Housesitter - A Story by Lord Séamus Blær de Maxwell

Once there was a mousy little woman who lived in Garland. She came to believe Garland to be a suburb of a particularly cheerless hell. So she got a better job, saved her money, and found a little house in the magic land of Lakewood. Lakewood is part of that broad urban belt that girds the tiny downtown of Dallas, Texas from the subhuman suburbs. The house she found was a cozy little dwelling with pale brick walls, witchy meadows instead of lawns, a red Spanish tile roof, and a round green door like the door of Bag End.

Missives From The Baronage To The Populace

Konnichiwa & Greetings to the Populace,
We look forward to seeing the Populace at the Collegium to be held in Cyddlain Downs on Saturday, July 17th. This is always a FUN Event! There will be a Court during the Lunch break, that's right, a Food Court!

Nottinghill Coill is one of the four Principle Baronies at this years WoW X! We are Allied with Hidden Mountain against Black Diamond & Highland Forde. Please plan to attend and support the activities at WoW X. M'Lady.Kaete McDavid (Kathleen Harris) is Our Baronial Land Agent this year. Please register soon and watch for activities and ideas to enhance our Baronial Camp.

As always We remain, In Service to the Dream,
Takeda & Ariel
Baron & Baroness of Nottinghill Coill

Flight Of The Falcon - August 22

Flight of the Falcon, a Newcomers' Event
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Hosted by the Canton of Aire Faucon in the Barony of Sacred Stone, Kingdom of Atlantia, SCA, Inc.

Tournament Day in a Medieval Town

Persona of the Month: Cian Mac Ceallachain Uí Dubhlaich

Being a card carrying member of the SCA is always fun. It's even better when you hear stories about people that you have yet to meet. One of the first people I was fortunate to meet was Lord Cian Mac Ceallachain Uí Dubhlaich from Nottinghill Coill. Cian is our current Triton Herald, the head of the Kingdom's College of Heralds that supervises both field and court heraldry, along with making sure names and devices are processed in a timely manner. To start a new series of articles, I had asked Cian about his SCA career and a few other questions. This month's Persona of the Month goes to Cian!

A New Theater Group Emerges!

I've caught word that Gavin Reynes has started a group to encourage the study and/or practice of period theater in the Barony, including our Cousins from Hidden Mountain and other baronies and branches of the SCA that might be interested.

With all aspects of medieval theater up for discussion, there's also encouragement of the actual practice of theater, perhaps presenting plays at events in Nottinghill Coill and possibly across our borders. He has also created a Facebook group to help coordinate, post research, and share the love of an art.  [Link opens in new window]

I would like to encourage everyone to take a look and absorb what they can from this, thus expanding the large spectrum that the SCA offers.

-Tristan The Wanderer

From The Pen Of Your New Seneschal

Greetings to the Barony and all of Her Friends. I am Dame Morwenna Trevethan and, as of July 1, I have the privilege and honor to begin serving as Nottinghill Coill's latest Baronial Seneschal.  My thanks go first to Their Excellencies, Takeda and Ariel, for allowing me to take on this office.  Next, thanks to Lord Olaf who quietly and competently has overseen the administration of the barony for the past several years.

One thing I would like to bring about is more interaction among the cantons and their officers.  We are fortunate to have five thriving cantons which do a good job of promoting and running themselves.  I will do whatever I can to ensure that this continues and even improves.  However, we also have a challenge, and that challenge is distance.  Nottinghill Coill is one of the largest baronies in the kingdom, in terms of area.  That fact alone makes it difficult (but not impossible) to hold inter-canton gatherings.  We also have a challenge of navigation:  a lack of highways that easily connect our cantons. If you live in Cyddlan Downs it's not hard to get to any of the other cantons.  But trying to get to Brockore Abbey from St. Georges, for instance . . . it's a very long trek.  I can't change these two facts, but I'm willing to consider all sorts of ideas to foster more group contact, especially (but not exclusively) among the officers of the Barony and the cantons.

If ever you have a comment, suggestion, gripe or grievance, please call me or send me an email. The only issue that I can't help resolve is the one I don't know about. I look forward to meeting many of you at Nottinghill Coill's Collegium, Southern War Practice, or War of the Wings. Until then I remain

Yours in Service to the continued good Health of The Dream,

Dame Morwenna Trevethan

Recipes From The Wooden Spoon

Cous Cous is to Turkey as rice is to Asia. Long have they used cous cous, as it is easy to pick up and eat with the hands, and holds flavor well; it is also less expensive than rice (being a pasta).  According to the anonymous thirteenth-century Hispano-Muslim cookery book "Kitab al-tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus, “Cous cous is a staple food in the Maghrib that requires very little in the way of utensils for its preparation. It is an ideal food for both nomadic and agricultural peoples. The preparation of couscous is one that symbolizes "happiness and abundance…" * This recipe is based off a traditional Moroccan recipe (sans the nuts) and a chicken cous cous dish that I grew up with.

Tavuk Cous Cous ile Sebze (Chicken couscous with vegetables)

1 c French couscous

3-4 thighs, de-boned and cut into bite-sized pieces

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 carrots minced

½ c chopped spinach, (if using frozen) thawed and drained

½ c sweet peas

1 small onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

½ c golden raisins

½ chopped dried apricots

Spices = ¼ to ½ tsp each to taste

            Grains of paradise, ground

Cinnamon, ground

            Celery seed, ground

            Caraway seed (opt) ground

Lemon rind, julienne (opt)

Chicken stock/broth, about 2 cups

Salt and pepper, to taste

Olive oil

Heat a dutch oven and add 1 Tbsp olive oil and quickly sauté onions, garlic, carrots and a pinch of salt until lightly browned. Remove and set aside. Add 2 Tbsps olive oil and reduce heat to medium. Meanwhile mix the spices, salt and pepper with the chicken and brown the pieces in the dutch oven. Remove and add about ½ cup of the stock to deglaze the pan, then return the chicken, chickpeas, peas, spinach, ½ the golden raisins, ½ the apricots and the onion mixture. Stir to combine, cook 10 minutes and add 1 cup of chicken stock (or broth). Bring to a boil and pour cous cous over the top of the mixture as well as the remaining raisins and apricots. Cover tightly and reduce head to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes (no peeking). Cous cous is done when it is puffed up (about double it’s original size). Fluff the cous cous and serve. Grilled pita goes well with this.

What Brought You In?

Now that I've had a chance to sit down and hash some things out, I surely hope the new face of the Quill is as appealing as it was before if not even moreso.  Times have changed and while a good deal of most posting happens on the Facebook pages,  That aside, I rather enjoy having a place where they can all go together without too much hassle of being drowned out in the various posts that happen on the Baronial or Canton pages.  Be honest, sometimes it's hard trying to find that thing that someone sent you.  That's what this is for.  To find that thing that they sent to you, and a rather nice collection of things it is.

That being said, I'm going to take your time a bit longer and give a question to ask yourself:  Why'd you join up with the SCA?  It's one of the questions for the Persona of the Month column and sometimes a very common question to be asked by Newcomers or new friends.  I myself ask it every now and then, which usually ends up with some fascinating stories proving that there's never a dull moment in what we do.

There's an upcoming event towards the end of August that's going to be riddled with Newcomers and I expect to have a good number of questions asked and answered.  What we do seems new and strange to the mundanes and it's up to us to show that the SCA isn't just some silly game of dress-up and fighting.  There's plenty to do, from heraldry and fiber arts to wood-burning and metal casting. There is literally something for everyone in what we do.  And the worst thing you could do is not try it.  So if you plan on going to Flight of the Falcon, I hope to see you there.  And think about those stories that always start out with "Seriously, there I was..."  Because it was stories like that that brought me into the SCA

In Service,
Tristan The Wanderer