After a very long (nearly 9 hour) train journey yesterday due to engineering works we arrived back last night from Caldicot Castle from our last re-enactment event which was one of the hottest weekends we have had all summer.

Caldicot is a beautiful location as these pics show. It is set in a country park so we have lovely surroundings to camp in as well as the historical bits.

There was a living history display inside the castle which was where the tournament took place on Saturday.

The tournament is a ‘full contact’ one which means the guys hit each other very hard – usually with very big swords as you can see from this pic of Carl and Keith in their bout.

There were 10 people who entered from different groups all pictured below. The tournament was eventually won – (after many gruelling and very hot rounds!) by Carl from Companions of the Crow.

My friend Eric was doing the announcing for the event so I took the opportunity to get a couple of pics of the lovely embroidered heraldry on his coat (apologies for him having his eyes closed in this pic – it was a very sunny day and we all got a bit burnt).

I bought a new chaperon for Ellie that she had been admiring from Jackie’s stall (Cloaked and Daggered) – here she is looking very pretty in it – it is a slightly different style from the others we have in that it buttons up the front rather than slipping over the head.

It has been a very busy season – especially as we have done it all on public transport which has taken extra time and meant that we have stayed over at some events till the Mon so it is easier to travel back. I am very proud of the kids for doing all this – hopefully by next season we may have  a car but we have proved that we can do it all without one if needed.

Am looking forward to things being a bit quieter now but work wise we have just started a new term so I have a new group of trainees who I met today.

Also Ellie is off to University on Fri so will post pics of my little girl in her new home when we get back from dropping her off next weekend. I am sure she will have a great time – her first field trip is to an Iron Age roundhouse in Oct and she is really looking forward to that.