[Bordermarch] AHSS

[Lathrop, Dave]

Greetings Bordermarch,

HE Elisabeth and I would like to express our appreciation to everyone involved in making the AHSS such a fun and exciting experience.
The autocrating Magnificence of Lord Biau combined with a whole lot of good food to eat, and some extremely intelligent Heraldic/Scribal folks really brought the whole thing together.

When I wandered into the Medieval Block Printing with modern and period tools class, Lord Phocas immediately challenged me to an engraving contest! Although I had nary an ounce of engraving experience, I accepted Lord Phocas's challenge because I wanted some of that honey he'd soon be harvesting from his bee hives.
Our teacher, Prof Xenia Fedorchenko, from Lamar University, was a most excellent teacher. She had us all using sharp pointy carving things in no time flat. I tried to con HE Therese into drawing me something that I could then carve, but she kept stalling. I knew she just didn't want to draw me anything when she kept sketching out a square with an "X" in the middle of it., and kept say, "I just can't remember how to draw anything!"
I was forced to dig deep into the gray matter and come up with something to draw. I decided to draw a dark gothic landscape depicting trees devoid of all greenery due to a recent blight. I also wanted to get in touch with the "dark period' of my childhood by including a ramshackle hay barn with a bench in front of it. The barn was set back from a seldom traveled path that meandered through the blighted forest. Not wanting to overpower the majesty of the whole scene, I used a bit of discretion where I placed the Blue Thorne Thistles.
I knew the engraving contest would be mine when I saw that Lord Phocas was carving a stick figure of a crane!
When it finally came time to lay our printed images out for review and judging I couldn't help but weep as I gazed upon my interpretation of my childhood pain; it was now immortalized in ink!
The judging was rigged!
HE Therese's inked image won the most votes!
This just proves that there is no justice, but I have to admit, her print was pretty cool.
I now take consolation in the fact that at least I did not lose to a stick figure of a crane.

HE Santiago