More Midwinter, and then a bit more Melbourne

Blogger really doesn't like me moving photos around ...

Right, now that I have finished my plant collectors story, some more details from Midwinter and Melbourne. Then I can embark on the great Aneala post!

One of the best things about Midwinter was meeting Serafina properly. She is really excellent value and has a wicked sense of humour. Plus she could be Bliss's stunt double, which is pretty amusing. She left her child at home for the weekend because she knew she would be wrangling Royalty and that's as much trouble as any one woman should volunteer for. It's a bit of a shame because I would like to have met him. I think it's a him ... too many children, not enough neurones ...

I did get to meet Seth and Colomba, who were extremely fun. Grace and Maria were dragging them about on Saturday morning as part of their 'picnic'. I beieve that the royal chocolate rations formed an essential part of that picnic, so I shouldn't complain, especially after seeing the giant size of my bum in Del's photos. I know that some of that really IS the frock, but still ...

Baron Fulk's son was another of those fabbo NZ kids who does things. I'm happy to see that the Aus kids are much more like this now, too. I think it all comes from good parenting. I wish I could remember Fulk's son's name, he received a well-desreved AoA, one which the Baroness and Heralds both said "oh yes" to, and that's always a good sign. There were two lovely boys with wooden swords who kindly let me have a swing of one of the sticks. We need an NZ kids vs Knights boffer bash at Canty Faire ... Maria was adorable, as always. Especially when she told everyone that she knew me because I had come to her house and we had gone to the park together. I like being Courtesy Aunt D. It's fun to tell the kids that you know their mums and dads are very proud of them and then explain things like Newtonian Physics and give aeroplane rides. Plus help with homework!

Cecilia was there, with Nicki, but without Inigo and Lea as Lea was sick as a dog. I need to send them both a card and will hopefully remember to this week. I am not sure what is wrong with my brain but flu first made it ache, then be sleepy and has now made it rather vague. I used up all my intelligence on my House & Garden story, but if I leave notes for myself in here, Art and Deense will nag me at some point because they are as lovely as they are beautiful.

Baroness Cecilia is so very cool, and outrageously talented. She and Inigo put together a brill puppet play for Canterbury Faire that she made all the puppets for, except for the wolf, which I made, left behind in Sydney, and have failed to get to her ever since. Thanks to B&B Southron Gaard there was a stunt wolf, but it was very silly. She had an entry in the A&S competition that impressed me a great deal. I even took photos, shame I'm rubbish with a camera.

It's a fencing doublet, with soft buff leather over purple silk. She's drawn the design onto the leather, then is stitching the applique through three layers (linen behind) then cutting out the excess leather. It not only looks great (and will look amazing on, she's tall and Xena-like but with better hair and no crazy war yodel) but has been beautifully stitched. She was all embarrassed when I told her how good I thought it was and started to tell me about all her mistakes, but she's the only person who will ever really see them. The rest of us were just swept away by all of the stitchy goodness.


This is a better shot of what the doublet looks like overall. There's quite a bit more stitching already done, but not cut out, so it's further progressed than it looks. Talented people; can't stand them. Sadly for my jealousy, it was the weekend for talent. Rowan had her beautiful leather doublet entered into the comp, too. Helene wrote that she'd always wanted to get into Nico's doublet on the judging form. Go our Baroness! Myna put in a brilliant entry to the Tailor's Guild that I skimmed, was suitably impressed by, and completely forgot to write anything down about. See previous comments on flu-induced stupidity. I have spent nearly a month with my brain feeling as though it doesn't have enough oxygen.

There was also an excellent series of entries for the WCoB competition. I took a shot of this one because I admired it, but then failed to get any details on the artist. Rowan will know. We did manage to give Rowan her much-belated wedding gift. Luckily, she and Jeremy loved it. Phew!

Rowan was the peer for all seasons in the Coronation Ceremony. She acted as Draco and Asa's spokeswoman, then stunted for the B&B of Polit, and was also the faux Provost. She is a woman of many hats, and the one that she was wearing was deeply sexy with furry bits and all.

Katherine Xavier did the food at the feast and it was fantastic! There was also an excellent menu with ingredients listed. I know that I obsess on this point, but that sort of thing makes all the difference for people with allergies. There was also a very good range of alternative dishes for the vegos and allergy-ridden, and no one in the kitchen seemed to be having a nervous breakdown. Three gold stars.

It was one of the best-run events I've been to in a very long time. Baxton and Constance were the stewards for Midwinter and they were apparently very worried that they didn't have enough experience. Ulf was a little worried about them in the beginning, too, because they asked for his advice, but they asked for everyone's advice and they seem to have taken all the best bits on board. More gold stars for them.

As it turned out, the hall was great, Sventa and Merewynn had organised for this amazing series of heraldic banners that they did most of the painting of with help from Serafina and Isabel and a few others. They created an astonishingly period atmosphere in what was essentially a big warm shed. The one thing I realised that they needed was rugs for the thrones. I think that I might see if I can save up and gift them some canvas, if I ever get some good paying gigs again ...

There is a new college and the kids, who are so good looking and sweet I could have cried, are all screamingly talented. They sing, they dance, they tell jokes ... if young people had been this cool when I was that age, I'd have spent less time with seedy thirtysomething musicians.

Amberherthe (sp?) were there in force. I have developed a deep affection for Mistress Christian which she's just going to have to share because you can't shake me without resorting to deed poll. I think we have the same sense of humour, which is a bit frightening. Sir Tycho had a Boobah doll, which was much more frightening. They're the most hideous things and put me in mind of diseased genitalia. I hasten to point out that I am not the only person who has this reaction. I like Tycho a lot, he has that very sensible gentleness that many big and strong men have. Vitale was there, too, in fine form. I have a terrible suspicion that he is the type of man that you like as an old married woman and distrust as a young attractive woman. I like him, so I suppose I must be middle-aged. The girls were all dressed up in their shiniest frocks and between them and the Ladies' Sequin Appreciation Society up the back, it was an evening of big shiny frocks on top of good food and good company.

For once, I did not get any shots of the Baskin-Kerr kids. Grace was a delight, as always. She's one of those hanging-around kids who is actually interesting and fun, not just needy. Although she does seem to need carrying an awful lot, but I think this is just because she will soon be too old for carrying and is trying to get in as much piggybacking as possible before the dreaded day arrives. She informed me in deeply aggreived tones that Dickon was turning into the worst teenager ever. He was actually a champion of tot-lugging and child control over the course of the weekend, but I can see that the leadership skills that he's cultivating as part of becoming an adult could be a right pain in your older brother, plus have the possibility of going off into sulk land. He and J could hang out there ...

Pippin, as usual, was the invisible boy. He seems to be everywhere and nowhere at once. I have a theory that he has learned to teleport so that he can arrive whenever the food looks good or just before he's about to get into trouble. Didn't have as much time to talk to him as usual, which was a shame as he has a good sense of humour.

Grace threw up on Sunday morning managing to miss everything except for the edge of her shoe and the corners of my new coat. My thick wool = invulnerable theory was proven when a quick wash saw everything return to normal. A glass or water and a good spit-out of the mank saw Grace returned to normal, too, and Bartholomew cleaned up the vomit, for which katherine was eternally grateful. I had a fun time explaining to Grace the idea of sympathetic vomitting (which is why I did not clean up the vomit) and she explained to me the evils of barley.

Bartholomew and katherine were both in good form, and seemed to be genuinely happy about their cyphers, which was very touching for us. BB was speechless about the LoG. At last!!

The trip back to Auckland was fine, except very late, so Helene and I were stranded at the airport until rescued by Yseult the Magnificent. Blayney and Helene were still a bit loopy from Saturday night, so there was much animal spotting. Del was in good form and he and J only started to have one argument when they were both right but arguing completely different things. It's just as well they're both so stubborn because if they realised how much they do see eye-to-eye on, they would take over the world and it would all be gruesome. We saw a field of black-faced sheep with white fleece (der!) and cute little black lambsies. They all still had their tails, and it looked remarkably like a field of black cats suckling woolly sheeps. Very odd.

This is where Blogger told me that I could not tell it what to do with my order of pictures, so we cut to Helene looking askance as Zombie kitty lurches onto her new frock. She is sewing every spot on by hand. She is quite mad, but with a good dollop of genius in there, too.

Bloody hell, I am still sneezing. I swear, if I come down with a cold before I am over this flu, I'll go completely bonkers. At least I don't have the stomach bug that everyone else seems to be falling prey to.

A couple more photos. This one is of a volcano sculpture in Auckland, opposite the Britomart.

It has symbols carved into the rock and a gas flame spurts out the top every so often. It's beautiful aand kitsch at the same time. The accompanying plaque explained the whole mana concept that Ulf goes on about. It's one of those words that I have known the meaning, but not the context, of for a long time, so reading that plaque was like the moment that I realised 'face that launched a thousand ships' was an Iliad metaphor, not the story of a tired dockworker or broken-nosed old queen. I was a very literal child ...

The additional Melbourne comment was that everyone looked fantastic. Miss Dawn and Yvonne Yvette were both beautiful in their blazingly warm-toned frocks. Bliss looked gorgeous in her new gown and Mistress M just glowed. Pregnancy must agree with her, because she looked 10 years younger than the age on her licence and was just beautiful, all glossy and radiant. Apparently foeti give a few good days before they suck all the life out of you ... I've been listening to Spyd's story of her mineral levels too much ...

Finally, one more shot of Draco and Asa at Midwinter.
I like the way he is looking at her in this shot, all warm and proud. They're disgustingly cute, and Asa had J in stitches when she asked when we were going to get married.

Must check out bank account in morning and see if there's enough for a flight to Brisbane yet. Getting very close and not looking very good ...