diversionary

Are you tired of "what I did on my summer vacation"? I'm not, but here, as a diversion, is a project that has been my carry along bit of handwork for the last two weeks...

Gryphon won this hand-felted pouch in a bardic competition, and gifted it to me. It is just the right size to hold my epi-pen, so I decided to change the Celtic embroidery originally on the flap for a design that would make it clear that the contents are for medical use. The next step is to sew a lining, and to add two small antler-tip toggles...

The red cross is to signify first aid supplies, as this will be used to carry my epi-pen, inhaler, and various other small medical bits at SCA events. Stitches used are mostly chain, some buttonhole edging, and a wee bit of bayeaux tapestry filling for the acorn caps.

Junefaire fragments (more summer vacation)

On Saturday, Gryphon and I spent the day at an SCA demo (Junefaire, in Port Gamble) to visit with friends, and to participate in Arion's elevation to the Order of the Laurel.*  It had been many five years since our plucky heroine last attended Junefaire, (actually for Gryphon's elevation in 2006) and the event has become a superb example of a public demo - I was mightily impressed! After coming through the gate, you passed the fighting field on the left side, and a long pathway led through many small booths of artisans and craftspeople demonstrating various arts of daily life. There was far more to see than I managed to take pictures of, everything from cooking and textile arts, pottery, woodworking, dyeing, and my good friends the moneyers were striking coins. There was a chandler dipping candles and a blacksmith at his forge... it was glorious!

Countess Elizabeth working the fresh butter


Hrafnir using bellows to encourage the charcoal fire.
He is cooking flatbread and a pottage of oat groats, barley and peas


An assortment of treen: wooden trenchers and utensils, all hand carved


This enormous copper cauldron is used for dyeing textiles


Master Ralg working with the treadle lathe, turning wood


This is a butter churn, and the cream has almost turned to butter


Once the butter is separated, it gets removed from the churn, 
and all the milky bits washed out of it with cold water.
The actual buttermilk left in the churn is completely different than store buttermilk.
It is like thin, almost watery very sweet milk, with little bits of butter in it. Incredibly tasty.


Medieval cheese cakes. Baked on site, from homemade butter and fresh cheese, homegrown eggs
(and other ingredients of course). I can testify that the results were delicious.

  . 
Arion the Wanderer being elevated to the Order of the Laurel -
for excellence in the arts of archery, metalwork/moneyer, and various other skills.
The King places the laurel wreath on his head, and then he swears the Laurel oath of fealty as a Peer of the Realm
~ ~ ~≈:::≈~ ~ ~

*For gentle readers unfamiliar with our slightly eccentric hobby, the SCA is an worldwide historical recreation group, focused primarily on the Middle Ages and Renaissance. While most of our events are, in essence, private parties, as the organisation is a non-profit group, we also do a lot of educational activities, such as demo events open to the public, and demo events in schools. The Order of the Laurel is an very high honor given to individuals for excellence in artisanry,  for creating art and in sharing the research and skills with others, and for behavior that exemplifies the noble virtues; the award is recognised throughout the SCA. Our plucky heroine, and her stalwart pal Gryphon are also members of the Order, myself for enameling and metalwork, and himself for archery and artifacts.

irony

Our plucky heroine has returned from summer vacation, and it was a whole lot of different sparkley iconic bits jumbled into a five day road trip... After spending the night at Emerald Keep, we headed west and north, stopping by FjordsEnd on the way out of town, and then out Route 3 towards the peninsula beyond... Just before downtown Shelton, a tourist photo opportunity appeared:

By the side of the road is a slice of really big log, welcoming you to town


The tree it was cut from was over six centuries old


There is the wheel from a truly huge band-saw


with an explanatory plaque...


and if you look through the gap in the trees,
at the bottom of the hill are stacks and stacks and stacks of much smaller logs.
Like the sign says: Keep Mason County green!
~ ~ ~≈:::≈~ ~ ~

(From there we continued northwest uphill and down and round about, all the way to Sequim, and a bunch more adventures over the weekend. It was a great getaway. Tune in tomorrow for a very few pictures about Junefaire...)