A Pilgrimage, of sorts

I am just the kind of geek to Google the phrase "medieval village nearest me" in a fit of angst because I live in a country that has no medieval history and a girl's gotta dream, right? Fortunate for me that I did, though, because up popped Camlann Medieval Village only an hour and a half away!

There aren't many pictures on the website, which is a shame, but fortunately I found their Facebook page, and there are lots of pics there. Please go take a look -- they're pretty impressive!

After showing Dave the website and conferring about travel times and work schedules, we decided to make the trip and stay for the 12-course feast afterwards. I made sure our time-traveling clothes were clean and in good order and then felt the familiar itch in my thimble finger. Dave said a new bag ("With pockets!") would be nice to have, so I got some heavy green wool out and lined it with pale green linen. I tried a new edging technique I'd seen others do that I thought was cute, and in two evenings, Dave had a new bag.

The strap on my blue boar bag was pulling apart -- I really need to address the construction problems in that strap that make it so prone to failing -- and the braided edge on Dave's new bag was so cute that I just had to have one for myself, so I cut out a pale tan bag in a traditional shape and edged it with blue and brown. It was very quick -- only one night of stitching.

I wore my parti-colored dress with my linen cap and a straw hat to keep the sun off and felt very authentic. I even brought along my wimple and veil and some pins so I could change at mealtime and not have to wear my hat at the table.

So here we are, the very handsome couple. I seem to have inherited my mother's talent for having my mouth open in speech for pictures. I believe I was saying something about feeding the dog her dinner and we'd be home late.

I meant to take more pictures while we were there, but pulling out my camera felt weird and interrupted my relaxed immersion, so all I have to show is this snap Dave took of me speaking to the sheep.

He really was a lovely sheep. I plucked a few wild raspberries from a bush nearby and slipped them to him. This was met with happy delight and a protesting "BAAA!" as I walked away.

And this picture of my industrious man earning some groats by selling weed.

As you can tell by our happy, relaxed expressions, we had a really nice time. The feast in the Boar's Hede Inn that evening was tasty and delightful. I can't wait to go back again sometime -- and I think I'll bring a photographer along to get some good pictures for you all.