Thursday and Sunday Harper's Pictures

So many things to post about Sunday that just a happy for today, Thursday.  When I got home from work I found that Gideon had drawn on himself.  K was rather surprised and the exchange between the two of them was rather humorous.  That is my happy for today.

Sunday at Harper's is when I made the Rapier Champion decision.  I also had to make the Heavy List decision as that was also Baroness's Choice.  Both the Rapier and Heavy List tournaments had some special twists that made them so much fun to watch and hopefully to participate in.  In Saturday's Rapier finals we chose some fun challenges, one of which involved the number three and four combatants to join in, holding K's sheep and my llama, to be guarded by the finalists and defending 'us'.  With the Heavy List there were some toy horses that were added in that the fighters got to pretend being on a steed.  Some of the fighters played this SO well and I laughed SO much.  It was glorious.  For the Baroness Champion I chose someone who I feel will represent the Barony well and who I could tell had much fun out there on the field.  They got on the play horse and hopped like he was riding and still managed to fight well. 

I hope this video uploaded correctly...

                                      

The other tournament Sunday was for the Thrown Weapons Champion.  We only get one champion to share and that goes to the winner.  We watched the finals and I must say that the final part of the competition looked hard to do.  The target was separated into four parts and the thrower was to only hit each of the quadrants once and not touch the line in the process (at least that is how I remember the rules).  Generally, when one is to hit a target it is the center that is aimed at.  The subsequent aiming is based and adjusted to better hit the same area.  In this case it is more difficult to adjust based on a previous result because the target was different each time.

There was also Baronial Court and Royal Court. 

We awarded a Tabula Rasa.

Bunnies and fun things for the children. 

I got to hold the baby while her mom announced the Bardic Awards. 

It was a good day. 

At Royal Court Gideon and two of his friends were inducted into the Order of the Tiger's Cub.

The three friends are very close and the medallions they received all joined together like a three part friend's necklace.

A husband and wife each got different awards and they each knew the other was getting it, but not themselves.  It was quite the surprise for each of them.

The love in this room today was palpable.

K received a Queen's Order of Courtesy.

Well deserved, she has been quite the supporter to many a person.

Friends! 

This beautiful woman was made a Court Baroness.

The moment was so touching.

We heard the stories of how well she knows the Queen.

We heard the stories of how much work she has done for the Queen this reign. 

The coronet belonged to the Queen before she stepped up as Princess.

The coronet originally belonged to their Pelican who died just over a year ago.

There were many tears and I wish I had better words to put here.

And another friend was inducted into the Order of the Pelican. 

And my phone battery died...

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Wednesday--Many Harper's Pictures

This is the day that I had a hard time staying awake.  Okay, I feel like I write that often.  The short power nap I took yesterday made it difficult for me to sleep last night.  Still, after work today I fell asleep, I couldn't help it.  I sat down, that is all it takes some times.  It helped a bunch today that I was able to get up and walk around a few times.  The schedule is new this year and I feel that it will take some time for me to learn it.

After work I ran errands and now I have a new pair of sneakers for work.  Ideally this means that tomorrow my feet will feel better by the end of the day.  My happy for today will be the new shoes.  After I have worn them for a day or two I will put my no tie laces on them.  I think a little bit of break in so I know that are comfortable first is a good idea though.

Okay, Saturday of Harper's Retreat there was a tournament for the Rapier Champions, the Archery Champions and the Bardic Competitions to determine the Children's Bard, Warrior Bard and Bardic Champion.   From my side of things the archery was the easiest.  The winner becomes the Baroness's Champion and the second place the Baron's Champion.  The Bardic are difficult to choose because it is a performance art.  There are no targets to hit or opponent to strike down.  For the bardic we had a team to help decide though.  It didn't fall on just one person to make the decision.  There was a rubric that we used to help score them, we talked about it and came to a mutually desirable champion.

The rapier though...  I decided to do Baroness Choice as I was told other Baronesses have done in the past.  It was SO HARD.  Our scribe was not happy that it took me until Sunday to make up my mind who my champion would be.  I really like the person who came in second place and it would have been very easy to choose him.  He had a good day on the field, or he wouldn't have come in second.  There was another that did well but also added a bit more flourish and enjoyment to the sport that stood out to me and so she became the Baroness Champion.  It was such a hard thing to do.  I'm happy with who I chose, but kind of wish I could have picked them both. 

There was a Royal Court on Saturday as well.  I was not able to take any pictures.  There were some very well deserved awards and some gorgeous scrolls.  One very special award was knitted and embroidered for someone who is a knitter, spinner, crochet, etc person.

Rapier Pictures and Surrounding Area.

Archery!

From the Feast.

Bardic... Long day, my phone battery died.

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Back to School--Some Harper's Highlights

First day with students and I am reminded how hard it is for me to learn names.  It is even harder because I don't have east access to things like an attendance list.  I imagine that I will have most of them down in a month or so.  One of the new things for this year are some classes that are combined with kids from all three grades.  I thought I made a mistake when I walked in and knew most of the students from last year!  My happy for today is getting back to school and the kids.  The first week is lots of organizing, getting into good routines and learning about the students.  One of last year's students greeted me coming in and we talked about the book they were reading.  In one class summer stories were shared, in another what books they like to read.  It should be a good week.


Friday the 30th of August-

Since sleep will continue to be an important part of my life when I have work the next day I am going to highlight the Harper's things a little each day over the next few days.  So, Friday is the day I arrived.  Some things that I didn't put into that blog is that I kind of made a scroll with K's help.  It didn't end up being presented, and it may still go out, but I am going to post a picture anyway because there is no name.  This is an IOU scroll and I am considering making more, because it was fun. 

The car was all packed with my loom on the front seat with K and my avatars by my side.  I decided that they could weave for me on the ride.  This was shortly after the silliness of the scroll and kind of set the tone for the silliness of the weekend.

Friday evening gabbing with some friends. 

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Labor Day

The event has ended and I have done very little writing for it.  Tomorrow is the first day of school where I am a para-educator and so I am again choosing sleep over writing.  It has been a long wonderful weekend and I need to be awake and alert in the morning.

Since yesterday evening I have been noticing more and more insect bites or hives or something.  My happy for today is being home and able to shower and to sleep in my own bed.  Tomorrow, after work, I hope to write about the event and post some pictures.

Sunset today.

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Harper's Sunday

Choices are hard.  Right now the choice is to not write anymore than a happy because I need sleep.  So, happy things are:

• seeing people get awards.
•  Gideon and his friends getting their awards of Tiger's Cubs.
•  this one may seem strange, but ladies who are willing to help me dress and undress myself with these Italian clothes.
• kindness.

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Harper's Saturday

Little did I know how much enjoyment I would get out of watching the tournaments today.  The Rapier Tournament was a blast.  We met new people and watched them bring some of their best fencing onto the field.  K and I were able to help pick some of the weapons forms and have fun with that.  We let some of the fighters take the field with our stuff lamb and sheep, which represent 'us', while others fought to protect us.  There was much laughter and watching this is one of my happy things for today,

It has been a long day and the internet at the cabin is pretty much non existent,  The other tournament was the Archery Tournament  The person designed it to be fun and it was fun to watch, if my arm wasn't bothering me I would have borrowed someone's gear to shoot for fun,  This is also a happy for today.

The last competition that was today was Bardic,  This was the difficult one.  It is much harder in my opinion to judge a performance art.

It was a very full day with many happy things:  feast, beautiful stars at night, children's fighting, thrown weapons, performances, awards.

Sorry for all the typos etc--just posting so I can do the thing.

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