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Gentle Readers,
Some of you may know of the the Red Knight, by Miles Cameron. Miles is a very enthusiastic historical reenactor (in numerous eras) and also an avid practitioner of historical european martial arts. He had a dream that he could bring together both of his passions and show both sides how cool the other is and he did this by hosting a 14th century deed of arms on his cousin's summer estate on the shores of Lake Ontario. Last year was the first one and it was amazing. I had brought Lydia with me and she had a great time.
This year when he announced he was doing it again I was really excited about going and so was Lydia. Even though it was the week before pennsic. Even though it started on the last day of Lydia's time traveller camp.
The best part was that we knew where we were going this time so it didn't take us 4 (my trip last year) or 9 (craig's trip) to find the place. Tent setup went very smoothly and we got a better spot than last year. We were right next to the list field and also had some morning shade.
We settled in well, there was plenty of room for the three of us. We relaxed and socialized and I mentally checked over what we would be needing for Pennsic in a week. Lydia was a little wrecked, partly from being tired and partly because she was decompressing from her first sleepaway camp, but we managed to get her settled.
Things went great until it was time for sleeping at which point we discovered that the tent also had plenty of room for Mosquitoes. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but Lydia has a bit of a phobia thanks to an ill fated camping trip when she was very little. So both of us got very little sleep that first night.
We still managed to get up and dressed and mustered for the morning although thanks to some armour issues I was not in full kit as I had hoped (which reminds me, I really need to make a new pour-point that can hold up my leg armour). Lydia mustered as an archer which was pretty cool, although there don't seem to be any pictures of her having done so.
The first day's fighting went well. Lydia was too wrecked from poor sleep so she chose not to participate, but I did pretty well. The rules were a little hand-wavy. It was more like a gladiatorial combat where the Count and Countess needed to be entertained and pleased by our skill more than our actual success on the list. Thankfully I had both and I was one of the 2 selected for the finals. Many of the others in the deed were primary instructors for their school and the count felt that perhaps they didn't need to prove anything. That being said, both myself and my fellow finalist were secondary instructors.
Aurora and myself fought to best of 3 and it was a wonderful fight. I believe we were quite evenly matched but Craig assures me that I was more dominant in the fight than I thought. In the end, she was the victor with the final point, but I suspect that it could have gone either way, more due to our differences in blow calling (not a criticism, our clubs just have different rules sets). Still, due to our prowess and presentation on the field, the Count chose to award us both the prize, which was pretty cool.
The prizes were medallions crafted by my fellow prizor.
We didn't make it to the youth Archery tournament. But Lydia was able to shoot in the clout and did pretty well given that she was using a 20# bow. I also did pretty well and made it to the second round. Also pretty good given that I was using borrowed arrows. I had no arrows because Craig opened the windows when we were leaving Upper Canada Village to cool off the car and my arrows fell out in their parking lot. I have to head out there at some point soon.
That night was our feast, which while not as epic as I am used to given my SCA experiences was still very competent and delicious. The concert was once again delightful and they sang a number of pieces that I knew. Lydia also enjoyed the music. When the concert was over, we headed to bed, but this time we had mosquito netting thanks to a fellow reenactor making a trip to Canadian Tire.
That made for a much better night.
Due to the previous day's armour failure, I was not able to participate in the full harness fighting, but I was able to sit and watch with Lydia and act as squire for a number of different people who had armour failures that I could help with with the pieces I was not wearing.
With the end of the armoured deed things wound up and we started packing up and made it home in a reasonable time with plenty of memories and excitement for next year.
Some of you may know of the the Red Knight, by Miles Cameron. Miles is a very enthusiastic historical reenactor (in numerous eras) and also an avid practitioner of historical european martial arts. He had a dream that he could bring together both of his passions and show both sides how cool the other is and he did this by hosting a 14th century deed of arms on his cousin's summer estate on the shores of Lake Ontario. Last year was the first one and it was amazing. I had brought Lydia with me and she had a great time.
This year when he announced he was doing it again I was really excited about going and so was Lydia. Even though it was the week before pennsic. Even though it started on the last day of Lydia's time traveller camp.
The best part was that we knew where we were going this time so it didn't take us 4 (my trip last year) or 9 (craig's trip) to find the place. Tent setup went very smoothly and we got a better spot than last year. We were right next to the list field and also had some morning shade.
We settled in well, there was plenty of room for the three of us. We relaxed and socialized and I mentally checked over what we would be needing for Pennsic in a week. Lydia was a little wrecked, partly from being tired and partly because she was decompressing from her first sleepaway camp, but we managed to get her settled.
Things went great until it was time for sleeping at which point we discovered that the tent also had plenty of room for Mosquitoes. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but Lydia has a bit of a phobia thanks to an ill fated camping trip when she was very little. So both of us got very little sleep that first night.
We still managed to get up and dressed and mustered for the morning although thanks to some armour issues I was not in full kit as I had hoped (which reminds me, I really need to make a new pour-point that can hold up my leg armour). Lydia mustered as an archer which was pretty cool, although there don't seem to be any pictures of her having done so.
The first day's fighting went well. Lydia was too wrecked from poor sleep so she chose not to participate, but I did pretty well. The rules were a little hand-wavy. It was more like a gladiatorial combat where the Count and Countess needed to be entertained and pleased by our skill more than our actual success on the list. Thankfully I had both and I was one of the 2 selected for the finals. Many of the others in the deed were primary instructors for their school and the count felt that perhaps they didn't need to prove anything. That being said, both myself and my fellow finalist were secondary instructors.
Aurora and myself fought to best of 3 and it was a wonderful fight. I believe we were quite evenly matched but Craig assures me that I was more dominant in the fight than I thought. In the end, she was the victor with the final point, but I suspect that it could have gone either way, more due to our differences in blow calling (not a criticism, our clubs just have different rules sets). Still, due to our prowess and presentation on the field, the Count chose to award us both the prize, which was pretty cool.
The prizes were medallions crafted by my fellow prizor.
We didn't make it to the youth Archery tournament. But Lydia was able to shoot in the clout and did pretty well given that she was using a 20# bow. I also did pretty well and made it to the second round. Also pretty good given that I was using borrowed arrows. I had no arrows because Craig opened the windows when we were leaving Upper Canada Village to cool off the car and my arrows fell out in their parking lot. I have to head out there at some point soon.
That night was our feast, which while not as epic as I am used to given my SCA experiences was still very competent and delicious. The concert was once again delightful and they sang a number of pieces that I knew. Lydia also enjoyed the music. When the concert was over, we headed to bed, but this time we had mosquito netting thanks to a fellow reenactor making a trip to Canadian Tire.
That made for a much better night.
Due to the previous day's armour failure, I was not able to participate in the full harness fighting, but I was able to sit and watch with Lydia and act as squire for a number of different people who had armour failures that I could help with with the pieces I was not wearing.
With the end of the armoured deed things wound up and we started packing up and made it home in a reasonable time with plenty of memories and excitement for next year.
