Month: November 2017

Greetings Debatable Lands!
This Friday the 24th (yes Black Friday) at 11am at Babcock Stables is BMDLS frist Equestrian Championship!!!! Please come out and watch the competion and cheer on the competitors as they compete for the glory of being the first ever BMDL Equestrian Champion! Then after the competion come down and meet the Warhorses and get a picture with them. We look forward to seeing everyone there on Friday!

There is also an opion poll that is in the BMDL face book group to find out what a good day of the week would be for a second weekly practice. This poll will be open till Febuary 2018.  Also keep an eye on the announcements page on Facebook and sign up for the email list to see any and all futrue events and practices with BMDL’s Equestrian Team.
Babcock Stables is located at 10522 Old Babcock Blvd gibsonia, Pa

Greetings, Gentles all!

I’m pleased to serve the Barony as your Social Media Deputy. My function is to ensure that all visitors to and users of Barony social media sites follow our policies. If it has been a while since you read the social media policies, please take a few minutes to remind yourself of them on our website: http://debatablelands.org/resources/policies-and-forms/

In essence, please use common sense and courtesy. Keep things friendly, conflict-free, and accessible for all.

If you are not on social media or you do not have access to post on our blog, Stórfréttir, but you still need to make an announcement, contact me. I can help get your post published via the blog, and it will go to all our platforms, including Google+, Facebook, and the email list. If you don’t know whether your post is appropriate, run it by me and we can make sure it’s okay before it goes out.

Social media should also be about being social. Consider using the page for announcements that create community. If you are hosting or organizing a project day, post-revel, field trip, or other kind of get-together, please consider letting us know about it. The EXCEPTION of course is any martial activities not officially sanctioned by the Barony or other SCA branch. For anything else, like A&S, historical research, or just pure socializing, please feel free to contact me to help spread the word about your activity.

I look forward to taking on this position and I’m confident that the populace will continue to create a welcoming, encouraging environment on our media platforms. Ours is an active and diverse Barony, with a lot going on. It’s easy to miss out. Let’s showcase how much we do and make it easier for folks to join the fun.

Greetings from your Comet Pursuivant!

My apologies this wasn’t posted earlier, but the next On-line Heraldic Office Hours will be next Monday, November 27, from 7:00 – 9:00. Thank you!

Kieran MacRae

Thrown Weapons at Harvest Revel is cancelled due to the cold.  It’s just too cold to stand out there and throw.  My apologies for the late notice, but I wanted to see for myself what the day would bring first. I will see you all there for Pie and other Martial practices..

YIS, THL Kumagaya Kentarou Masamoto. TW MIC BMDL

The weather on Sunday should be clear and cold, perfect weather for our Harvest Revel. Come and join us at the Castle (755 Stonegate Dr, Wexford, PA 15090 – map) for fun, socializing, pie, and martial practices.

We have the new parking instructions for Sunday:

Everyone will need to park diagonally in the *direction of traffic*. That means that people will have to drive to the end of the street and turn around, then park on the way back up the street.

The schedule has been updated and there is a change to the time of the Barony Meeting to accommodate other activities:

11:00 a.m. – Site Opens, Thrown Weapons Practice
12:00 p.m. – Pie Competition Opens
1:00 p.m. – Barony Meeting, immediately followed by a Business Meeting (all are invited to participate)
1:45 p.m. – Choir Performance
2:00 p.m. – Heavy Weapons/Rapier Practice

There will be the usual launching of the pumpkins towards the end of the day. So, bring a pumpkin and see it go “SPLAT” in glorious fashion. Only fresh pumpkins are allowed, no rotting ones as they are awful to try and clean up.

But I know what you’ve all been waiting for and that is the opportunity to win GLORY!!!

Don’t forget that Her Excellency Hilda has arranged our annual pie competition, with a grand prize of GLORY!!!. The categories are FRUIT, VEGETABLE, and PERIOD. As always, the definition of pie is stretched to its absolute limit, all it has to be is a baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry. Whether you call it empanada, calzone, tart, Roman libum, pasty, pye, trap, quiche, tourtière, Bedfordshire clanger, or Bridie – it’s all pie. Ravioli? Pie. Piroshki? Pie. Chicken Pot Pie, even though it lacks the bottom crust? If Mary Berry says it’s pie. It’s pie. This competition is about creativity, joy, and most of all GLORY!!!

In addition to everything else, Countess Ariella will be running a fundraiser in support of the Equestrian program that Lady Gesa Wellenstein so generously started here in the Barony. This whole summer, she has been paying for replacement and construction of all jousting and mounted games equipment out of her own pocket. This fundraiser will help to reimburse her for that and any remaining funds will be deposited for future activities. If you would like to support the Equestrian program and the efforts of Lady Gesa, please bring and/or buy baked goods. There will be a table in the Great Hall with labels for ingredients and prices.

As usual, no garb required, unless you really want to wear garb. We will be happy to see you regardless of your attire.

We thank Count Byron and Countess Ariella for again opening their home to us. If you’ve not yet been to the Castle, here is a link to the information website for the Castle. It’s even better in person.

If you’re on Facebook, please RSVP on the event page.

There’s a chill in the air, leaves on the ground, and the scent of freshly baked pies and cookies in the air. All harbingers of our annual Harvest Revel at the Castle (with PIE)!

The Harvest Revel will take place on this Sunday, 19 November 2017 at the Castle (755 Stonegate Dr, Wexford, PA 15090 – map). There will be some changes to parking, so there will be further information coming with details about those changes as we get closer to the date.

The schedule has been updated and there is a change to the time of the Barony Meeting to accommodate other activities:

11:00 a.m. – Site Opens, Thrown Weapons Practice
12:00 p.m. – Pie Competition Opens
1:00 p.m. – Barony Meeting, immediately followed by a Business Meeting (all are invited to participate)
1:45 p.m. – Choir Performance
2:00 p.m. – Heavy Weapons/Rapier Practice

There will be the usual launching of the pumpkins towards the end of the day. So, bring a pumpkin and see it go “SPLAT” in glorious fashion. Only fresh pumpkins are allowed, no rotting ones as they are awful to try and clean up.

But I know what you’ve all been waiting for and that is the opportunity to win GLORY!!!

As the Baroness and her crafty cohorts work on specifics for the Pie Competition (and the chance for GLORY!!!). Here is what we know so far: The categories are FRUIT, VEGETABLE, and PERIOD. As always, the definition of pie is stretched to its absolute limit, all it has to be is a baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry. Whether you call it empanada, calzone, tart, Roman libum, pasty, pye, trap, quiche, tourtière, Bedfordshire clanger, or Bridie – it’s all pie. Ravioli? Pie. Piroshki? Pie. Chicken Pot Pie, even though it lacks the bottom crust? If Mary Berry says it’s pie. It’s pie. This competition is about creativity, joy, and most of all GLORY!!!

In addition to everything else, Countess Ariella will be running a fundraiser in support of the Equestrian program that Lady Gesa Wellenstein so generously started here in the Barony. This whole summer, she has been paying for replacement and construction of all jousting and mounted games equipment out of her own pocket. This fundraiser will help to reimburse her for that and any remaining funds will be deposited for future activities. If you would like to support the Equestrian program and the efforts of Lady Gesa, please bring and/or buy baked goods. There will be a table in the Great Hall with labels for ingredients and prices.

At this time, the schedule is pretty much set, but we still have some time and space available. If you would like to do something like offer a short class or coordinate some largesse-making activities (or anything else), please contact Odriana at seneschal (at) debatablelands (dot) org. For those of you who are concerned about such things, it’s a bye week for the Steelers.

As usual, no garb required, unless you really want to wear garb. We will be happy to see you regardless of your attire.

We thank Count Byron and Countess Ariella for again opening their home to us. If you’ve not yet been to the Castle, here is a link to the information website for the Castle. It’s even better in person.

If you’re on Facebook, please RSVP on the event page.

Konichiwa Debatable Lands! I’ve been debating this with myself all day, checking forecasts and so on. The temps look to be in the low to mid 30’s for most of the morning. Part of me wants to brave it and hope for the best. The other part.. where the marshal resides, is telling me it’s too cold to throw safely. If your hands go numb from gripping cold wood and steel, control becomes a problem. So with that in mind, I’m going to cancel thrown weapons for tomorrow, November 12. I’m not giving up hope to get one more practice in before the weather turns permanently, so I will keep posting about practice for a few more weeks. I’m hoping for one more warm spell.

YIS, THL Kumagaya Kentarou Masamoto, BMDL TW MIC

 

Archery Practice is on for tomorrow! Bring your coats and layers, show up early to help us make away the leaves. Highland Park 11am for Archery practice. See you there.