arontius | Summer Madness.

.....We're back home after a weekend on the greens of the Port Gamble Uplands. It was the weekend of our Baronial 'Summer Madness'. Billed by Her Excellency and myself as a relaxing weekend of food and fellowship. Notice I said 'weekend' rather than a one day picnic as we usually have done in the past.

.....TBT and I weren't quite sure of what to expect going into the weekend. There have been some mis-communications along the way and 'Summer Madness' seems to have been a good title for the event. It was not advertised in The Crier. Made it into The Flames and on to the e-lists. It also happened to be scheduled on the same weekend as about a bazillion other things happening.

.....But, you know, I came home today feeling pretty good. I had a good time, with good conversation, and good food. We'll see what the overall reviews are for the event from the Populace as a whole. They may decide ultimately that they prefer a one day picnic, and TBT and I will support what the Barony as a whole most wants to do. But I do know that there is a group ruminating over a bid to do a weekend picnic again next year. We'll see what happens.

.....Friday did not end well. Work kept me until the very last moment. I didn't get home and motivated until after 5PM. We didn't leave home until about 7PM. And that was considering that we still hadn't gone grocery shopping for the weekend. We decided that we would set up and then come back home for the evening, after shopping and pulling together our last handful of items. When it was full dark we had set up our pavilion, discovered we had left a quarter of the awning at home, and finally left after calling 'Uncle'.

.....Saturday, we were up early. Piled everything in Gwen's Truck, which they graciously loaned us over the weekend. Even made a trip through the Starbucks drive-through. I was concerned about how cloudy it was, but the weather report promised a clear afternoon, which proved to be correct. Arrived on site and finished setting up. Then spent the rest of the day, having fun.

.....Spent a while in the Baronial Pavilion speaking to a lot of different people who stopped by and just say 'Hi' and chat for a while. Then I wandered the site and spoke to those who had set up their day-shades in other areas. Lots of friends gathered for talking and relaxing. There had been heavy fighting and rapier fighting scheduled for the day, but in the end people didn't want to do anything along those lines. That's O.K. We emphasized quite a bit that the weekend be fun and relaxing and no one actually felt like doing either of these things.

.....But people were excited about the archery! A full York was in session, plus a smaller practice range. It was rather nice to see both the experienced archers get in their passion of a York round, and a group of newer archers get the chance to try their hand at archery and maybe find something to make them passionate. A win all around. I was especially happy to see THL Loric back on the archery range after a lengthy time away. He seemed excited about being there again.

.....The A&S Siege Competition was rather awesome. THL Madrun and TBT put together bags of odds-and-ends to which the recipients had to make something beautiful and creative. All eleven bags were handed out and people had some real fun with the activity. Some really cool things were made. But the winner ended up being a Trebuchet made by THL Mael-Duin. Go Mael-Duin! :-)

.....Lots of other activities over the course of the afternoon before dinner. Bocci made a roaring come-back and intrigued a number of players. I gave dance instruction to the Serjeantry candidates on site and it seemed to catch the interest of a number of onlookers. We'll have to add it to the agenda at future events. :-)

.....Petr and Kierran cooked for us again. Which was rather fantastic of them. They did it on rather short notice and they made bacon hamburgers and sausages. Which were delicious! People provided all kinds of good food on the side and no one went away hungry, which is pretty typical for any kind of foodie thing and Dragon's Laire. :-)

.....The 'Baby Shark' fan base is growing! We had several variations sung, which were all accepted with great laughter. There was also a Bardic Siege, which was also rather cool, with the topics being 'Her Excellency Laurellen' and 'Dogs'. Now, how do you get both of those subjects into the same song or story? Not easy, but I listened as Rycheza, Cedric and Ismenia did it with style and grace. It was fun.

.....After dinner and a lot more conversation, it was time for the bardic fire. It is starting to get easier, especially since our first at May Crown. But there is still more work to do. Deirdre came up with a good suggestion dealing with posting of particular songs prior to the event to give people a chance to print up and practice the words, so they can join into communal singing at the event itself. I don't know why we didn't think of that before?

.....I was dead tired by 10PM and trundled off to bed. The Uplands are really rather beautiful on a clear summer evening. The stars were brilliant. May have to bring the telescope up there some time. :-)

.....The dew was extra thick this morning! We ended up waiting until at least 10AM before we could start putting away the canvas. We left by Noon, and had Mexican Brunch in Four Corners. Made it home by around 2PM.

.....I'm tired, but it was a good weekend. Missed a handful of prominent people. Gotta get ready for work tomorrow, and then four weekends of SCA activities. Although next weekend may get overrun with other things, like the Shipyard. Which will look bad to cancel out on Autumn War, but I don't have a good alternative. Sigh!

.....Not looking forward to the week itself. It will be rather intense. But one step at a time. I'm glad the weekend was as good as it was, it's a good omen for the week itself.

.....Aaron / Arontius.