Happy Holidays, Altavia!

It’s time to celebrate with all of our Caidan friends and family. This weekend, His Excellency and I and an Altavia contingent will be heading up to Dun Or to celebrate with them. Dreibergen Yule, Lyondemere/Gyldenholt Yule, and Calafia Winter Arts are also happening this weekend. If you’re traveling to any of these events we hope you have fun and travel successfully!

The following weekend is Altavia/Angels Yule and we hope to see all of you there. Christof, Cecilia, Tomaso, and all of the other folks working on the event have a merry maritime celebration planned for us all! We can’t wait to see the decorations and garb, eat all of the wonderful food, hear all of the wonderful bardic performances, and just get to hang out with all of you wonderful people! Please remember to send us your award recommendations as we are looking forward to recognizing deserving Altavians during court that evening.

To cap off the holiday/Yule season, Coronation/Twelfth Night is happening right next door in Angels on January 4. Join us as we thank TRH Wilhelm and Tsyra for all of their hard work during their reign and welcome TRH Alexander and Tahira as Caid’s newest monarchs! Please let us know if there’s anything you’d like to contribute for the presentations for the incoming and outgoing royalty. Watch Facebook for additional details on an upcoming craft night to create feast gear bags as part of our largesse for this and other upcoming events.

Niko and I both want to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Blessed Yule, Merry Festivus, and many more happy holidays besides. Thank you for helping make Altavia a wonderland, winter, spring, summer or fall!

Yours in Service (always),
Baron Nikolaos Phaistos
Baroness Briana MacCabe

It’s November and Altavia has a lot to be thankful for! At the end of the last month, we had two wonderful events, Agincourt Archery and Thrown Weapons Tournament and the 2nd iteration of the Agincourt Feast. Both events were amazing and we want to thank everyone that came out and helped run the event, especially our stewards, The Honorable Lady Monique (Tournament) and Dame Lynnette (Feast), and our head cook, The Honorable Lady Courtney and her able-bodied crew of sous chefs! All your hard work really showed and everything was delightful and tasty! Congratulations also to our new Archery champion, Adelais, new Thrown Weapons champion, Toro, and the newest recipient of the Sable Fret service award, Lady Kendra.

This month has already seen Calafia and Naevehjem Anniversary (thank you to those who came out to those events) and this weekend should be a nice laid-back time up in Goleta for Isles Anniversary. After these events, it’s time to start getting ready for Yule season! Baron Christoph and Baroness Cecilia are plotting a merry Maritime theme for our party with our Angelic cousins and I am particularly looking forward to seeing all the nautical decorations and garb that show up for this fun event. I’m sure will be hearing more about that in a few minutes. Speaking of Yule, please get your award letter recommendations in! His Excellency and I would love to recognize many Altavians for all they do to enhance the Barony and the Kingdom!

After Yule season (and remember, you can definitely go to more than one..I’ll be attending Dun Or’s the week before), it’s time for Coronation! This time, it’s just down the way a bit in Angels. If you have items that you would like to put in the presentation for either the outgoing or incoming royals, please let me know. As always, I would love to be able to showcase items made by Altavians in these baskets.

His Excellency and I hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving with your families, blog or chosen, and a wonderful start to your holiday season!

Yours in Service to the Dream,
Baron Nikolaos Phaistos
Baroness Briana MacCabe

We started the month off with a hot time at Crown Tourney. Thank you to all the Altavians who volunteered, guarded, marshaled, heralded, reported and fought. The excitement melted our hearts and like a volcano erupted new heirs: Alexander and Tahira.

Then at Caid rapier open, Altavians we’re all over. We were fiber frolicking, heralding, marshaling, fighting and just having a great time. We had three Altavians in the quarter finals and they all fought admirably. The weather was glorious and so was the company.

Finally, Great Western War! What a wonderful week! Every Altavian we talked to said they had an excellent time! Bardic, fighting heavies or rapier, shopping, cooking, eating, archery, throwing weapons and SMORES! Every day and every night was filled with fun and laughter. So many things to do and watch. It was spectacular!

On a personal note, thank you all for the support and hugs you have given me, Niko, in these difficult days. I will be back in my feet soon enough.
Looking to the future, we have Agincourt and Agincourt Feast at the end of the month. Come on out and shoot, throw, cook and eat with us. It is sure to be a stupendous day.

Thank you all for being so Excellent!

The Baron and Baroness

Happy September, Altavia!

Angels Anniversary was a totally rad blast from the 80s past! His Excellency and I want to thank everyone that helped to set up and tear down, especially our friends in the Horsemen, Captain Cassandra de Lorraine and our Flaxen Abbey brother and sister, Eadric The-Younger and Molly Marking.

Congrats to all who were recognized for their awesomeness including the newest court Baroness Fu Ching Lan and our two new Peers-to-Be, Baroness Sophia (Laurel) and THL Garrick  (Defense)!

Congrats, also, to the victors of the day’s contests including Duke Sven for armored, Altavia’s very own Don Nathaniel Longbow for rapier, and Sehket of the Horsemen for A&S (her second A&S win and only her third event…holy wow!)

I feel absolutely re-energized about the SCA after such a lovely day! We can’t wait to see who are new heirs will be next week at Crown and to spend a full week with our chosen family at GWW!

Love you all
Baroness Briana MacCabe
Baron Nikolaos Phaistos