My callus is a mighty callus

This is harp-related and bears posting about.

Yesterday, like a dumbass, I was making tea (making tea isn't a dumbass thing to do, I was just being a dumbass while making tea, as you'll see).  I turn the back burner on - the one with the kettle sitting on it.  Then (and mind you, it's like 7am), I think to myself, "Hey, the front burner's all sticking up and out of it's little burner-socket.*  I'll just nudge that back down."  So I put my thumb on the front burner.  And push.  And, of course, it turns out it was not the back burner that I'd turned on.  *sigh*

So I had this nice, painful burn-stripe on my thumb right where the harp string goes.  I was devestated.  This would mean no playing the harp at all while it healed.  Ugh.

Like 2 hours later, I realize there's no blister, and there's not going to be a blister.  The pain was gone, the white stripe was fading, and the skin that was burned felt no different than the skin around it.  That's right - I'd burned myself squarely on my callus!  And my callus did exactly what it was supposed to - it scoffed at pain and injury.  My thumb is fine, my callus is mighty, and my stove is thwarted.

My callus > mooshing my thumb down on a hot stove.  HA!  There will be harping after all.

*That's not a typo, I think in misspellings at 7am.

How to be a Harpy - an introduction to folk harp in the SCA

This past weekend, at Atlantia's Summer University, I taught a new class on beginning harp.  It included information on harps through history, the differences between period and modern harps and basic beginning technique.  You can see the handout for the course by downloading this here PDF.  Check out the resource section in the back for more information, and if anything's unclear feel free to email me!

Where did Isolde go?

Where is Isolde going is perhaps a more apt question.  With a bright forward-looking face and sad backward glances, I left Northshield.  My husband and I have moved to Atlantia for training for new jobs - Foreign Service Officers, to seal our nomadic fate.  We thought we might be here as long as a year, and I was looking forward to getting to know the bards and fighters around here.  Turns out we'll be leaving in August.

So where are they sending us?  We thought somewhere in Drachenwald was likely, and would be nice.  Someplace on the outskirts of Drachenwald even more likely, and we wondered if we'd have the stamina to keep up any SCA involvement.  Someplace marked "here there be dragons" was even more likely - someone has to go to Chad, after all.  So where are they sending us?

They're sending us to freaking Ealdormere!  So for the next couple of years, at least, very few bets are off.  :-D

In the meantime, Aeron and I will try really hard to hit up at least a couple of fighter practices and maybe an event or two.  We'll both be teaching at The University of Atlantia this weekend.  I honestly don't know if we'll be here long enough to make friends, but I hope we do.  I'll be back here for a while when it's time for me to start training, and we'll be back at some point for DC tours someday too.

So if you'll be at the university this weekend, or know someone who will, say hi to the new girl with the harp.  That'll be me.  :-)

Bardic Bedlam

Last weekend, I made it to Calontir for their second ever Bardic Bedlam - their take on the Bardic Madness franchise.  It was fantastic, and I had a wonderful time!  The event itself was scheduled against another big-deal event, so they didn't get the turnout they'd hoped for - about half of what this year's Bardic Madness in Northshield was.  But frankly, for the second ever Bardic Bedlam, I thought it was a respectable crowd and a very comfortable size.  I didn't get any of the introvert-burnout I tend to get at big bardic events.  Everyone was engaged the whole time, everyone had fun, and performing was easy in front of this crowd (which contributed to some great performances to watch).  This has as much to do with the people as with the size of the event - I came away with such a good impression of Calontir (and this despite my admitted rapier fighter bias).  They were fun, friendly and welcoming, they throw a good party, and they're good to foreigners.

During the event, Master Owen Alun taught a class that dealt with Welsh and Irish triads.  During this class, he pointed out that a bard's first task is to listen, to observe and so the assignment he gave us was essentially to record three things we learned over the weekend.  So here are mine:

1)  The quality of a bardic venue has absolutely nothing to do with size.
2)  Culture is spontaneous - it's the way people welcome strangers, the songs that spring up in chorus around a campfire.  It's everything that comes out of the hearts and minds of a group of related individuals.
3)  Given that, culture is not something that can legitimately be enforced.

Sonnet 2: Countess of the Spring

A Sonnet for Countess Elizabeth von Kulmbach -

I have seen queens on high and distant thrones
Whose beauty, like December sunlight’s rays,
Would shame the spark and fire of precious stones,
But leave their subjects freezing in their gaze.
Yet under Northshield’s wintry, iron sky
I did not have to seek or pray for fire.
Your token for my words, your smiling eye
Some spark in me did nurture and inspire.
You, all the while, a double burden bore
With life inside, you led our land unswayed.
Your crown’s been passed, your daughter all adore,
Now Winter Queen, delight in what you’ve made.
A rosebud skipping through the court does bring
Her smile to all – our Countess of the Spring.

Notes:  I entered this in the A&S competition at my barony's May Day Moot a couple of weeks ago.  The theme was inspiration.  This weekend, around a campfire in Calontir (about which more later), people were remembering their first king and queen, and also the first king and queen who "made them believe it."  I've met and been subject to some very neat queens, but Countess Elizabeth was the first to make me believe it.  So I wrote this for her.  And as usual, documentation is available by downloading this here PDF.  Not that you need me to tell you how to write a freaking sonnet, but hey - I learned some about the nuances of Elizabethan sonnets while writing this, so it's here if you want it.  :-)