Twelfth Night

Over 8-10 January 2010, we ran the kingdom Coronation event. We did this event because none of the SCA groups bid to do it, and we thought Goulburn would be a neat place to have an event.

There were about 200 people there on the Saturday, when it was 34 degrees.  (Why do we have events in January?  Good question, much discussed on the email lists…)

We had made heraldic banners for the ends of tables (Lochac, Rowany and Okewaite) as well as some painted wall-hangings of rural village scenes from the Luttrell Psalter.  Many have worked on these, and they were finished by our wonderful temporary Okewaite members, Tig and Will.  Tig did some delightful acorn tokens too, a couple of days before the event.

From the ceiling we hung some very colourful personal banners from within our group.

The tables had tablecloths and purple runners, befitting the “purple event” theme.  The thrones were purple too.

The food was ample, purple and interesting, with heraldic cut-outs in pastry and the like.  Both courses came out right on the scheduled time.  The feast steward was Lady Alys Dietsch from here, with help mainly from Lady Jocelyn and Lady Catherine from Polit.  The menu is in the PurpleBook (feast booklet; note that it’s in bifold printing order rather than page order!)

We pushed our luck a bit with some pastry crowns, bejewelled with glace cherries, filled with a berry fool.  Not sure whether Their Majesties got the mischief.  Perhaps they were baronial coronets?

We had a camelopard wander through the event.  Camelopard was the medieval name for a giraffe, as drawn by people who had never actually seen one.  Ours was white with round purple spots, with two people under it (Jochen and Anton).  We were planning also to paint the alpacas at the farm with purple spots, but didn’t quite get there!

Six local musicians played medieval music with great skill — they are keen to be involved again in future.

We had arranged for the local youth theatre to provide six acrobats — twelve turned up, and did some great juggling and gymnastics.  Their set-piece performance was really entertaining.  Later, they did some fire acrobatics displays.  Again, these kids had a great time and are keen to be involved in future.  The SCA provides a good opportunity for performance experience.

What else to mention?  After the investiture court, the cathedral bells were rung as people left the court, a nice touch but not all that audible for those still in the hall.

The Friday night at the Old Brewery was very pleasant, and again the musicians were in attendance.

The Sunday at the farm was frankly a bit hot, 37 degrees.  The meetings were in a shady grove and not too bad, but the heat did curtail some of the other activities.

We deliberately did not advertise this event in Goulburn, because Crown events have a lot of court and they’re not set up for newcomers.  That said, we had a few locals come along anyway, and they had a great time.

We’re pretty happy with the event.  It made over $3000, to be shared between Lochac and Okewaite.

Many thanks to our team in Okewaite, and our friends from other groups who helped us out.

The gallery photos were taken by Maeve, Tig and Maud — thanks for these.  If anybody has any more good ones, we’d be grateful.

Many people have commented to us in person that they really enjoyed the energy and good organisation of the event, and the food got high praise.  The acrobats from the Lieder Youth Theatre were very popular, and our local musicians also were well appreciated.  If anybody would like to make a comment here, we’ll compile them and circulate them to the group.

Thanks also to the attendees for making it a very successful event (from our perspective) even in the heat.

Our Agincourt event, 24 October

This was the first feast for the Hundred of Okewaite.

Our overlords, the Baron and Baroness of Rowany, were in attendance.  Which was very kind of them, as Her Excellency is expecting their first child in the next few weeks.

Lady Alys ran the event, and Master Cristoval ran the kitchen.  The food was well appreciated, and the event was a joyful one.

The highlight of the evening was the music provided by Jane and Eric and their kids, so we had live dance music.  Their Excellencies called them up in Court to thank them for their efforts, and presented them with some lovely braids.

Here’s a couple of photos from the night, with more in the gallery.

Lilac Festival

We did a demonstration as part of Goulburn’s Lilac Festival.

We set up our ivy-leaf pavilion in Belmore Park, and ran combat bouts all day.   See the gallery for more photos.  Many thanks to Politarchopolis (SCA Canberra) and Agaricus (SCA SW Sydney) for their assistance.

We also participated in the street parade on the Sunday.

Our helpers from Polit and Agaricus had left by then, so we roped in the “willing workers on organic farms” staying at Cockatrice Farm, and Allison’s family, to make up the numbers.

We ended up with a pretty good presentation.

On Ilkla Moor — 21-22 November 2009

Our second event is a campfire cooking event at Cockatrice Farm.

House Abbotsford, who have the splendid period encampment at Rowany Festival, are helping us to use very traditional cooking methods, based on real medieval recipes.

We hope to have a display of medieval hats, and to teach you how to make some basic hats.  Lady Alys will help you make a cloak, and we’re hoping for sessions on spinning and pottery too.  And some English country dances.

There will be an archery target set up.

There will be a list field available for informal heavy combat or fencing.  There is a good armouring workshop on site, so it may be a good opportunity to fix nagging armour issues.

Click to download poster

Sir Alfar to visit

We put a request to the Rowany email list for assistance getting our armouring and combat started.

Sir Alfar has kindly offered to assist us.  He will be at Cockatrice Farm at about 10 am Sunday 2 August, for an armouring working bee and some fighter training for anyone interested.

Alfar is a Duke of Lochac, and has lots of experience in helping newcomers to get equipped and ready for heavy combat.  (If less keen on archers…)

Update: Many thanks to Sir Gui and Jarl Alfar and their friends for helping us out with training and armouring.  We made huge progress in a day.  More discussion on this at the Cockatrice Farm blog.

St Crispin’s Day

Okewaite’s first feast will be on 24 October.  It has an Agincourt theme.  The Baron of Rowany will be attending.

Please put up some posters.  (Gabriel, King of Lochac, is the model; artwork graciously provided by Maria Styles.)

Feast of St Crispin

Christmas in July

Last Saturday, we ran a Medieval Christmas in July as a fundraiser for the Goulburn Club, a not-for-profit social group.

It was a great event, and raised nearly $1300 plus bar sales.  The club wrote back to us “The night was a huge success and was probably the biggest and best single event held at the club for some years.”

The feast booklet is here, including the menu.  It’s set up for bifold printing, if the order seems odd.

Christmas in July

Welcome

Welcome to the new website for the Hundred of Okewaite.  Please use it, by contributing stories and comments about the life of our group.