2005-09-06 - 1:30 p.m.
My friend Dunstan and I after he got his well deserved Pearl.
Just back from Coronation. (at least I was when I started writing this post) What a beautiful site! It was up in the mountains, there was a nice little brook running alongside the list field, cabins were nice and the Hall we used for bardic was absolutely fantastic.
I went up with Mari Ardyn and Elayna. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the kids. We stopped for dinner at the Golden Corral on Friday and we got onto site about 12:30. By 1:00 we were settled in and sharing a cabin with Olivier. I figured it was better to stay with someone we knew than take the chance of getting cabin mates assigned at random.
It was a good choice, (for us anyway, I�ll have to ask Olivier what he thought) Olivier is great with the kids, who both love him, and I don�t think we were too hard to live with.
The tourney was alright, I was hoping for a repeat of last years �Chit Tourney� but we did a standard Bedford points tourney.
After the tourney, I did my single dagger challenge, and that was a blast. I got a lot of the unbelts to come play, and everyone wanted to go dagger on dagger. It was some of the most fun fighting I�ve had in a long time. I said that I would give the leather handled dagger to the unbelt who impressed me the most, and it was a really hard choice. I ended up having the two fighters who I thought were best fight it out. It turns out that they are husband and wife and play with daggers in another martial art. It showed. The folks with fencing experience also showed well.
Brian also really impressed me and I gave him the other dagger, he was probably the best out there dagger wise, but I wanted to highlight someone a little less well known.
Feast was good, there was a young lady who sang �Fair Lady Atlantia� and really stunned everyone. I went over to offer entertainment to the queen at high table and we ventured off to the retainers table to sing there. Rachel requested �Lutefisk, Oh Lutefisk� and the �Mississippi Squirrel Revival� Fine choices I think, if a bit unconventional. ; )
And then the Bardic�
Oh the bardic of dreams!
The hall at the camp was gorgeous. It was like a real great hall, with a high peaked wooden ceiling, stone fire place, big comfy couches, lost of chairs, great acoustics, and the lights could be dimmed down to a nice fire like level. In short, that hall was made for SCA bardic.
But then there was the magic of a good bardic. We could bring back everyone who was there and sit them in the exact same places, do the same songs, and still may never recapture the magic of that bardic.
The group got bigger as the night went on, we added a tremendous harp player who got request after request, and really wowed everyone with her ability. I think every performer was �On� that night. The group was great fun, lots of participation. What a great night! I�m fairly happy to resign myself to the idea that it doesn�t get any better than that. I know that it was the best bardic I�ve ever attended.
We drove back Sunday and ate at Cracker Barrel, and then I crashed Sunday evening, well exhausted from a great weekend.
Justus
