mid-winter lazies

I have been battling with this conflict between my need to train and my desire to curl up and dream. The man-cat, Arthur, and the kitten, Jack Jack, have been no help whatsoever in this regard.

Even if you do not follow a Pagan or Heathen belief system, you will be familiar with the very common tendency to want to become introspective and inactive during the mid-winter period. It is how we follow the teachings of the seasons, winter representing  not so much a barrenness, but more a period of lying fallow, in preparation for the birth of new ideas and inspirations.

Especially for those of us who live in more temperate climes, where hot and sunny outweighs cold and snowy, it is a difficult time. We feed our horses with the sun, and so in winter, we tend to get up later in any case, because the horses aren't even near the stables for feeding before dawn.

The point that I'm trying to make in this oddly convoluted post of mine is that it is natural to have the mid-winter lazies. It's not actually laziness, but your body's way of listening to what the world around it is doing. So don't beat yourself up about it. I'm not going to. In my area, winter doesn't last all that long in any case, so I'm going to try to train in the afternoons, instead of first thing in the morning, and give myself plenty of time to warm up and focus.

Here is an article which also gives some tips on staying motivated if you have no option but to train in the morning during winter.

Whatever you do, though, try not to rely on more coffee to get you moving, since this affects your heart rate and can also dehydrate you more quickly. Go for the hot chocolate instead, and think of me!

the aftermath

The party was awesome. We had fighting and drinking, as promised, some excellent music and most importantly, we had great people. Thanks, guys. You made it what it was. You can always count on sword fighters.(And the occasional archer).

I fell asleep on my food next to the fire. No, there is no photographic evidence. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was a very comfortable cheese and gherkin roll.

Now I have decided to make it my mission in life, while college is on holiday, to get my noobs armoured up. I've been making cuirasses from when I joined DSSC, and although some have been largely experimental - like Richard's "tube", which is made of two layers of chrome-tanned leather dyed green, with several hundred 32mm steel washers riveted between them using aluminium rivets, hand-peened - most have been historically authentic.  I will make an effort to get some pictures up of all of the cuirasses I have made, for those interested.

Josh's cuirass, a transitional 14th century coat of plates based on one of those found at Wisby, is a triumph of physics, since it uses 0.7mm stainless steel plates, work-hardened and attached to a layer of canvas. It weighs 4.1kg, and moves like a dream. He fought the champion, Marcin Waszkielis, who hit him fairly hard, and he didn't feel a thing. I was very pleased.

It took a while, though, with all of those plates, so this time, I've decided to make this:

Which is very much exactly like a kusnacht. It will be easier to make, and quicker, and this is a good thing because I have eleven of them to make. In a month. We have a training weekend this time next month, and I want all of our fighters to be able to participate. So, wish me luck.

One day, I will make an epic corrazina, like the one I saw on this guy's blog.

Maybe even with the wings... for the authenticity officers.

Does that dragon look like a stoat to anyone else?

birthday time

So the other week, we discovered that most of the guys in our sword club have their birthdays in June. Weird, hey?
We have four people on the 19th of June, and between us, three 18th birthdays this year, in June.
Go Geminis!
So I suggested that we just cut our losses and have one birthday party for everyone in the club once a year, in the middle of June, or the closest Saturday thereto. That's in two days' time.
Of course, when there is a sword party, there has to be fighting first, and then drinking. So this being the first annual birthday party, I suggested that instead of our usual round robin, bring a quart of beer for entry, we just have challenges. I said, "Make a list of everyone you'd like to fight."
Floppy's list just said, "Everyone."
Go Floppy!
Now, when we were at IMCF in Poland recently, I became very attached to a certain ash staff which formed the primary medium for my polearm. I got it from Jack of the Irish team, and I did not want to go home without it. So this necessitated that I jettison some other parts of my armour. The corrazina went to the Irish team in return. I tried to sell it to one of them, but they were having none of it, so I forced it on them instead and took off with the ash staff and a grin, safe in the belief that I would make myself another cuirass as soon as I got home.
It's not often that things go the way I plan them, and if I don't watch them very carefully, they usually go off and do the complete opposite. That is what happened with my cuirass, which still has yet to be made. I'm waiting for money to buy steel, in case you were wondering. I'm not that lazy!
In the mean time, I was wondering what the hell I could use to fight in, since I really do want to fight on Saturday, and I can't let my minions down.
Then, my thought fell upon a relic of the past: my first piece of armour. The Battle Corset.
It is a leather and steel creation that took me weeks to complete, and I made it for my first ever tournament - Dark Ages - in Joburg. I'd been a member of DSSC from the second of May, and the tournament was on the 31st of July. Neither I nor the guys had any clue as to what to do for a girl in armour, so I got a pattern for a corset off a very dear friend and made it out of 5mm thick buffalo hide. Brian, our Marshall, dished the boobs out of 1.6mm mild steel, and I glazed them with sunflower oil and about two hours in the oven at 200 degrees C.
Over the years, the Battle Corset has been left behind, firstly by my first coat of plates, and then by my full plate armour, and then finally by my corrazina. And when I looked back on it,

preparing for the IMCF Champs, I felt a little embarrassed by my first attempts because it is so very FANTASY.
But I took it out today, and put it on and looked carefully at things like gaps, areas of protection and all that stuff, and actually, if I wear it with my bascinet and scale aventail and full arms, it will probably work just fine.
Yes, it has metal boobs, which will probably get all of the minions thinking about Xena and anime characters, but as far as armour goes for the sake of protection (not so much historical accuracy), it's actually not so bad after all, and that makes me very happy.
It's really nice to meet up with an old friend again after so long and realise that what you saw in them then still holds true today.