Yule Ball good bits

Notes on the little event that grew...

Yule Ball proved to be a lovely wrap-up of the year's events. I had more fun than I expected and of course greatly enjoyed seeing Sir Alaric elevated to the Order of the Laurel. He was completely taken unawares, and was his ususal modest, cheerful and honest self throughout the weekend.

I wrote up an account of the ceremony for SCA today, if you're interested in the proceedings. (Unfortunately I find that the DML mailer mangles text now. Yahoo won't let me mail completely plain text (rich text or HTML only) and so anything I read on the list is full of annoying codes. This version's easier to read.)

I got to teach a bit of dancing, both in the afternoon and doing reminders in the ball - with only a few gentle steers by Mistress Judith. :-) People gamely followed along, and didn't lose themselves hopelessly.

The ball itself was a delight, with a steady flow of dances, with music provided both eletronically and by Mistresses Kiriel and Nerissa. (Poor Kiriel had the journey from Hell - delayed flight meant that the cal rental agency she'd booked with had closed when she arrived, and she had to pay an outrageous amount to hire a car on the spot from the only agency still open after midnight. She was hoping to recoup from the airline afterward! For anyone other than Alaric, I think she would have turned around and gone home to Geneva again...)

Watching HE Judith and Lady Valeria dancing together, warmed with passionate looks and gestures, was enough to raise anyone's blood pressure, regardless of their orientation. Hubba hubba.

I enjoyed the time spent in the scriptorium - got to help a couple of ladies try their hand, and proved to be a source of diversion for a stream of very young demoisels using my inks, though I was rebuked for not having enough interesting colours. I think aryanhwy  spoiled them at Coronet having an exellent set of water-based inks in six bright colours.

HE Ursula commented that I was brave to let them play with the ink. I figured that the ink is water-soluble, and would eventually come off the girls if you wrung them out firmly enough.

Once more the Flintheath children were a delight - excellent, self-entertaining playmates for Sir Vitus' children, and nusbacher 's demoisel Anjelica. I'm always impressed by Crispin and Ceara's brood of girls; they're not perfect, but they seem very happy together, and are willing to help even before being asked. I find it brilliant that the youngest volunteers to do dishes.

Sir Vitus had brought his local tribe of three (H aged 11, MC aged 5 and T aged 10 months - his teen son F lives in Germany).

The elder two play well together, and are loving having a younger brother to dote on, drag around and generally maul to bits with hugs and cuddles. T, in his turn, clearly watches them very carefully and is learning fast. He's already walking quite fearlessly, and wants to play with his brother's and sister's toys.  Their boffer swords are especially welcome - when you're not swinging them around, you can chew on the handles.

In fact, young T nearly upstaged the court business, while sitting on his father's lap. As TRM were managing court business, and Sir Vitus was sat next to them as Heir, T got hold of nusbacher 's white herald's staff. T knows what you do with a long stick - you swing it! and the staff was light and fit in his hand.

He promptly started swinging with gusto, bopping Dad, Angelica, anyone within reach, and his joy was clearly writ to see. There was, of course, a great howl when he was finally deprived of this excellent toy, but it's just as well, because those watching couldn't keep a straight face for court.

Lady Ceara did an excellent job for her first feast - we had a chat during the next day's cleanup, and she was still bubbling with great pleaure about how she'd sourced local supplies, considered seasonal food availability, and managed not to panic when her first booked shipment of venison couldn't reach her in the sudden snowfall.  I encouraged her to write up her concept and execution for the ID newsletter, and was really pleased to see she'd done so with this month's edition.

She did something I'd gladly see in many SCA feasts - chose two excellent game meat dishes (rabbit, slow-cooked til it fell off the bone) and a venison stew, and supported them with several veg and grain dishes, including a tangy apple soup. The game was wonderfully savoury and special, and stood out memorably. I'd much prefer cooks spent on a couple of unusual meats and served less meat overall, than bring in a series of bigger beef, pork and chicken dishes, which anyone can get any day of the week at home.

I realise it's not perfectly medieval (we were looking through a 15th c menu for London brewers guild recently, and the only veg across 20+ dishes was onions and garlic for sauces!), but SCA feasts are always a necessary tradeoff between medieval and modern. I suppose all our arts are, but feasts are front and centre to many people's experience of the game.

Lady Valeria brought a very delicious 'lambs wool' (ale or cider, cooked apples, plus christmas spices - a foamy warm boozy drink) to the brewing contest. I could drink this all day long, though it probably wouldn't be good for me!

pogbody  has a great way with managing events. She has a very light hand in directing, but her moralsuasion is quite powerful. She's also in one of the hardest-working shires; Flintheath folk are always 'doing', and rarely let others do without pitching in.

One interesting idea of hers, that worked beautifully, was a gift exchange - feast attendees were asked to bring a small gift, either £5 or less, or 'something they wanted to pass on'. It seems many folks followed the latter course - I scored a beautifully finished lined linen hood, exmoor_cat  found himself with a carved drinking horn, and many other gifts were greatly generous and surprising. Sir Vitus acted as the Yule King, with Robert as his crabbed and crochety assistant.

A blessing of a local event - getting home easily!