"Drink, for the wind blows cold"
Whee! I had a good Twelfth Night, what with troll shifts, much flitting and chatting, and retaining during a "5 minute meeting" which ran 50. The latter makes me think that the corrolary to HE Mary's advice to peers about never saying "Be right back" is "Never promise it'll be a short meeting". I didn't mind, except I would've gotten a chair if I'd known. I discovered that Wyndreth blushes on command even from a gesture. I got to see bits of the bard of Nordskogen contest, including the winning entry. I learned that being the first through the raffle really isn't a good idea.
When we got to Court I was, most unexpectedly, part of the first piece of baronial business, a chastisment for bad behavior, specifically excessive reading and promotion of the arts. Uh, what? Turns out that Ilya, Cainnech, two other people I am currently forgetting and I were all getting entered into the baronial service order, the Rouge Bend. I was quite boggled, having not felt I'd done anything particularly notable on the baronial level for a while. Well, there was that event I ran in November, but it was little... caoilfhionn had done my scroll with an absolutely gorgeous illumination of a spinner in the style of the Lindisfarne Gospels, which was especially pleasing because I'd recently turned in my first ever scroll blank, which was based on a bit of key patterning from the same Gospels.
When kingdom court opened, there was a bit of silliness with Michael St. Christian and his amazing number of flasks, one of which was handed to gflower who wanted nothing to do with it at all. I took it from her, and then Ilya took it from me and handed it across the aisle, where it started making the rounds of the Temple Rose lot and disappeared into the crowd.
Some time and a quantity of schtick later, after our Baron had a Balefire for his tailoring and his bare chest had been banished from the realm, many of the Yetis had AoAs or Griffin's Swords, and Niko had the bestest scroll ever as his Bellerophon, my name was called again. Uh, what? I went up and was praised for my fiber arts efforts, especially weaving as HerRM is a weaver as well, and given a Brigids Flame. They gave me a lovely scroll in English and Cyrillic, which I eventually discovered had been done by my friend Ivan (Russian translation) and his wife, Cwenthryth (C&I). I contemplated being the newest member of the Order, as His Majesty put it, "for about two seconds" and he promised me "a sister", at which point belmikey summoned caoilfhionn. This is the first time we've gotten an award together, and I'm happy it was this one, especially given the collaborative arts project that was the copes. (Which TRM were wearing during the day. Yay! I thanked Her Majesty for it. She assured me that she was delighted to do it because the day was cold and the cloaks warm.)
My beloved claims that now that I have two 'ships, I am a commodore. The logical extension of this line of thought means Padruig must be an admiral.
Their Majesties made an exception to the usual rule of making a Great Bear at their decoronation. It was obvious who it would be as soon as HRM Gwyneth began speaking of things "written on our blood and bone", and in that moment it was obvious that the woman who wrote "the national anthem of Northshield" should be so honored. (And in that moment I cursed the fact that they did it first, so Ilya and I can't. [ins. std. disclaimer]) Owen started "Shield My Kinsmen", and the whole assembled populace sang the chorus as Wyndreth was escorted, trembling, to the front of the hall. She and TRM cried during the ceremony and the reading of the scroll, and the the whole populace stood as she went out of court again. People may have agreed that she was a good choice.
Dinner afterwards was good, and fortuitously let me geek service with my nearest and dearest while Ilya geeked fighting. My presents were lovely or will become so as soon as I get to a yarn store. Hurrah for people who understand!
After that, I came home and Ilya headed out to