Yule, in long rambling run-on sentences

Dec 15, 2008 22:40

Short version: Any event involving catapults, fish in cameline sauce, live music, BPAL, the Greatest Commedia dell'Arte Troupe in the Known World, and lavender fleur de sel caramels is a GOOD EVENT in my book. :)

Overall it went really, really well. Logistically everything ran relatively smoothly (more or less; there were minor bugs, but hey...it happens). Random bits: A number of our friends displayed extremely impressive work in the annual Arts and Sciences competition; unicornpearlz is the new baronial champion on that front! I didn't get to see the mask-making or auctions, but I hear those were joyful activities. I did get to chat BPAL with both danabren and alethea_eastrid, although not as long as I would have liked in the first case.

Before I start talking about court, you get some backstory: In October, at Iron Bog's Harvest of Hearts event, the Ladies' Champion and I were summoned into their court to have a friendly discussion with baron_larry about the Wetland Alliance's concern that Bhakail might be stockpiling "weapons of mass destruction." Would we do such a thing? Would we allow inspectors into the barony to see?

This past Saturday, mrgrumpybear got the Iron Bog-related portion of our court off to a dramatic start when he heralded katherine_barr and baron_larry in as the smiters of seditious baronies, or something along those lines. I am offended! Aggressive, maybe; ambitious, maybe; but treasonous?!? No no no! If we wish to return the good gentles of Iron Bog to the loving embrace of the barony from whence they sprang, we of course want nothing more than to do that on behalf of the king and kingdom we devotedly serve! Sheesh. Also, "sedition" implies a covert element, which is not so much my specialty. Banners and trumpets I can do; quiet stealth? Nah.

At any rate, baron_larry and the L.C. ... er... discussed their differences in front of Their Majesties and Their Highnesses, who were Amused and Not Amused in various degrees. baron_larry announced that -- *gasp!* -- he had indeed found siege weaponry in Bhakail! Siege weaponry of a Lego flavor! Not to mention all those table centerpieces for the feast, the ones that looked suspiciously like small catapults...

Everyone survived in one piece, although it was a close thing. In other business, we made one of the sprout's favorite playmates happy by calling her into court (her older brothers had both received awards in the past, but it was her first time), gave several other awards that we were thrilled to be able to hand out, and perpetuated the baronial officers' ritual of sharing the cup of peace for yet another year. Royal court was also a pleasure, as our beloved and indispensable redshinma received his Award of Arms, two friends were made court barons, and lots of other good things happened. And His Majesty gifted us with the sword on which we'd first sworn fealty to him!

We also got a number of other fantastic gifts during the course of the day. I'm actually embarrassed to give the complete list because it was such GOOD LOOT mwahahahaha!!! I have to at least give you the link for the Lillie Belle caramels (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU dear benefactors!), because everyone should go order some right now. Seriously. I'll wait.

Let's see, what else... I Sebastiani was, as always, hysterically funny. They added local flavor with great deftness: Arlecchino spent money on copies of "the Great Bell of Bhakail" that turned out to be cracked (!), and failed in his clever plan to get rid of more excess wealth by buying the large round rocks and logs he loved for no particular reason... only to discover that the Baron of Bhakail insisted on paying good money for catapult raw material! Heh. I do wish there'd been a set time and location for the performance listed in the event program, as that might have upped the attendance, but those who were there were extremely entertained. Thank you, antoniseb et al.!

The feast was brilliant. In addition to the aforementioned tilapia in cameline sauce, we had spinach salad, herbed squash, honey-roasted lamb shanks, armored turnips, and then a dessert of blancmange in colored layers (done with saffron, parsley, and I forget what kind of berry -- very bright and pretty!) along with the Yule log. The head cook had baked loaves of bread shaped like salamanders for each table; people started to use bread balls as ammunition in the catapults, but soon discovered the bread was too tasty to waste! Another highlight of the feast for me was that I got to make the toast to Their Majesties for the first time in my baronial career. That was kind of neat, not to mention a pleasure to have it be such a wonderful King and Queen to toast! (I'm allowed to say that without sounding like I'm sucking up. He used to smack me around on the list field back in the day, and she smells good, yo. *grin*)

There were so many friendly faces at the event that I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with anyone as I would have liked -- it seemed like half my local f-list was in attendance, yay! I'd be here listing names all day if I tried to cover everyone, but... Y'all know who you are. It was so good to see everybody there. Those of you who couldn't make it, you were missed. Oh, and a few shout-outs because I have to: klynn330, thank you for fixing my head with pins! siobhan1214, thank you for using your teeth in such an amusing manner! Retainer crew (especially kevinarcher, J, & E), thank you for being completely insane and yet bastions of sanity AT THE SAME TIME! (how do they do it?!?) :)




I know, not a glamorous backdrop. Oh well!



She looked so cute in her black and red. A little boyish and not exactly accurately medieval, but did I mention oh well?



M and her favorite partner in troublemaking.

sadly inarticulate, barony, sca, events

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