March's Event

< Joseph the Younger walks through the event site

The March event was, I thought, a really good event. It was held at a lovely park in Winter Springs, which was much easier to get to from our place in Winter Park. :)

We set our things up in a nice shaded area, well away from the playground and from too many inquisitive eyes (although don't think that as the day went by, we didn't have some curious people coming over to see what the fighting was all about - we actually did). Fortunately for us, the weather was good all day - sun all day long, not too cold (as it had been unusually cold in Florida over the past few weeks), and very soft breezes - no strong winds blowing everything around, as wind is wont to do in Florida.

Skallabjorn was very thrilled to show off a couple of new items he had: a lovely wooden keg for water, which I call the medieval water cooler:

 and a beautiful hand-made and hand-tooled leather spangenhelm, crafted by his own hands:

It fits over his fencing mask and makes it look like he's wearing an actual spangenhelm. Pretty clever, isn't it?

I actually got pretty brave and decided to help out with the "stewing" or steward's duties that day. Given that I'm not inclined towards combat and have very little arts experience, doing steward duties was a good way for me to be involved, feel like I could make a contribution, and learn something about how events run.

We started out with archery.

Co-Viceroy Sir Conrad Marshall, in green, competes in archery - Mar. 2010

Our competitors shot quite well.

Skallabjorn competes in archery - March 2010

Santiago competes in archery - March 2010

Edward competes in archery - March 2010

Co-Viceroy Lord Cedric of Rotherwood, competes in archery - March 2010

Sir Conrad won the day in archery, with Santiago a very close second and Skallabjorn third.

After we got everyone's points totted up in archery, we had a break for lunch. Skallabjorn and I spread out a picnic feast on one of our blankets under the trees. It was absolutely lovely, nibbling on summer sausage, colby-jack cheese, olives and rye bread and enjoying the beautiful day.

Combat followed.

Skallabjorn & Santiago duke it out - March 2010

Santiago (in black) and Lord Cedric fight - March 2010

Sir Conrad served as marshal for the shanai (sp?) bouts. And I know I recorded who won shanai and who won rapier, but at the moment it has escaped me because to be honest - I'm a bit tired from the day. That, and on Sunday, I must confess I wasn't feeling all that well, but I did my best to concentrate on my stewardly duties and try to learn something new. 

We were very fortunate to have a lot of guests that day - a couple of people who had been part of Adria about a decade ago (Cliff & Krystal) came by, and Sir Conrad's family was in town (all the way from England) to see the event, and a friend of a friend of Skallabjorn's came by as well. Perhaps more people will become more interested in Adria; who knows? 

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day.