Had a lovely weekend. Saturday, the family attended Bjorn’s Ceilidh in Concordia (Albany), and any time with our Concordian friends is time well spent. I was excited to watch the Baronial Bardic competition this year. (Normally, this is done during Winter Nights, but since that event is no longer exclusive to Concordia, Ceilidh was the logical event for it to happen.) Former champions Rebekah Wallace and Lorita de Sienna both made excellent showings, but to my delight, my good friend and sometime collaborator Cedar the Barefoot carried the day with a pair of outstanding performances. (I was flattered, if a little nervous, to hear that Baroness Lylie was a bit cross with me for not competing. I hasten to assure her that, having competed once, I will compete again, and have every intention of serving my second home as bardic champion if they see fit to choose me, but this year, I’m, ah…keeping my powder dry.)
My son also made a bit of a splash during the games portion of the day, winning the prestigious pun contest. Impressive, especially as the only child in a field of adults. (The “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” comments were greatly appreciated.) And at court, we got to see some nice moments for friends of ours, as Padraig O’Riein was made a Friend of Concordia, Aife and her husband Joel were awarded the Order of the Spoon for their cooking, and Pakshalika Kananbala received a writ for the Order of the Laurel.
Then on Sunday, I got to be part of the first East Kingdom Southern Region Bardic Circle, held at Baroness Creature’s home in Iron Bog. I traveled down with Mistress Dorigen of the Grey Gate and Ingveldr Hornabrjótr, a relatively new bard. (Can I mention how awesome it is to see all this new talent joining our community?) We circled up with Mithgiladan the Herald as well as Sabine de Kerbriant and my student-sister Suba Al-Hadid (meaning we are both part of Mistress Zsof’s dependent family) as well as Ian Douglas performing some of his wonderful magic, and had several Scadians join us to be audience. We also got a special guest player from Atlantia, since Faye de Trees was able to join us (living as she does in the northmost pocket of Atlantia, she lives closer to the site than I do). We had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of performances, learning, chatting, and connecting, and I was thrilled to hear everyone agree that we will have to do these more often. No worries, we will, and we’re going to rotate them around the region so that different bards get the opportunity to attend them–I’ll probably be hosting in Paramus in January.
A good deal of driving, leaving me a bit tired even for a Monday morning. And I wouldn’t have missed any of it.
Drake Oranwood 