Stuart and I spent the long weekend in Marsden, SK. "Why would you do that?" I can hear you asking. Because the biggest SCA event of Western Canada takes place there: Quad War. I have so many things to say about it, that I hope I can remember it all!
Easy things first: the drive there and back went fine - we took the back back roads and missed all the traffic around the Big Valley concert. The weather was darn near perfect, with blue skies, sun and almost too hot temperatures. There was one rain shower on Sunday afternoon, which Ursa loved, since it cooled things right down.
The event takes place on private land, someone's feed field, that gets mowed down to make space for camping, merchants, fighting, etc. We had to get extra antihistamines for Stuart, but I was happy that my homeopathic stuff stood the test and I just had a bit of extra sneeziness. Mental note though that sandals are not the best foot wear - my feet are pretty sliced up from walking through all the stubble. The site does have some permanent buildings including the castle for war scenarios, biffies and some of the regular merchants have little cabins on skids.
The rest of us tented, either in RVs, modern tents or a variety of period pavilions. Since our big car camping tent is starting to show it's age and probably won't fit both of us and two full grown BRTs, we are seriously considering a large pavilion to use for both SCA events and regular camping. Stove! Cots! A latex mattress! And since the tent doesn't have much storage space, I made a cover for the trailer that makes it look like a wagon. I got several comments from people on it, which was nice.
We did some shopping, of course. The leather worker had a brown belt with celtic knotwork, which he was out of stock of at DragonSlayer, so I have a belt now. I'm not a big fan of his belt pouches though, so I'm still thinking of attempting one myself. We bought some pottery mugs for drinking hot stuff, I bought a dress and an overdress, while Stuart bought a scarf to use as a head wrap, since he hasn't been able to find a period hat that will fit his huge noggin.
I took three THUA classes: Lechery 101, Period Pigments and Making a Hood with shoulder covers. Lechery is not what you're thinking, quite. In a period setting, flirtation is purely verbal, while lechery is flirtation that includes "acceptable" touching. Acceptable is on a pretty sliding scale, but the idea is that it has to be mutually agreed upon. It was an eye-opening weekend in terms of how much variation from the standard sexual architectures is accepted in the SCA. Some of the knights seem to keep harems and we met one former prince who has a wife and a pet - intellectually, I know this stuff goes on, but meeting it openly, I admit I had to chew my tongue a little.
We also met all kinds of people. So many people and I'm so bad with names. But one standout is Arwyn, who's been playing in the SCA for a very long time. Like Dalton, she is squired to a knight from outside the kingdom and she travels a LOT. They have a very different perspective on the game that was interesting to hear about. Hanging out with them and The Viscountess, we got a sort of hot house introduction to the internal politics that most newbies probably don't encounter so fast. Arwyn is a herald, a heavy fighter, a cook, a leather worker, etc., etc., etc. and she was very gracious about letting me pick her brain on a wide variety of topics.
To be fair, the politics were also sitting a bit higher in everyone's consciousness, because there is currently a push to break off and create a Kingdom that is made of just of BC, AB and SK, instead of being part of An Tir, which also includes some states. There was a lot of talk - official and unofficial - about the consequences, advantages and disadvantages, and that probably made the cliches a little more obvious than usual. There will be a poll coming around soon, and if 50% of the populace votes yes, then we get to keep moving toward a separation... I think Stuart and I are groping toward what we will vote.
The other result of the weekend was that I think we know what our full SCA names will be. We need to go through the registration process before it becomes official, but we'll probably be Fionna the Curious and Stuart the Wanderer. Any comments?
Ursa was with us of course and did her usual fantastic job. There were something like 700 people and a whole lot of dogs on site and I think she met them all! I'm certain that there are folks who haven't a clue who we are, but know exactly who Ursa is. As we sat in court on Sunday night, she chose a quiet moment to let loose one of her giant snores, which was great. She did well dealing with the heat, she even took rests at the tent alone without fussing, which was a godsend for all of us.
I'm sure I'm missing many things that I intended to talk about, but for now, this is all I can come up with. I'm sure you'll be hearing about all the projects I have planned for the future.
Easy things first: the drive there and back went fine - we took the back back roads and missed all the traffic around the Big Valley concert. The weather was darn near perfect, with blue skies, sun and almost too hot temperatures. There was one rain shower on Sunday afternoon, which Ursa loved, since it cooled things right down.
The event takes place on private land, someone's feed field, that gets mowed down to make space for camping, merchants, fighting, etc. We had to get extra antihistamines for Stuart, but I was happy that my homeopathic stuff stood the test and I just had a bit of extra sneeziness. Mental note though that sandals are not the best foot wear - my feet are pretty sliced up from walking through all the stubble. The site does have some permanent buildings including the castle for war scenarios, biffies and some of the regular merchants have little cabins on skids.
The rest of us tented, either in RVs, modern tents or a variety of period pavilions. Since our big car camping tent is starting to show it's age and probably won't fit both of us and two full grown BRTs, we are seriously considering a large pavilion to use for both SCA events and regular camping. Stove! Cots! A latex mattress! And since the tent doesn't have much storage space, I made a cover for the trailer that makes it look like a wagon. I got several comments from people on it, which was nice.
We did some shopping, of course. The leather worker had a brown belt with celtic knotwork, which he was out of stock of at DragonSlayer, so I have a belt now. I'm not a big fan of his belt pouches though, so I'm still thinking of attempting one myself. We bought some pottery mugs for drinking hot stuff, I bought a dress and an overdress, while Stuart bought a scarf to use as a head wrap, since he hasn't been able to find a period hat that will fit his huge noggin.
I took three THUA classes: Lechery 101, Period Pigments and Making a Hood with shoulder covers. Lechery is not what you're thinking, quite. In a period setting, flirtation is purely verbal, while lechery is flirtation that includes "acceptable" touching. Acceptable is on a pretty sliding scale, but the idea is that it has to be mutually agreed upon. It was an eye-opening weekend in terms of how much variation from the standard sexual architectures is accepted in the SCA. Some of the knights seem to keep harems and we met one former prince who has a wife and a pet - intellectually, I know this stuff goes on, but meeting it openly, I admit I had to chew my tongue a little.
We also met all kinds of people. So many people and I'm so bad with names. But one standout is Arwyn, who's been playing in the SCA for a very long time. Like Dalton, she is squired to a knight from outside the kingdom and she travels a LOT. They have a very different perspective on the game that was interesting to hear about. Hanging out with them and The Viscountess, we got a sort of hot house introduction to the internal politics that most newbies probably don't encounter so fast. Arwyn is a herald, a heavy fighter, a cook, a leather worker, etc., etc., etc. and she was very gracious about letting me pick her brain on a wide variety of topics.
To be fair, the politics were also sitting a bit higher in everyone's consciousness, because there is currently a push to break off and create a Kingdom that is made of just of BC, AB and SK, instead of being part of An Tir, which also includes some states. There was a lot of talk - official and unofficial - about the consequences, advantages and disadvantages, and that probably made the cliches a little more obvious than usual. There will be a poll coming around soon, and if 50% of the populace votes yes, then we get to keep moving toward a separation... I think Stuart and I are groping toward what we will vote.
The other result of the weekend was that I think we know what our full SCA names will be. We need to go through the registration process before it becomes official, but we'll probably be Fionna the Curious and Stuart the Wanderer. Any comments?
Ursa was with us of course and did her usual fantastic job. There were something like 700 people and a whole lot of dogs on site and I think she met them all! I'm certain that there are folks who haven't a clue who we are, but know exactly who Ursa is. As we sat in court on Sunday night, she chose a quiet moment to let loose one of her giant snores, which was great. She did well dealing with the heat, she even took rests at the tent alone without fussing, which was a godsend for all of us.
I'm sure I'm missing many things that I intended to talk about, but for now, this is all I can come up with. I'm sure you'll be hearing about all the projects I have planned for the future.
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