Richard of Salesberie, Scribe and Illuminator

 It is common in the SCA for those seeking to improve their skills in arts and sciences to become "apprentice" to a member of the Laurel Order, and Dame Leonet de Covenham kindly agreed to become my Laurel Mistress.  The process of making this reality was long delayed by COVID, but Dame Leonet asked me in the meantime to write out an indenture scroll (two versions of the same text on one sheet of parchment, which are then cut apart in an irregular jagged line, so that in any case of dispute, the authenticity or otherwise of the document can be proved by matching it up to the other copy).  This I did, and the indenture was signed and cut apart at Yule Ball. Thanks to Tom McKinnell for the photos of the actual ceremony:

  The Pelican is the highest award for service in the SCA.  The recipient of this award is particularly interested in promoting the sciences within the society, and one of her (many) interests is codes.  I knew from the outset I wanted to produce a scroll in the style of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.  Many of these included anatomical drawings, particularly of winged animals.  As both the Pelican symbol itself and the recipients arms include winged animals, I decided to portray these as anatomical drawings, and do the text in Leonardo's hallmark "mirror" writing. To my amusement and pleasure, the herald reading out the scroll did so not from the typed transcript which I had provided, but by using a mirror to read from the scroll in court! If Facebook "likes" and comments are the measure of such things, this scroll has proved to be my most popular ever, rather to my surprise.

 The Bardic Challenge for Yule Ball 2021 was to produce a piece of work on the theme of "Winter".  I looked for inspiration to the traditional symbols for each month, as used in calendars from Books of Hours and some wall paintings, and used those for the three winter months, namely: December: Killing the Pig January: Feasting indoors February: Sitting by the fire. When I came to perform my poem, the sheets of paper on which it was written had disappeared!  I was invited instead to record a performance of it, which is this: