Looking back to May

The Monday after graduation, I travelled across Bulgaria with some friends and family to see Plovdiv, Etara, Bachkovo Monastery, and Veliko Turnovo. Leaving Blagoevgrad, we headed up through the mountain pass at Borovets. Lots of fog slowed our driving and there was still snow on the ground in some places. We had lunch at a charming little ski shack, "The Happy Duck." Please note the (rude)skiing duck on the chimneypiece!

On the way, we stopped at the Assenova Krepost, or Assen's Fortress.



It's far up in the mountains and the fog swirling around was quite creepy. We kept waiting for someone to challenge us for being there!

Plovdiv was lovely and we saw lots of interesting sights and shopped quite a lot. We even settled on a paint color for our house, based on this one:

We saw the remains of the Roman Odeon on our first day there and it has been beautifully excavated.

More about the trip tomorrow!

What's up with this site?

I'm not quite sure what the problem is with Blogger, but for the last week, no matter what computer I use, the program opens with an error on the page and I can't post. At this point in time I can write, but I can't add a post title. Very weird! ETA - after posting this, I tried to edit the post and could add a title.

Pavillion ideas

One of my goals for the A&S 50 is to make or buy an appropriate pavillion for my persona. Now that I've finally settled on 14th century Bulgaria, it was easier to find an illumination of one from that time and place that I like and which complements my heraldry. In the Froissart Chronicles, there is an illustration of the execution of the Christian prisoners after the Battle of Nikopolis in Bulgaria. Despite the gruesome nature of the illumination, the red pavillion in it suits me perfectly, so I'll be looking for lots of red canvas! (And yes, I realize that it's almost certainly an Ottoman tent. I still like it and it's from the right time and place!)

Sun-browned and happy

I'm back home from this year's Winchester Pilgrimage and once again, it was awesome. Photos tomorrow! We couldn't have had better weather - sunny and warm every day!




A corner of the encampment at the Hospital of Saint Cross.





Here's the family on the walk.



The fiber twins - Spin and Knit!







Constanza and I vowed to do better on the Pilgrim's Knowledge competition this year and we tied with HE Susannah of York for second place. We won a beautiful candle lantern made by Lord Matthew Baker to light us along the Pilgrim's Way. Not too bad! We offered to help with next year's competition and are going to add information about Orthodox saints too. :)



Many of our friends were there and I am so glad that Lady Sofia di Marcello was able to come with us. I think she really enjoyed meeting everyone and going on pilgrimage.





Pretty Winchester buildings.



The Cathedral.







During Court, HE Genevieve la Flechiere was put on vigil for the Order of the Pelican. She will give her answer at Raglan Fair in August. I really wish I could be there, but my work schedule prevents.

On a different note, there have been more than 400 aftershocks since last week's 6.0 - in fact, there was just another little one. It's getting old, frankly.

What's shakin'?

That would be us! I'll do a real update later today, but for now - wow! That was a noisy 5.8 earthquake! First tremor felt here at 03:06, first aftershock at 03:10. Novinite says the entire population of Sofia is out on the street. That would be something to see. Here's an update - they're now saying 5.9, maybe 6.0.

Gifts

One of our graduating SCAdians stopped by my office today to say goodbye and to tell me about his plans for the future. He'll be working in Tirana, but plans to come back to campus for at least one College (SCA) event each semester for the next year. Then he hopes to go on for a Phd at Oxford. I guess at that point we'll have to hand him on to the Insulae Draconis lot, but until then , he's one of us. It was good to know how much he values the Society and our company. It was the real gift of the day.

A Dyer's Garden

Now that I own my home and garden, I can finally have a dyer's garden again. I used to have a really good herb garden in upstate New York, before we moved to Europe. Since them, it's been all rental flats or houses,with no garden space. Well, not any more!!! So far, I've started weld, indigo, coreopsis, false saffron, black-eyed Susan, hollyhock, Lady's Mantle, pot marigold, sunflower, and tansy for dye usage. I've also started my culinary herbs and veggies and am really looking forward to building this garden from scratch.