Medieval Madness

The zombie serpent slinks by for a quick squiggle. Even the sneaky attempt at restarting this awful year with the equinox turned out to be a failure. Will make another attempt for 1st May when hopefully the sizzling stinking summer and 35 degree days will have finally ended
The emerald serpent needs a bit of a freeze to wake up the long dormant green cells. And as for the twinkle in those evil green eyes that is a long long lost cause


Saturday 19th March was the annual medieval fest. Thanks to the evil goblins, now got to use a day of annual leave booked a good three months in advance but still did not know until the roster came out at the last minute as usual on Monday 14th that we did actually have the day off officially. Not that it mattered. Would have simply informed the idiot goblins that the serpent had applied way back in October for the day off and was not available. Would have been prepared to go without pay for the day. That is where froggie tenants turn out to be very useful


Last year was on long service leave at the time of the festival and managed to twist an ankle that day. Not at 5pm but on the way down there. So got stuck sitting on park benches or hobbling around and not being really in a position to watch the gladiatorial battles, fencing or exhibitions of chain mail
This time managed to get through the day with no injuries at all and being in a relatively normal state rather than rather frequent infestations of dementors. Not all bubbly and bouncy and giggly and twinkly but simply not miserable which was progress indeed
But was still unable to remain in the present moment and to enjoy the old feeling of being the kid in the candy store

First stop was the little orange van belonging to Halcyon importers. These evil creatures specialize in gorgeous handmade papers, ribbons, braid and assorted ornaments. Being the medieval festival the paper took second place and all the pretty ribbons were centre stage
Did get tipped off from the recent class that they do bookblocks from handmade paper. They did have them in premade "Make your own notebook" packs for $$7.50 but one of the stall holders said that she could take some of the blocks out of the kits and sell them separately for $$4.00

The serpent had saved a stash of silver sickles for just such occasions and got four of them. Also got some large rolls of hand made paper in spite of having a seriously ridiculous stash in an old brown trunk.
Hoping to spend the winter months experimenting and doing all the stuff that the serpent was too brain dead for during that book binding course

Next stop was to sniff out the gorgeous leather journals with hand made paper. Turned out that one of the suppliers was one of the leather craft shops recommended by another participant at the book binding course.
This time more than three stalls had these gorgeous journals including the Pretorian guard who specialized in Roman gladiatorial gear, shields, spears and lots of daggers
The leather craft people even had very large Bible sized leather bound books with pentacles on the cover and hand made mulberrry paper within. Some of these books were even made with one single solitary stash of paper. Simpler to make but not as attractive as the books with several smaller stacks of paper sewn together
But the latest innovation were the leather covers designed to hold an A5 notebook. These did not have the beautiful handmade paper pages but had the huge advantage of not being too good to write in. Got one of those gorgeous books at the very first visit to one of these medieval festivals but its pages remain blank as it is just too gorgeous to desecrate with serpent squiggles. Anything less than written in blood with a phoenix feather is simply not worthy of such beautiful books

Ended up indulging in two A4 sized covers - one with a pentacle and the other with a dragon as well as an old fashioned wrap around leather book.
Funny that all the other folks were obsessed with daggers and knives.

The local herb society had a stall and there were the regular weavers, spinners, chain mail makers and the lady carving runes into little strips of wood or leather
Calligraphy and gorgeous costumes is also a big thing with these medieval wannabee sorts. And the other thing that cheered up the serpent no end was to notice once again just how many fatties there were. In those days being fat had social status since starvation was probably the order of the day. So different to now where we are almost social outcasts and skinny androgynous bean poles are considered the essence of feminine beauty
Lingered around until just before 4pm and then headed off to the beach to see the last few days of Sculpture by the Sea and to watch the sunset and full moon rise

Since then been playing around with sewing innards together for books. When we got a decent stash - four or five of our own plus the four ready made from the medieval festival then it will be time to get a bit of practice putting pretty covers on them.
Then the very go slow 101 things in 1001 days list will get another long long overdue tick

Medieval Madness

The zombie serpent slinks by for a quick squiggle. Even the sneaky attempt at restarting this awful year with the equinox turned out to be a failure. Will make another attempt for 1st May when hopefully the sizzling stinking summer and 35 degree days will have finally ended
The emerald serpent needs a bit of a freeze to wake up the long dormant green cells. And as for the twinkle in those evil green eyes that is a long long lost cause


Saturday 19th March was the annual medieval fest. Thanks to the evil goblins, now got to use a day of annual leave booked a good three months in advance but still did not know until the roster came out at the last minute as usual on Monday 14th that we did actually have the day off officially. Not that it mattered. Would have simply informed the idiot goblins that the serpent had applied way back in October for the day off and was not available. Would have been prepared to go without pay for the day. That is where froggie tenants turn out to be very useful


Last year was on long service leave at the time of the festival and managed to twist an ankle that day. Not at 5pm but on the way down there. So got stuck sitting on park benches or hobbling around and not being really in a position to watch the gladiatorial battles, fencing or exhibitions of chain mail
This time managed to get through the day with no injuries at all and being in a relatively normal state rather than rather frequent infestations of dementors. Not all bubbly and bouncy and giggly and twinkly but simply not miserable which was progress indeed
But was still unable to remain in the present moment and to enjoy the old feeling of being the kid in the candy store

First stop was the little orange van belonging to Halcyon importers. These evil creatures specialize in gorgeous handmade papers, ribbons, braid and assorted ornaments. Being the medieval festival the paper took second place and all the pretty ribbons were centre stage
Did get tipped off from the recent class that they do bookblocks from handmade paper. They did have them in premade "Make your own notebook" packs for $$7.50 but one of the stall holders said that she could take some of the blocks out of the kits and sell them separately for $$4.00

The serpent had saved a stash of silver sickles for just such occasions and got four of them. Also got some large rolls of hand made paper in spite of having a seriously ridiculous stash in an old brown trunk.
Hoping to spend the winter months experimenting and doing all the stuff that the serpent was too brain dead for during that book binding course

Next stop was to sniff out the gorgeous leather journals with hand made paper. Turned out that one of the suppliers was one of the leather craft shops recommended by another participant at the book binding course.
This time more than three stalls had these gorgeous journals including the Pretorian guard who specialized in Roman gladiatorial gear, shields, spears and lots of daggers
The leather craft people even had very large Bible sized leather bound books with pentacles on the cover and hand made mulberrry paper within. Some of these books were even made with one single solitary stash of paper. Simpler to make but not as attractive as the books with several smaller stacks of paper sewn together
But the latest innovation were the leather covers designed to hold an A5 notebook. These did not have the beautiful handmade paper pages but had the huge advantage of not being too good to write in. Got one of those gorgeous books at the very first visit to one of these medieval festivals but its pages remain blank as it is just too gorgeous to desecrate with serpent squiggles. Anything less than written in blood with a phoenix feather is simply not worthy of such beautiful books

Ended up indulging in two A4 sized covers - one with a pentacle and the other with a dragon as well as an old fashioned wrap around leather book.
Funny that all the other folks were obsessed with daggers and knives.

The local herb society had a stall and there were the regular weavers, spinners, chain mail makers and the lady carving runes into little strips of wood or leather
Calligraphy and gorgeous costumes is also a big thing with these medieval wannabee sorts. And the other thing that cheered up the serpent no end was to notice once again just how many fatties there were. In those days being fat had social status since starvation was probably the order of the day. So different to now where we are almost social outcasts and skinny androgynous bean poles are considered the essence of feminine beauty
Lingered around until just before 4pm and then headed off to the beach to see the last few days of Sculpture by the Sea and to watch the sunset and full moon rise

Since then been playing around with sewing innards together for books. When we got a decent stash - four or five of our own plus the four ready made from the medieval festival then it will be time to get a bit of practice putting pretty covers on them.
Then the very go slow 101 things in 1001 days list will get another long long overdue tick