St Francis Day

It's been a few weeks already, but today I'm getting around to posting these pictures from St Francis day. We took group pictures in our new matching kirtles :) Laura made the smocked aprons to finish off our far-too-spiffy kitchen garb.

Flip de Beer in de middeleeuwen

Dit weekend mocht Flip de Beer mee naar de middeleeuwen. Hij kreeg een echte tuniek aan en mocht meedoen met de kinderen: koekjes bakken, dansen en op schoot bij het verhalen vertellen. En natuurlijk op de foto in middeleeuwse kleren!

Einde van het seizoen

Een prachtige najaarsdag om het seizoen af te sluiten in het museum. De kinderen vermaakten zich als altijd prima!

Polderslot Zomerevent

We just returned from the Polderslot zomerevent, where we had a lovely time! So first of all, my compliments and thanks for a well thought out event to the event stewards: Mariken van Oostbroek, Hadewiich van Eerbeke and Helena van Aemstelredamme!

Saturday was filled with activities for teams with members of all ages around the theme of protecting ourselves against a witch. After a lovely breakfast, Lady Hilde told a story about mysterious "witte wieven" who live in the neighbourhood, and when she was finished, a real witch was seen through the windows. Then started our mission to turn the witch into a regular woman again, and the first thing to do was to gather pouches of herbs for the drink we would make her. This turned into a running game for the children, picking up the pouches without getting caught by Lord Boudewijn, who had stolen them.

Afterward, everyone gathered by the table, which was filled with materials to make painted amulets, charms, pouches of herbs, and calligraphed and illuminated charms against witches. Some of the adults continued painting long after the children had run off to the playground, but all during the afternoon people returned to make a new item of finish something. Everything that was made contributed to the teams total points.

In the afternoon, all the children helped to make the drink to turn the witch back into a normal person. The children (and their audience) also had wonderful fun when they got to fight His Highness Thorvaldr and Sir Dietrich with boffer weapons after the 'grown up' fighting was done. After that, everyone went off to hunt for the witch, who was succesfully unbewitched...

Finally, the meal was a feast for the eyes as well as the tongue, since it was all made up of colorfull dishes: meatballs gilded in green with a quail's egg in the middle, drumsticks with purple wine sauce decorated with white and pink sugared aniseeds to name just two. Well done to the cooks! During the feast, the final entries for the competition were made: Lady Hilde sang a lovely song, Boris read a poem about a knight, a damsel and a dragon that was a very clever play on rhyme, and I played my fiddle between courses.

All in all, an event that was filled with high points and activities, but also with a very relaxed atmosphere. I'm event steward for our next event: St Francis day Fair, on 3-5 October. This event will be a hard act to follow, but it has also inspired me to try to make the next one just as enjoyable!

Polderslot Zomerevent

Jasper guarding daddy's armor while enjoying his raisins...

mispels

Na de witte (nou ja, niet oranje) wortels van vorige maand, afgelopen weekend mispels gegeten op het zomerevent. Hartstikke lekker, ook zonder dat ze rot waren. Zouden er verschillende soorten bestaan? Zo zagen ze er in ieder geval uit:

Het seizoen is weer begonnen! Gisteren de eerste dag in het museum, voor het eerst zo koud dat we echt rond het vuur hebben gebivakeerd. We aten "oerwortels", die, zoals middeleeuwse wortels niet oranje zijn, maar wel precies zo smaken als wortels.

Winterevent - januari 2008
Alas, no pictures of this last event, but it was still a lot of fun! For the first time in too long I did some singing and some illumination, and now I'm all inspired!

True to type, I'm also quickly distracted by other fun projects, so right now I'm working on a better way of sharing some of my medieval recipes. Who knows, I may post a link in a few days.

En wat kleine vikingen in november!

Doh, afbeeldingen niet gedraaid. Nou ja, kantel je beeldscherm maar even, of je hoofd, want het is tijd om te gaan koken...

De winter is altijd het seizoen voor andere dingen dan de middeleeuwen, maar aanstaand weekend gaan we toch weer op pad. Op de valreep daarvoor toch nog wat foto's van de vorige keren in oktober en november vorig jaar...