All in a Garden Green

Mostly. I think I relaxed for real sometime around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, during one of several naps...

Arrived onsite at Panteria earlier than I'd hoped I would, helped Max & Mickel finish setting up the Taj, and had a lovely dinner, fire, and starwatching with everybody. There were a few shooting stars, and lots and lots of satellites swooshing overhead. A beautiful evening.

Did not sleep well, for some reason, Friday night. Bah. Made for an out-of-it (and apparently slightly cranky) Camille the next morning. Fencing was at 11. That was the happy thought of the AM. Breakfast was good, I chased a bird into the crabapple tree across the way (an American Restart, a pair of them!), attempted to sit and be calm for a while, failed, and took a walk around camp. Helped Frenya set up the fencing lists at 11, got my gear, headed back, did some FENCING. I needed to stab people. We did a few authorizations; neither one really had a firm grip on the rules, but we gave one guy a provisional. Outright failed the other guy, which I felt a little badly about, but he had no clue... nobody in his area (Mountain Freehold?) to practice with, but he hadn't even read the rules recently and couldn't tell me much of anything about proper fencing. We did the swordwork as a formality, and there was no hard hitting or hesitation, but skill, even with light was just not there... sigh. Better luck next time.

Cynan showed up, ginormous shield in hand, and we fenced. It was awesome. From fighter to fencer in three months, and he's FUN. He and Carolyne and I were one team for Jack's tavern brawl, and we ended up winning the day. Woo! Usually it was Cynan and me left standing at the end of the scenario, which was a new thing for me... still alive? How strange. Hot day though, and lots of fencing, made us all tired. I headed back to camp for a shower and a nap. Kathy joined me on the blanket in the shade, Mickel tootled on her recorder, and I think I actually got some sleep. Or at least relaxed. Which was lovely.

Woke up a few times, not entirely myself, apparently, but conscious enough to chase down Cynan, find Brian, who had my cake pan filled with lovely things from Angus & Tigger before he headed back to Canada, and return to the blanket for more nap. Kinda nap. Laying down in the shade, talking with wonderful people, drinking a bit of Kathy's chocolate-whippedcream-wine. Delicious. Delightful. We were camped on the corner of the main road through camp, so everybody walked by, said hi, socialized for a bit, and wandered on.

Mickel and I headed for the ball post-feast. She ended up playing my recorder and I danced and directed traffic. It was pretty near perfect. Back to a campfire prepared by Max, for stories and singing and socializing, and then I had to go... way too early again... sigh. Home by 3AM, not enough sleep, but work the next day wasn't too bad. So much fun.

The sunshine and warm weather has made the garden explode! Now if only the pouring monsoons would ease up a bit. Between the slugs and the pounding rain, I have hardly any seedlings left. They've eaten the tops off half my sunflowers, the spinach has gone half rotten, and the rain has beaten half of my poor carrots into nothing. I'm going to have to replant, and get some slug stuff. Blech. I whacked my red coneflower this evening, and sent at least a dozen slugs flying. Ick ick ick. All my iris leaves have holes in them, but I am pleased to say that I will be keeping the iris that came with the house. They are not the expected "old fashioned" purple (not that there's anything wrong with purple, I just can't stand they "typical" purple iris that spread everywhere...), but a lovely shade of pale lavender. At least the one that bloomed is. My potatoes have also taken off like crazy! Even out of the tower, like they're supposed to! Yaaaaay! Just need to get rid of the slugs...

Excited too; I have 6 new hoyas, mostly miniatures, coming by mail from The Violet Barn, probably on Friday. They're small, they won't take up much room!! So pleased I rediscovered the site... I need to go through my houseplants again. Most of them need cleaning, some need repotting. It's supposed to rain Saturday. I'll do that when I need a break from sewing. Making a new door for the tent, BEFORE Great Northeastern War! Which I still need to do some planning and scheduling for. The class form is going up this weekend. Will work on that tomorrow.

Till then, some photos:

05-25-26 Panteria

Garden 2012

More traveling this past weekend, to Connecticut and Balfar's Challenge! Stopped over and saw Dad on Friday night so I didn't have to get going quite as early on Saturday morning, which was nice. Beautiful day, perfect weather again for outdoor fencing. Carolyne and Jocelyn were excellent teammates, we are not treasure-motivated, it seems, and need to pay a bit more attention to the eventual goal of the scenarios we are participating in actually is, but we had a blast. So wonderful to see a lot of the fencing family. And my Don! Wyatt and I were actually at the same event! Now I just have to get us to drill and work on me learning things earlier, when I am not so tired... trying to learn stuff after a full day of tourney and pick up fencing does not work all that well...

Lots of photos here:

04-07 Balfar's Challenge

Off to Coronation this weekend, with Jean and Sorcha and maybe Mylisant. It will be fun. Again. :)

( 6 months ago was not so fun )

Spring has sprung! Summer, even... it was 80 degrees today. It's going to be 84 tomorrow. I was barefoot in my driveway on Sunday, after washing my car, when it was 78 degrees. We've gotten the little grill out twice, and will probably do so again tomorrow. This is insane. The cats like it, though.


Happiness in a sunbeam... A bit ridiculous, really. Lancelot was enjoying himself waaaay too much.


Spring Peepers are out. Heard them for the first time yesterday, driving home from fencing. Out in force today at the nursery. Plants are coming in, we're opening this weekend. Still kinda disorganized, but it'll be mostly mulch that moves anyway. TIRED, though, from the warm weather and sudden 'ack! we've got to get things organized!' flurry of activity. There are things I must dooooo before spring really gets here!

Looks like most of my plants made it through the winter just fine. The Oakleaf Hydrangea in the terrace was what I was really worried about, and there are plenty of green stems, just waiting for leaves. So. Happy! Iris are coming up with new leaves, Sedum has woken up and is budding, and from the looks of what I pulled up this evening, I'll have plenty of volunteer Nasturtium from seeds dropped last fall... My potato starts should be arriving in a week and a half or so too, very excited to try them!

The bad bits: Ticks. In the backyard for all of 5 minutes on Sunday, picked 2 deer tick off of my jeans and shoes. Ick ick ick.

Washed the car! I have a RED car! Who knew? My poor, dear car... hopefully she'll make it another winter (and then another summer, since winter is the hard part)... New rear brakes yesterday, not cheap, but I certainly got my money's worth out of the original set. Almost 180,000 miles. I'd say we're doing OK. Timing belt is due soon... hnnggghhh... :\

kurlon has shiny new glasses now. He's amazed at the world in HD. I guess they've been a while in coming. We picked them out last Monday, and I think he's glad to be seeing things again.

ninian_vesalius and I are headed to New Jersey and MUDTHAW this Friday night. Getting there laaaaate (or earrrrrly, depending on point of view). Glad things don't really get going till 11:30. Aiming to be onsite by 11. Lots and lots of fencing, I hope! Can't wait to see everybody and play OUTSIDE!

Had a simply wonderful time at the Tourney O' Love on Saturday! Endewearde is so much fun. I love fencing with all those folks, and the little brick church holds such happy memories for me. Also enjoying how much fun it is to travel with Max & Mickel & Ninian. It's a most enjoyable ride to wherever we go.

Tourney!! I did better in my pool than I ever have before, going 6-3. I should have won one I didn't, could have won one I didn't, and have absolutely no shame about losing the last (Jehan). So much fun, all my bouts. The A&S projects and performances were delightful. I missed most of the fighting; did a quick class on Miniatum for Gwillim's little scribal group, and I think I have them on their way to doing better gold leaf.

Was wonderful to have Their Highnesses there too! Court at the end of the day was relatively short, but three Endeweardeans received their AOAs, well deserved all. Feast was quick but very tasty, and we were all home (and zonked out asleep, me at least) by 11:30.

Photos from the day are here, none of the fencing (I was kinda busy). Other folks took pictures too, hope to see them soon! Congrats to Don Jordan, winner of the fencing tourney and awesome cloak prize, His Highness Sir Kenric for winning the Heavy Tourney, Lord Gwillim for winning the A&S portion, and again, Vey, for winning the coveted Pink Baldric and title of Champeen O' Luv.

02-18 Tourney O' Love

Little bit muscle-achey on Sunday, but not too bad. My arm, though, is still a bit sore and stiff. I am really hoping this is not the new post-fencing/tourney "normal" because I don't much like it.

Excited, though, for next weekend, because Our Lovely Princess will be attending IDD's Baronial Investiture Anniversary as well! May the silliness commence.

As lumineaux said in a different forum, the Head Cold that Ate the East Kingdom continues to claim victims.

Three weekends straight of socialization and SCA events, thought I had escaped unscathed. It appears not... Scratchy throat starting last Monday, thought I might have had strep by Tuesday, went to the quick care on a lunch break, swab came back negative. Glad of that, at least. What I ended up with was a sore throat for most of the week, turning into sneezing and OMG TIRED on Friday night, and now faucet nose since yesterday noonish. Done now. Can haz siphon for my head, plz? The Sudafed, it appears to do nothing...

Fencing helped a little bit last night, I tried to stab the germs away, but they're wily little things... Left work early today, I should have probably just stayed home, but I at least brought the folder of photos that need to be uploaded home with me so I can be miserable at my own computer tomorrow if things don't improve.

Hoping this is DONE by Friday night, because I would really, really like to go to Tourney of Love on Saturday and not be either miserable and drippy or a plague rat. Fencing! Friends! Socialness! I wants them!

Home from Birka. Wonderful Event. I think (at least at the moment) that I've escaped any crud that may have been floating around.

Saw lots of folks, did not fence much at all (and thereby saved my sanity, though it seems the tourney went much better this year), marshaled a bit which was fun, held guard duty for the Royal Room, did a few quick run-throughs of the merchant area, and was pleased to be able to accompany Their Majesties and Hignesses of the East into court with the rest of Woolfe's Companies. Biggest hooray at court goes to ludicrose and Aneleda, newest Court Baron and Baroness. I did not take a single photo all weekend, but please enjoy the ones of Aneleda's gift scroll.

Baronage Gift for Aneleda

Left court early, couldn't hear a thing hanging out in the back with all the fencers anyway. Lovely dinner, interrupted only by Lucien, who I followed back to court, because he said "Thomas de Castellan needs to see you." Why? I asked... "I dunno..." So, back to court, pulled away from my soon-to-be-arriving dinner and chocolate martini... Because Thomas made an offhand comment of "where's Camille? I miss her!", so off went Lucien to find me... He owes me another chocolate martini for interrupting the first one.

Post-dinner, got drawn into one fencer vortex after another, and missed most of the ball. Wonderful, wonderful socialization with my friends though, it was worth missing the dancing. There are Plans Afoot. Muaha. Muahahaha. Ha. Got to the ball in time for Korobushka, some weird Pinwheel thing (what in the world did I just do??), and Gay Gordons. Fun.

Spent some time (though not enough) with Xavier, before he moves to Seattle in a week and a half. Ye gods I'm gonna miss him... :(

Nice visit with my parents and a trip to the Currier Museum of Art on the way home with Max and anna_mickel. Haven't been there in years, and not since the renovations. Very nice.

Saw The Muppets tonight. Alternated between laughing and crying and attempting not to fall out of my chair through most of it. OK Disney, you're playing nicely with them, you may keep the Muppets. I can safely say I enjoyed the heck out of that film.

Last Sunday, Max & kurlon employed saws and prybars and sledgehammers and other implements of destruction and finally got into the safe in the basement. Here's what they found, in photogallery form:

11-2011 Safecracking

There are a few shots of the interior I need to re-take. I accidentally deleted them off the camera card before they were done copying over to the computer... The floor of the safe is carpeted. Nice floral pattern. Fascinating.

AND I get to go back to fencing tomorrow! For reals! With swords and everything! Figure out how much my muscles have forgotten... oh boy...

I was reminded, driving home tonight, that the hill heading to my house makes its own weather. Halfway up, and for the remainder of the ride home, I drove through a snow squall. Not quite heavy enough to accumulate, but heavy enough to be annoying. Warp 9, Mr. Sulu!

Looking forward to tomorrow. Supposed to be sunny, if a bit cool. Half-day of work, then errands, then home to try and clean up the house before guests show up. Xavier and Wyatt are coming down/up to spend the night, and then we're all headed to Bare Blade on Saturday morning! Yay! No fencing for me, plenty of marshaling and handing out of loot, though. And I'll have to make sure to drop in on the class Max is teaching on coffee... for quality control purposes, of course...

Hard to believe we've been doing this for 10 years... I've made most of them... missed last year (stoopid werk), but this year more than made up for it.

09-10 Fort Knox Demo

Arrived just after dark on Friday, just in time for Max & Mickel to start the fire, and start the Relax before Saturday's craziness. I did have the brilliant idea of trying some long-exposure shots with my fantastic, awesome camera, which came out so neat looking... Next time, I shall have to remember the tripod, so I don't have to pray for the camera to stay balanced on the signpost. A windy evening, it sounded like we were on a ship, with the creaking of wood and gentle flap of the Taj canvas... lovely weather for sleeping, though.

Morning was bright, clear, and cool. Perfect, perfect weather. A leisurely breakfast, coffee, a game of hide-the-mundania, and we were ready for the interested masses. Lots of fencing, since there were only 12 of us. Great fun. Perfect fencing weather. I got to play a lot with Jehan, which was wonderful. We set up next door to the Taj outside the fort, and did more fencing between our "official" demo sections. Loved it.

My shining moment, though, was a brilliant death-from-behind on Jehan during the afternoon demo! Unfortunately, he happened to be on my team... oops... I knew it was too easy; I'm awful at giving out DFB... Apparently, I was tired, and needed water, so I sat down for a bit. He had his revenge during the roman melee immediately afterward, I deserved every second of it. I think I've been forgiven. We laughed later. :-P

Pack-out was quick, dinner was lovely, and homeward bound was a good direction to be going post-event.

Heck of a thunder/ hail/ wind storm on the way home tonight. Got to ride the motorcycle to work yesterday and the day before, was kinda kicking myself around 4:00 today while it was still nice that I didn't today, but so, so glad I was in the car when the pea-sized hail and 50mph winds and pouring rain and lightning (some of it was pink!) started on my drive home this evening. Eep! All is calm now...

Kinda reminded me of the Sunday night of Pennsic...( Quite a storm we had, then, but it cleared off... )

Next: More watching Heavy Fighting. New dress. Woods battle. Fencing Lessons and Fencer Support. Wandering the edges of the Bog.