Feast Tokens | Fox Hunt 2011 It has been many, many months since my last entry and of course much has past. This past year, I took on my first attempt as Event Steward for the Canton's Fox Hunt event for 2011. I was encouraged by my peers to do a Japanese theme for that year. It was a tough start for me since our usual event site was already booked for our available event dates, so the hunt for a new site became the focus of event planning. A site was eventually found. A beautiful place that was fairy centrally located, but the layout caused some problems for event flow. Of course it was not all doom and despair. It was fun to have the opportunity to educate my fellow populace on Japanese culture. The Canton members even put forth the extra effort to make their own garments to wear for the event, after a small lecture I gave for the group on Japanese fashions. I personally had fun putting together the nobori (Japanese banners) and the feast tokens. We gave out paper fans of the Canton's colors as a site token. It was a warm and humid day, I'm sure the fans came in handy. The day concluded with a feast of grand illusion. We adorned our guests with an authentic Japanese meal, complete with decorative banners of Japanese calligraphy, ikebana flower arrangements, table settings with proper eating utensils and traditional music. Arigatougozaimasu to my Feast Steward, Lady Kara Atladottir, for taking on the great task of researching and creating an unbelievable menu. Photo Taken By Eva Schultz As an added level to the atmosphere, we asked The Honorable Lord Kuji Kaoni Musashi to be our cultural advisor throughout the evening, to help inform our guests of proper table edicate and proceedures, and to perform his feets of magic during our final moments of the evening. My gratitude to THL Kuji for his assistance and for his Kyodo demonstration earlier in the day. And my gratitude to Lady Heather. She was my right-hand man all day and kept me sane. I cannot say enough good things about my Canton. They are a helpful, hardworking, efficient group as a whole. If a task needed to be done, they had it covered before I could ask. At the end of the day, I was so impressed at how prompt tear-down and clean-up happened. They're amazing! That event could not have happened without them. Walls For EZ-Up Pennsic came shortly before the event. I always seem to sum up my time at Pennsic the same way every year...It was Pennsic. There is always fun-times. There is always bad-times. And something always gets damaged. At least this past year no one went to the emergency room. Pennsic is typically the one-time of year I get to see long-distance friends. Oddly enough it's also the one-time of year I get to see even some of my local friends, due to schedules. Lady Celeste and I attended a roundtable on Courtesans, hosted by Lady Lalitadasa. It was wonderful to meet other ladies interested in Courtesan history and portrayal, so much so that we're planning a Courtesan social for this coming year. Details are still being polished at this time. Surprisingly it was a slow year for the typical rushed Pennsic projects. The only large project I had to do was sew together temporary walls for a EZ-Up tent, since Kuji's son did not have a tent for this year. In future months I will design a new cover for the entire frame to make it look more like a Japanese style pavilion. Our camp hosted its annual sake party again, which has been renamed Bon Festival since we've branched out into more activities beside sake. We had a wonderful turnout. Brian, who always does a wonderful job, was back again this year as our bar tender. There was a good variety of treats to snack on, including miso and udon noodle soup! The Honorable Lady Elaine Ladd kept the hot noodles coming and Lord Ottokar made an awesome dashi (broth) over the camp fire. Many of our guest we're pleased to have hot food and drink on a cold, damp night. The seats around the Go board were never empty and neither were the seats around the campfire, especially during Kuji's traditional story-telling of the Cattle Raid and his newest adventures with the Lightening Gods. We're looking forward to next Pennsic, since this will be the year for camp upgrades. We're planning to have jinmaku (Japanese encampment walls) and possibly a new Torii gate. My 23 Scroll Cases The fall and winter months are a quiet time for me. I am typically focused on other projects during this season. But I did take on a new role as the Midlands Regional Webminister in September 2011. My first act was giving the website a facelift. It had been many years since it was overhauled. Now that the basic changes have been done, I am planning another overhaul soon. With the assistance of our Regional Seneschal, The Honorable Lady Caitriona MacDhonnachaidh, we're restructuring how the site will be laid out and function as a information hub for the Midlands Populace. You can see the website in its current form at http://www.midrealm.org/midlandsweb/. I enjoy helping where I can and when I can, and there was a recent challenge set out to the Middle Kingdom populace to produce as many scrolls and scroll blanks as possible to donate to their Majesties to help fill the need for award scrolls. I did have the time to complete as much as I would have liked to, but I contributed 23 scroll cases to the cause. When it was time to present all the scroll blanks and cases, there were a total of 270 scroll blanks and cases to present to their Majesties. Our Barony of Ayreton of course turned in the most, totally 150 scroll blanks and 160 scroll cases. Our Barony Rules!
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Oh what a whirlwind of events this day held! Fox Hunt VI is an event hosted annually by the Shire of Foxvale. What was originally a one-day event in years past ballooned into a three-day camping event with many special events within the event. Fox Hunt VI was the home of the Rose Tournament this year. If you are not familiar with this tournament, it is a competition where members of the Order of the Rose choose a team of champions to battle on their behalf until there is a Winner. There were 16 members of the Order that attended and competed in the Tournament. I had volunteered to help with list sign-up and before I knew it I had somehow said yes to helping with heralding the list field. Both activities were new to me, but it was great being able to learn more about each task. I suppose that's just the nature of volunteering. The battles were fierce and the Roses were beautiful. The detail work on many of their dress was exquisite and festive. There was much light-hearted rivalry but everyone clearly had a good time. Foxvale being my local shire, I was proud to overhear many attendees complementing on how well they were enjoying the event and event site. On top of the Tournament, there was much other celebrating to do. Their Royal Majesties were gracious as ever by granting the local Shires' request of creating the Barony of Ayreton. I guess that makes it official, and I now live in the Canton of Foxvale. With every new Barony comes a new Baron and Baroness, my personal congratulations to our new Baron Serjeant Henry of Exeter and our new Baroness the Honorable Lady Nadezda ze Zastrizl. I wish the best to them and our Barony on its new journey. Taken by Thomas Henneman Their Royal Majesties were in attendance and held Court during the late afternoon. This was to be a grand celebratory court since The Honorable Lord Sabah would enter into Knighthood during the proceedings. I must admit, I had no intention of attending Court that day. I was a bit worn out from the trip out on Friday and Saturday's activities. I only attended because a friend was going to receive an award. Low and behold I was called in front of Their Majesties. I was surprised, of course, and so were my friends. They had no idea that it was going to happen. I was awarded companionship to the Order of the Willow. Thank you to all of those who took the time to consider me and send in your recommendations. I would be lying if I said that it doesn't feel good to know that someone appreciates my work. I was given a beautiful scroll made by Lady Yzabels du Corbier and a wonderful badge with the depiction of a willow on it. I don't know who created it, but I wish I did. I love the design, and want to wear it every day. My night ended with Feast. There was a High and Low feast at this event. I opted for low feast, but still would sneak into High Feast from time to time in order to watch some of the great entertainment. Also at one point all Foxvale servers and stuarts were asked into Feast to receive the award of the Purple Fretty. It was nice receiving two awards in one day. They had a fantastic line-up of acts, organized by The Honorable Lord Kuji Kaoni Musashi. The overall affect gave High Feast an upbeat, lively atmosphere. The food was yummy, and I'm sort of glad that I sat Low Feast instead of High Feast. I liked the ability to go grab what I wanted, sit down, and eat. We were done eating much faster than High Feast, but having good table company is what made me stay through the rest of the time. I do not remember anyone's name that I sat with, but they were wonderful and I hope to cross paths again. Close to the end of High Feast, The Honorable Lord Kuji took the stage as the final act. It was an absolute riot as Kuji requested the assistance of Sir Sabah with his linking rings routine. The two made a great duo, keeping everyone in stitches. I will never forget the look on Sabah's face, and what he accidentally blurted out, as Kuji made the rings mystically come apart six inches in front of Sabah's face. It was a wonderful ending to a great Feast. Sunday morning came, and we were all on the road again. I commend our Event Stuarts and Feast Stuart for taking on such a big event, at such a last minute. From what usually is a one-day event with about a hundred people, to a three-day event with about five hundred people. It is impressive that you all still have your heads attached. I commend them not only because I've seen what they went through, but that I'll have their job next year. Hopefully I will successfully fill their shoes. East King's Colors This past Sunday I donated my second round of trims to the Ayreton gift basket. I'm not sure if I clarified, in previous postings, the difference between this gift basket donation and the last. The initial batch of trims went to a gift basket given to Their Royal Majesties of the Middle Kingdom. Many of the members of the Shire of Foxvale worked to contribute trims for that project. In the case of the second batch, I individually volunteered to donate trims. This basket is to be given to Their Royal Majesties of the Middle Kingdom, only to then be gifted to Their Royal Majesties of the East Kingdom during the annual Pennsic War. East Queen's Colors It was requested of me to make the trims in the individual colors of both the King and Queen of the East. The King's colors were red, gold/yellow, and white, while the Queen's colors were blue, green, and white. I produced a total of 24 yards for the basket, 12 yards of the King's colors and 12 yards of the Queen's colors. Unfortunately, I still only had my mini loom to work on. It only produces 1.5 yards at a time and it was requested that I have 3 yards of each pattern, so I had to make two of each. The good news is that I've finally acquired a new and bigger loom. Yay!!! |