[Elfsea] My first experience

Lisa Duke arabella at elfsea.net
Thu Oct 31 22:10:21 PST 2002


Wow what a great memory.

Then Lady Tanwyn and Ceinwen and I were Girl Scout leaders.  She was telling
us all about this thing she did on the weekends.  I, the lover of all things
camping, decided to go camping with her.

She arranged for me to get some garb from Kamile, who was the Hospitaler at
the time.  (I miss seeing she and Eddie)  I thought it was great they loaned
me clothes so I made it a point to share my alcohol with her.

This event was held at the Burleson site, on a hill.  (I hated that hill)  I
brought all my camping gear and we hooked our tents together.  I did some
furniture lashing and hung huge banners around our camp.  (It was the Celtic
Camp I found out later.)  I had brought some cut flowers to decorate or
camp.  Since I didn't know anybody I worked a lot and did what I was asked
to do, anything to keep myself busy.  Dig a fire pit, hang this, put this
there.  Stella had made some stones for Stone hinge, and some scary paper
mache heads on big sticks, which I thought, was a little weird, but I was
open-minded.  I found out later she was made a Laurel that night; the stones
were for her vigil.

Tanwyn told me ahead of time she would probably leave me to my own devices
from time to time, which she did.  But introduced me to Averial and Fritz.
I saw this huge Viking tent go up. (It was Reignleif and Tor's)  That I
thought was very cool.  Averial answered a lot of my questions, as did Mara
of Rede.

Tanwyn took me to court and didn't understand anything of what I was
hearing.  But the idea of a King and Queen and Baron and Baroness was
wonderful.  Court was by firelight.  It was very magical.  (I found out it
was Xene's and Llywellyn's investiture. This was to be Mikael and Mikaela's
last reign.)  She explained everything to me but I can't say I remember
anything.

I sat at the campfire and listened to stories, a bard came by.  I drank
some; I watched Tanwyn and Eddie howl at the moon.

At one point I was alone walking from camp to camp and was standing near the
drainage, which was lit by home made tiki lamps.  There was a nip in the air
to the point you could see your breath.  Cloaks were needed.  It went down
to about 40 that night.  I stood there in the dark between 2 camps, there
was a fog beginning to form in the low spots, seeing my breath, feeling the
cold and seeing campfires at a distance. I imagined I was in England.

The next morning while I was packing up, Mara of Rede (boy do I miss her)
came to me to thank me for all the work I had done in helping to set up the
Celtic Culture camp and handed me a bracelet.  "This is a thank you for all
the work you did.  It's the beginning for your garb and I hope you come
back," she said.  This woman who I don't know and just met was giving me a
piece of jewelry.  (Largess is very important.  People really buy things to
give them away?)  She gave me a big hug.  I was hooked.

That seems so long ago, only 6 years.
HL Arabella de Montacute







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