Spring is in the air, which means it’s time to shake off the dust and let your arrows fly!
I’ll be at our regular outdoor site in Highland Park (the park near the corner of Washington Blvd and Allegheny River Blvd) from 11 am to 2 pm this Sunday, March 23, planning to have the range open by 11:30 am. Loaner gear will be available.
NOTE: The other martial practices (heavy, rapier, thrown weapons) will continue to meet at the winter location (Ace’s Ax Throwing in Homestead) until sometime in April. Watch this feed for updates!
Yours in Service,
Niall mac Raedwulf, Captain of the Archers
We will be marching in the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Parade tomorrow, 3/15.
All are welcome to come and show the might and prowess of the barony. No live weapons. We will be fencing and fighting our way through downtown Pittsburgh. There will be a float for those who would prefer to ride. If you can’t join us, tune in and watch!
We will be lining up in the strip district at 9:30. Location will be posted to the event on Facebook and on the barony’s Discord when we know where we are. Please contact Lady Isabel or Lady Arthes if you have more questions, or need a different contact method.
This Sunday will be the first in our series of monthly intermediate fencing lessons! The topic for this month is: Guards, Openings, and Feints. We’ll begin by analyzing a few different guards, looking at the openings they present, then we’ll discuss the whys and hows of feints, and finally, we’ll practice using feints in a fight. We’ll get started around 12pm and wrap up around 12:45pm.
Hi, fencers! We’ll have our next Cut and Thrust focused practice this Sunday, March 9th. Reminder that Kingdom Cut and Thrust Championship will be in a few short months! (date/event TBD)
Salve Accolens! Spring has nearly sprung and it’s time again for another monthly A&S Round-Up. Please reach out if I’m missing your guild, meet-up, or gathering and I’ll add it to my list for this and future months!
Firstly, Scriptorium and A&S Night will be held on the same night this month! Thursday, March 20th will be our Baronial Scriptorium A&S March Mashup and will feature a penwork illumination class (see image below for example) courtesy of Mistress Arianna in addition to the usual casual gatherings. (Contact points: Elinor Walden and Lisabetta di Rossi)
Every Tuesday – Scribal West from 5pm-9pm with THLady Nicola Beese to complete scrolls, practice calligraphy and illumination, word-smith for awards, or make scribal blanks (Contact point – THLady Nichola Beese). Additionally, the Debatable Choir (voice) and Consort (instruments) meet at the home of Mistress T’svee’a from 7pm-9:30pm (Contact point – Mistress Arianna)
Thursday, March 13th – The Brewers Guild is having their monthly meeting at the home of Breherys Muirgheal. With the Kingdom Brewing Championship on April 19th at Brewing and Bacon Bash X, now’s the time to finalize your entries! A companion competition for non-alcoholic entries will be held at War Practice this year as well. (Contact point – Breherys Muirgheal)
Monday, March 24th – monthly Fiber Guild night at the home of Mistress T’svee’a from 7pm-9pm for March Mending Madness, featuring a class taught on how to repair holes and tears in woven cloth with sashiko mending and no-experience-needed sewing taught by THLady Elinor (hi, it me) (Contact point – Rei Morikawa)
Though March has just begun, many of us are looking ahead to April already with The Festival of the Passing of the Ice Dragon just around the corner for the competition-inclined and an A&S Display “For the Glory of AEthelmearc” at the Coronation of Timothy of Arindale and Gabrielle van Nijenrode if you want something more local. Check out the event pages or the kingdom calendar for more information: https://aethelmearc.org/events/
As always, most of this information is pulled from the baronial calendar and blog, but if you have trouble finding more details yourself, let me know and I can put you in touch with the right person! http://www.debatablelands.org/calendar.php
Yesterday we held a brief meeting at fencing practice to go over the fencing survey results and discuss plans for fencing practices this year. Here’s a recap of the results: – Most popular activities from 2024 fencing practices: Free Sparring (86%), Beginner-Focused Group Lessons (43%), and Melees (38%) – Most popular activities for future practices: Intermediate-Focused Group Lessons (71%), Strength and Conditioning for Fencing (48%), More Melees (38%), Fencing Video Review (33%)
Based on the survey results, we’ll be adding a few new monthly practice activities! Schedule will be as follows: – First Sunday of each month: Melee Focused Practice – Second Sunday of each month: C&T Focused Practice – Third sunday of the month: Intermediate-focused lessons
If a practice gets cancelled, the scheduled activity may get rescheduled to the fourth or fifth sunday in that month.
In addition, we’ll experiment with running a bearpit at the start of practice to help folks get started fencing earlier. We’ll start that between 11:20 and 11:30, and go for 20-30 minutes. We’ll try out a few different bearpit formats.
Lastly, Iris Festival is coming up on June 7th! I’ll be the fencing Marshal-in-Charge for that event. If you have ideas on what we should run, or you’re interested in running any fencing tournaments or melees, let me know! You do not have to be a marshal to help run something!
Thanks to everyone who completed the survey. We had 21 respondents!
Yours in Service,
Robert MacEwin of Thornhill Debatable Lands Fencing Marshal
Hello fencers! During practice this Sunday, February 23rd at 1pm, we’ll have a brief community meeting to discuss results from the BMDL Fencing Practice Feedback survey and plans for practices in the coming year. All are welcome to join.
