[Bordermarch] Eastern baronial pilgrimage

[Thelismar at bordermarch.org]

On the 16th of January m'lady Carin and I were happy to have picked up by
modern carriage HL Therese d' Ivoire...We made our way to the County of
Orange where we were accompanied by the Lord & Lady Whitewolf...We entered
the Lutcher-Stark monastery (museum) to lay eyes upon actual period
scribal books...Seeing is believing, but what seems unbelievable is the
actual size of these works...These books are only (on avg.) 5"x7" (yes
Lord Chrestien {"} means inches)...All the works dated between
1400-1500a.d....They were Books of Hours & calendars of holy days &
feasts...The exhibit goes down on the 30th of January...the show is a must
see for any scribal enthusiast...the illuminations ARE paintings in a
pseudo 2-d format but they project in three dimensional depth...the
lettering is SO small that one wonders how any person could have done that
type of work for so long w/out going blind...Then you find out that they
did not live long because they used red lead for the red in the
"paintings"...Another perspective that seeing the pieces in person gives
is that the artists'/scribes'/miniares' DID use shading to give depth &
DID try to convey some sense of realism in the work as illustrated in one
of the book's border trim illumination...The vibrance of the gold & the
depth of the hues in the colors are shocking...Let us remember that these
pieces were made 600 years ago and they look as if they were displayed @
BAM as part of an A&S project, only better...truly a must-see...If you do
miss this years expo @ the Stark do not worry...they will display more
books of hours next holiday season from november to january...Funny thing
is they don't know how many illuminated texts they have in archive...it
could be dozens or more...And, each book contains hundreds of
pages...WOW!...
     We then left the Stark "scribal-ly refreshed" & proceeded down to the
Shangria-La Nature park where we had a nice walk & sight-seeing tour
of the areas best brown winter fauna...Just kidding...The park is
very lovely in the non-brown months (MAR-OCT)...While walking through
the park & museum I did have the chance to speak w/ our baronial
herald @ great length & in great detail about "what is in a name" for
the SCA...We both agreed that Thelismar will not work because i
cannot find it anywhere before 1830a.d....But, since everyone calls
me Beau anyway & it is really a nickname & not my real name &, to
make this run-on sentence complete, I found it being used in France
in 1292...Why don't we just stick w/ Beau, but change the last name
to Delamere (of the sea) from Dumesnil???...Well, if you were not
bored before then you are now so good night...m'lord BEAU