What a beautiful day it was. Summer fading with a lingering 73 degrees, a clear sky, bright sun and just a bit of breeze. Tiger Tavern is in full swing and this year something special as Baron Steffan ap Kennydd of Silverwing has graciously offered to sponsor a tournament in the style of a Pas d’armes in celebration of his 60th birthday. The big prize of the day was an impressively sized sapphire wire set in silver. He told me that this was in tradition of having a prize worth fighting for that began with a tournament some time ago where a pound of emeralds was the prize. A pound of emeralds! That makes me want to don some armor!

     So the tournament got under way and Youth fought Age. Youth had, well, youth on their side but Age had treachery, hehehe. As you may guess, treachery did prevail in the end however there was some relatively heavily breathing going on in treachery corner of the list. At one point, Baron Steffan even donned armor to participate. The prize sapphire was given to the One Who Fought Best and that turned out to be Lord Eloi. (My apologies, if I butchered the titling.) Other prizes were also handed out according to merits.

     So we watched the tourney for a while, visited friends and I got to spend some time instructing Milady Zoe in the use of the bow. There was dancing and games and some crazy game of chance going on within the tavern.  The food was absolutely divine. Lamb and rice wrapped in grape leaves washed down with pomegranate mead while watching a roaring fire………absolute perfection. This gentle day went all too swiftly and we ended spending the bulk of it in the woods amongst great company and great cheer. All in all, it was one of those days that memories are made of.