Arts and Sciences on Display at Debatable Lands 12th Night

Here are photographs of more than a dozen entries in this year’s Debatable Lands 12th Night Arts and Sciences Display and Baronial Championship Competition (DL12NANSDBCC for short). My apologies if I missed your entry! Please contact me if that is the case. In addition to these excellent objects, many entries were accompanied by excellent research articles.

Alric Smith was the winner of the Championship competition and will represent the Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands at the 7 Pearls event. The Honorable Lady Lisabetta (“Bess”) de Rossi has agreed to second Smith if he is unable to attend that event.

Iris Festival Arts and Sciences

There are two Arts and Sciences activities being run at next month’s Japanese Iris Festival event (June 4, 2022 – 121 Brady’s Run Rd, Beaver Falls, PA 15010).

The first is the Iron Comet A&S Competition. The competition has no theme, and accepts all types of projects. The competition is mandatory for anyone in the Iron Comet Challenge, but it is open to everyone. Anyone can win, but only those participating in the martial competitions will receive tournament points.

The second is the Festival A&S Display. The display is also open to any type of project, but projects displaying arts of Eastern Asia are encouraged. There are no points awarded, no judging, and no winner. Please bring all your most interesting, most useful, most attractive, and most intense projects to show. Research and instruction are not required, but we would love to see any supporting documentation if you have it, and enjoy having you answer questions about your work if you’re not busy elsewhere. You can display as many items as you wish, but if you need a lot of room please consider bringing your own tables and possibly your own shelter.

Both activities will be under shelter, but this event is primarily outdoors so please be prepared to protect your entries from stray raindrops and errant breezes. By site policy, no glass bottles are allowed.

You do not need to register your entries or display items ahead of time, but if you want to send email to let event staff know what you are bringing or if you have any questions, please contact “ansminister (at) debatablelands.org”.

Missive from the Ice Dragon A&S Pentathlon Coordinator

The folks who are planning on entering special instruction categories need to contact me by midnight tonight [February 15th]:

Several categories have special preparation needs, especially this year Entrants are required to contact the Pent Coordinator before registering

These categories are:
 – Beverages
 – Culinary Arts
 – Curiosa
 – Performance Arts

They have until the regular registration deadline of March 1st to upload their documentation, etc. – today is only pre-registration to indicate intent of entering.

Everybody’s documentation and photos, etc in all categories except written word and the written part of Applied Research needs to be uploaded by March 1st.

You cannot keep finetuning your documentation and turn the final version in at the event. The judges will start looking at stuff on March 2.

Mistress Cori

Harvest Revel Update

The air is crisp, the skies are a brilliant blue, and the last of the colored leaves are just starting to loosen upon their branches. What all of that means is that it’s time for our annual Harvest Revel at the Castle (with PIE)!

The Harvest Revel will take place on 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!!!

The schedule is still being confirmed and we will be updating as things are confirmed. 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.