowing robes teaching the class.


Above: At 3pm Jen hung out at the Scribal Tea party, and met this talented miniaturist, Christine Hutson.
Below: later in the afternoon, Jen helped Queen Stanzi shop for gifts.



Tue 04 Aug 2009
Clever Steve remembered it's our wedding anniversary! 16 years together today, and from now we'll have been married longer than we dated. Hoorah!
Here's a photo of us Kathryn took:
http://hebenstreitz.zoomin.se/Z2218383

Then, a bit of silly fun at the campsite: Nerissa placing her rose collar (with laurel medallion) on "Lady" Groovbjörn - who claims to be an expert in swedish wig making! Hahahaha! (a photo by Marion)


This morning once again Queen Judith gets dressed to the max... with a little help from her ladies.


Above: Jovi, and the whole campsite prepare to glamorously escort (and drop off) our K&Q to an exclusive party with all the other K&Q's - probably about 18 couples present in total.


Below: we all got some dinner and headed back to campsite for some relaxation and bonding.


Above: 9pm at the Grand Ball, and here are Judith and Gerhardt dancing the night away (right).
Alaric was a sweetie and "lead" (danced) Judith head-first through crowds of dancers - exhiliaratingly (if that's a word) parting the crowds, from the oncoming rush of: both such a large man, and She of the large hat!!!


Wed 05 Aug 2009
Ooops, the camera was left in the tent today. It was a very busy day too!
Steve mostly hung about camp and went shopping, and also dropped into the Lochac campsite for a couple of hours.
Jen started the morning at a French Hood construction class from 9am. Queen Stanzi turned up part way through and we sat there politely listening in on the class. We excused ourselves early to chat and catch up some more. At 11am Stanzi and Jen attended 'demystifying the peerage - Laurels', a Q&A session. After which our respective husbands turned up and took us out for a double date Lunch in the food court of Pennsic. Jen headed off to a harp class at 1pm, and brought the teacher back to our campsite afterward for a bit of sharing and practice.
3pm Jen turned up to a class on miniature making - but it turned out to be a weird sort of doll-house making. The teacher was apologetic that her class had been listed under the wrong category in the schedule. So Jen caught up again with Stanzi and we sat in on a class about recognising fabric types whilst listening in on the madrigal rehearsal in the tent next door!
4pm rolled around and we scooted off to Judith's special 'Queen's Ball' for about half an hour or so. Danced a few dances, then made our apologies to go attend the 'Ladies of the Rose' party. Apparently Stanzi's hubby (King Gabriel) managed to wake up from an afternoon nap in time to dance at least one dance at the Queen's Ball (which the Kings had been invited to also).
Finally, in the evening was the famous Midnight Madness sale all along Merchant's Row. All the royals were out in their finery, and it was truly a lovely carnival / market-town atmosphere, with plenty of people about and lots of deals being made.

Thu 06 Aug 2009
We slept in a bit this morning.
11am was the woods battle, where Steve was responsible for rotating the shields-men and -women in and out of the shield-wall as required, and directing foot-soldier traffic at the back of the line. He also took on a supportive role helping first Gottfried and then King Gerhardt when they were injured / over-heated.
In the afternoon, we again bumped in to Stanzi and Gabriel (are they stalking us?)


So after a refreshing Tim-Tam flavoured slushy (soooo tasty!) we headed back to Lochac campsite for awhile. There are no pets allowed on-site unless they're needed for medical reasons. One such, was a dog who could smell a chemical change in its lady-owner, giving her about 30-45 minutes' warning that she would be having a seizure. Another such was this cat.... don't ask me, but apparently it's a work cat.

Of course, with everyone starved of feline attention for days on end, this cat was very popular!

At 6pm there was a Drachenwald court for 45 minutes. Steve given a bottle of chocolate liqueur for generally helping the royals often and courteously. (all that joyous dancing with Judith, and helping the King off the battlefield earlier).
Late in the evening, we escorted Stanzi and Gabriel to the famous Hoiti-Toiti party. The "residence" is truly astonishing for a temporary structure! It's all very Italian renaissance, and the musicians perform from the upper level as you can see in the background pic behind our friends, below:



Fri 07 Aug 2009
Today was the last day of battles, and there was a fairly small turnout of fighters as you can see from these photos... really, this is small for Pennsic!



Above: Gosh, now that's keen!


Below: can you spot Steve in amongst the action? (Blue coat, white belt)



Below: Drachenwald fighters.



Sat 08 Aug 2009
Clean-up and pack-down day for most of the campsite. Many merchants already packed up last night, with all the rest having to stop trading by 3pm.
We helped out with pack down, including returning some of the campsite's communal furniture which was lent to us by the Carolingia encampment - very sweet of them! Here's a photo of a great sunshade near their campsite (ignoring the drape hanging on the front pole).




The blog continues in the next installment.........
PS: there are four Pennsic film clips which will, in the next few days, be uploaded to Utube. stay tuned.