siglinde99 | Entries tagged with sca

Hopefully this link will do the trick: https://youtu.be/ZughLxTC3t0

I have been trying to stick with the contemplation and not complaining objectives, but I find myself wondering about what counts as a complaint. Is acknowledging a fact a complaint? For example, if I notice that it is cold, and think "wow, it's cold", is it complaining if I'm not horribly unhappy (though maybe a little suprised)? Is it complaining to run through scenarios in my head (those "I wish I had said" or "maybe I should say..." conversations)? How about the ones where I repeat in my head those conversations that actually happened (the ones where someone states a hard truth that I happen to agree with)?

At heart, I'm an analyst and analysts are regularly accused of being pessimistic when really we are just trying to see all the angles (and that can be bad). The whole exercise of questioning myself is interesting, though. As I notice things, I am trying really hard not to let it be anything more than just "noticing". When those endless loops of conversation start up in my head, I work really hard to make them stop. In some ways, this may be helping me to achieve the mindfulness that my leadership coach keeps trying to convince me is a good thing; usually, it just strikes me as flaky, which is why this article made me smile: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/actually-lets-not-be-in-the-moment.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0. After re-reading it several times, I'm starting to think that maybe being mindful is a good thing. It doesn't mean I have to like washing dishes, or even dealing with Scary Mary from work. But maybe I can get better at acknowledging my feelings and move on to something more productive.

Enough deep thoughts for tonight. It's time for rum, hot chocolate and some quality time with my pillow (and hopefully a cat).

I went to work I late and left early. I started knitting a hat for my son (or my daughter, if she gives my son's hat back to him). I sewed a little linen bag to hold sausages and made a drawstring for it - I'm quite pleased with the pattern of the braid in thee drawstring. I hemmed my friend's dress. The crafting is balm for my soul.

So is the visiting. I had a three hour drive with

pink_lady2, and then hours of chatting with friends at the house where I'm staying. Tomorrow we'll get up early and drive to another town to meet more friends, do more crafting, and talk about crafting and history. Then we'll drive home; hopefully without the thick fog that dogged us for much of today.

There aren't many better ways to spend a weekend.

Yesterday I got to celebrate

mythmaker999's elevation to the Order of the Laurel, the top arts award in my medieval club. As she researches and makes many things related to 16th C Flanders, many of the activities focused around creating the look and feel of peasant weddings and other celebrations from art of the time. A big part of that is the food, so I made five kinds of sausages and two kinds of mustard. Others made cheese pear, apple and strawberry tarts, waffles, breads, and jams/sauces. I blogged about my contribution here: https://siglindesarts.wordpress.com/2016/08/28/apprentice-elevation-part-one-the-food/.

I also made a new costume for the day: https://siglindesarts.wordpress.com/2016/08/28/apprentice-elevation-part-2-the-clothing/.

Alais looked lovely, though I wish I could have gotten her glasses off her before taking the picture. She didn't know I had the camera out though, and I didn't want to spoil her concentration by letting her know:

Part of her ceremony involved a dance, which looked really lovely.

Current Mood: jubilant

I got up too early, went for a swim and then made five kinds of sausage today. Technically it's only 4 1/2 as the last one needs to refrigerate overnight and then get smoked tomorrow. All are Belgian/German/northern French recipes to be used for a party next weekend in honour of my friend

mythmaker999. She loves all things Flenish, and this was the best I could do.

I'm going to go fall asleep now. I should be watching the final Tragically Hip concert with the rest of Canada, but I'm too pooped.

I went shopping at Value Village twice this week and got some fab clothes - most ready to wear, a few needing minor alterations, and two shirts to play with refashioning. I have been following a couple of sewing blogs and now I'm inspired. I even scored a pair of wood and leather clogs that are just like the kind I wore growing up in Germany.

Yesterday's massage left me sore, but starting to feel normal again. There is much stretching in my future, and more work to break up old scar tissue, but it's nice to be able to stand up and sit down without using my arms to pull me/balance.

At the pond this morning I got to see the otter that has moved in. Folks think there is a pair but so far, only once confirmed sighting at a time. It was frolicking happily quite close to the beach for quite a while. I finally got in and did 4 km. It took me about 2 hours, but it's the longest distance I have done I a year, so I was pleased. I finished strong and don't feel terribly achey (though I'll sleep tonight).

Now I'm watching my daughter ride while sewing, and later I'll make rasperry and coconut squares and some wonderberry jam. Yesterday I finally tested a new stuffing recipe that included barberries (an elusive plant I have wanted to try for years), and updated my sausage research blog.

All in all, it's a pretty nice ending to my first week of vacation.

Yesterday's headband:

Today's project: https://siglindesarts.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/me-made-may-the-sausage-day/.

Very tired now. Going to go to fall boom into bed.

Current Mood: full

This isn't exactly sewing, but it is something I made and will be using next week. It is a sausage stuffer (basically a very primitive funnel made of cow's horn). I'm researching medieval sausages, and this is one of the tools I have been able to document. You can read about my sausage research here: http://www.siglindesarts.wordpress.com.

My foot is hurting more than I think it should so I'm taking it relatively easy today. It's 2 pm and I'm still in my jammies. Mind you, I whipped off a quick article on the horse in medieval literature for my local historical group, so I haven't exactly been elevating my foot (really need to try using the laptop again).

I came across the review of a book written by a former work colleague, which was neat. I haven't thought of him since he retired, but now I know he has been busy researching social changes in Canada in the period immediately following WWI. That was rather neat. I may need to head to the main branch of the library, as they have a section devoted to local authors. It's always fun to see what has been written by people I know; that may sound rather snobby, but I live in a relatively small and tightly interconnected city, and I have been lucky enough to work with some very smart people who aren't shy about sharing their thoughts.

I should be working like mad on my knitting as I have a couple of super-secret projects on the go, but I have been knitting so much for the past week that it's nice to take a break.

My son just returned from doing his driver's test. He passed - finally! He was weeks away from having to start again at the beginning of the graduated program, having failed twice before. He's a good driver, but gets too cocky about his ability to do tests, so this time I made him do a lesson on how to prepare.

Now to go do something approaching productive. Or spend money on ballet tickets and the biology tutor. Whatever.

I swam 5.3 km today at Meech Lake. It was not as far as I had hoped for my end-of-year swim, but it's far longer than my longest swim to date. If conditions had been different (more relaxed swim, friends who wanted to continue, nothing else contemplated, I might have done the 7.8 km that had been my original goal. StiLl, my arms were pretty darned tired at the time, and I don't regret stopping when I did.

After swimming, I packed some essentials into the car and headed to Bonfield. By the time I arrived, most folks had headed home. Still, I had a lovely evening with some of my favourite people. In fact, I'm posting from their tent right now.

There was no potluck in the Mead Hall, which is sad as this may be the last Bonfield ever. I love this event and will be very sorry to see it isappear when the farm is sold.

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Two of the pieces I most wanted to see are in Cologne until April, but I know how to get to the Museum for next time. It took over an hour each way (three trains and cost the equivalent of four cooked farm-fresh chickens), and the museum had only three rooms, but it was totally worth it. For those who have a chance to visit Chelles, here iw what the museum Alfred Bonno looks like:

Alfred Bonno Museum

I got four books, including two I had only as photocopies. I surreptitiously took pictures of textiles - one has the fake wool tuft weave! How did I miss that before??? I have a much better sense of how the great mantle worked (much lighter fabric than anticipated). There was a piece of batik from Central Asia. I understand why they had all those little scraps of Byzantine and other fine silks now. I got pictures of the tablet weaving. There was a 3rd C tick remover! Also four paleolithic Venuses. Pictures of the textiles can be found at http://siglindesarts.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/visit-to-the-musee-alfred-bonno/ Pictures of the pottery can be found at http://siglindesarts.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/musee-alfred-bonno-museum-pottery/ and the other household items can be found at http://siglindesarts.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/musee-alfred-bonno-jewelry-household-items-and-tools/.

Squee!!!!!

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Don't know when it's happening, or where, but if I can go, I want to make gebrannte Mandeln and wrap them in a papiertute. I remember them from Kermisses and the beginning of the school year in Germany. I wish I could find documentation. I have found one reference to them being written about since the 1500s, the it's extremely sketchy and I don't read German well enough to find anything more.

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: home
Current Music: the news

Yesterday, swimming was all about butterfly. I got my second kick lined up with my push, stopped putting extra bits into my keyhole, and really had the pelvic thrust working. Between that and serving at feast, I have definitely fought off old lady arms for a few more days.

Feast was a ton of fun, though I wish I could have had many more hours to visit friends old and new. I managed to stay incredibly busy, between Fian, serving, Kaboone, and court stuff. I may be the worst head table server in the history of the SCA. Also, it would be nice to remember the names of people I am toasting or calling into court. One more brain fart and my head would have exploded!

It was great to see Glenda again after 30 years. I wish I could have had more time with Anne, Susanna, and a few others I rarely get to see these days. I did have fun geeking out on Fian stuff with one woman whose name I didn't catch. Hopefully, she will decide this is fun and contact us with a proposal. I also had a good chat with Dubhease; it has reinforced my desire to get back to doing some bardic stuff. I have a story I have been dying to tell ever since I rediscovered it, and always forget to rehearse so that it will be ready to deliver at an event. By the end of the day, I felt too broken to go to Mordain and Aelflaeda's for the post rev, something I really regret.

Today at riding, we were working at making our horses more elastic (going faster and slower, not more bendy - that's a different exercise). Part of it involved cantering and I had a breakthrough thanks to all the butterfly yesterday. To keep my legs on and sit up and make Mercedes go, I need to use a pelvic thrust here too. The rest of my class was spent humming "take a jump to the left...". I believe it was my best cantering ever.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: home
Current Music: dog snoring

The Althing was fun. I enjoyed my drive down and back with

rozzie
It was a great opportunity to chat about tons of different stuff. The event itself was quite delightful. I loved hanging out with my DARC buddies and visiting with other friends I get to see far too rarely (I'm looking at you

suelet). Court was great - I was very pleased for both

roller007 and Gaerwen of the endless cup of scotch.

It was a very long day, though, and 7:30 was far too early for sane people to be at the stables for the Ottawa Horse Show. Fortunately, the previous day's drive to Orono and back had demonstrated fairly clearly that I'm not sane. Scribing for the judge was both easier and harder this time. It was cold in our little booth as we were out of the sun. My feet were wet from walking through the grass to get there. I did get so see some good riding, and Caroline, the judge, was very patient about explaining new terms and how to recognize and correct for the errors that had led her to use the terms. I hope to incorporate the info into my riding in future.

After the dressage portion was over, I was too tired to hang out and watch the rest of the show, so I headed for the back field to have a few cuddles with the barn horses before heading home for a nap. Here are a few of the horses:

This is Shi, my current ride. She is a Canadian.

This is Pam, another Canadian who was purchased at the same time as Shi. I haven't ridden her yet, but she is incredibly friendly.

Current Location: home

As always, it was a great event. My new tent worked! I made a net bag. Pictures of both at http://siglindesarts.wordpress.com. ShuLing and her friend Emily managed to have a good time, despite there being no feast in the mead hall this year. Emily learned netting and ShuLing learned stick weaving. Both got into taking care of the fire - though not so much into searching for wood.

Kaboone had a wonderful time as always. He tended to wander off and visit all the other camps; it became a bit of a challenge to keep track of him. I'm told that at one point, someone commented that he was a good old dog - very sweet, seems to know exactly where to go, just wanders in slowly and hangs out for a bit, then gently meanders along to the next encampment. The comparison was made with Finvarr, and that brought up recollections of his old dog Arthur. Years ago, Arthur was Finvarr's faithful companion as he made the rounds of the camp each evening. Arthur was still around when I first told ShuLing the bedtime story of the constellation Finvarr; Sir Finvarr, in his knight's belt, uses his mighty sword to guard the northern lands through the winter. Arthur was the dog at Finvarr's heel. Kaboone has been sleeping for the last four hours, as he got far more exercise than normal.

I missed getting to visit with some good friends who normally come to Baron's Howe, but I very much enjoyed spending time with others. High points included geeking out on 14th C recreation to a much higher standard than the usual SCA, learning about options for handling my little bearded axe, getting feedback on next steps for my Merovingian brooches, and discussing cookware. I now know how to fix my aluminium wash water pot to make it look more authentic, and have ordered a new cookpot, ladle and wooden-handled cooking fork (squee!).

I even wandered around to other encampments a bit and got to know a few new (to me) people. I even did a fair bit of laurel-type stuff for once. I participated in begging the boon for Daffyd, which may be the first time in my 10+ years as a Laurel. I didn't even get to do it for my own apprentice, as I was out of the country.

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: home
Current Music: dog snoring