I've posted before about the amazing virtues of Aloe Vera. It's the only face cream you ever need unless you like blemishes or skin problems. Just put it on at night, EVERY night, and you'll thank me in a month. Yes, you can use the green or clear "goo" you get at the pharmacy for sunburn for this.


But that's not the reason I'm posting today. I want to talk about the amazing healing properties of fresh aloe vera. I've been practicing my own medicine. I burned my thumb pretty bad on a microwaved frozen lasagna dinner fresh outta the microwave last night. Yeah, I knew better, but I forgot and did it anyway.

Now, normally a burn like this will be blistering up pretty good in the near future. But I decided to act fast. I grabbed an ice cube from the freezer and held it on as long as I could stand it. But I was baking so halfway through the cube was about it. I figured this should help, since applied immediately. Halfway through my baking, my thumb began to feel like it was on fire. A prickly, burning, tingling fire.  Oh no, I thought to myself! That's it, this one's going to be fun tomorrow. I wanted to do something right away for the pain so I went to the bathroom and grabbed the Solarcaine which did help....for about 2 minutes. Keep in mind this is just a pain killer, not an actual treatment.

So what do you treat burns with? Aloe Vera. Right. So I grabbed a chunk off a leaf from one of my plants in the kitchen and squeezed it on, and wrapped a mongo bandaid around it to keep the stuff on there. At this point I just wanted to start healing treatment and let it burn and blister as it would, as I expected already by then. I left the bandage on until bed time when I decided a fresh round would be in order. Much to my surprise, it was already healed....! Just several hours ago it was a red stinging mess.  And now, rubbing it, it barely felt sore along one side, and you certainly couldn't tell it had been burned. Granted, it was only of the first degree, but still.
*They say you should apply it several times a day, and should always cool the wound off before applying it.
*They also say you should not use ice, but cold tap water.

So you tell me, does aloe vera work, or does it work!

• Step 1, come up with some ideas. Look through the Herald's book for some things you might like. You can also look around online at the website.  Names here, armory for devices here.
  I "scanned them into computer" by taking some little phone pics that I put in the computer to work with.
• Have no idea where to start? Chat with your group's Herald first and foremost! They're there to help you with this, after all.
• Step 2, flip through the Heraldic primer to see how your ideas might work up. Think on how to put them together in a way that you find visually appealing.
  I went through several variations as I worked out what I might want.
• Step 3, draw it on paper. See how it looks.
  Or do it digitally in the computer if you can and want; I enjoyed doing mine that way.
• Step 4, Now talk to your local herald or other friends who are interested and able to see what might be right or wrong needing adjusting. Names and Devices must not break certain rules.
  Friends who have gone through the process before, especially those who have previously or are interested in the future in holding the Herald's position are good go-to folks for this in addition of course to your group's own current Herald, never instead of. ;) But it can help your Herald out if you have some ideas thought up and worked out a bit, once you get ready to start moving forward in a submission process.
• You will need to have the right proof for names, and the right emblazon or wording written out for your device.
• Search your device and name online, once you have the wording down, to be sure there are no conflicts.
• When you are ready, fill out the submission papers! Your group's Herald will help you with this. If you want you can print off the submission forms from online.

I learned to play Tarot from Darcy on one of our Medieval game nights. I enjoyed it and wanted a set of my own! I liked how Darcy took a deck and scanned/printed them off to use for class and it helped me think of a way to get my hands on a set for cheap. I just took a book about tarot cards that explains them and portrays one card per sheet of paper, and was in color, and then I cut them out of the book!
Voila!  Well, not quite. I didn't want writing from the book on the back of the cards, plus I wanted them to be stronger like a real deck would be. And what deck doesn't have something on the back so you can tell up from down, and just make them look cooler?

So I made use of the nifty tree paper stamper which I had found and also bought when Adelaide had pointed out the awesome raven one to me at Jo-Ann's.

Today I have taken the plantain herbs I picked, cleaned, and placed into oil, out of their oil. Now the oil is infused with all the wonderful properties of the plant. The benefit of this is not only providing a means through which to use the plant other than edible, but also to preserve it in a way that provides year-round useage.

In Medieval days, we would know through our instincts and basic knowledge of observation that soon now the Winter will be upon us. The days are still mild and fair but this will not last for long. While during the Spring and the Summer and even on into the Fall, fresh plants may be picked and prepared anytime they are needed, this is just not so during the Winter. Some plants are also best used at certain seasonal intervals so preservation is crucial for extending the usage of these, as well.

I should know how messy this will be before beginning; I open the two pint jars and they smell strong, somewhat like pepperoni. So I know it's going as it should, haha.  I pour the jars over into a muslin cloth over a container to catch the oil and gently squeeze all the oil through from the plants. Now I can place this into a nice sealed jar to use!

What is the SCA? I almost like to call it a club. A Medieval club. It's a club that gets together once a week to hold regular meetings and conducts regular group business.

But really, it's more than that. You might also consider it to be a living historical society. That's really a lot closer. But, I think of it as even more than that. We are not just portraying history like some museum staff who is dressing the part, talking the talk, and acting out the activities that the actual time period would have been participating in.

I consider the SCA to be a more encompassing society. After all, it's a part of the very name itself: the Society for Creative Anachronism. This society focuses a lot of time and effort on research and re-creation, of course. Many people refer to the SCA as a game we play, when participating in SCA activities. It's because we set time aside for events where we completely immerse ourselves in the lifestyle. The Creative part comes in from how we weave the past into the present. That's what puts the Anachronism in the society: it's a time that's out of place, because we completely insert the best parts of the past right here into modern times! ;)

The Royalty among our ranks hold court sessions at our events where folks are acknowledged with awards and recognition for their contributions to the society. Classes are taught on a variety of topics, and battle tournaments are held where fighters fight in medieval fashion both for recreation and to fight for the Crown position. A feast fashioned after what any one of the many medieval era localities would have presented are enjoyed at the end of the events. All of this takes place while wearing period-specific attire, of course, including the battle gear on the fighting fields.

But don't fear: the battle is safe. You won't see the heavy fighters wielding real metal swords at you! We aim to re-create the battle, but not the actual slaying of opponents. Rattan wood is used instead so that fighters can still land what would have been the killing blow without yielding the same results! Rapier fighters use safety guards on the end of their pointed weapons to prevent running their opponents through. And thrown weapon and archer participants only launch their projectiles at still targets. Of course, everyone wears proper protection while doing these things. Fighters must also be inspected and qualified before they can fight.

During Wars, archers actually do get the capability of assailing the opposing side with arrows, but they are designed once again for safety. We'd like to keep each other around to have fun with again later, after all!  Yes, that's right: we also re-enact battles. You may have previously seen or heard of civil war re-enactors. This is somewhat similar, but of course instead is medieval war. We do not aim to duplicate wars of the past, per say, but rather instead, to re-create the style and maneuvers that would have been used.

But it's not all about fighting, even if that is a big area of interest, particularly to, but not exclusively to, the guys! There are as many activities to get into as you could find the time to participate in. You can learn about ways to make things and do all sorts of interesting things by attending classes or from talking to members of such groups (guilds), or perhaps from the internet. (One excellent source of topics is Stefan's Florilegium where emails about many things are archived.) http://www.florilegium.org/

One of the other ways we live the history is by creating a Persona to "play" as. Some people prefer to keep this at a very simple level, while others delve into it far deeper. It's up to each individual how they choose to go about it, of course. The main thing that is required is to dress appropriately for events, always making an attempt to wear medieval clothing and not mundane. When at large events like wars you may find more specific rules in areas such as campgrounds who will only place true period (in appearance) tents around the front instead of "mundane" ones which are hidden in the middle.

One of the fun parts of persona in the SCA is heraldry. Each person is encouraged to come up with a medieval name and device which is used to identify themself throughout the society. A person might decide to model some or all of their medieval attire and/or hobbies based on when the persona they've created would actually have existed in time. For example, "what would this woman of early Welsh origin have done in her life? What crafts can I do that would be things maybe she would have done? What clothing would she have worn?" Those are a few things I might look at when going this route. Or, I might just decide to study whatever interests me right now, not necessarily creating a full persona to follow, only using the name. It's really up to you how you "play" the "game" and whatever you find appealing. But I will say that it's highly encouraged to at least come up with a "period" name to go by. If you don't, you might find yourself tagged with a funny name based on some wacky event that occurs! ;)

Of course it is not ever required to pay in order to participate with the SCA; coming to meetings and fighter practices is free of cost. There are costs for each event (the calendar for each Kingdom's events can be found on each Kingdom's website -- such as Meridies, right here http://www.meridies.org ). There is an annual membership fee which may be registered in order to receive reduced cost to events and to participate in a few additional things. But spectators are always welcome, of course! In fact we frequently provide Demonstrations to share our interests with others who might find participation to be of interest as well.
Because the SCA has become so large, it is broken down into regions. Please click here for an excellent Known World map! You can see that the SCA is world-wide.
This, for example, is a map of my kingdom, broken down into the various Shires and Baronies and such located within this Kingdom. But you can find your local group here.
This is a rendition of that Meridies kingdom map that I overlaid with the symbol for each group, based on an existing map:






















This is a brief summary of what the SCA is all about, from my perspective! It's only very brief. There is so much more in-depth about each area, but this is a broad overview.


~Aranwen Ridhelic, Chatelaine for the Barony of Iron Mountain
(Called Aranwen of Willow Ford)

A Welsh woman from around 1200....

... I now have received the paint, and picked up some fabric.... oh yay, ready to get started on the next phase, soon.....

So, I had some oranges leftover from the goodies I started preparing tonight (pictures once they're done...). So I decided to start trying to prepare some candied orange peels again!  Except with orange peels this time, and not lemon.  Hah.  I guess I'd better start myself a reminder timer so I don't forget them EVERY NIGHT for NINE DAYS, now...... yeesh!