Re-enactment repairs

Greetings

As is often the case, I have been busy washing and repairing kit since Milton Keynes.

Luckily, the Paladins schedule in gap weekends between events.

This time I had to repair the stitching holding my right glove into my gauntlet, darn the knee of my fight hose (which are starting to look like they might need patching, as the wool is getting very thin in places..), de-bur most of my sword and dagger blades and repair the neck of a shirt.

I have recently bought another set of leg and arm harness and fought with this at Milton Keynes using my old two-lame spaulders. Since then I have experimented with  my longer ( four lames and better quality) spaulders.  I think I can make it work and will field-test at the next event.

I bought an old Lancaster Armouries bascinet with aventail  from a chap at Milton Keynes and have also spent some time painting the inside with black Hammerite to stop any rusting.

Here is a picture of me testing my friend Deejay's full contact armour with a hand-and-a-half at a previous show.

Until next time

Adieu

Re-enactment at Milton Keynes

Greetings

last weekend I and my fellow Paladins attended a multi-period event at Milton Keynes, as part of their Festival of History.

Getting to there was a bit eventful. I left at 1.20 and hit bad traffic on the M25. When I reached the M1, traffic slowed right down again but I stuck with it until I finally allowed my Sat Nav to divert me to the A5, which was initially slow, but freed up a little later. I arrived at about 4.00.

I was later told that there had been an accident involving a coach and a lorry on the M1.

Anyway, I got there eventually and set up my tent.

Here are some pictures of our encampment. As usual, I had to take the pictures before we were 'live'.

These pictures were all taken on Saturday morning. Another large tent was added later that morning making ours one of the largest encampments. We definitely had the most flags!

This is another picture of my tent .

The event went well, but it was very windy and there were intermittent showers.

We did not fight on Saturday, so had a relatively quiet day talking to the public in camp.

I sang a mass in full vestments on Sunday morning outside my tent. This was filmed and (I understand) the footage will be going on the Paladins Facebook page.

The tourney on Sunday went well and we filled our half hour slot (even though we only had six fighters)with one-on-one combats. It was mostly overcast and the wind also helped keep the temperature down, which meant that I could fight longer without overheating.

We all fought twice and ended up with a melee, which I won ( as agreed..).

The journey home was just as bad as the way up. pack-down takes some time and I left just after 7 PM. 

Traffic was quite slow came to a complete halt of the M1 just before St Albans. When it finally started to crawl forwards again I edged my way over and let my Sat Nav lead me off towards St Albans. I had a scenic tour of the outskirts and it finally led me to the M25. I reached home at 10 PM.

I have (mostly) recovered and was alive enough to go to fight practice yesterday evening.

Until next time

Adieu

Misheard words 2

Greetings

Here is another cartoon in this occasional series.

This one is based on the equipment you'd need to fight as a fifteenth century re-enactor.

Until next time

Adieu

trees

Greetings

I sometimes go out and paint in watercolour.

These pictures often inform , or take some part in, my constructed Landscape of Dreams.

Here is a study of silver birch trees.

Until next time

Adieu