Catching Up

I’ve been quiet here for a while, mostly due to employment stuff. But that does not mean I have not been engaging with history.

Shortly after recovering from the Connecticut Renaissance Faire a few of us were lucky enough to be invited to a time line event at Higgins Armory Museum where we represented the 16th Century. Since we were in an armory museum most of our fellow reenactors had armor and weapons to show as well as some daily life props. We brought out the medical tools and charts, as well as cards, dice and other gambling games. The games and medical stuff proved incredibly popular, and made for a fun day.

Since I did not get to make a colonial gown this summer, a friend who is also a costumer came up for a day and helped me fit a colonial gown from books and images of extant gowns. I hope to have it done by January 12th, but there is a lot going on between now and then, so we’ll see how much I actually get accomplished.

We are progressing on our plans to reenact the 12th century. We’ve had a few meetings, done some research, and I’m making up the persona of an herb-wife. I get to use my herb knowledge in a reenacting setting! Now I’ve got to make some clothes, collect some kit, and do a lot more research!

I’m in the middle of a couple of Living History books and papers, and have a few more to add to the bibliography. Hopefully I’ll have time to do that soon, when I am not in the sewing room, doing some piecework for a merchant friend.

The most unexpected and exciting thing on the history front is a chance for the family to go to Israel next month. I’m hugely excited. There is soooo much history in that part of the world, I can not wait to experience a place with more human history than I have been able to experience thus far in my life. I promise to blog all about it when I get back.