Wiesenfeuer Baronial Championship, Part II

After feast, my feet were killing me so I parked myself in a chair (the first time I had sat down in nearly six hours!) and chatted with Lady Danielle while the feast hall turned into the Court of Their Excellencies Wiesenfeuer. Eventually the rest of Clan Namu joined me, as the unsuspecting Cadfael was up for an award. We cheered for the Baronial Champions, cheered for our newest Flaming Weasel (Lord Orlando burned a large hole through his froofy-sleeved shirt whilst cooking feast so he got what is basically our blooper award) and watched as our Baroness became an apprentice to the mesmerizing belly dancer Mistress Rhiannon.

Then HL Thomas Quilliam started reading the next award. Poor Thomas. Welsh is not his forte at all. As he read the scroll, I could barely understand the name Cadfael Ap Mynnydd Ap Dowen Ap Dafydd (not that I was surprised or anything... I can't pronounce it myself!). I turned to look at Cadfael who looked completely perplexed. "I think that's me?"

"I think that's you, man, maybe you should stand up and approach the thrones!"

While Cadfael made his way to Their Excellencies, escorted by his sister, Katrina, I darted around to the side of the audience with her camera and captured a few nice pictures of the moment. When Baron Elric turned Cadfael around and introduced him to us as the newest Lord of Ansteorra, our entire clan (all 6 of us) chanted "Namuuuuuuuuuuu!" and applauded him. It was a proud moment for us all.


When he came back to his seat, he still looked bewildered. I sat for a moment looking at his scroll until Thomas began again...

"Their Excellencies do call Emine Hatun al-Tha'labii bint Abdullah into their presence." All I heard was "Emine" (the rest proved that Turkish is not Thomas' forte either), but that was all I needed to start my hands shaking.

Since I was sitting on the outside isle, I started walking that direction. Ashikaga had expected me to follow him to the center isle, so I wasn't exactly escorted to Their Excellencies, but I made it there somehow. We bowed in front of Baron Elric and Baroness Dominique and I knelt on the baronial pillow.

To be completely honest, I didn't hear much of what Baron Elric was saying. I was too busy trying not to cry (it wasn't working) and the Baroness was making "Aww, honey, don't cry!" faces at me. His Excellency had me rise from the pillow as Thomas was reading my scroll to the populous and Her Excellency gave me a long, reassuring hug. After His Excellency gave me a hug, he turned me around to face the populous while Thomas showed off my scroll. I turned to look at it and couldn't help but clap like a little girl when I saw how pretty it was. The Baron introduced me as the newest Lady of Ansteorra and the populous clapped for me and shouted "Vivat!" while I heard the low, chanting tone of "Namuuuuuuuuuuu!" That's when I looked down at Ashikaga who was prostrating himself before me, resplendent in his Japanese court garb, reverence capturing his face.

I was awe-struck for a moment as they handed me my scroll and I walked back to my seat, forgetting to take Ashikaga's arm once more. When I sat down, my clansmen greeted me with hugs and pats on the back. Tomburr whispered in my ear, "After nine years, it's about time. Well deserved." I wiped the tears from my eyes and enjoyed the rest of court with a big, silly grin on my face and the overwhelming desire to go sit in my tent and cry.


Saturday Night
After court we went back to Their Excellencies' cabin once again to prepare for the hafla. Most of the populous was already at the covered pavilion and we could hear the drummers warming up while we stacked serving platters together to transport to the little kitchen down there.

As I mentioned in my recent blog on cooking, the hafla snack bar was a fantastic success. Branislava is a goddess and I look forward to learning more about Mediterranean cooking from her. We're planning on doing a cooking day in the near future so I can learn the right way to make rahat loukoum (aka Turkish delight). I have made it before according to a recipe and video on About.com, and it turned out exactly like the video portrayed, but it wasn't authentic at all and it didn't taste all that great. On top of that I have issues with food textures and it was just too much like Jell-O for my liking.

Anyway, as we were hanging out at the hafla, it started raining and by the time the party was over, there was mud everywhere. I was ready to go home to sleep (we live about 15 minutes from site) and come back to get our sopping wet things in the morning, but Ashikaga convinced me to give our Coleman tent another chance.

Just as I remembered, camping in the rain sucks. The next morning we packed in the rain and neverending inches of red, Oklahoma mud and drove home, leaving our tent there to dry. Turns out, our tent was leaking like a sieve so we trashed it. I guess that gives us even more reason to work on getting a period tent.

In conclusion, an absolutely amazing event. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend (trust me, I tried to convince the head of my Household that it was time to make me a full-fledged member, but he wasn't buying it hahahahaha).

Wiesenfeuer Baronial Championship, Part I

I have to tell you, this was the most amazing SCA weekend ever. Aside from the rain and sore feet, an absolutely perfect event. And now, in a billion words or less...

Wiesenfeuer Baronial Championship

Friday
Whilst at work I finished a couple of sewing projects and then went home where I packed and headed for camp. It was nearly midnight by the time I got there. Luckily, Ashikaga, Cadfael and Andy had already set up our tents and were sitting at a nearby picnic table talking to our long lost Namu brother, Nickolaus. After a bit more catching up, we all went to bed.

Saturday
Saturday was the busiest day I have ever known. It started at 9:30 am when Kyna woke me up on her way to the list field. I had a gate shift at 10, so I threw on some make-up, combed my hair out as best I could, got dressed and headed for gate. I have recently made a good friend in Lady Genefe Kruse who turned out to be my gate partner along with a gentleman I had never met before. For three hours we sat under our little tent and chatted about a variety of topics. I shared my harrowing sharab experience and made Genefe promise to try my ma'mool at the party that night. She happily swore she would.

After my shift ended at 1 pm I had just a little time to play before I needed to run home and pick up the cookies and syrups and return for the Champions' Ice Cream Social. I found Ashikaga on the list field, luckily between fights. He had lost the championship to Sir Owen, but wasn't too upset about it. We both (and undoubtedly everyone who has ever met him) adore Sir Owen and agree he deserved to win.

As Ashikaga went back onto the field for some pick-up fights, I made my way toward the car. However, I was unusually popular at this event and everyone stopped me to chat. So what would have been a 5 minute walk to the car turned into an hour and fifteen minute walk to the car! Not that I would have had it any other way -- every conversation was a pleasure -- but I was a bit late getting back for the ice cream social. Shanna didn't seem to mind, though.

Lady Shanna Camber was asked to do the Champion's Ice Cream Social a couple of months ago and, much like the Middle Eastern snack bar, I offered my services to her. Shanna and I have been steadily become better and better friends over the last year so I was more than happy to help. And I loooove ice cream! haha Luckily, Lady Genefe had also asked to help, so the three of us had fun for a couple of hours dishing up ice cream to all the past Baronial Champions, their consorts and anyone else who wanted some refreshments. At one point I had five smalls asking for ice cream at once and I wound up getting it all over my gomlek sleeves (Note to Self: make a shorter-sleeved gomlek in which to work).

The ice cream social ended about 4 pm, I think, so I rushed off to see if Branislava needed any help with the snack bar stuff. She had come to me earlier to say there had been a mix-up with the lamb meat and she needed Ashikaga to help her grind it in an old-fashioned meat grinder. By the time I got to the cabin she had the lamb kofta (meatballs) finished and, let me tell you, they were fantastic!!

Things started getting fuzzy about this time because I was getting so nervous. Lord Orlando di Gilead had asked me several weeks ago if I would be Head Server for his feast. I have served many times, but I've never been Head Server, so I was starting to get rather jittery about it. I walked up to the feast hall and found Ashikaga and Cadfael already working in the kitchen. I had called for a servers meeting around 5:30, so I just kind of wandered around and mentally went over my game plan until enough of my servers had shown up.

I won't go into all the gorey details, I'll just say that feast didn't go exactly according to plan. I'm not much of a leader so I floundered back and fourth between wanting to be authoritative and follow the plan Orlando and I had discussed and wanting to accomodate my servers and make sure they weren't too stressed to enjoy it. Throughout the meal I had several people come up and tell me I was doing a great job and I never really felt bombarded by complaints from either the servers or guests, so I think that's a measurement of a success. Everyone seemed happy and full by the end and my servers got fed (we had more than enough food left over for everyone so if they didn't get their fill, that was their own fault). In the end, I think I did better than I gave myself credit for at the time.

At the end of feast, Kyna came over, wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered in my ear, "I just want you to know that I am so proud of you." I probably should have figured out then that something was up...