This lovely photo is courtesy of Andrew Fraser, who visited my display over the Abbey Medieval Festival weekend.

To the right, a sample of healthy things- tooth powder, tweezers, scissors for cutting hair, combs and mirrors, hair powder, etc then the bath, the lavarbo and myself. Keeping clean has never been so informative!

I did manage to print out all my shrine signs ready for laminating and make and print the Random Medieval Advice Generator pieces, so I'll be able to cut and laminate those today.

The idea is, it's a lucky dip of medieval quotes and advice which will be rolled into little scrolls, and after people visit my Medieval Hygiene and Bath Display, they can try their luck and get some medieval advice for themselves to take home. It'll be random, so some of the advice will be suitable, and others, hilariously not.

It's a fun, free activity and I think it'll go down well! Of course, there will be a sample book nearby, should anyone want to buy a book to take home too!

And this is what I need the cheeses for! I want to have some lovely food on the bath board for the photo booth, but they need to last the day and the fingers of curious children!

Well, it's that time of year again, when I'm planning the Abbey Medieval Festival Opening Ceremony and the clothes and accessories that go with it.

It needs to be sort of the same elements, but the details changed up so the performers need only a very little rehearsing time and the audience gets a different performance each year. This year, the main character won't be Lady Chivalry, as often is, it will be Love. Often in medieval books, feelings are personified as people, so this year, Love.

I had planned to use my niece as she's 20 but the size of a small teenager. Dressed all in white with a crown of roses, she would have made a wonderful Love, but she's several months with child now, and is unable to convincingly play the shy maiden character. I have a replacement maiden, who is absolutely stunning, but much taller and a different shape, so I now need to hastily make her an outfit.

The props I'll need this year (which fellow Ex Libris Living History fellow-member, Vikki will be helping make) are:

• gown for Love to wear- basic shape but fitted.
• rose crown
• rose crowns for both her guards
• banners with crowned hearts on them for her guards
• script for the compare
• scripts for the choreography

It isn't that much really, but I have a number of other projects to finish and a kitty sitter to sort and transport to the event to sort too and the clock's ticking!

I think this has to be my favourite photo from this year so far. Taken from behind the castle after the Festival Opening Ceremony and waiting for the participants to arrive around the back for the Grand Parade so i can collect their bits and pieces from them.

Photo by Fiona Brown.

The Abbey Medieval Festival was great fun. Here's the round up:

My helper girls were all pretty fantastic. Two had not been before and were full of the wonder of seeing it all for the first time- the Jousting, the Turkish oil Wrestling, the Trebuchets, the Knights... they skipped in and out of the tent and had a great time!

Here's Alicia, doing just that!


Book sales were phenomenal for me, and I sold out almost completely on the first day and had to ask someone from Brisbane to bring more the following day. This led to a comedy of errors where my cat sitter hadn't left the keys where he should and the person couldn't get inside without a detour to pick up the keys. Not a big drama, but I was trying to conserve my phone battery, so that was annoying.

The giveaway with the secret word was a ton of fun and was won by a very excited patron.

My talks on Medieval Women's Secrets was well received with not enough seats but keen listeners sitting on the grass.

My Grandbabes visited the festival in costume! He as a dinosaur looking very dragon-y and she as a little llama. I'm to make costumes for next year and I can't tell you, I'm excited about that!

The Opening Ceremony was well received by the audience and the CEO of the Museum who hadn't seen it yet, so that was a relief. All the props I made for it were lovely and did what they needed to do.


I wasn't able to see any jousting myself, but was excited that friends made it through to the final and a lady jouster won overall for the weekend. Lady Elizabeth was completely amazing! She's in red in the top photo. (both photos by James Niland)


Thankfully, it didn't rain, so my wet weather prep for the weekend wasn't needed and everything stayed nice and dry. Heavy overnight dew on the last night meant having to allow the tents to dry before pack up on Monday.

Tania who did my cover art swung past the tent and we got a few photos together. I'm looking forward to the workshop tomorrow to brush up my skills.

Shadiversity I've already talked about.

Good fun had by all. Of course, people in my tent and in camp have come down with Covid and my ex was a twit, but more about him later.

Here we see the culmination of three of the projects I have been working on for the Opening Ceremony of the Abbey Medieval Festival 2022: The Shield of Valour, the Mantle or Temperance and the Crown of Chivalry.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how it looks on him, and I'm super pleased with this photo by Adamare Creations who captured me bestowing the crown on our lovely Sir Richard Sheffield.

The entire Opening Ceremony went really well, with laughter where it should have been, seriousness where it should have been, lots of colour and a great Lord Herald narrating. It was a huge amount of work to organise, but on reasonably short notice, I'm pleased at the feedback. The CEO and Director of the Museum were both delighted, so that's what matters.

Further posts and photos of the event to follow... lots happened and much was extremely successful.

I'm making some bright blue silk flags for the opening ceremony also. These will attach to the Castle Guards spears to provide a festive feel. They'll also be wearing flower crowns, which I haven't told them about yet.

Won't that be nice?