what a difference a week makes

Gwen has pretty much mastered the military crawl; since we got home last night, she has managed to creep up on Widget and grab hold of his tail, and make her way from the bathroom to where the cat food and water is, and dump over the bowl of water. Nothing is now safe. :)

She has also made phenomenal strides with other mobility; a couple of times we'd left her lying down in the pack'n'play, either the one in our hotel room or the one in jpgsawyer and edith_hedingham's tent, and we came back to find her sitting upright, the first evidence we'd had of her getting into a sitting position by herself. I wasn't sure, though, if she'd been using the sides of the pack'n'play to help her. But then last night we were both lying on the bed together, and a bit later I noticed she was sitting up, so clearly she can do it on her own. Yay! We celebrating last night when we got home by lowering her crib.

She still can't get up on hands and knees, but I have seen her a few times now get up on hands and feet. She can't really do anything from that position -- it's hard with your bum in the air and your head pulled down by gravity -- but it's still something new. And her ability to pull herself up onto things, too; I set her down in the bathroom before I showered, and came back a bit later to find she'd pulled herself up over the lip of the shower (which stands maybe 8" above the ground), so that she was standing up and leaning over the rim.

We are doomed. Doomed, I tell you.

Our week in Wales was, all told, even considering the tent-pegs-snapping-in-the-rainstorm-around-us day Friday, fantastic. It'll get a separate write-up, probably composed while I'm on the sleeper train to Copenhagen this evening -- sans Gwen. This will be the first time I've traveled without her. I admit, right now, I'm more looking forward to the unbroken sleep at night than I am dreading missing her. But anyway, for now, I will just close with a picture, of someone who is enjoying Welsh cake and grapes:

Raglan Fair

Raglan had it all this year, rain, mud, sunshine, beautiful nights, lazy mornings, amazing food, syllabub, and a miracle.

We flew from Amsterdam to Bristol on Wednesday, a nice, sane lunchtime flight, getting us in to Raglan proper mid afternoon. Gwen was surprisingly cheerful so rather than trying to get her to nap we dumped our things at the Beaufort and headed up to the castle to pop around and see people and let them know we were there, before heading back to the inn for supper and then an early bedtime.

It worked really well staying in town. The inn provided a pack'n'play for her (which I've discovered is now necessary, and we can't make do with just her travel mattress any more; the first night they didn't have the pack'n'play available yet, so we put her on the floor, and we eventually had to pack some pillows around her to keep from squirming around rather than sleeping), and Thursday night I came back with her around bedtime (in part because I wanted to get some extra sleep myself); Friday evening Joel took care of her while Paul and I had dinner at Vitus's encampment (complete with nuns' farts for dessert...) and then Isabella gave us a ride back in to town (with a bit of a side detour as we missed the Raglan exit and ended up heading down the M4 in the wrong direction); Saturday night I sent Gwen back with Joel after dinner so I could stay and dance, and Sunday she was awake and happy until quite late and so she sat up with us while we ate and lingered. All told except for Thursday she ended up getting to bed around 10:00pm each night, which meant she actually slept somewhat later than 6:00am, and on Saturday when she did wake up at that time, after I fed her and changed her, I put her back on the floor around 6:20 and climbed back into bed so I could doze, and she played cheerfully until 7:30, when she fussed a bit, I put her back into the pack'n'play, and she (and I and Joel) slept for two hours. Delightful. During the day, she napped in Thomas & Edith's tent, and I've found the trick to getting amazingly long (2-2.5 hour) afternoon naps: one decent morning nap followed by plenty of activity and attention, then fill her belly up with pottage. Saturday and Sunday she slept for so long each afternoon I couldn't believe it.

Thursday was relaxed; we had curia in the morning and unfortunately did not beat the time for shortest-curia-ever set at Double Wars, but we had substantive discussion about a number of points and it was very useful. I don't really remember much of what else I did on Thursday, other than roam around, eat delicious food, and enjoy myself.

Friday was marked by the torrential downpour we had around lunch time. It had rained overnight, so the castle was already pretty wet, and I went up in the morning to be escorted through the castle by the fencers in rotating shifts as they protected me against villains and ruffians, so that I might chose one amongst them as my champion. That was lots of fun, especially with the two rubber-band pistols I was given. However, it did mean that my feet got pretty wet, and so I had wet feet all day. Amazingly, that's all I got. The Prince and Princess of ID, their heirs, Paul and I were having lunch together at Clancy and Ursula's tent, and amazingly I got there while it was just misting, so I hardly got wet at all, and was already safe and sound when the rain started bucketing down. Gwen woke up at one point and Joel, who was being general kitchen boy as usual, brought her up to me, but again luckily before it started pouring too hard. So we sat in there, and just as all the dishes had been brought up and served...*snap* went one tent pole in the corner, and a little later on, *snap* went another, and while everyone was scurrying around trying to fix things, I decided if the tent was going to collapse around us, I'd rather not be in it. So I grabbed a blanket, scooped up Gwen, held it over us and dashed for the castle gift shop, where we sat on the floor and played until the rain let up and the tent no longer appeared to be in danger of falling down, and we returned to enjoy lunch.

In addition to the aforementioned bellies full of pottage, Gwen did amazing with the food. She tried everything, and was particularly fond of quartered green gages. She can also nom an entire apricot if you just make sure to slip out the pit as soon as it's accessible. I'm also very smug about the fact that my daughter likes pickled walnuts. I must be doing something right.

I must also be doing something right to have as many people -- not just parents or people who probably would like to be parents, but also avowed non-kid-people -- come up and tell me that they find Gwen an absolute pleasure as did. There was only one time when she had a complete meltdown, and luckily that was while everyone else was at court so she was off away from everyone and though I could hear her, I'm not sure how many other people (other than those who were there taking care of her) could. I'm always so amazed and stunned at how communal child care can magically happen; during court, Joel always had a number of women around him that he could pass her to if she got fussy or antsy. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of all the rain was that there was basically no way we could spread a blanket out on the ground and let her play, so she spent a lot of time sitting on people's laps or being held. I'm so glad that she seems to be bypassing the stranger-danger stage -- though when I came out to the fountain court after court on Friday and she saw me, she bounced up and down and let out a shriek of delight, which was very gratifying.

She also had a number of exciting adventures, such as getting to pet nusbacher's lovely greyhound Gracie; Gwen discovered dogs a week or two ago while biking or in her stroller, but this was the first time she'd gotten up close to one. There was also a herd of cows that we saw walking back up from the archery field one morning; those cause lots of shrieks and feet-kicking.

The rain on Friday really caused problems under (and over) the bridge, where everything turned to mud and the bridge leaked and we had huge puddles. Until the miracle occurred: Robert was digging a little trench for the water to be diverted to the bigger puddle, and all of a sudden, the water disappeared. He'd found a drain that had been buried under the gravel for many years -- I'd never seen it before. All hail Blessed Robert of Canterbury, Bishop of Caversham.

I got to do many fun things in court, such as make Viscount Cernac the preceptor of Cernac's Combat Creche and Choir:



Complete with charter:



That took 2.5 hours to calligraph; I did it all in one sitting.

And I got to make bend_gules a member of the Order of the Pelican. Here she is being escorted to vigil (and looking so happy about it too!):



And here she is before us being elevated:



(That dress I'm wearing is one of my Raglan prep projects; I added the bands around the bottom and the wrists, and I'm so pleased with how the overall affect turned out; the lovely belt was loaned from Catherine Weaver when I forgot my own down at the hotel.)

I got to make three dear friends members of the Panache, brought tears to the eyes of another one when I told her to be in court the next day to watch her husband be made a member of the Lindquistringes, raised a 16-year-old fencer to the rank of lord in due recognition of his skill at arms, said farewell to three lovely young ladies, two of whom were further recognized as dragon's jewels, oversee many well-fought bouts both on the fencing and heavy fields, participate down on the archery range twice, though alas the second time I failed to establish my credentials the Evil Twin and must alas cede them all to badgersandjam, be surrounded by a number of little kids all vying to tell me knock-knock jokes and riddles, and dance in a castle as the sun set.

Raglan is amazing. And being Queen there was even more amazing:


Photo by Stefan Dahl

A crown makes even an underdress-used-as-an-overdress look regal.

Though there is definitely more to tell (the making of the syllabub -- a highlight of the event -- being one of them), I should wrap up now so I have time to pack things up and catch the bus to the train station to start my journey to Copenhagen. 4.5 days until I get to see Gwen again...

Raglan: The Food

The food at Raglan deserves a post of its own.

As is customary, we were primarily in the capable hands of jgpsawyer and edith_hedingham, assisted by Paul, Anne, and various sorts of hangers-on and wanderers-by in the shape of choppers, stirrers, washers, kneaders, and so forth -- bend_gules, Robert, Joel, armillary, Emoni, Mark, nusbacher, Angelica, Mathilde, kirieldp, Hannah, Floris, and others whom I'm not remembering, and this doesn't include all of the people who carried dishes up to Clancy and Ursula's tent for our royal feast during the downpour. Many of them are people I recognized but whose names I've never been told, many of them are people I didn't even recognize. All of them performed above and beyond the call of duty.

For once, the raspberry fool was not the highlight of the menu. That has to go to the syllabub, which also wins the prize for "most amusing dessert to make ever." It is also very simple:

Pour a bottle of sweet white wine into a large bowl. Add lots of sugar and mix. Take a jug of cream and stand on top of a bridge. Have someone place the bowl of white wine below you. Carefully pour the cream from on high into the bowl of white wine.


Photo by armillary

It airates on its way down, and froths when it hits the wine. The result is a delicious whip of delight which we called the Medieval Milkshake. I need to make sure I take a bridge to every event so I can make this.

The other amazing thing was jpgsawyer and edith_hedingham's portable oven:


Photo by armillary

I never got to try any of the bread that came from it, but I had plenty of pies and pasties, and they were all delicious. There's really something quite stylish about having not one but two cupboard/sideboards and an oven when you're camping.

--

OK, this post isn't going to be completely devoted to food, because there is one other thing about the event that I wish to recount, and that was the salon that bend_gules held Thursday afternoon. It was a gathering under the bridge of people who wished to come and discourse on the virtues and qualities of a courtier or a peer, with recourse to period texts and examples as well as modern perceptions and ideas. I grabbed my copy of John of Salisbury's Metalogicon to bring along, and ended up being invited to open the discussion, so I read some of what he says about how eloquence is nothing without wisdom to underly it, and that proved a very nice starting point. And I fell a little bit in love with Master Etienne when he pulled out the most gorgeous little calligraphed and illuminated book in which he has collected various sayings and texts that he might find useful in assorted circumstances, and also read out a passage from John of Salisbury -- from one of the political works, I believe. I was just delighted that someone else knew of, and esteemed, John, and I admit I had some small amount of lust for that beautiful book!

We talked for an hour or so before conversation went to its natural end, and it was simply amazing. It's not just that in-period or in-persona discussions of this type are often lacking from events, but I'm not sure when I last sat in a circle of educated people discussing and debating a high-level concept in this fashion. It was one of the neatest things I've done in a long time.

And, to bring it back to the topic of this post, there was lots of delicious food served at it too. :)