Jesus and Nemo go Medieval

As some of you may know Florrie has been joining the Anest-Rayot family at Pennsic War during many of her summers. Here is link in case you want to learn more about it:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsic_War

Chris has spent some time there too, but this year only Florrie went. She took Nemo and me along. We were surprised that Chris allowed us to go, as he will have to get a job as a postman if Nemo gets lost, and there is no telling what might happen to a man who allows someone to lose Jesus! 

This is what happened to one woman who lost track of people she was responsible for at Pennsic. Florrie does not like anything on her head and does not want to have to go through life (or death) with that ridiculous veil so she was very careful of us.  

Florrie and Chris’s grand daughters were delightful children and enjoyed mentoring us for our first Pennsic. They took us to some classes and made sure we experienced many of the interesting and education activities available.

For our first class we learned how to make medieval pinwheels. It was a lot of fun and they worked wonderfully!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another day we all learned to make butter.  One terribly rainy day we stayed in our pavilions playing games and making butter. Later, we made a delicious dinner, which of course included bread and butter.

The girls took a hood making class, this was judged to be very important since we were having a practically rainy Pennsic.

All of the camp kids were proud of their new hoods.

Florrie and Jess took Nemo and me to a lamp making class one night. We made our own lamps and enjoyed using them around camp.

 

Nemo and I learned about Medieval air conditioning, because when it wasn’t raining and cold it was hot and steamy.

 

 

 

 

We also had the unique opportunity of watching a knight repair his armor. Luckily I was watching over Nemo as he almost got hammered, and not by a shark!

We also had the opportunity to enjoy some Middle Eastern dishes. The Middle East holds a special place in my heart.

 

Do you see that basket and the string hanging from the handle? Well, Florrie learned both of those handy skills at Pennsic. She is proud of that basket even though it is rather wobbly. She made the string too. Most of the skills learned at Pennsic help make life there easier. Florrie has also learned to make beads using glass rods and a blow torch, how to bake bread in an open pit and numerous other medieval skills.

There are times at Pennsic when cloaks are terribly important. It can be very cold or you could run into royalty; we had to dress properly. Florrie made cloaks for Nemo and me. She let us choose the fabric. Nemo is more of a follower than a leader so he went along with my choice. I am always trying to teach people that the world isn’t black and white, but for some reason I thought these cloaks were really spiffy.

 

 

 

One day the girls decided to show us an interesting little building they had found.

 

 

I did not ask to have my palm read. Nemo did, he was told there was a silly blue fish in his future.

 

 

 

There is large market here where you can buy just about anything you need to survive in these crazy medieval times.

Pottery,

armor for the well dressed knight,

weapons,

dual purpose socks,

wagons,

and naturally, a catapult.

This is one of the girls favorite merchants, they buy their special medieval shoes from him every year.

You can buy clothes there also but our camp is lucky, practically everything the Anest-Rayot clan wears was hand made by Jessica.

Nemo and I had other interesting experiences. We got to hang out in a merchant display lording it over a medieval town.

One day we actually met His Grace; Damien was very gracious. It was an informal meeting but very important as he was on his way to prepare for battle.

A highly enjoyable event for us was sitting around the campfire making s’mores. The girls started early making sure that Nemo and I were ready.

We enjoyed our medieval experience very much and hope to do it again some time.