To Valhalla! (Or The Afterworld Of Your Choice)

The Canton of Lightwood is no more! After much thought and consideration, the founders of the Canton, Her Serenity Baroness Adelindis filia Gotefridi (Liz) and The Honourable Baron Karl Faustus von Aachen (Eric), are sad to announce that the Kingdom Seneschal approved their request to properly close the Canton of Lightwood. Why? Two reasons: time and energy. They didn’t have enough of either. Both suffered COVID recently, and are not fully recovered; thanks to Long COVID, the gift that keeps on sucking, it may be quite some time before they are. The time required to maintain and expand an SCA …

Hibernation

If you’re wondering where Lightwood has been lately and what’s going on with the Canton, here’s the news. The last few years of bushfires and plague have been difficult ones for everyone. Here in the Huon Valley, everybody knows someone who has had to close a business or move away because it wasn’t possible to keep going with no tourism income and frequent supply chain disruptions. In the middle of all trouble like that, leisure activities always take a back seat, and that’s worse when the leisure activities involve social interaction during a time of social distancing. As a result, …

Lightwood’s Plan

On Sunday 30 May, we had a lovely brunch at DS Coffee House Cafe and met some locals who are interested in helping us get Lightwood going again. We now have a plan! Friday 4 June from 7pm join us at Kraken Hall (in the Hobart showgrounds) for the monthly heavy tournament. Meet some more medieval people and see a bit of how the wider Barony operates. Also present: the new Brewers’ Guild. Garb: not required. Cost: $2 for hall entry, $10 adult/$5 minor non-member insurance fee. Sunday 6 June from 10am we’ll go in convoy to Kraken Hall for …

Not An Event: The Future Of The Past

After some time in hibernation, during which a Plague came upon all the lands of the Known World and beyond, the Canton of Lightwood is planning to wake up and start doing stuff. There’s just one problem: there’s hardly any of us left! So rather than carry on with just our small group of friends and family, we think it’s time to invite new people into the fold.  And if you’re reading this, that means you! If you live in the Huon and would like to be part of the Canton, which means getting to do medieval things and dress …

The Royal Picnic

Did you hear the news?  Every six months (when Plague isn’t messing with our schedule) we have a Crown Tourney, and after a short time the winner and their consort are crowned King and Queen of Lochac, which is the Kingdom covering all of Australia and New Zealand.  The Shire of Bordescros (Albury/Wodonga) held a Crown Tourney recently, and for the first time in history the winner was an Ynys Fawrian — a Tasmanian!*  His Royal Highness Sir Guillaume d’Oze and Her Royal Highness Mistress Miriam de Mont Noir will be crowned King and Queen in May in Melbourne, but …

Happy (Re-)Birthday, Lightwood

And so it came to pass, amidst portents of plague and misery over all the Kingdom, that the Canton of Lightwood uttered an invitation to the people of the land, that they may come to the Palace of the Franks on the banks of the mighty River Lightwood, there to feast and make merry in a responsible, socially distanced fashion in accordance with custom and law. And the people took up the invitation, and lo! There was a feast! So, yeah… The last Saturday of November in the Year of the Society, Anno Societatis LV (2020), Lightwood woke from its …

So I Booked For The Feast… Now What?

If you’re used to dealing with big public events like the Willy Smiths Mid Winter Festival, or medieval faires like Ren Faires and the Sheffield Medieval Festival, then an SCA feast will be a lot different. We’re not putting on a show for the public — we’re inviting the public to join us in a feast. Big difference!  Here’s what you need to do. Paying for booking Under the SCA’s COVID-19 rules, we can’t physically handle money.  That means paying entry at the door isn’t possible.  Instead, you can pay using direct deposit or PayID.  To avoid certain kinds of …

Ninth Birthday Newcomers Feast

After a year of hibernation, during which a Plague has struck the world, the Canton of Lightwood is returning to life and activity with a Newcomers Feast to celebrate our ninth birthday on Saturday 28 November at the Franklin Palais in Franklin, from 4pm until around 9 or 10. Whether you’re a complete newbie or an old hand at medieval re-enactment, you are welcome to come along and join in the fun! The prices are deliberately low, because we know times are lean.  For $12 per adult or $6 per child under 18, you can share the company and camaraderie …

I Made A Box!

On a typically blustery July afternoon, the Canton’s highly unconventional Arts & Sciences Minister The Honourable Lord William de Bonnay conducted a highly unconventional Arts & Sciences class: power tools, wood glue and lots of chat: we made wooden boxes! Lord William is one of the founding volunteers at The Doghouse, the all-genders “men’s shed” at GeCo, so he was able to get us in to try our hand at making a simple bit of woodwork. The result looks not half bad, and we hope to have more such afternoons in future.