Lobsters!

Some time last Summer the rivierkreeften (I'm pretty sure they are not called lobsters in English :)) migrated around Simeons work, and he picked up a bunch that were wandering around the fields, and we ate them in Endehoven. I just found these pictures while cleaning up the mail and decided they were too good not to post, even though it upsets chronological order...
As a bonus I added a picture of our little guy beating up his stuffed rat.

Brueghel Fair preparations

I started this pouch at an embroidery workshop at Double Wars this year, and am now finishing it off with fancy details like the embroidered edge and tassles to prepare one of the activities for Brueghel Fair, which is in a few weeks. We'll have some pouches ready, or people can bring their own to decorate, and we'll make tassles and embroider edges. The kids can make tassels (which is surprisingly fast to do), and do some embroidery if they want. The edge is not difficult to do, but quite slow.

Other prep work: I'm practicing bagpipes and getting together with Marieke to practice fiddle/flute/drum stuff for dancing, we had some lovely roast chicken that might or might not make it onto the menu, I'm scrounching the internet for a Brueghel poster, spinning tops and stilts, Laura is making pouches and pewter feast tokens and other good stuff!

Music folder

After a succesfull bookbinding workshop at our event in January, we are now spending a few of our regular scribal nights making a folder for music and songs.

Tonight, Bertrik has worked 4 fingerlooped braids through the cardboard back for the folder, so that I'll be able to attach seperate sections of music and replace them as our reportoire shifts and expands. Bertrik worked out a slightly complicated way of taking the braid through one layer of cardboard around another, so that it is glued in between the two layers and goes around to keep the two layers together instead of pulling them apart.

Pipers!

It's been almost a year since I posted here, time flies! The most important new thing of the year is: Laura and I took up a dream of years, and started playing bagpipes.
We rented instruments and took a weekend workshop offered by the Dutch society "Draailier en doedelzak". Yes, we have a hurdy gurdy and bagpipe society in this country, how cool is that! and they do a good job, since it is entirely due to their beginner setup with a workshop and the opportunity to rent an instrument (at least for the bagpipe) that we are now well on our way to becoming real pipers :)

Recently, we both acquired a set of pipes of our own, built by Sean Jones:
http://www.jonesinstruments.co.uk/

The instrument we got is the shepherd pipes you can see at the bottom of the page here, and they are lovely (ours are black leather with slightly darker (damson) wood: http://www.jonesinstruments.co.uk/models.htm

In the picture below we are playing the rental pipes at Academia della Danza this spring.

Trip to Rhaglan

Floris and I went to Raglan last week and had an excellent time. I wrote about it on the Polderslot blog, and got so annoyed with uploading pictures that I'm not going to do it again here. You can see the pictures here:

http://www.polderslot.info/index.php/2010/08/a-wonderful-trip-to-wales/

In the past week I've actually made chickpeas and fruit paste like we had at the event, with considerable succes. Also, Laura and I planned out Italian dresses for our next event here, and it turns out that by finishing two unfinished projects and making minor alterations to existing garments, I can make myself a complete 15th century Italian outfit, so that's nice :)

Sonderlinghe lieden

Pinksterzondag waren we met de sonderlinghe lieden in Endehoven. Het was traditioneel Eindhoven weer, zonnig en warm. Helaas hadden koperdieven zich aan het spoor vergrepen, met als gevolg enorm omreizen, en een vrij kort verblijf in het museum. 

We kookten voor de lunch weer eens een nieuwe variant Jacobijnensoep, met gebakken paddestoelen erdoor, en hollandse geitenkaas; een ook dat smaakte prima. Misschien nog extra lekker met een uitje en wat peterselie.

Naderhand bewonderden we het vikingkampje wat op het grasveld naast het ambachtenhuis was verschenen, verrichten chirurgie op Floortje, vlochten en (kaart)weefden en floten wat en trokken vele malen malieen aan en uit bij belangstellende voorbijgangers. Kort, maar krachtig...

Garden of Earthly Delights

Half april gingen Laura, Bertrik en ikzelf naar de Baronie van Knights Crossing om hun event Garden of Earthly Delights te bezoeken. De locatie -  kasteel Tannenberg - was schitterend, in een gedeeltelijk gerestaureerd kasteel, en we hebben ons prima vermaakt. De nachten brachten we door in een hotel onderaan de berg, en we hebben ons zeer gelukkig geprezen met die keuze. Terwijl de overige eventgangers op een toch wel erg koude, stoffige en tochtige (weliswaar extreem sfeervolle) kasteelvloer sliepen, genoten wij van centrale verwarming, een zacht matras en een eigen douche...

Vrijdagavond hadden we al wat gezien van het event, en ondervonden hoeveel stof er uit de vloer kwam als je er Petit Riens op danst. Zaterdagochtend begonnen we met een rondje rond het kasteel te lopen in de frisse lentezon, te dromen over het winnen van de loterij, en foto's te maken. De rest van de dag vermaakten we ons met alle prachtige arts and sciences die wijzelf en anderen hadden meegenomen om aan te werken, muziek maken en bijkletsen.

Hierbij wat foto's van Bertik.