Orchard War IV - Hadchester

When most SCA folks have gone south to participate in Pennsic, the "bandits" conduct raids on the Royal orchards in the Shire of Hadchester.  The people there have sent forth a cry to rally and help defend the lands and the people while the bulk of the armies gather to the south.

Orchard War is held up in Union, ME and was an awful lot of fun.  We only went up for a day trip, as dogs were not welcome on site, but it was a camping trip for some folks.  The event was small and it was Brenden's first.  He thought having a Chinese persona might be interesting.  I didn't quite have time to finish his garb, but he made do with a safety orange robe in a 14th century Han style. 

Archery was a big theme of this event and they had a great range that included smaller and closer targets for kids.   A wonderful gentleman named Eric loaned Abby a bow and she and Brenden shot a few arrows at a bunny target.

They did a marvelous job of having activities for kids. There were crafting projects and a hobbyhorse race and all sorts of things.  We even got some dancing in at the end of the day. 

There was an embroidery competition as well.  Basically they gave us a small hoop a square of fabric, a needle, and a couple threads of embroidery floss.  The theme was campfires and I did a quick piece that was basically an apple with a campfire where the reflection should be.  It wasn't really enough thread to do anything super complex, and I thought the design was alright but it turns out that it took the gilded apple for best embroidery!  My first prize!

Of course, we left before they handed those things out, but it was nice to know that I won.  Yipee!