(I know, I know ... you're all thinking this is the event that never ends, right? Well, it WAS over a long holiday weekend....)
After dinner some musicians brought their instruments under the populace pavilion and started playing dance music. I didn't feel like walking back to my tent and getting my instruments, since I wasn't sure how long the impromptu dancing was going to happen -- it was supposed to be a general dessert party. So I just drummed my hands on the table, and I also actually got up and participated in some dances, which I don't get to do very often because I'm usually one of those hard-working musicians. :-) One of the musicians was a male violinist whom I'd never seen before, though he certainly knew the dance tunes already. Turns out that he used to play with Three Left Feet maybe a decade ago, then went out to Michigan for professional reasons, and is now back in Bright Hills. He goes by the name Peter in the SCA and is a good friend of![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silmaril, and he said that as soon as he is done with his board certification exams in early October, he would like to check out the local SCA dance practices. (I guess most people want their pediatric oncologists to be board-certified these days. *smile* He seems really smart and I'm quite sure he will pass just fine.)
Unfortunately, Peter was not able to stay too late, because he had to do a 24-hour hospital shift starting early the next morning (yep, that's what young doctors have to go through). After he left, I wandered back to my encampment to spend some time with my campmates, since, after all, I didn't get to see them much at Pennsic.
By Sunday morning I was feeling really sticky and gross, so I walked down to the communal shower tent, powered by a propane hot-water tank. Woo-hoo, so nice! Thus cleaned and dressed in fresh clothing, I came across Maugorn and Patches, who had just arrived for their day-trip visit and were looking for the merchant area and the A&S activities, so I pointed them in the right direction.
I had expected Royal Curia to be in the mid-afternoon, but the Royals moved it up to lunchtime (as it turned out, I think they wanted to hit the road early). So I sat in and listened to the proceedings while eating lunch. This wasn't the pointy-hats business, which is already Done with a capital D; this is another set of changes to Kingdom law. Eventually I got tired of it and went off to take pictures of the horses at the equestrian activities and to check out the Atlantian history tents.
Maug had a set in the Performing Arts Tent beginning at 2:30, but sadly I had already signed up to cry field announcements at 3 p.m. Fortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of information to cry out, so I was able to get the announcements done and head back to the pavilion to catch the rest of his performance. Funny thing: I was planning to request "Heather on the Moor," but he went and played it before I could request it!
After his set, which was the last one in the Performing Arts Tent -- some guys arrived to take it down -- Maug followed me back to my encampment, where he fixed the broken string on my psaltery. Then we walked up the hill a bit to a wooden fence, which turned out to surround a bucolic pasture with horses running free, and it all looked golden in the warm late afternoon sunlight.
After dinner I raced back to my tent to change from my bog dress to a light blue dress that I once bought for $2 at a Holiday Faire, but that I had never worn to an event before. Then the Grand Ball began. It was supposed to start with Their Majesties, Their Highnesses and Their Excellencies all parading in to "Belle Qui," but most of those folks had already left the site due to rumors of impending storms. So we had a small professional with the Baron and Baroness of Stierbach, but it wasn't as "grand" as planned. Still, I had fun playing with Maug, Baron Watkyn and the other musicians.
The ball was also ended (at least I was told) early because storms were rolling in. So I bade good night to my musician friends and went back to my encampment, where another bardic circle was in full swing. And guess what: It didn't rain. The skies stayed clear and folks were passing around the strong liquid refreshments and the merrymaking continued till after I went to bed.
Finally ... not too much to say about Monday morning except that I got packed up and rolling off site around 11:30. I used the GPS to get back to I-95 and find a Waffle House, because I was craving a nice omelet with hash browns. Amazingly, I reached home without hitting any end-of-holiday-weekend traffic jams.
After dinner some musicians brought their instruments under the populace pavilion and started playing dance music. I didn't feel like walking back to my tent and getting my instruments, since I wasn't sure how long the impromptu dancing was going to happen -- it was supposed to be a general dessert party. So I just drummed my hands on the table, and I also actually got up and participated in some dances, which I don't get to do very often because I'm usually one of those hard-working musicians. :-) One of the musicians was a male violinist whom I'd never seen before, though he certainly knew the dance tunes already. Turns out that he used to play with Three Left Feet maybe a decade ago, then went out to Michigan for professional reasons, and is now back in Bright Hills. He goes by the name Peter in the SCA and is a good friend of
silmaril, and he said that as soon as he is done with his board certification exams in early October, he would like to check out the local SCA dance practices. (I guess most people want their pediatric oncologists to be board-certified these days. *smile* He seems really smart and I'm quite sure he will pass just fine.)Unfortunately, Peter was not able to stay too late, because he had to do a 24-hour hospital shift starting early the next morning (yep, that's what young doctors have to go through). After he left, I wandered back to my encampment to spend some time with my campmates, since, after all, I didn't get to see them much at Pennsic.
By Sunday morning I was feeling really sticky and gross, so I walked down to the communal shower tent, powered by a propane hot-water tank. Woo-hoo, so nice! Thus cleaned and dressed in fresh clothing, I came across Maugorn and Patches, who had just arrived for their day-trip visit and were looking for the merchant area and the A&S activities, so I pointed them in the right direction.
I had expected Royal Curia to be in the mid-afternoon, but the Royals moved it up to lunchtime (as it turned out, I think they wanted to hit the road early). So I sat in and listened to the proceedings while eating lunch. This wasn't the pointy-hats business, which is already Done with a capital D; this is another set of changes to Kingdom law. Eventually I got tired of it and went off to take pictures of the horses at the equestrian activities and to check out the Atlantian history tents.
Maug had a set in the Performing Arts Tent beginning at 2:30, but sadly I had already signed up to cry field announcements at 3 p.m. Fortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of information to cry out, so I was able to get the announcements done and head back to the pavilion to catch the rest of his performance. Funny thing: I was planning to request "Heather on the Moor," but he went and played it before I could request it!
After his set, which was the last one in the Performing Arts Tent -- some guys arrived to take it down -- Maug followed me back to my encampment, where he fixed the broken string on my psaltery. Then we walked up the hill a bit to a wooden fence, which turned out to surround a bucolic pasture with horses running free, and it all looked golden in the warm late afternoon sunlight.
After dinner I raced back to my tent to change from my bog dress to a light blue dress that I once bought for $2 at a Holiday Faire, but that I had never worn to an event before. Then the Grand Ball began. It was supposed to start with Their Majesties, Their Highnesses and Their Excellencies all parading in to "Belle Qui," but most of those folks had already left the site due to rumors of impending storms. So we had a small professional with the Baron and Baroness of Stierbach, but it wasn't as "grand" as planned. Still, I had fun playing with Maug, Baron Watkyn and the other musicians.
The ball was also ended (at least I was told) early because storms were rolling in. So I bade good night to my musician friends and went back to my encampment, where another bardic circle was in full swing. And guess what: It didn't rain. The skies stayed clear and folks were passing around the strong liquid refreshments and the merrymaking continued till after I went to bed.
Finally ... not too much to say about Monday morning except that I got packed up and rolling off site around 11:30. I used the GPS to get back to I-95 and find a Waffle House, because I was craving a nice omelet with hash browns. Amazingly, I reached home without hitting any end-of-holiday-weekend traffic jams.
