flourishing

Just something I am working on on the side. I enjoy doing these crazy capital letters they are a lot of fun. They also make for really nice, period looking scrolls as well so I do up a whole bunch to have blanks on hand.

So it's Monday, the husband is off visiting various doctors, I am doing laundry and lay gold leaf and it's grey and quiet outside.

Nothing much else to report really.

speechless

Yesterday an entire country fell off the internet and cell phone grid. Imagine if that happened to you.

and the only response I can really think of right now is this:

"People should not be afraid of their government; governments should be afraid of their people"

I often forget how privileged I am to live in a Western World country with all the trimmings. As places to live go Germany is pretty damned good, really. Good social system in place, good health care system in place, decent standard pf living and so on. So watching Al Jazeera  live stream the hell that is going on in Egypt right now really brought this home.

Friday

Rooks at dusk outside of Ahrensburg

I woke up at 2:30 am and couldn't really get back to sleep after that. This morning at 7 a plumber was due to come so I guess this was my body's way of not sleeping in. At 5:50am I got up and that was that so I'm up.

One of the upsides to getting up at the crack of doom is seeing the unexpected. This morning it was being able to see the moon, now waning and Venus in the sky on the same level so bright that they both created a reflection on the thin ice of the lake. Words do not do this justice and I don't yet have a camera that will pick these sort of scenes up.

For as long as I can remember I have marveled at the nature around me. I thank both my parents for instilling this in me. I think as adults we often lose the ability to see the world with open eyes, we miss sunsets and moon sets, and every day miracles due to every day life getting in the way.

I'm a big fan of sunrises as any one who is a regular reader of this blog can tell. Lots of pictures of sunrises especially since we moved back to Germany. We now live by a lake and the lake view is south - south east facing. This means as I sit and type my morning babble I get to see the sun rise, which has it's drawbacks. ( Hard to type with the sun shining in one's eyes but this only occurs at certain times of the year)

I love the natural world around me. It's full of magical things. While driving down German autobahns we see birds of prey just hanging out. They seem to each have their section of highway and they often sit in a tree and watch the world. We see a lot of crows here as well, they roost and gather out near the Mc Donalds but only in the late fall, winter and very early spring. Soon enough they will be paring up and the huge roosts will dissipate in favour of nesting.

So on this Friday morning which started early, the sun is now slowly painting the sky, 1st a deep orange and slowly a paler yellow. It's gorgeous.

asking questions

Middle Cove, NF: Beach Rocks

There's a trick to asking questions, you have to ask the right ones. I've seen discussions go on forever because someone didn't do this, or didn't frame the question in a clear and concise manner. This of course led to a circular discussion which usually dissolved into a slag fest.

Many moons ago in another lifetime as part of school classes I took a course on how to deal with the public. It was a course based on customer service and how not to piss people off, and yes I am sure there are those of you sniggering at this but really I did learn a few things and I do occasionally put them to use.

It's all about language and how you use it.  The difference between the statements "When you do X, you make me feel..." vs "When this happens I feel..."  The same idea two totally different triggers.

In a discussion with many people from many backgrounds and educations as well as languages one needs to ask the right questions in just the right way. Not so easy sometimes especially if the person asking the question is emotionally invested and wants to hear a specific answer.

I like to ask questions, I'm the curious type. Even though it seems that asking questions gets you into trouble, especially if you ask the awkward white elephant in the room sort of questions. I rather enjoy doing this from time to time because I think it's good to shake the tree.  Sometimes you need to shake things up to remind people that there is a bigger picture out there and it's not quite so insular as they might think.

I'm not really speaking about anything specific here, just observations made over the years of being on many forums and many email lists and in many many classrooms.

I'm interested in the choices that get made..."why did you use that colour paint on that scroll?" , "Why are all the new chapter gifts NO Trade?" , "Why is it that in one of the richest countries in the world over 43 million people live below the poverty line?" and so on...

I have asked many many questions over the years and to my surprise have started a ball rolling that either ended up with me saying fuck it, you're all a bunch of stubborn twits and I don't want to play with you any more, to oh my goodness you mean they actually listened and changed their minds?

Learning to ask the RIGHT questions is the key. Be clear, don't use too many examples, don't clog down the ultimate subject by adding a billion details.  ( People don't care about the details until the big picture becomes clear)

Questions are good, you know. They can bring down entire governments or help to free prisoners. They can untangle a mess of lies and suspicion or help to clear up a single point from many points of view. They can tell you where the bathroom is. People may not always like the answers they get and of course people may also not like the questions that are being asked but in the end it doesn't really matter. Asking questions is a good thing and sometimes I think we should do it a whole lot more often than we do.

Ask questions, you'll be surprised at what happens when you do.

where's the sun?

So it's that time of year again when the sun goes away and the gray endlessness moves in. This is typical North German weather but after a couple of weeks of this the brain starts to go a little zingy. At home, in Canada, most of my family and friends are freezing their rear ends off in sub zero temperatures.  here the temperatures hovers at the 0 mark with a degree or two left or right of that middle point.

I don't mind wintery winter but the endless grey really brings me down so now I am looking forward to spring.

Bring it on...

The work space

The was a picture of my desk years and years ago. I still have this table which I have had for almost as long as I've been in the SCA which means I've had this little drafting table for over half my life now. It's still my main art table. When we moved to this house which is really big my art studio space jumped up and for the first time ever I had enough room to bring in a "real" architect's table.

the monster table

I did the ebay thing and found one which I won for under 40 euro. The only hook was we had to pick it up our selves and the thing weighs a ton but with friends' help we managed just fine. It's a cool piece of equipment and let me tell you it makes lining out these medieval scrolls a damn sight easier than anything else I've used. I love the built in  angle ruler. But the table is HUGE and I'm not so it's actually not ergonomically easy for me to sit and and use as a place to paint which is why the little drafting table is still my best friend in this room. ( It's also easy to move around as well) 

Now my little friend sits under the window for the best light and the monster sits at the only place it could and still get some natural light. It also makes a great fabric and pattern layout table. It has many uses but oddly enough I don't use it for drawing.

uncluttering the mind

Inspiration wall.

So yesterday I spent pretty much all day sorting out my art studio. It started off as a clear off the desks to start scrolls and turned into a serious gut out and clean. It felt great. While I can do some work in a  cluttery room I cannot do scrolls.  The medieval work requires peace and calm in the room and clutter damages my calm.

In between the uncluttering I played detective ( again because this has been an ongoing process for a while now) and finally found the Maker of the Scribal box to say thanks. ( Pictured above - big wooden box on the shelf). That was a fun adventure which worked out and was a nice break from the cleaning.

I enjoy the process of going through the junk and I have much junk. I collect all manner of things because one never knows when one will need something. Today I hope to sit down and line out some scrolls and perhaps get some gold work down.

We'll see.

stuff to do when you're bored....

A server side panel with various computer CPUs and DLP chips as magnets

I am a magpie, I like shiny things. Computer bits are shiny so I tend to collect them, especially CPU chips and other bits and bobs, with  DLP  chips being among my very favourite. Over the years I have collected a rather large amount of these bits and pieces because I use them in my Re-Cycled art projects. Sometimes as collage material on canvas but sometimes for other things as well.

I wanted a magnet board in the kitchen because in Germany there is this weird tradition of hiding the fridge behind a cupboard door so the whole concept of fridge magnets is gone. I had been looking for "just the right one" for a while but they were either too expensive, too small, too large or the wrong colour. So I ended up salvaging scrap from work and using that instead.

In the picture you see the side panel from a server housing. It measures 62x42 cm. It's big, it's metal and it's a neutral colour. So I strung a wire on it and we hung it up in the kitchen. Then, being kind of restless and needing something to do with my hands I rummaged through my rather impressive collection of CPU chips and the box of DLP chips, found my collection of saved neodym magnets ( most of which have come out of notebook housings) and the super glue and set about making my own fridge magnets.

2 DLP chips and an Intel pentium pro

On the board is computer history with CPU chips ranging from 386 right up to an Intel (c) XEON. The really big gold one is a server CPU chip, an Intel Pentium Pro and it's huge. The little ones that look as though they have a mirror in the middle are the DLP chips. And even though it looks like 1 single mirror it's actually millions.

DLP chip and Xeon cpu

 Then there are things like this...

little IKEA metal drawer thing with harddrive centers for handles.

I use all sorts of computer bits for all sorts of things. Ages ago at IKEA in their sale section we found this nifty little metal drawer thing but without handles for next to nothing. When we got it home I discovered that I could screw the wheel hub things from the inside of hard drives onto it and use them as handles. I know they are not in the center but really I could care less. I like the weirdness of the handles.

"Screen saver" Notebook cover frame, canvas and acrylic paint.

Sometimes I just do whimsical weird stuff, like the above painting framed by a notebook inside cover frame. It's actually attached currently to my upstairs magnet board because instead of a wire to hang it on a wall it has a rather heavy duty neodym magnet that came out of a hard drive so that I could hang it to the metal wall I used to sit beside at work.

While most of the computer garbage gets recycled some ends up in the hands of people like  me and we have our own way of recycling.


Until then, be excellent to each other!

on the road...

Picking fights because being annoyed is easier than being sad is stupid right? So the man is headed off to Turkey till Wednesday then back for less than 24hrs to head off to Hanover and not back until next Saturday. It's not as if I mind so terribly being alone but I hate it when he's not here. I'm like a puppy who gets separation anxiety. I also revert back to student days habits when he's not around. So watch out next week...bad eating habits, too much coffee and time forgotten here I come.

new crows

can be seen here.


crow art II

tide and time

This week notification went out across the net about the death of a much beloved SCA member, Mistress Caitlin Davies (MKA Jane Waks). I did not know her personally though the name is familiar but I feel the pang of loss anyway. People die, it's a fact that's unavoidable. One day they are there the next they are gone and it is almost surreal, at least to me. At 45 I am now of the age where people I know, who are close to me begin that journey although it started early with the death of a good friend's sisters and then later on with my dad. Along the way family, friends and acquaintances have also passed away due to accidents or illness or old age. It happens and it sucks. Sometimes I think if I had my way I'd freeze time and we'd never grow old, or sick and we'd all stay alive forever of course that's not very good for the whole learn as you grow thing.

Death marked me early on. I am far too aware of it and every day it crosses my mind that someone I love, someone who is dear or meaningful to me won't be there tomorrow, every single day. I cry for the deaths of people I don't know when the TV shows the most recent tragedy. They leave a hole in the fabric of time that simply cannot be filled and one's heart hurts due to loss. It's an ache that no painkiller in the world can put end to and it never really goes away.

So what do you say to someone who has just had their very best friend in the whole world swept away from them never to return? I'm sorry doesn't even come close and let's forget about all the other platitudes that get spouted. It sucks plain and simple and it's a lonely thing to experience.

So all I can really say on this matter is be very aware of the people around you, your loved ones, your friends. Treasure them every day no matter what. Be mindful of hurtful words and things said in anger because maybe one day you won't get the chance to say you're sorry. 

just saying...be excellent to each other...always!

Fixit dude in the house

We have a busted toilet tank thingy. Problem is the tank is built into the wall ( sooooo very German) but the plumber says it's not as difficult as it looks. This guy has been here before, he was the plumber who dealt with the wall leak, he's cool, friendly and easy to have in the house.

I find it hard to believe it's Wednesday already even more stunning is that we're now in the middle of January almost, whooooosh time flies. It's been an odd sort of week so far with Monday being pretty crappy and yesterday being so-la-la. In between the black hole spots I get stuff done, including some pretty sweet little crow paintings but the frigging scanner, which is at least 10 years old, isn't speaking to the computer now so we have to find a work around. Annoying when I might have to get a new one simply because the drivers don't get updated and the scanner doesn't speak Win 7. My live in IT specialist seems to think he can find a work around but so far he's forgotten about it.

So here we are at Wednesday and it's a sort of loose-endish kinda day. At least I managed to sleep the night through which was nice- no nasty being woken up by pain. Always a good thing. No bitchy emails this morning either also nice. Maybe is the plumber is done in time I can even go to work today, if not it's off to work I go tomorrow. In the mean time....we wait for the toilet tank to be fixed.

Until then, be excellent to each other and rejoice only 2 more days till le weekend!

Counting Crows

I made this as an accordion book for my show in Halifax at the Anna Leonowen's Gallery. It ended  up going to a friend of mine and although I planned to make more it never happened. Time and the lack of a good inkjet printer made book printing a thing of the past until I find one that I like and suits my needs.

The little drawings were all done with the mouse in photoshop and it was a fun project.

it must be a Monday

The pig-goat-god thing of Trenthorst

I am constantly astonished at how little time it takes for people to manage to dampen enthusiasm and squash initiative. Instead of seeing the positive applications to take only the negative and act thusly. I am also deeply suspicious when people start sentences with this statements like "I don't do/say this to make you feel bad but..." In my experience if you begin with this statement you already know that what you have done or said has probably hurt someone's feelings or made them feel bad.

As someone who likes to A: help and B: tends to see a hole and likes to fill it I regularly find myself on the wrong end of the stick. I remember clearly a time when I was waitressing at a small hotel in the middle of nowhere where I tried to "help out" by offering some of my experience from working with a huge catering company. This was met, much to my surprise, with jealousy and resentment. Instead of making things go smoother which they needed to do, my other co workers were pissed off. I was 22 or so, so probably I barged in like a know it all and upset the apple cart completely but I meant well and instead of actually talking to me and explaining what I had done wrong, people just treated me like crap, I eventually quit the stupid job and we were all happier for it.

I like efficiency. Just ask my team leader at work. I like to organize stuff so that it runs well without much work and I don't like to waste time. I also like to fill a niche, hopefully without causing too many ripples to do it but sadly that's almost impossible. There's always someone some where who gets upset about something no matter what the original intention was. It happened to me at another job I had where I learned to be ultra prepared to the point of anticipating my boss's every whim and move. This got me a lot of flack for being a brown noser but what people didn't understand that in being prepared and having stuff ready I avoided getting yelled at, stuff thrown at me and possibly fired. I did this out of a sense of self preservation, not to get a raise ( which incidentally didn't happen.) I don't talk these things here to come off like the victim I'm not. I make my own bed and I am well aware that what I do has consequences but what I think other people need to be aware of is that my actions are not always done for reasons that they believe and that people should look deeper than the surface to see what is really going on. Or just ask instead of assuming they know it all. Trust me, we never know it all.

The only trick I know against upsetting people is not to bother doing anything which kind of makes being in clubs where volunteering is a must for the club to survive difficult. We have run into this time and time again with all the various hobbies we have been involved in. Eventually no matter what you do, you will step on someone's toes or cross some invisible border and manage to piss another person off. There are still groups of people I know who can't bear to be in the same room as each other because of some toe stepping that went on many years ago.

It's kind of sad really.

Nowadays I just try to walk away when territorial spats occur. Unless I really screwed up and went overboard I have come to realise that I am not responsible for other people or what they feel. Someone once told me "No one makes you feel anything, you do that all by yourself. How you feel about any given situation is up to you and you make the choice all on your own. You need to accept responsibility for your feelings, life works a lot better that way."  It took me a very long time to understand how correct this statement was. I was the sole owner of my feelings and it was my choice what direction to take them in in any given situation. So now when someone says to me "You made person X feel like this" I question it instead of instantly taking on the guilt.

As a thinking human being I know when I've fucked up. Unless you are psychopath you know when you've messed up and usually I act accordingly and apologize or try to undo the mess I have made. When this is not the case I think Madonna sums it all up very well when she sings "Don't put your shit on me."

Other than that it's a Monday. I'm not particularly well today but I'm ignoring it ( mostly). I tend to read a lot of endometriosis forums on days like this and I spend a lot of time crying at the computer because it's hard to read some of the terrible things these women go through and I go through them too. It's also cathartic and it helps to know I'm not alone.

I'm tackling the mountains of laundry and trying to get the majority of the downstairs cleaning done. It's been too long and the house feels dusty. I like a clean house and spring is coming. We'll also have people in the house on Wednesday to fix the toilet in the master bathroom. I'm kinda curious to see how that's going to go what with the tank being built into the wall an' all. But having the guys from Kritsch come in is enough to spur me into housecleanmouse mode. I don't mind my own mess to a certain point but I don't need strangers seeing it. :P

So now it's back to vacuuming and mopping...it keeps my mind occupied which today is a good thing because otherwise I'd be even more down that I already am.

So...Be excellent to each other.

new blogs

Two new blogs went up today. SCA related but fun.

treasures of drachenwald

and

Ask Albion

other than that it was a decent day by all accounts. Pain level somewhere at a 2, discomfort level at a 2 and relax level at an 8. I painted crows on pretty backgrounds, watched NCIS, had a nice husband cooked supper and am now finishing up web monkey business for the evening to retire to the couch where I shall undoubtedly fall asleep before lumbering off to bed to hopefully further fall asleep to be woken up at 7 am by my dearest husband who has made me coffee ( as usual).

So dear world have a good one and be excellent to each other!

crows to go...

One of the Crow Boys

the beginning, the 1st mould from plasticine

the wax positive, fixing and fiddling - no easy task.

The Crow Boys was an art school project, part of my sculpture class. They were a trial to make and their journey to life was fraught with difficulties. They were a fairly large sculpture for the bronze casting class and I made three of them, it seemed the right thing to do.

crow boys in bits

wax positive...

the wax positive and the amazing thing, they stood on their own.

bird butt.

It was a big project and it took ages and I learned A LOT. But now I have three beautiful bronze crows who have such personalities. They are collectively known as the Crow Boys and they've been around the block a bit!

the crow boys in Halifax, Canada enjoying the snow!

The crow boys in Switzerland

hiding amidst the plants in Germany

As you can see they do their own thing. They are well traveled crows, although generally they tend to travel by boat or truck... The flying part is kinda hard with bronze wings.

just shoot me...

day after my lap surgery which discovers I have endometriosis.

Sadly today I don't much feel like writing anything inspirational, or ranty or arty. I'm having an incerdibly bad endo day and everything hurts.

I posted about it on my lj blog
and here are some links if you want to know more about the disease.

http://www.endo-resolved.com/intestinal_endometriosis.html
http://www.endo-resolved.com/symptoms.html
http://www.bioscience.org/books/endomet/end34-65.htm  ( graphic pictures)

and if you are really curious you can type endometriosis into google and see for yourself.

busy and cool

"She wants to be flowers..."

So today has been a busy productive day doing stuff for friends and for the hobby I indulge in. More on things later they are still in the behind closed doors stage. I got caught up with apprentice #1 and managed to spend an insane amount of time struggling with html code and making images for banners etc...
It's all cool stuff.

Now however it's time to move so it's upstairs to see Mr. Kettler. ( slave driver) and sweat a bit. Great things are a foot...

stay tuned.

and be excellent to each other!

whimsey

When we lived in Switzerland I started messing around with water colours a bit more. I began experimenting with landscape style painting, thus taking up my father's brush so to speak. Instead of being remarkably exacting in detail though, as he often was, I let 'er rip. It was freeing to slosh water and paint around to see where it all went, especially after the exacting nature of the medieval style illumination I had been doing so much of.

I enjoy almost all forms of "painting" I use this term somewhat loosely as many of my computer bit acrylics were painted with my bare hands and it felt really good, though it did take forever to get that stuff off my hands afterwards. I love the very precise work of illumination because it is just that, exacting. You really have to get it perfect or else it looks bad. If you study the medieval stuff long enough you start to see where people go off the track so to speak. You get that "It looks beautiful but something isn't quite right" sense. I often think that figuring out what "isn't quite right" is almost 75% of the battle to the craft. I am still working on this. I think that maybe I'll have it all sorted out by the time I'm 100 but then again maybe not.


It took me a long time to be able to call myself an artist but it is what I am. I make art, all kinds of art and some of it I do very well other bits are just whimsical experiments along the way. I'm not particularly good at self promotion and there are no galleries around the world boasting they have one of my pieces on their walls, I don't sell much and for the most part none of this is overly worrisome to me. I make art because it's what I have to do. Sometimes in batches, sometimes exacting and sometimes in 5 minutes flat. Sometimes I love what I've done so much it stays on my wall and some pieces I hang on to because they are awful. In-between that I make art that for the most part I am quite proud of. And occasionally I share some of it here.

little treasures

Driftwood on a Newfoundland beach

This year for Christmas I got a negative scanner so now I am in the process of rediscovering many many many old photos I took while I was at NSCAD. Many of them were never actually printed so it's kind of fun to see them as images. This was taken on a beach in Newfoundland when my husband and I were on our way back from visiting my mum.

Awards and wotnot...

my memory board ( from 3 years ago)

One of the things that came up at this latest event was the whole system of awards. It seems that many people are not so happy with the system, or the awards, and so on. I don't think that this is a new argument but I did notice that many people seem particularly jaded and somewhat bitter about the whole thing.

I think it can be very hard as King and Queen ( and other royals with the allowance to do this) to know who to give awards to and more importantly when. It's a fine line, award a person too early and the general underlying feeling is that person didn't do enough to deserve it ( never mind if they did or not but that's the perception) but if they wait too long then there is a feeling of resentment about all the work done with no reward. It's a delicate balance and I'm quite glad it's not my job.

The system works on a sort of honour system. The royals rely on the populace sending in recommendations for people. But the system is open to abuse. I have seen shires get together to do award campaigns. They decide who should be up next and then they sit down and write en masse the recommendations needed. Of course  when this doesn't work and a person expected to get a certain award at a specific event doesn't get this tears ensue.

What happens when people don't bother to send in recommendations or better yet the stupid online form doesn't work properly making it "more work" to find the right email addresses and so on. And then what do you say? Person X does lots of stuff and I think they should get their AoA? I once over heard a conversation where one member of the SCA told a newbie that the way to become a laurel ( one of the highest rungs on the ladder) was to know how to dance and to be able to play chess.) If these are the perceptions people have then no wonder the whole system kind of goes awry.

I was one of those people where almost everything happened a little too late. By the time I was awarded award X I didn't much care about it any more and to a certain extent it lost its meaning. I was never one for accolades anyway, mostly I like to hear the words Thank you you did a great job and we appreciate it, ( I also like getting paid in coin of the realm) but I am and was pretty easy going about the whole award thing. I rather enjoy seeing other people get hauled up in courts and given their moment to be seen and acknowledged. ( which was what made the job of being Signet Clerk so much fun by the way)

In a club that runs pretty well 100% on volunteers there had better be a way to reward the ones who step up to the plate and work so that the rest of us can enjoy the hobby without too much fuss. And because of the nature of volunteer run organizations there will always be those who constantly do and those who constantly take with most people hanging out somewhere in the middle. It's a nasty sharp edge tho. I have heard more than once about a specific person who works their ass off at every single event they go to that "they only do it because they want to get noticed" or  that such people are greedy for attention and never let anyone else do stuff but it's been my experience that anyone who works that much, consistently isn't doing it for recognition they do it because it's their nature and they probably really enjoy it. In the area of service most regular volunteers don't do it for the bling factor, it gets too old too fast.

In the area of Arts and Sciences it's a bit different, people do what they do because they love it and if you love something you do you get better and better at it (in theory) So there's a progression of award for that as well, in this kingdom it's usually getting a Panache then, if you're of the right stuff, a laurel which is the top rung for A&S. The problem I see with some of this is while a panache is still an award that people get recommended for by everyone peers are made by the crown on the recommendations of other peers ( mostly) And what I have noticed over the years that sometimes persons who are just astonishing artists ( and this goes for the service area as well) but who have "difficult" personalities don't ever get accepted into the peer clique because they are considered not of peer like qualities.

For me, having been on both sides of this fence, the words "peer like qualities" seem to be synonymous with "not one of us" or "I really hate this person's guts and I don't want them in my little world". What does this phrase even mean? No one yet has been able to come up with a clear and concise explanation of what "peer like qualities" are. Probably because every single person has their own ideals about it and no one can meet in the middle.

I don't have them. I'm an outspoken bitch who doesn't always play by the rules. I don't enter A&S competitions and I am very vocal about hating the job of judging them. I was told point blank years ago by a couple of laurels that if I never entered or judged an A&S competition then I would never become a laurel. It was that simple. I wondered then as I do now WTF that had to do with learning an art or craft or science to the point of becoming a master/mistress of it but since these words were told to me by two laurels on the same day I figured okay what ever... and accepted I'd never reach that high step and while it bothered me it was also okay because if that's what I had to do to become a peer then too bad. I don't like being coerced or forced at proverbial sword point to do something I don't enjoy in what is essentially my hobby and should be fun.

I have seen from many parts of the Known World people get black listed from peerage because of a nasty comment made in public, or a temper tantrum at an event etc... but seriously how does this even enter the picture? For me the criteria are simple. Has person X reached a skill level that is master level. Have they shown a constant willingness to serve the kingdom, do they do so willingly and often? Do they teach their skill and encourage others? Do they share? For me these are the peer like qualities I need to see. Whether or not they've had a mass meltdown at an event 5 years ago because something happened that set them off is for me immaterial. People are people, they have moods they say shit they shouldn't and the have opinions. To my mind the last person I want as a peer is some unopinionated, wimpy assed yes person. It's good when someone says it like it is. I think there's far too much high and mighty that goes along with the whole thing and in the end we all bleed the same when we're poked with a sharp stick. Plus... who amongst any of us ever can say we have never done or said something mean or stupid?I guess it all just depends who sees and hears you and whether or not higher-ups feel hurt by it. I have issues when shit that happened years ago gets dragged up as a reason to blacklist someone.

Awards are a way to say thank you or acknowledge a person's achievements within a set of parameters. Personality will play some part in it all but in the end it should not be a popularity contest and I do sometimes wonder if maybe part of our problem in this kingdom would be solved my a few more awards for specific things vs few awards for very general things.

my memory board (from 2010)

eventing we will go...

Bridge from Denmark to Denmark >Fyn.

 So... for the first time in what we figured out is roughly two years we set off to an SCA event. The event was in Sweden so we decided to drive all the way ( now that we can) and avoided ferries. We took the huge bridges and were suitably amazed at the architectural feats of wonder of driving over the baltic sea
The drive through Denmark was easy, clear skies all the way and a gorgeous sunset.

le husband not wanting le picture to be taken.

Bridge 1. BIG and impressive.

When we hit Sweden we hit wall oh fog. There was just nothing to see and as it was hovering around the -2 the driving got interesting. As we got closer to the event site the roads got smaller and more snowy, thank goodness we had the exact GPS coordinates for the event especially as there were NO FREAKING SIGNS anywhere. We made a wrong turn and ended going up a very dodgy road...full of snow...managed to get out of that only to be shouted at by a very large doberman. Eventually we arrived at the site alive and in 1 piece. Managed to get checked in swiftly and then made the decidedly treacherous journey down the hill to the house at the end of the world where we were bunked.

Chatting to a new scribe.

 We ended up sharing a room with most excellent friends and this was a welcome thing. A chance not only to catch up but also to relax because they know us so well and vice-versa that we forgive the flaws and welcome the chatter. We had a corner room on a quiet hallway near a bathroom ( so perfect for me who gets up at least 3 x a night to pee ( thank you endo) So we unpacked without the usual rush and hectic, got everything squared away and dressed in our somewhat tired looking garb then went to say hullo to the medieval world at large.

The bling garb and the pointy hats whoo hoo!

 This was the coronation for Vitus and Ele, two incredibly dear friends of ours and it was a momentous event given how long they have been entering crown tourneys and not winning. The stunning bling bling garb was made by Anya and Gottfried and it was truly wonderful. You can see the story of the garb here and it is well worth the read. It was a lovely ceremony though even for me both the step down and the step up courts were a bit long. I guess I am not one for a lot of blah blah ceremony any more but it was very nice to see the pointy hats go on.
One thing annoyed the crap out of me though and that was when it came to reading the name of the scribes who did the scrolls. It was inconsistent and I got the feeling that only the scribes who had created big blingy scrolls were worth acknowledging.  Several scrolls were just handed out without being shown to the populace or having their scribes acknowledged. It was very disheartening to see and experience.  Dear Kings and Queens be consistent when you do this either you do or you don't but the some scribes get acknowledge and some don't thing sucks. It makes those whose names do not get said out loud seem second rate and not worthy or recognition. EVERY SCRIBE should be worthy of recognition. Please please remember this. And scribes WRITE YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFO clearly on the backs of your works. ( okay rant off)

The rest of the day was mostly quiet for me. Since we had been up very late on Friday ( the standard chatting till the wee hours just kills me and I suffer from not able to sleep in a strange bed syndrome so on Saturday I was a gonner. We escaped back down to the house of the banished , braving the absolutely deadly ice hill and I decided that until feast I wasn't risking my neck again and subsequently missed the laurel meeting because I had no idea when it was being held after being pushed away for the fighting and no one actually came down the hill of death ( or used the inter house phones)  to let any one know it was happening. I guess I wasn't missed so no big deal. I am the anti peer anyway ( thanks Maggie for the name it's very funny). What we did do all afternoon was inhale glühwein fumes and chat with very good friends. It was an delightful way to spend a cold afternoon and I am glad we got the chance to relax.

Feast

The feast started after 2nd court which I would have stayed for but the room was so hot it actually made me ill and I had to get out of there which meant I missed getting a coin and candle for judging the A&S competition. Since judging is something I loath and I mean loath to do and I suck at it by the way I was a little sad about missing out on the good part of the whole experience but oh well again if a person is not physically in the room they are not actually there at all. My fault really I aim to be invisible Bridget and it works. *evil grin* I don't mean that to sound petulant though it probably does. But I do find it sad that people tend to get left behind if they are not in the room at the time. It happens to scribes as well, my biggest pet peeve. People get nice scrolls but if the scribe is not at the event, more often than not, the scribe never hears a peep from the recipient about whether or not they liked the scroll etc....there is a big out of sight out of mind thing than happens at events. It's like an SEP field. I do wish that would change a bit.

Feast was a bit chaotic but we took it all in stride, thank you Hagen for saving us seats. It's always hard for us at feasts because we are quite picky about food especially now with certain food issues having cropped up ( milk intolerance, no cheese etc...) However even though it was fairly lengthy it was nice and the food that was served was by all accounts really good. Something I wish they would do in this kingdom is pre post the event menus with ingredients though. We had two vegetarians seated with us and no one could tell them if there were meat products in the meals. That isn't good. For me the issue now a days is milk products. I have to be super careful. So really I was able to eat the meat stew, the very very gingered carrots, and the pork ( very nice) Everything else was to be avoided. We missed both breakfasts due to the hill of death being a great deterrent and there was no food on Friday. Marcus and I have long ago learned from experience to be very self sufficient when it comes to SCA food and we bring the kitchen with us.  I have a small coffee machine, a small kettle and 2 cool boxes packed with good stuff. We don't starve and we don't have to brave the ice hill of death to get that morning coffee either. In the end it was nice to have breakfast in house and relax the big downer is that we miss out on relaxed chatting with other people. However this was an unusual case because we were all bunked in the house way down the hill from the main site and the route back and forth was just a deadly sheet of ice. Not really a great incentive to get one's ass to breakfast on time. I am sure when the road isn't a vertical ice rink it's much more fun. And I liked our room, the quiet infrequently used bathrooms and the endless hot water so do not take this as a complain, it isn't but there were downsides to being housed quiet far away from the main site.I ate something on saturday evening that made me quite ill so it was nice to have a quiet Sunday morning breakfast in the room with food that was a known quantity. Besides having the wee coffee maker is a great way to make people happy and earn new friends.

road from hell.

 We cleaned up our living space and packed le car said our goodbyes and started the journey home. HOLY ICE ROADS batman. Seriously talk about shit driving conditions. above freezing temps on already hard packed icy roads made for an Olympic style car skating event. We decided to caravan with Leo and his navi had some strange ideas about where to go but eventually we made our way to Malmö to the bridge.

good friends, good times

 Our last stop together was at a small rest stop where we used the facilities, Leo bought a snow shovel, we each obtained a free map book of Sweden and had a coffee to go. Just as we all began to shiver from the cold we said our goodbyes and began the last leg home. We would both be driving over the big bridge together but after that we went separate ways. they were taking a ferry and we were sticking to the road.

le big bridge

 The big bridge from Denmark to Sweden is impressive and I was glad that this time we got to see more of it.

Road to Kopenhagen

 The rest of the drive home was uneventful except for the unintelligible gas station in Denmark. We decided not to top up there and waited till we crossed the border stopping in a place called Skandinavia park where we had the best meal in ages at the Steak-n-more which was the alternative to Mc D's. It's not on the cheap side of food prices but the salad and potato sides are all you can eat and the meat we had was cooked to perfection.

Denmark is full of beautiful sunsets

All in all it was one of the best events I have ever been to though I think a lot of that was due to going with no expectations, no agenda, no volunteering for anything and looking forward to seeing friends. We took an over 2 year break from the SCA but I think that has ended now and the thoughts are for Double Wars in May. So to all who worked at the event to make it fun Thank you. To all the scribes who created beautiful works of art I say well done and thank you and to our friends both new and old I say thank you for being awesome people. Really in the end you are what make it so much fun!

PS. I forgot to mention is was great to get to see Lia and meet her Laurel ( thank you for coming to find me and we need to hang out more often it was so very nice to just sit and chat).
-To the new scribe who came to find me I'm deeply sorry we never got to speak more later on but sadly this is SOP at events. Find me online and I will do what I can for you to get you on the go. I know you have questions and occasionally I have some answers.
- the rather odd glut of panaches and lindquistiringes given out all at once in last court seemed very last minute rush.  Not so many AoAs tho. Is this is sign we need to seriously work on encouraging new blood or is it just winter events so close after Christmas don't really get a lot of semi new people on the AoA list.
-Brutus - enough said.

wall and window

Inspired and inspiration. I love my studio. I have this amazing view which looks out on the world around me, it's inspiring and wonderful and often breath taking. While I work on some sort of art project I can watch my world.

Gateway

This was a birthday gift for a friend at work. Acrylic on canvas with memory sticks and keyboard tabs. Yes there is some meaning behind the text keys and no I won't reveal it.