Phew! June was an exciting and, yes, hectic month for everyone. Finally, even with Pennsic looming on the horizon, I've had a chance to sit down and drop you all a note in the form of The Raven Roundtable. I wish I could have written everyone sooner, but better late than never! Several things have happened that are worth mentioning.

The foremost amongst them was the death of my maternal grandfather Robert Woodward. For the past few months now, the members of my family have been flying back and forth to Orlando, FL to be with my grandparents. My grandfather had been in steadily declining health which necessitated round the clock care. Since we weren't willing to place him in a home, and nurses only came every other day during business hours, that left a great deal of his home care to fall upon us. My mother, two sisters, and I would each take a week in Orlando to help both he and my grandmother. Thus, I would spend a week in FL each month. I started this in April and it's made me fairly inaccessible and pre-occupied for which I apologize. He died one evening in June shortly after I had left and my mother had gone down. I flew down the first thing next morning and handled the arrangements for my family. After another week there, I went to Canada for my play (covered elsewhere in this issue) while my mom and grandmother flew to NJ. After my play, I also went to NJ and we had our annual Woodward Family Reunion at my sister's farm in central NJ. I could never have managed a lot of this without the help and support of many members of Corvus and I thank you for that!

While I have managed to get everything sorted out, I will be spending more time in FL over the next few months while my grandmother adjusts to her new situation.

It has been so nice in the time I've had available to me (much of it on airplanes!) to reflect on how wonderful it is to have House Corvus around me. Unlike my past associations, no one's world is going to collapse because I'm indisposed. There was no crisis, no "he said, she said bullsh*t;" none of the crap that has always surrounded me whenever my real life interfered with my SCA life. Maturity is certainly a factor in this, but so is knowing good, caring people. That's you! Thanks!

Several members of House Corvus participated in The Poculi Ludique Societas' production of the complete York Cycle of mystery plays in Toronto, Canada on Saturday, June 21st; only the second such production since 1369! The York Cycle is a series of 47 plays covering periods in the Bible from Creation to Revelation. We had the honor of performing the Cycle's most performed, individual play: "The Crucifixion." The whole adventure was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm glad that several House Corvus members had the opportunity to be involved with the production.

We underwent a grueling schedule starting with our 6:00am flight from Columbia, SC to Toronto on Thursday morning. Having stayed up all night, the night before preparing for the trip guaranteed that we all arrived in Canada exhausted. fate smiled upon us when two members of our five-man troupe didn't have proof of citizenship but Canadian immigration let us all in anyway! An hour later, we arrived in our Victoria College accommodations and went straight to work! We had Thursday afternoon and Friday to prepare our production of "The Crucifixion." This included finishing our costumes and, oh yeah, learning our lines! The latter was its own epic adventure. Let's just say that there are plenty of squirrels in Victoria Park who have heard at least 84 run through of our play! Our cast was made up of...

The plays began at dawn on Saturday and ran all day with each play being performed on a moving wagon that stopped at four, different "stations" throughout the University of Toronto campus. Ours was a completely period, re-creation of the play and a pivotal moment in the production. Words cannot convey how proud I was of everyone in our play and how much we accomplished in such a brief period of time! When the plays ended at midnight, we helped break down the sets and move the wagons back into storage and come Sunday, were headed for home!

I'm pleased to announce that House Corvus recently invited two new members to join its circle. The Honorable Lord Eldred Ælfwald and his wife Lady Ealdthryth of Humbrestone accepted our invitation and will be ceremonially inducted in their native Nottinghill Coill at the Barony's Collegium this weekend.

They already have their pages posted at the House Corvus website at http://members.aol.com/corvus1/ so you should get to know them! WELCOME!!!!!

Inspired by this weekend's gathering of the Southeast members of House Corvus at Nottinghill's Collegium, I would like to plan additional opportunities for House Corvus members to get together.

Before the year is out, I know that I will be visiting Medb Renata in Los Angeles, CA for an event she is autocratting on October 17th. This would be agreat time for as many Household members as have the means to accompany me and visit our West Coast member!

Also, I would like for everyone to start thinking about a good weekend to visit my house in FL. I thought maybe we could have a completely non-SCA related pool party and visit some of the Orlando area attractions like Disney World or Sea World and, of course, a trip to Medieval Times! Winter may be a better time to consider this particular get away, but even from NC, the drive is a max. 10 hours and airfares from G'boro to Orlando are amazingly cheap.

I was also considering a beach weekend getaway to Robert's beach house at Holden Beach, NC for this September. It would be a good rest after Pennsic and a good psyche up time before Mabinogi. Speaking of...

At long last, I have been fully bitten by the Mabinogi bug and have both the theme and events for this fall's Mabinogi event hard in mind! The theme, always based on a tale in the Mabinogion will be: Branwen the Daughter of Llyr. This is the second branch of the Mabinogi and deals with a grand adventure set throughout England, Ireland, and Wales. The complete tale can be read (in translation) at the House Corvus website. Also, Lady Medb will be flying out to attend the event! Hopefully, we can all target Mabinogi for attendance and have a complete House Corvus showing (you reading this, Otto?)! Please let me know if there is something specific with which you would like to help. But definitely mark your calendars: OCT 30 - NOV 1st!