Splendid bits of Crown
Apr. 5th, 2009 02:31 pmMemorable moments from spring Crown 2009
In no particular order:
- HRM Marcus, just for being himself. I'm not sure what![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zmiya_san expected, but she was clearly surprised and delighted to meet the sweet, softspoken man who came to the gate. I realised later that she'd not met a Society king before - at kingdom University HRM Fiona had attended alone (HG Alaric lives here, but he's a shire member, so any glamour has worn off!). And you always remember your first...
I also enjoyed His Majesty's rambling and silly story about the chubby Midrealm dragon (unsurprisingly it's a Pennsic story about HG Elffin). I marvel at folk who can be witty and entertaining in their second/third language, and Marcus is one of them.
- watchingzmiya_san , her mum Tamarra and exmoor_cat work together as a team - at the gate, on cleanup, thinking through problems as they occurred. I'm very glad Tamarra has decided to come play with the Society.
- seeing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nusbacher 's eldest daughter A. stand beside Her Majesty Cecilia in court as her lady in waiting, pleased as punch and twice as tall as usual. A. had apparently pulled the short straw of waiting on HRM while their Majesties were in meetings (and was very disappointed), so Lady Emayn thoughtfully suggested that she help for another shift, that included court.
- Meeting Sir Crisiant of An Tir, a woman knight who has recently surfaced in WD after a long period of inactivity (20 years, mainly in England), bringing partner and friends in tow. While out of the SCA, she's apparently been filling her time with playing rugby - national level. So the viceroy Daffyd says, after fighting her at practice, that she might not have been in armour much lately, but she's *not* short of speed or power.
We had a small chat about Lady Bolverk. When I'd heard that an Antiri woman knight, from Vancouver, who taught school, was coming out to practice, I had wondered if, and hoped, it was Bolverk, who is as fierce and passionate a warrior as you could ever ask to meet. Sir Crisiant laughed at my recounting, and said she could probably arrange to get Bolverk to visit, which would be splendid indeed.
She finds herself in an odd position - when she stopped playing she was the newest knight in An Tir, and now, here in Drachenwald, she is the 'senior' knight, having been knighted even before HG Sir Elffin (which must have surprised him too!).
She attended the Chivalry meeting, and had what looked like a good time on the list during warmups and pickup fighting.
- It was An Tir old home week, with Mistress Nadja welcoming Jarl Ulf and his viscountess (the couple from An Tir who have moved to S. Africa, and were attending Crown).
They'd withdrawn from Crown this time, but could probably enter again in future. It would be interesting indeed to have a Saffa-based Crown couple!
As it happens, I'd met Sir Ulf before, about 10 years or more ago, just after he was knighted. He was passing through Caldrithig at the time, and came to fight practice. Small world!
- On the old friends front, Acarin St Cyr turned up, in the company of a lovely lady named Katherine, who sings most sweetly in the folk style. He was warmly welcomed, and promptly pulled out his favourite gameboard for Queen Signy's Game. :-)
- Getting served breakfast in my room by my sweetie. :-) Since it takes some time to wriggle into my cote, lace it up and do my hair as well, it was a great help.
- Sitting next toenglandbound during the tournament, listening to baby Valerie blow raspberries - it's her current thing. It's harder to get wound up about the outcome of a bout when you have a persistent 'ththblblblththththththtbblbbllblblblblblblblssss' baby noise breaking the tension and making everyone giggle.
- The general pitching-in of many people for simple things like cleaning up after meals, carrying recycling to the recycle point (ye gods, what a bunch of lushes we look, judging from the bottle collections!) and post-feast cleanup.
I was greatly heartened to see quick volunteers willing to wade into the kitchen after feast, and scrub pots. It wasn't just Fru Johanna, who is hard to pry out of a kitchen sometimes, but many others, from first-eventers to peers.
Post-feast cleanup, once in motion, took on a life of its own, as people looked for things to do. Tables, chairs, feastgear, tablecloths seemed to whirl away.
- The caring diligence of my co-stewardsexmoor_cat and nz_bookwyrm , and friends, who cleaned and scrubbed all three buildings to within an inch of their bricks. They were there from the outset, to do starting inventory, and were there to check out and make sure everything was returned to its proper home. Considering we hosted almost 100 for a weekend and lost only one cup, I thought we came out pretty well.
- Dancing with their Highnesses with Robert playing his blartiphone andjpgsawyer drumming for the dancers. Somehow live musicians fires the enthusiasm for the dancers, and makes it more worthwhile for them.
Generally - seeing happy well-fed people enjoying a weekend together was greatly cheering. After two weeks of intense and emotional situations, just seeing happy people who were happy to see me was a wonderful change.
In no particular order:
- HRM Marcus, just for being himself. I'm not sure what
zmiya_san expected, but she was clearly surprised and delighted to meet the sweet, softspoken man who came to the gate. I realised later that she'd not met a Society king before - at kingdom University HRM Fiona had attended alone (HG Alaric lives here, but he's a shire member, so any glamour has worn off!). And you always remember your first...I also enjoyed His Majesty's rambling and silly story about the chubby Midrealm dragon (unsurprisingly it's a Pennsic story about HG Elffin). I marvel at folk who can be witty and entertaining in their second/third language, and Marcus is one of them.
- watching
zmiya_san , her mum Tamarra and exmoor_cat work together as a team - at the gate, on cleanup, thinking through problems as they occurred. I'm very glad Tamarra has decided to come play with the Society.- seeing
nusbacher 's eldest daughter A. stand beside Her Majesty Cecilia in court as her lady in waiting, pleased as punch and twice as tall as usual. A. had apparently pulled the short straw of waiting on HRM while their Majesties were in meetings (and was very disappointed), so Lady Emayn thoughtfully suggested that she help for another shift, that included court.- Meeting Sir Crisiant of An Tir, a woman knight who has recently surfaced in WD after a long period of inactivity (20 years, mainly in England), bringing partner and friends in tow. While out of the SCA, she's apparently been filling her time with playing rugby - national level. So the viceroy Daffyd says, after fighting her at practice, that she might not have been in armour much lately, but she's *not* short of speed or power.
We had a small chat about Lady Bolverk. When I'd heard that an Antiri woman knight, from Vancouver, who taught school, was coming out to practice, I had wondered if, and hoped, it was Bolverk, who is as fierce and passionate a warrior as you could ever ask to meet. Sir Crisiant laughed at my recounting, and said she could probably arrange to get Bolverk to visit, which would be splendid indeed.
She finds herself in an odd position - when she stopped playing she was the newest knight in An Tir, and now, here in Drachenwald, she is the 'senior' knight, having been knighted even before HG Sir Elffin (which must have surprised him too!).
She attended the Chivalry meeting, and had what looked like a good time on the list during warmups and pickup fighting.
- It was An Tir old home week, with Mistress Nadja welcoming Jarl Ulf and his viscountess (the couple from An Tir who have moved to S. Africa, and were attending Crown).
They'd withdrawn from Crown this time, but could probably enter again in future. It would be interesting indeed to have a Saffa-based Crown couple!
As it happens, I'd met Sir Ulf before, about 10 years or more ago, just after he was knighted. He was passing through Caldrithig at the time, and came to fight practice. Small world!
- On the old friends front, Acarin St Cyr turned up, in the company of a lovely lady named Katherine, who sings most sweetly in the folk style. He was warmly welcomed, and promptly pulled out his favourite gameboard for Queen Signy's Game. :-)
- Getting served breakfast in my room by my sweetie. :-) Since it takes some time to wriggle into my cote, lace it up and do my hair as well, it was a great help.
- Sitting next to
englandbound during the tournament, listening to baby Valerie blow raspberries - it's her current thing. It's harder to get wound up about the outcome of a bout when you have a persistent 'ththblblblththththththtbblbbllblblblblblblblssss' baby noise breaking the tension and making everyone giggle. - The general pitching-in of many people for simple things like cleaning up after meals, carrying recycling to the recycle point (ye gods, what a bunch of lushes we look, judging from the bottle collections!) and post-feast cleanup.
I was greatly heartened to see quick volunteers willing to wade into the kitchen after feast, and scrub pots. It wasn't just Fru Johanna, who is hard to pry out of a kitchen sometimes, but many others, from first-eventers to peers.
Post-feast cleanup, once in motion, took on a life of its own, as people looked for things to do. Tables, chairs, feastgear, tablecloths seemed to whirl away.
- The caring diligence of my co-stewards
exmoor_cat and nz_bookwyrm , and friends, who cleaned and scrubbed all three buildings to within an inch of their bricks. They were there from the outset, to do starting inventory, and were there to check out and make sure everything was returned to its proper home. Considering we hosted almost 100 for a weekend and lost only one cup, I thought we came out pretty well.- Dancing with their Highnesses with Robert playing his blartiphone and
jpgsawyer drumming for the dancers. Somehow live musicians fires the enthusiasm for the dancers, and makes it more worthwhile for them. Generally - seeing happy well-fed people enjoying a weekend together was greatly cheering. After two weeks of intense and emotional situations, just seeing happy people who were happy to see me was a wonderful change.
