Summer Madness in the Barony of Dragon's Laire
A Barony in the Kingdom of An Tir which is
a Part of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA, Inc)
It was So Fun, We're Planning Already!
Summer Madness, 2012
Summer Madness 2012
(The Baronial Picnic & Camping Extravaganza)
August 3, 4 & 5, 2012
At the Uplands in Port Gamble
Event Coordinator: Gwen the Potter
Summer Madness, 2011, Wrap-up
From Their Excellencies
Her Excellency and I have made it home from the weekend and have unloaded the truck. I just wanted to send out my gratitude and thoughts for all those who took part in making this weekend the fun event it was. Her Excellency and I went into the concept of a weekend long picnic / camping event not really sure how it would work. But it really turned out to be a fun and relaxing event filled with friends, food and lots of laughter. Thank you to all who made that happen.
Thank you to THL Jahnkin and his staff for setting it all up and making sure we had everything in place to support the event. THL Jahnkin put a lot of work into setting up the infrastructure on Friday. By the time we showed up to put up our pavilion, everything else was all ready set up to go. :-)
A special thank-you to our Seneschal, THL Oliver. He was everywhere this weekend, setting up pavilions. Helping to run functions. Making sure that people’s needs were met. The Barony has a very hard-working and caring person in the him as our Seneschal. Alongside Oliver was Tegus, who also helped quite a bit with set. As do Lady Adelheidi.
Thank you to Her Excellency Laurellen, THL Madrun and all those who took part in the A&S Siege Contest. We have some amazingly talented and creative people in the Barony. When all was said and done, I think we had a dozen entries sitting on the table to be judged. I was amazing at the creations. I was especially fond of the winning entry, THL Mael-Duin’s Tre-Bu-Chet (sp?). Very clever use of the materials provided. Although I felt a little badly later when we turned it into firewood for the bardic fires. :-) I’m hoping that Madrun will post the results and all the contestants at some point.
Mistress Gwen and THL Rycheza also provided entries into the period creations from the 14th Century. Both pottery pieces. But it was nice to see them. Her Excellency and I could not call the winner. Neither could THL Madrun. So we called them both winning entries.
Lord Petr and Lady Kierran provided their usual expertise in ensuring that we had incredibly good food as the foundation of the picnic. I can’t wait for what they produce for us at Yule Feast! Thank you Petr and Kierran!
The bardic siege contest was also quite entertaining. THL Rycheza and Master Cedric made it a lot of fun. The topics were ‘Her Excellency Laurellen’ and ‘dogs’. I wasn’t sure that anyone could work with those topics in combination. But we heard great entries. I enjoyed them immensely.
I also greatly enjoyed the renditions of ‘Baby Shark’ we heard! Former Kingdom Bardic Champion Ismenia provided a rendition called ‘Baby Puppy’. THL Jahnkin and M’Lord Myrick provided ‘Baby Dragon’. By that point we laughing so much our sides hurt. I think there were others as well, but I can’t remember them right off hand.
Many thanks to THL Arion, THL Brian, and Master Cedric for providing support for archery. It engaged a rather large group of people and also provided a way for people without a lot of experience to get involved and practice their archery.
I want to personally thank those who participated in the dancing. It was primarily set up to teach the Serjeantry candidates some dancing in preparation for their Trials. But it attracted a number of people to join in and turned out to be a lot of fun. We may have to include that more in future events.
The dancing preceded the Bocci ‘tournament’, which was rather well attended and sincerely appreciated.
Many thanks to THL Rycheza for providing space for the potluck feast to be spread out.
Many thanks also to those who took part and supported the Bardic. A lot of great songs were sung around the Baronial Brazier, with Her Excellency and Mistress Gwen starting things out. We had some Islamic dancing, and THL Ian provided drumming support. We’re slowly starting to figure out how this concept is going to work. It keeps growing and we want it to keep growing to include more people. It’s a lot of fun and is a great way to bring people together. M’Lady Deirdre had some good ideas we’re going to try at future bardic campfires, starting at September Crown or Last Chance.
People really seemed to enjoy the day. So much so that before Saturday was done there were already people talking about what they wanted to do with this next year. That made us happy to hear.
And lastly, thanks to everyone who attended and took part. We had fun, and hoped you all did as well. Please add to this missive with activities I may have forgotten to mention, and people who should be thanked. Everyone who brings something to the Barony at an event or function adds to community. We appreciate all that you do to support Dragon’s Laire. Which is, of course, the greatest Barony in An Tir. :-)
Arontius and Laurellen.
Baron and Baroness of Dragon’s Laire.
Sent to the Dragon's Laire Email List on 08/07/2011
From THL Madrun
Summer Madness was a blast! Archery, dancing, bocce, artists madly creating, good food, singing, the chance for long conversations, and laughing way too much. Thank you Jahnkin and his team for arranging the event. And a huge thank you to those who participated in the two arts and sciences contests: Dame Gwen and THL Rycheza entered the first of the contests (re-interpret a 13th century household item for the current middle ages) and as Their Excellencies have already said they were both declared the winners. The siege A&S contest (a bag of assorted goodies plus duct tape and the day to create something artistic) was a huge success. We ran out of goodie bags and had to create a few more to accommodate the number of contestants. Marcus took pictures of all the entries and once he has a chance to post them you too will be amazed and impressed with the results. And lastly, a thank you to His Excellency for consenting to teach dance. While it was intended to help the serjeantry candidates with preparing for the upcoming trials many folks joined in.
Madrun
Sent to the Dragon's Laire Email List on 08/07/2011
From Lord Soren
This was my first event and it was everything I had hoped for! I enjoyed chatting with so many of you and eating that glorious dinner! There were soooo many stories, so many songs, dancing, super-interesting archery to watch, a randomly generated spear tossing CHALLENGE, an impromptu Bocce Ball tournament, and then MORE good drink, good story and BARDying well into the morning.
It was so much fun that Inga and I have even joined Gwen in the preparations for next year's event.
For everyone who did not make it, next year's date is already scheduled and on An Tir's calendar. It was a truly relaxing day that everyone I spoke to enjoyed!
Thanks to everyone who made it happen, hopefully I can begin remembering some names here shortly! I can't wait to camp again next weekend at Autumn War.
Søren den Gråblits
Sent to the Dragon's Laire Email List on 08/07/2011
From Dame Gwen the Potter
Wow. What a weekend!
Summer Madness was so great! I really enjoyed the experience. It was what the picnic was always designed to be, a relaxing fun event. A chance to sit and visit the way we don't get a chance to at other events. I got to dance, which I haven't been able to in so long. I love Hole in the Wall and the Karabushka! I also got to shoot archery (thank you Dame Brighid and Master Cedric for the loan of the equipment).
And what can I say about Siege A&S! You get this bag full of stuff - bottle caps, bits of fabric, paper cups, fishing line, and stuff like that...then you make something with it. It was such fun!
What I think I liked the best was that it was the entire weekend. I was able to go out Friday night and set up my dayshade. Then I went home, and was able to really relax the entire picnic day, and into the evening and the bardic fire, without having to worry about tear down until Sunday morning. And if you just wanted to come in for the day, you could do that instead.
Thanks everyone for a great picnic, and a great event!
Gwen the Potter
Sent to the Dragon's Laire Email List on 08/07/2011
From THL Ian
It was a wonderful time, a simple, fun day. There was archery, siege-A&S, (Which Mael-Duin took to an ultimate literal sense) story-telling, dancing. and singing. The waters were chummed, and many baby sharks appeared. There was delicious food aplenty, and Kait had a great birthday of it. Many thanks to all for a great time had in wonderful company.
Ian and family
Sent to the Dragon's Laire Email List on 08/07/2011
Copyright © 2011, Barony of Dragon's Laire. The original contributors retain copyright to certain portions of this site. Contact the Dragon's Laire Webminister for information on using photographs, articles, or artwork from this website.