Kitcheny goodnesses

The Consort and I went to England the third week of September, and we saw many wondrous things, including Dover Castle. Dover was built by Henry II as a guest house (a very fancy guest house, but where else would you put a foreign king?) but the site has been of military importance since the Iron Age and has been continuously garrisoned from shortly after Hastings until 1958. Dover is really a two-day day out, because there is just so much there to see--Roman, medieval, and both WW I and WW II. Mostly we spent our time in the keep and environs. English Heritage spent several years and a substantial amount of cash to "do it up right" and to show the keep as it would have been in 1184.


English Heritage's site about Dover.

The castle kitchens. Yes, it was really that dark.

 This time, without the fake sides of meat in the way.

And the hearth.

In general, the kitchen at Dover is not a place I'd like to try and cook in. Large, certainly, but not nearly enough light or ventilation. If I had to name a place, I'd have to say the Abbot's kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey (of which there are slides but none of them scanned) which although probably smaller is much better lit and ventilated. Glastonbury was the second-richest abbey in England, the first being Westminster. The kitchen was built in the 14th century.

Really nifty panoramic view of the interior of the Abbot's kitchen at this link.

New Handout!!

The class CD for the overgarments class is up--this includes the actual text handout, all the images referred to in the text, and a whole bunch of pictures of people wearing overgarments from 13th and 14th century manuscripts.

No, I am not dead.

My hobby ate me.

[warning, SCA-ish heavy]

What happened was a) SUN on 11/13/2010 , for which I was teaching (some number of classes which may have been four), so I was busy with getting that ready. Then HSMs went and put myself and the Consort on vigil for the Order of the Laurel, and things kind of got squirrely. There was planning, and more planning, and research and more research, and then sewing, and more sewing (and a certain amount of ripping), and we were a trifle busy. Now that the elevation has happened, I can sort of breathe again. A little.

What I was planning on posting, initially, was the first installment of a 3-part article on 13th century overgarments. Now it's a 4-part, because I wasn't originally planning on including academic garments but since I've now made four of them, I really don't have an excuse not to add them.