Novice Schola
Excellent day yesterday! We did have a few things happen, like one of the teachers being too ill to come and teach. harpnfiddle filled in more than adequately, with a Celtic Music class (emphasis on Scottish, as that's her area of interest) and the intro to harp class.
Learned interesting things about written music (like how to tell if it was for lute and definitely not for harp - accidentals), working songs, etc. We talked about the various reasons for a lot of music not surviving.
Also made it to the juggling class late in the day. I'm not good at it, but it occurred to me that it might be another useful exercise for the arm, so I'll keep giving it a try. That was a popular class :)
The fighter classes were both popular, with the one on why fighters should dance having people spilling out into the hallway because they wouldn't all fit. Aethelhawk/Taz was teaching that one. I talked with him about it over lunch, and he was pleasantly surprised at how well it had been received. Sir Jeff assisted from time to time with supporting thoughts and examples, which he was very happy about too. Taz's hope is to encourage there being more men on the dance floor and more women on the field, so that there's more parity in both.
I was going to go to masteralcuin's class, but ellid and I and Magnus needed to do judging of the A&S entries, and that went over about halfway through his class. I didn't want to come in late and disturb the class, but I'm hoping it went well.
Picked up the armor & stand, cloak, blackwork piece, for the demo next week. Today we'll assemble a few thing out our work.
Got to chat with lots of folks, including one of our new people that I hoping to meet in person, J. Nichols, and also his daughters. Lovely folks! He looked sort of familiar but I wasn't sure why, so I asked his name and sure enough he was who I thought he was -- turns out he found out about us through the demo we did at the Springfield Quadrangle. L was answering questions on the handbound books he had on display, and I do remember chatting with him at the time. Got to chat briefly with one of our new teachers too, by virtue of taking the juggling class.
I usually do a random 'survey' of students and teachers too, and overall everyone was pretty happy with their classes. Light attendance in some, heavy in others -- you never know from year to year, which classes will have peak attendance. But even if there's only one student, if it's an enthusiastic one it can make a teacher's day (speaking from experience).
I'm hoping we have dance again next year, but that will depend on if schedules can mesh.
sorcieredeneige came in first thing in the morning to help out a bit and check in with folks, before she headed back out to work on getting more stuff out of the flooded basement. They can't get the furniture out though, at least not yet -- too heavy. I expect that means she's sleeping in the spare bedroom upstairs right now, since the basement was essentially her own little apartment. Sigh. She lost all the fleeces. She at least still has her prepared fibers, but that's still quite a blow. And I'm sure many other things besides the fleeces, like some fabrics and books and such. And of course all the holiday stuff is stored in the furnace room down there, so some of that is likely gone as well.
She did get a lovely stack of books from Small Churl Books while there. And she's been getting deeper into research on bread and finally found more info on types of wheat in the medieval and renaissance period. Good for her!
gwynt_y_storm's work on the Roman marching kit was well received too, another highlight from the day. Although I don't think I have much to do with it really, I'm still proud of her and the work she's doing.
***
A little headachey this morning. Novice Schola tends to kill me physically, no matter how much other folks are doing to help. And it was a rather long day too. But we need to take advantage of the clear weather to do some work in the sugarhouse, barn, and apartment, moving things. So, I'd best do some of my ROM exercises, and get to work!
Learned interesting things about written music (like how to tell if it was for lute and definitely not for harp - accidentals), working songs, etc. We talked about the various reasons for a lot of music not surviving.
Also made it to the juggling class late in the day. I'm not good at it, but it occurred to me that it might be another useful exercise for the arm, so I'll keep giving it a try. That was a popular class :)
The fighter classes were both popular, with the one on why fighters should dance having people spilling out into the hallway because they wouldn't all fit. Aethelhawk/Taz was teaching that one. I talked with him about it over lunch, and he was pleasantly surprised at how well it had been received. Sir Jeff assisted from time to time with supporting thoughts and examples, which he was very happy about too. Taz's hope is to encourage there being more men on the dance floor and more women on the field, so that there's more parity in both.
I was going to go to masteralcuin's class, but ellid and I and Magnus needed to do judging of the A&S entries, and that went over about halfway through his class. I didn't want to come in late and disturb the class, but I'm hoping it went well.
Picked up the armor & stand, cloak, blackwork piece, for the demo next week. Today we'll assemble a few thing out our work.
Got to chat with lots of folks, including one of our new people that I hoping to meet in person, J. Nichols, and also his daughters. Lovely folks! He looked sort of familiar but I wasn't sure why, so I asked his name and sure enough he was who I thought he was -- turns out he found out about us through the demo we did at the Springfield Quadrangle. L was answering questions on the handbound books he had on display, and I do remember chatting with him at the time. Got to chat briefly with one of our new teachers too, by virtue of taking the juggling class.
I usually do a random 'survey' of students and teachers too, and overall everyone was pretty happy with their classes. Light attendance in some, heavy in others -- you never know from year to year, which classes will have peak attendance. But even if there's only one student, if it's an enthusiastic one it can make a teacher's day (speaking from experience).
I'm hoping we have dance again next year, but that will depend on if schedules can mesh.
sorcieredeneige came in first thing in the morning to help out a bit and check in with folks, before she headed back out to work on getting more stuff out of the flooded basement. They can't get the furniture out though, at least not yet -- too heavy. I expect that means she's sleeping in the spare bedroom upstairs right now, since the basement was essentially her own little apartment. Sigh. She lost all the fleeces. She at least still has her prepared fibers, but that's still quite a blow. And I'm sure many other things besides the fleeces, like some fabrics and books and such. And of course all the holiday stuff is stored in the furnace room down there, so some of that is likely gone as well.
She did get a lovely stack of books from Small Churl Books while there. And she's been getting deeper into research on bread and finally found more info on types of wheat in the medieval and renaissance period. Good for her!
gwynt_y_storm's work on the Roman marching kit was well received too, another highlight from the day. Although I don't think I have much to do with it really, I'm still proud of her and the work she's doing.
***
A little headachey this morning. Novice Schola tends to kill me physically, no matter how much other folks are doing to help. And it was a rather long day too. But we need to take advantage of the clear weather to do some work in the sugarhouse, barn, and apartment, moving things. So, I'd best do some of my ROM exercises, and get to work!