Hello and hope everyone has had a good week. I have been busy marking and so it was lovely to have a fun weekend away at the beautiful Tatton Hall event in Cheshire. The weather forecast was not very good for the weekend but luckily it rained mainly at night (although we did have a wet set up on Friday!)

I have just bought a new tent and was planning to take a pic of it to show you (you know how I love tents 🙂 ) but got distracted by the rain.

It is a ‘new to me’ slightly bigger version of the one I use when there is just me camping and is lovely and roomy, for those events when me, Ellie and Kerry might be hiding from the weather!

Ellie is going to have my old tent as the one I bought her as a 16th birthday present is really too small to get into medieval kit in. Plus the kids tell me off if I have too many tents myself – they seem to think I have a problem.

The rest of the weekend was lovely and sunny, we even got a pink yesterday and had a brilliant time as usual.

Ellie was given a new feather for her helm from a friend who had decided to get some very impressive ones for his helm, here she is with her feather and he and another friend Andy and enjoying themselves on the battlefield.

Jake was there as well, it is his birthday today and as he has had the last 10 birthdays celebrated at Tatton he joined us for this one so he was our official photographer, which meant we got some really good shots again.

Here are our friends from Knights and Freemen and Harlech enjoying the battle and a shot of me in watercarrying mode!

He also took lots of shots of cute dogs so asked me to pick one to include in the post so here it is!

I have been making lots of kit recently for friends in my group and other groups and have lots of things still to make so I am going to have a lovely summer of sewing :-).

I have made a couple of chaperons and this weekend Kerry was wearing the one I made for her at the end of last season for the first time so here are some pictures of that.

We are off to Tutbury Castle next weekend for another event, this time a new one so we are looking forward to that as we haven’t been to this castle before.

Have a good week and thanks for visiting.

Hello everyone

Hope you are enjoying good weather because we have had a fantastic weekend at Sherwood, didn’t see Robin Hood but Little John was there and there were lots of merry men (and women) there.

The beer tent, the campfire (thanks Kat and Paul) and the excellent weather helped with this as did the brilliant organisation by Plantagenet Events – thanks for everything guys, a very enjoyable event.

As well as the fighting and weapons talks we got a chance to have a couple of walks in the woods, saw the Major Oak (bottom picture ) which is over a thousand years old and lots of other interesting trees.

I also got a chance talk to some people about my embroidery and made a new friend, Seren, who I helped with making a new hat.

This was her first attempt at garment making and she did a brilliant job making this lined coif out of wool and linen which is all hand stitched. She also made a lined bag.

Sadly there are no more events for the next two weekends (how will I survive all that time in a house!) but I have plenty to be doing with making garments.

I am going to be working on a cloak for Luke this week and some helm decorations for other friends.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hello there

Hope that you are all enjoying the lovely weather we have been having.

I am hoping that it will last as I am off tomorrow for another event – this time at Sherwood Forest  near Nottingham, home of the famed Robin Hood.

The forecast for the weekend is great which is very unusual for a British Bank Holiday so we shall see.

Normally we don’t have many pictures of us at events as we are in kit so my pics are limited to early morning or evening ones.

Luke, one of the members of the group, has been putting together a new website for Swords of Mercia so we have had some official photographers at the last two events and they have very kindly let me share their photos with you.

Thanks to Wendy and Kev for these excellent pictures firstly taken at Bolsover (the top one showing our St George’s Day costumes) and the rest from Rufford last weekend. Second pic is of lovely daughter Ellie and I am in my peasant outfit second from right in the third pic.

Don’t the boys look amazing in their kit?

From left to right Sir William of Ashby, King Edward the 2nd, Sir Roger Mortimer and Sir John Neville aka Luke, Clive, Shane and Mark during the week!

We often get pictures taken by the public,  the ‘princesses’ , Ellie and Kerry more than me and at Rufford Ellie was asked to pose by a photographer who then Photoshopped this lovely trinity of pictures.

His name is Stuart Daffin so thanks very much Stuart for your lovely work and letting me share it!

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for visiting.

Hello everyone

I have just got back from a lovely weekend at our first multi – bash event of the season at Rufford Abbey multi period event which meant catching up with some old friends and making some new ones.

The Saturday evening entertainment was a disco in the undercroft (cellars) of the Abbey which meant dancing with lots of re-enactors from Romans to 1940s, it was one of those slightly surreal moments that can only happen in re-enactment.

It has been very cold – we had the most spectacular hail storms on Saturday morning and the nights were really cold.

Ellie had ice on the inside of her tent last night. This bad weather may have contributed to the fact that I have had a very sore throat and lost my voice so huge thanks to my lovely friend Kerry for driving me all the way home tonight rather than me catching the train.

It was a really great display and I have taken some pictures of the Abbey and the encampments below.

I love looking at other group’s displays and this one from Comitatus who cover the late Roman period was amazing – look at those helmets and that dragon flag!

The boys from my group, Swords of Mercia, have been busy buying and making new things and these are Luke’s new gauntlets – he added the studs himself.

While wandering round on Saturday evening taking pictures we met a very lovely lady called Maxine from the Bowden Retinue.

I had stopped by her tent to take a photo of her tablecloth and when she came out she was kind enough to tell me where she got the lace from (it dates from the 1620s) and how she had made the tablecloth and also showed me some more of her embroidery.

I do love chance meetings with people that share my interests!

I also bought some lovely relishes, chilli peanut butter and cheese from my friend Suzi’s stall, she and her husband make the most marvelous things and do mail order – go and look on their website Cowleys Fine Foods.

I am looking forward to next weekend when in will be away at an event in Sherwood Forest, there may be some outlaws lurking in the woods so we will have to be careful!

Thank you very much for visiting.

Hello everyone, I do hope you are all enjoying fine weather, we are having a lovely time – the Spring flowers are blooming, the weather is sunny and finally the re- enactment season has begun.

I am a very, very happy bunny!!

This beautiful pic was taken outside Kerry’s house this morning, her neighbour has the loveliest display of flowers.

Mine are doing very well, surprisingly they have survived the near constant snow since they were planted and I have some daffodils, crocuses and tulips coming out.

We had our first event this weekend, I was only able to join the group for today as I had to work yesterday but we had a really great time.

Yesterday was very hot – when I met up with Ellie and Kerry last night they were quite sunburned (in Derbyshire, in April – it’s a miracle!)

Today was a bit windier but very good and we had a really nice time doing our St George’s Day event.

Here is Kerry in her beautiful dress in the sunlight at the castle and later being scared by the fearsome Dragon Knight – aka Mark in a very impressive helm that the guys had made for the event.

I now have events for the next two weekends so I am really looking forward to lots of fun, catching up with old friends, sitting round the campfire and mellowing. If you want to join us we will be at Rufford Abbey next weekend.

Take care and thanks as always for visiting.