Hello Altavia,

We had a wonderfully busy month, with Arts, Archery and Melees.

We started off with Consorts Champion Ranged hosted by Lyondomere at our local Woodley park archery range. It was packed on the line, with tons of archers and crossbowmen. Everyone got lots of shooting in, and her majesty ended up with wonderful champions in crossbow, open hand bow and handbow. I am looking forward to the thrown weapons Championship this coming weekend at Rapier War.

We hosted Festival of the Rose, and it was the most amazing event I could have ever dreamed. We had two brand new stewards; Serafina and Cosimo step up and run this as their first ever event. They put together a wonderful staff, and had many people step forward to help with different aspects of the event from serving a donation lunch for the public, to running classes, to arts displays and a bardic showcase. A huge thank you to both of them and everyone who helped with the planning and execution of a wonderful event. Everything went wonderfully and I’m so proud of everyone who contributed.

The following weekend was Angels Melee, and it was a wonderful day to get out and fight with our friends! Altavia set up camp in the corner by the Rapier field and it was a joy to watch and see all of the different Rapier fighters fight with and against everyone else on the field. The Harnischfechten fighting demonstrations were really neat to watch and it was exciting to get to see the different forms that are available within the new fighting form. The weather was lovely and it was a great day to be out with our community.

We’re all ramping up now for wars with Phoenix War and Rapier War coming up right around the corner. I’m looking forward to the next month of wars, archery tournaments and Anniversaries.

In service to the dream,
Baroness Amabel Radleigh

Hello Altavia!

We kick-started the month off with an arts and sciences night taught by Jobanna, who taught us how to make wire woven bracelets, and shared with us some of the projects she’s been working on and learning from. It was lots of fun to make our own bracelets, and they turned out beautifully.

That weekend went straight into our joint Yule with the Barony of Angels. One of my favorite parts is always getting to celebrate Altavians, and we had a lot to celebrate this Yule!

We started off with getting to give Petrusha a Sable Fret for service within the Barony, and he was called right back for his Dolphin for Service in the Kingdom.

Sometimes people are such pillars of the community and have just about every award- and sometimes things people have long since earned slip through the cracks. We cleared up a couple of these misses this weekend, giving out two Argent frets- one to Tezar for all of the garb she has made throughout the years for her family and many others, and one to Colwyn both for his garb making and his woodworking. We have travel thrones because he made and gifted them, and I have heard many stories and seen firsthand the generosity in both of them supplying others with things they have created.

The crown also awarded three of our populace with Awards of Arms- Serafina Story, Niccola Sancta and Cosimo di Amici. I’m so happy to see them growing in our community, and am excited the see what they do next!

In the competitions of the night, Briana MacCabe was chosen as my Bardic champion and the Bard of Altavia, and Turbo won the Games Championship.

The table decorating contest was officially decided by the Barony of the Angles, but I had my unofficial favorite and wanted to celebrate Petrusha, Jobana, Serafina, Vivienne, Cosimo and Niccola as well for their wonderful table, which brought gorgeous color and Russian flair to the room.

The other big event this month was of course Coronation. Thank you to all who processed with me, and who contributed to the largesse basket and the Dirty Dozen.

A special shout out to Jobana and Brianna, who both taught different wire wrapping and weaving classes in the last few months, and some of the results of these classes went to the crown in the largesse basket. Jobana also put together a dirty dozen entry, with 6 gorgeous wire wrapped bracelets that integrated beads into the wire designs and 6 fantastic leather pouches.

A huge congratulations to Courtney of the White Meadow and Guene Annewyll on their court Baronies that were awarded.

Coronation is always such a full day of celebrations. We were fortunate to get to be there with Tezar for her Pelican elevation, and the joy and positivity throughout the day was fantastic.

This coming month we’re starting tournament season with Unbelted and Angels Melee, and we’re hosting Festival of the Rose. I hope to see many of you out there, and to get to view tons of gorgeous work.

In service to the dream,
Baroness Amabel

Hello Altavia!

I hope everyone has been enjoying a little bit of a break as we enter the holiday season.

We’ve been enjoying practices, with archery, bardic, rapier and armored continuing to be well attended as the weather starts to get cold.

We got a treat of an open Craft night hosted by Peter and Jobanna, which was a wonderful, relaxed evening of talking, learning about sewing machines and even getting a few personal wiki pages made.

Our own Yule with Angeles is this coming weekend, and I look forward to seeing many of you there.

In service to the dream,
Baroness Amabel Radleigh

Hello Altavia!

We started off the month since our last meeting with Fire and Ice, a wonderful new camping event up in Nordwache. It boasted a full slate of Thrown Weapons, Handbow and crossbow throughout the weekend. Nordwache hosted the first day of open shooting and throwing on Saturday, giving everyone ample time to practice throwing and shooting, as well as getting in some Royal Rounds both for crossbow and Handbow. We had his majesty Bjorn working on his archery marshal requirements, and he ran three royal rounds for us in the afternoon, and shot with us as well, improving his score and edging closer to Forester (spoiler, he achieved it later in the month at GWW!).

The Baron of Nordwache was a generous, amazing host, incredibly generous with extra food throughout the event, and some of the best fried rice I’ve ever had that fed probably 10 of us for dinner beyond their own camp. After dinner, we went back to the range for an amazing night shoot. Duncan put together glowing targets, lit by blacklights. They were stunning, and made for an incredible night shoot.

The second day was hosted by Wintermist, who held their Baronial championships for thrown weapons, Handbow and crossbow. Once again, the shoots were creative and fun, shooting a monster obscured by “fog” and 3 other novelty shoots. It was a wonderful weekend of ranged weapons and new and old friends.

The next weekend we had our own archery event with Agincourt, which was an amazing day of shooting with friends. This year we made the Forrester shoot into a round robin, with archers shooting head-to-head within pools, and the top 8 archers from the round robin pools progressed onto a single elimination tournament. We also had 4 archers competing in a crossbow round robin, with the top two progressing to finals. During all the round robins, his Majesty Bjorn and I battled it out each round against each other. It was a close battle, but Bjorn took the win in both handbow and crossbow.

In the middle of the day, we were able to sample the delicious offerings submitted for the Fretted Fork competition. The theme was mint and we saw a variety from delicious chocolate souffle cupcakes with mint cream topping to a mint tahini on flatbread. Caterina won the populace vote making her my Fretted Fork Champion!

After lunch, his Majesty and I took our duel into team shoots, with half the archers supporting each of us in the team novelty shoot. Bjorn led the French and I led the English. Each team took turns shooting at small marginalia snails and soldiers. In true Agincourt fashion, the English prevailed.

Alianora and Peter made it to the finals in handbow, each winning a dozen custom arrows generously gifted and made by Miguel. In finals, Alianora won at a harrowing 40m to become my Handbow Champion!

Ronan and Achillious faced off in the crossbow finals. Achillious adapted quickly to the 40m to become my Crossbow Champion. The day couldn’t have been as great a success as it was without all the help we received setting up, tearing down and running the range all day. A special thank you to my event stewards, Vivienne, who took this on as her first event to steward, and Merlin, who also acted as the Marshal of the day and came up with all of the adorable historical marginalia themed targets.

Great Western War the next weekend was wonderful, with a lively, full Altavia encampment, and friends camped all around us. A big thank you to Peter, who was the camp master and the camp cook for us this war, and who made sure that we were fed and ready to go each day for the adventures that awaited us. GWW is always such an amazing, varied event, with armored and rapier fighting, archery, volunteering, classes, vigils, parties and more. We were all at the same event, and we all came home with different experiences and memories, and I look forward to the joy of the event every year.

This last weekend, we went to Naevehjem Anniversary for Frost Dragon, and had a day of friends, happiness, memories, and far more rain than I was quite planning for. The armored and rapier tournaments were able to be brought inside to join the arts and food competitions. However, archery indoors wasn’t quite possible, so, we archers decided we wouldn’t melt, and shot in the rain all day. It was ridiculous, joyous and community building. I had a fantastic time scurrying through the rain with my fellow archers.

I’m looking forward to Medieval Marketplace, many different Yules, and Coronation in the next month.

In Service to the Dream,
Baroness Amabel