We always really look forward to June as we have two family birthdays – Jake’s first followed by one of our favourite events then my birthday at the end of June.

Jake was fifteen last week – luckily the scanner is not connected to this PC since I had my switch round so he is spared the embarrassment of a baby photo ( he was very cute!) but here he is looking very grown up with some of his pressies.

These are our friends Stan, Denise and Carl from Companions of the Crow looking very scary.

Lady Bardolph was again looking very lovely in a cream and blue outfit.

The main events of the weekend took place on  Sunday and Monday  with a mix of fight displays, archery, manorial court and a battle each day – Welsh against English of course!

We were camped in an ordinary tent in the field out of the way of the public but there was a large display of tents in the Living History section where the rest of Team Falchion were.

This pic shows us in camp ready to have lunch on Sunday.

I am in the middle of this pic in a blue dress and pale blue coif (headgear) and my daughter Ellie and son Jake are next to me in dark cloaks.

I did spend part of the day dressed as a lady but it was a bit cold!

We took a wander round the Living History camp and came across the Knights of Longshanks who had a lovely display of weaving of all different forms. One of the group – Alice Fitton – was creating a sampler of tablet weaving patterns as shown in the pics below.

This is what I love about re-enactment. As well as the general fun and the  beer tent and the friends there are so many people who are into all of the stuff that I am and I am constantly meeting people who are interested in stitching and costume. I could have stayed talking to Alice for ages but the rest of the family were getting a bit bored!

The day ended with a beautiful sunny evening. Thanks to Shirley , our camp cook,  for an excellent beef and ale stew and then Darryl ,the group’s minstrel,  did a bit of musical improvisation with the kids round the campfire before we all headed off for the beer barn again! It’s a hard life …….

I have so many pics that I want to post from our recent event at Cosmeston Medieval Village in South Wales that I have split it into a few posts. Apologies for not posting these sooner – we did not get back till 11pm on Bank Holiday Monday evening and what with working all week and being away at Stefon’s all weekend have had no time at all.

We had really good weather all weekend – it rained a bit when we arrived on Fri while we were pitching the tent (typical!) but then was really nice Sat and Sun with cooler weather on Monday.

Saturday we did not have a show so went for a walk on the beach – walked about 3 miles on an amazing rocky beach at Lavernock Point then ended up at a very nice pub for lunch.

Here are me and the kids in a very album cover type shot.

Got back to camp about 4pm and then later into the beer tent (or beer barn in this case as the Tithe Barn in the village is used for events!) for a few more ciders and some mead. Ellie was able to buy her first pint at an event!

I have included some pics of the village so that you can see what it is like – it is a wonderful place – a recreation of a 14th century village that died out in the plague. For a re-enactor this is heaven – authentic dark, smoky cottages, chickens running around, pigs in the piggery and lots of mud when it rains. It has an amazing atmosphere and I love going there.

Will post some more pics of the actual event later in the week.

Well here I am posting on a Sunday night again – this means that things are back to normal (or what passes for normal around here!!) with the last event of the year. I was originally going to an event next weekend in South Wales but unfortunately finances are not going to allow that now so I have just done the last outside event yesterday – very sad, no camping, no campfires, no clothes smelling of woodsmoke, no fun in the beer tent , no great battles and shows … until next April.

I really hate not being out of doors camping but at least this year I have Nepal to look forward to – two weeks in a tent and the most amazing mountains in the world yippee – it is getting very close now and I am getting very excited – we have another building training event coming up in three weeks which will be our last one before we all go off – we fly out on 10th October.

This pics were taken at the show last weekend at Bolsover Castle.

The  pic comes from the part of our show the Manorial Court where the King dispenses justice – this is very funny part of the show – the person in the stocks is our arch villain John de Greilley who has stolen the tournament money – a part wonderfully played by the very funny Lee who is a natural comedian. In the background seated you can see my lovely daughter Ellie in a dark blue dress looking every inch the beautiful medieval lady.

It has been a really quick season this year – for various reasons we have not been to as many events as usual. But I am looking forward to the off season and the chance to spend more time on textiles!

Right – have just got back from the Bodelwyddan event in North Wales and am packing up to go to Spain tomorrow. We had a wonderful time in Cornwall with the Tintagel event – a bit wet unfortunately and so not much beach visiting but three good battles and lots of visiting the beer tent and sitting round the campfire. North Wales was somewhat drier – today being very sunny indeed and good battles and again more beer tent and campfire activity. Did not get any good battle pics but friends did so will hopefully be able to include one or two later. Am having a little bit of IT trouble at the moment as the drive that all my pics are stored on is not being recognised by the computer so cannot even post any old pics.

Thnak again to all my fab friends and special very big hugs to Bev, Tracey, Carl and Denise for being so brilliant – life is wonderful!

Now off to get hot and make full use of Mum’s jacuzzi!

After a brilliant but very hot weekend at Ashby de la Zouche Castle we are now really on a roll with the events and hols and will be off to Tintagel in Cornwall soon followed by North Wales then Spain for sitting in the jacuzzi with bubbly stuff!

Big thanks to the group for their support this weekend – especially to Kerry for coming all the way to get me and Jake and bring us back on Sun. Ellie has come back from Kosovo and has a a really good time – lots of social events as well as the work with the kids.

The pics below are from the event we did two weeks ago at Tewkesbury – you can’t really see clearly from the second pic but the King has the most fabulous goldwork on his surcoat. I love this event as it is such an amazing sight with all the armies and flags and the sheer scale of the market etc. I love, love, love re-enactment and can’t wait for the next two events – especially Bodelwyddan as that will be really special. I will be so sad when the season ends in September but at least I have Nepal to look forward to!

Well the Tewkesbury event was wonderful, weather was not too bad – rain on and off on Sat especially while we were waiting to go into battle which led all the boys to moan about rust – lots of WD40 needed.

My brother took loads of brill pics so will try and get them from him. On the domestic front have done little except try and paint so poor Jake can have a  bedroom again – carpet is coming tomorrow and then will do furniture building Fri and Sun so he can move in then. Then on the bathroom! Lucky I am an independant woman who knows one end of a screwdriver from the other though I am going to have buy my own power drill now.

Will try and take pics of finished build so you can see all my hard work.