Eva's journal

 Well, not really, last weekend there wasn't an event, but going to two events with only a fortnight between them is really rare for me and I look so much forward to this one, which is Nordmark's (Sweden) Coronet Tourney. I haven't 100% decided what to wear yet, except that I'm wearing this for court and feast. 
So I could either go Italian 15th century all the way,. by wearing my working class outift during the day; I ahve made a wool overgown for it so that I won't get too cold (it's below freezing and rather windy at the site, snow is also expected) or I could wear some of my stuff from the high Middle Ages, which probably will be warmer. Or I can just bring along one of my high medieval thick wool overgowns and wear it over the quattrocento gown. So many decisions. I thought that I would want to wear everything but the 13th-early 14th century after Måns and I stepped down, after wearing it for two years, but I really am very enthusiastic over Italian garb from this period.

In any case I will bring my Italian cotton gown, because I'm showing it at the A&S display.

It's five past eight in the morning and I have to work first, so I'll just let those thoughts simmer in the back of my head and make a decision later.

 I wrote about the feast that I was cooking for St.Egon's feast in our local SCA barony, what was on i it. Anyway, this is my first feast as a head cook and I knew that at least one person eating it is very critical about feasts (he's cooked lots of feast and he's a total foodie). But he, and everybody else loved it! He said that it was the best feast he's eaten in Gotvik! And another friend who has been active since 1992 and has eaten LOTS of feasts said that this one was among the top five.

I am amazed, and so happy and inspired to do it again. Ve were only 36 people for the feast, which helps when you're making your own fresh pasta, but we could have handled the double with maybe one more person to help out and another oven (which was available in the basement where there's another kitchen). 
With so few people eating and extremely good planning from Anna's side, plus me making all pies the weekend before, we even got to sit down and eat the last meat course and, then again, the desserts.

All food was served in bowls on the tables, which held six people, since at least in the High Middle Ages, is was considered more courtly to have several small tables where people can talk to each other, than long tables. The bowls where then left on the table so you could always get a little more of some dish. Up until the dessert, when we needed the bowls used for stew to have pears cooked in wine in. So we collected them and I washed them and then we served dessert. There was some entertainment during this break too.

 As always...

I'm feeling lazy and tired, probably due to pain from a weather change (from cold and dry to sleet) but I am at least working on a blog post I've been asked to write by the Textile Museum. 900 words, it should be possible to finish today. its about clothes, gender and bodies in the Middle Ages, which I feel that I have been writing/talking about constantly for 15 years now ;)

Rickard was away over the weekend, in Copenhagen to play X-wing and he's working the evening shift today, so I'm working from home so that I can be around him (and avoid the sleet). Maja is out on town with a friend.

I will work a couple of hours and then I'll go to the gym. I feel that I enjoy it more than I thought would be possible.

Oh, and I finished a scroll yesterday, as well as baking all the pies for the SCA event the coming weekend on Friday and Saturday. They are now in the freezer.

Anna and I did some planning for the cooking of the feast, and I made a document with all the recipes - since the new baron and baroness will wear 15th century Italian I've used Italian recipes from that period (or slightly earlier)

This is the menu:

On the table as we start:

Bread, salt, olive oil, olives

Antipasti (I don't know it that is the period term, but the order and idea was the same)

Insalate - green salad with lots of fresh spices

Finochio - Fennel braised in olive oil

Fave Fresche con Brodo di Carne - Fresh fava beans cooked in meat broth

 

Pasta

Lasini – Lasgna made by cooking home made pasta made from fermented dough and layering with mozzarella and cinnamon. It's incredibly yummy.

Insalata di sparagi - aspargus with lemon and orange juice dressing

 

Primi Piatti

Florentine potage from meat, thickened with breadcrumbs, eggs and cheese - very filling

Torta d’herbe alla Lombarda – pies with spinach, parsley and fresh mint, eggs, cream cheese and mozzarella.

 

Secondi Piatti

Florentine style meat in a baking dish

Fungi di monte - mushrooms and onions fried in olive oil

 

Dulce

Suppa di pere - pears cooked in wine with spices

Torta Bianca - Pie with filling of ricotta, sugar and ginger. Served dusted with confectioner's sugar and sprinkled with rose water

 

 I don't seem to be able to lose those kilos I gained over christmas, it's still around 60.5-61.5 kilos, which isn't bad as such, but I would prefer 58-59.

However, since I'm going ot the gym every other day now, some of it may be due to getting more muscle, so I have decided to start measuring myself. It would have been nice to know what my measurements were when I weighed under 60 kilos, but the only measurement that I can remember is my waist measurement from when I last visited the research project for the arthritic study. That was 81 cm.  So I'll have that as a starting point, though the large scar hernia that I have around the natural waist makes that one a little off if I would like to compare with other people. Comparing with myself should work though, until (if) I get surgery. I am going to see a doctor about this on the 28th of February and hope that they decide to take it away. A round ball with the diameter of 9-19 centimeters is no fun to have in your abdomen.

Anyway, since I keep all notes about weight and health here I will from now on keep track of my measurements on Dreamwidth, though probably not always public.

weight today: 61.5 kilos  (c. 135.5 pounds)
Chest (without bra): 97 cm (c. 38 inches)
natural waist: 81 cm (c. 32 inches)
hips, widest point: 99 cm (c 39 inches)

I will be going to the gym later today. First I will work on my presentation for the conference in New York that I'm going to in March and then I have been asked to write a blog post for a museum that I really ought to start on.

After 4 pm. there's Gotvik's sewing meeting at my place.

 With permission from the chronicler I have also published my article that I wrote for Drachenwald's kingdom newsletter Dragon's tale on my blog. It's here.

I haven't posted for ages (well, a week), I've been away from the computer a lot: sewing, knitting, celebrating full moon, taking long walks with hubby, hanging with friends, making the baronial newsletter etc.
Generally very good stuff.

I made a pair of 40s trousers on the day before Christmas eve and a blouse on New Year's day (photo below). I have also knit one pair of slippers for one of my coven members and started on a new pair for another. The partlet for Valeria's Eleonora outift was finished on New Year's Day, but she has had a bad cold and also mostly been at here dad's, so I haven't had the opportunity to photograph it on her. Hopefully that will happen this week.

The trousers and blouse.


So I made curtains.

But I also started on the bodice of the gown and finished the lacing holes on the bodice on saturday when I went with some friends to visit some other friends who live in the countryside, for sewing and socializing. The main purpose of that visit was that the next baron, Johan, really needed joined hose, since he's doing 15th century Italian. The current baron also need those so we all applied to the expertise of our friend Ida, who does landsknecht costuming. I had planned to learn by helping out with the pattern for Måns' hose, but in the end only Johan's hose pattern was made, so I ate cookies and sewed on my own stuff. Måns and I plan to return on the 20th to make his pattern. I want to make such hose for Rickard too, so this time I will have to be more involved so that I actually learn how to make them.

Yesterday I started planning the feast for St. Egon, but that will be another post. Now I probably should finish my cup of tea and get dressed and get to work.

Today Gotvik had thing, holding the polling for the nextbaron and baroness when Måns and I step down, socializing and stuffing ourselves silly.

I made Torta d'Agli from a 15th century italian recipe, and a mix-up of several medieval recipes to make small pies filled with figs, dried apricots, raisins and almonds cooked in red wine with honey and spices (cinnamon, ginger, saffron, cloves).

The big pie:

Kingdom University was wonderful. Yes, the directions getting there were dreadful and I ended up crying on the way because I was too tired to handle ending up some where in the pitch black evenign with no-one around to ask the way . It also got worse because when I arrived at the site court was on and no-one could tell me where to go, or where I should sleep and there was no-one there who I knew. So I had a breakdown sitting on the floor in one of the rooms. There I was found by a guy who promptly got me the autocrat and it got much better, especially since people that I know started showing up.

So one hour later I was dressed and had had a piece of bread in my stomach and beer in my pitcher and I went on to the vigil parties. Yes, there were vigils in plural. Mistress Margaret de May had organized a fabulous feast with lots of yummy things to snack on and lots of wine, so soon I was as happy as could be, hanging with the baron and baroness of Knights Crossing (Germany), drinking my beer.

I didn't get to bed until 2 am and I was a bit hung over the next day. After breakfast was over I was feeling all right though and I went to classes all the day, didn't skip a single one. It appears that I chose classes the same way at SCA universities as I do at the national Swedish historians' conference: I just choose something that sounds vaguely interesting, usually totally unrelated to what I do myself :) And it's usually unlikely that I will take up the craft in question.
One reason for this is that I found that there are usually quite a few classes about things I'm not particularly interested in, and then there are those on subjects where there's a strong possibility that I know more than the teacher.

I ended up at a meeting for the Society of the Golden Egg, which was interesting and fun, and I will submit my own challenge. Then there was my own lecture on same sex sexuality in the Middle Ages, and then I went to a class about the Gardar mitten (read about it here) and though I arrived late and didn't make a pattern it was still interesting.

After lunch I went to "finishing and mending social", where I worked on more embroidery on Valeria's camicia and hung out with nice people. We also sang for aryanhwy's daughter who turned six that day.

Finally I went to a facilitated discussion on persona development. I'm not particularly interested in further developing my persona, but the class was held by a nice women that I met over lunch so I thought that I'd join and it was rather nice just to talk to new people. And I did not correct anyone about dress history. Go me!

Then there was an endless court, since two peers were created: Master Duncan joined the Pelicans and mistress Petronilla was made a Laurel. It wasn't too bad for me, since I sat up front and could see the faces of all the people and at least knew one of them, but the poor other people in the room must have been bored out of their senses.

And then there was feast, which was excellent - and the head cook was a girl in her early teens! I was seated next to the queen and had a chance to chat with her, which is really nice, because we really haven't had the opportunity to do that for like forever.

I ended up drinking more than was probably godo for me and going to bed way too late again. Especially since I had to get up at 6.20 to start the journey home. And I woke up at 5.15 and couldn't  go to sleep again so I was packed and dressed already at 6.20 and had the time go get some bread, an egg and some tea for breakfast before leaving.

I had excellent company on the way home in the form of Mistress Renike Tucher and her husband lord Styrr. Much nerdiness going on.

Monday and tuesday are really heavy days work wise, and I also have to go the hospital for tests now in the morning. But I'll manage. And it was a very good weekend.

I got accepted to the "Inside out: Dress and Identity in the Middle Ages" conference at Fordham University next March!

This creates all sort of trouble, since we had planned, and announced that we would have the SCA event St.Egon's feast that weekend and I really have to be there because a)I'm stepping down as baroness, and b) I'm the feastocrat.

So now I've dumped this problem in the lap of my poor friend Alfhild, who's the seneschal, and also autocrat for the event.

It makes me sad and stresses me - but still: New York!

I am very excited, since I've never been in the US before.

So, what has happened the last week?

I made up for most of the lectures that I missed the week before due to illness. I was still rather ill up to Thursday Wednesday, but managed both a trip to another town with my students on Tuesday to look at the Bocksten bog man, and the rest of my classes.

I finished the embroidery on, and attached the first sleeve on Valeria's 16th century camicia. I have also started on the next sleeve.