Daily Life in the Dark Ages

This weekend we had an event here in Northern Outpost called Daily Life in the Dark Ages. It was a schola event... all classes, no fighting. We have not had an event like this here in Outpost in about a decade, and were not sure how it would go. Ended up with almost forty people in attendance... not a bad turnout, and hopefully a good start for similar events in the future. Ariana and Dalla ran the event, and had a good lineup of dark ages classes. Erland did an amazing job with dark ages food, doing dried meets, soup, cheeses, and flatbread that was just great. Christophe, as ever, put out the signs to guide people in, though nature seemed intent on knocking them back down.
I found myself in the odd position of having no responsibility for anything at the event. I was not marshaling, not event steward, not doing dayboard... it was weird. Generally even in out of Shire events, I am promised for some duty, even if it's just marshaling for inspections or doing authorization fights. This was a big switch for me.
I had a lot of fun. Having no responsibilities, I set up my trunk in a corner, and laid out some things to work on throughout the day. I had a wood carving project to putter at, and some maille that needed mending. People came by and sat, talked about what I was working on. Kadlin and I had a great time talking about wood carving... she is an excellent chip carver, and we discussed tools, and the sharpening of said tools.
I attended a class taught by Asgar, and had a good time role playing Anglo-Saxon law scenarios.

Mending maille with Gwendolyn.
Photo by Dalla

Later on, as I was sitting with Gwendolyn mending maille, and teaching her to do so, I had a thought that I would teach an impromptu class on how I wrap my winingas... the woolen leg wraps I wear with my viking gear. I know many people have problems getting them wrapped so that they stay up, so I took mine off and did a brief tutorial between other classes. It seemed to be well received, and one person suggested I do a blog post detailing my process, which I will do in the near future. Maybe a video blog...
All in all, it was a great weekend. Got to hang out in a relaxed medieval atmosphere with friends. Got to hang with my granddaughter Haley and son Snorri. It was a refreshing weekend, and I needed it.
Hoping to be at Balfar's Challenge in a couple weeks... THAT will be a completely different kind of event. :)