After the holidays, Tim as a partner

Roast pork tenderloin just as Mrs. Bridges makes

The Photo: Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this loin of pork. (With Apologies to William Shakespeare.)

Yule log quenched: Since 12^th night as celebrated by the Barony was on the evening of January 5^th  on the 6^th the footmen quenched the butt of the Yule Log and moved it back to storage for use in igniting a new Yule Log next Christmas.

My circle leaves for Virgin Gorda: Bea, the Dryads (Bryony and Claire) Anya and Willow who got time off from the ballet and their boyfriends left for London aboard The Dragon. They boarded Limnaea II at Stansted for the flight down. Chris went along returning to work in London leaving me alone with Tim and the staff to care for us.

 

Tim goes boar hunting: While I was attending to estate business my head gamekeeper took Tim out wild boar hunting. It was a miserable wet day and the animals were deep in the brush for the most part, but the gamekeeper got him two good shots at large sows (225+ lbs) and he killed them both with headshots. He has a current firearms certificate and used one of the Barony’s .375 Holland & Holland rifles. The Trichinella test came back negative and the village butchery skinned, cleaned and cut them up for me. Tim took the tenderloins for us and the rest he gave to the gamekeeper and the castle staff which made him very popular!

Riding with Tim: Returning readers will recall that I renamed a lovely young mare in the Blackthorn stables ‘Mellten’ (Lightning in Welsh) in honor of Rhiannon’s horse which in The Mabinogion can’t be overtaken when she is riding it. Mellten is extremely fast, sure footed, has been trained for fox hunting (actually drag hunting now) and seems very fond of me. When I’m astride her we are like a single entity jumping hedges, ditches and galloping flat out. It feels marvelous to have that much power between my legs and I always end our rides on an amazing high that is almost sexual in its intensity! when astride her I like to have a pair of Ben Wa balls inserted which makes things very interesting indeed!

I rode Mellten and Tim was astride a young stallion from the stables. He took me on a tour of some of the fox hunting terrain on my land as he and his father have ridden to hounds on the Barony land with the local hunt for years. We were fortunate that the morning was dry and sunny and the temperature was in the low 40s (F). It was wonderful to get out in the fresh air with Tim and see how well he rides. Cook has fixed us some sandwiches for lunch and we ate by a stream that had settled within its banks again after Storm Frank. I had a lovely time.

Kitting out Tim as a ballet partner: We were fortunate that Nikolai and Tim are almost identical in size so the tights, dancebelts and slippers stocked for him in the men’s dressing room fit Tim perfectly! The first evening we were together I knew I wanted to teach him to be my dance partner so we went into the ballet studio men’s dressing room and got him into a dancebelt and tights pulled and rolled down over a military webbing belt to show of his genital bulge and cheek cleavage and fit him in slippers which, knowing I was going to dress him for class, I had already sewed the instep elastic on.

I’m very pleased with how well Tim is adapting to ballet class the exercises, terminology and he is amazingly strong and good with lifts so that he is becoming quite a good partner given that he has only been taking instruction and class for a few days.  Of course he came to me in superb physical condition, very strong, extremely flexible and is a fast learner.

Barre pleasuring: After the new larger ballet studio (which I’m going to use for large classes during Summer Intensives) was finished I had the wooden floor, mirrors and barre in the old studio refurbished being careful not to remove the patina from the pleasure brackets gotten from decades of women using them to masturbate by rubbing their pelvises against the rounded protrusions designed for that purpose. When my predecessor, Edith the 22^nd Baroness, had the castle’s old ballet studio updated in the 60s she had the 19^th century bronze ‘pleasure brackets’ installed. They had been salvaged from a Paris ballet school which also trained courtesans and they are marvelous to masturbate with while fully attired in practice clothes. It is in this studio that Tim and I take class as I like the view to the east from the windows and the feel and scent of the water sprinkled sprung wooden floor.

Tim noticed the shiny bronze knob on the brackets and asked if they didn’t get in the way. So I told him what they were for. When a man isn’t handy after class and I’m fertile and needy in a modern studio I like to give myself an orgasm by tying a towel over the barre and around a smooth modern barre bracket so I can rub the shaft of my clit against it while watching myself in the mirror or looking out a window if there is one above the barre. He was fascinated to learn what the protrusions were for and that generations of women had used them to pleasure themselves over the years. I find the sense of history comforting when I masturbate on a bracket and wonder who the women were that had used it before me and what became of them. That type bracket is a bit more in the way during class, but makes up for that by the intense pleasure received by rubbing against it.

Edith was still in her 50s when the French pleasure brackets were installed and was (according to her diaries) still very sexually active. But living alone a good bit of the time masturbation of the French sort, on her toes in pointes caressing her clit against a barre bracket, could often satisfy her need. Of course that shows up as ‘bracket burn’ worn spots in the fabric on the crotches of tights or leos, but that was (and still is) to be expected when few men were available as is still the case in ballet schools today.

 

A Mabinogion tale performed, How Culhwch Won Olwen

A descendent of Twrch Trwyth and piglets

The Photo: A wild boar sow and her piglets. Boars are typically social animals, living in female-dominated sounders [a herd of wild swine] consisting of barren sows and mothers with young led by an old matriarch. Male boars leave their sounder at the age of 8–15 months, while females either remain with their mothers or establish new territories nearby.

Storm Frank: Oh my! 70 mph winds and record rain fall. For the month of December there was record breaking rainfall; 1015 mm = 40.6 inches for the month fell in Capel Curig in the north west of Wales. The M4 along the south of Wales was blocked at Bridgend (west of Port Talbot) by standing water for a day, but that’s clear now. Locally we have been extremely fortunate to have just a few trees blown down and no substantial damage.

A Holiday House Party: Since this was my first year end holiday season as Baroness I wanted to extend the hospitality of the Barony to everyone in the area, but particularly the landed gentry and farmers with land abutting the Barony as well as local leaders in government, business and industry. So I invited the local land owners (a few neighbors from surrounding farms and estates) and the movers and shakers from the local villages to a long weekend house party over the New Year weekend when most were on vacation during the holidays. Guests arrived on Thursday the 31^st and departed today, Sunday the 3^rd of January.   

Thursday and Friday dress for dinner was business attire. Dress for Saturday night was black tie for the men and gowns for the ladies. I would have gone with white tie, but some probably didn’t have it and the men looked splendid along with Tim in his Dress uniform.  The menu for Saturday night (Jan 2^nd) was the castles famous crown rack of spring lamb (in two rack crowns) and wild boar tenderloin, green string beans, roasted potatoes with mince pie and ice cream for dessert. Coffee, tea and sloe brandy or wine with dessert. I think it was more curiosity than anything else that had so many women guests asking for the Barony’s sloe brandy rather than wine since the brandy is not sold and bottles are rarely given away. The meal was served in the Great Hall with the Yule log burning in the massive fireplace at the other end. I used the great hall so the minstrel galleries, there are two, could be used for the entertainment and the acoustics from the galleries is quite marvelous with the voices reflecting off the huge roof timbers so that every word spoken can be heard clearly by the guests in the hall below.

I was delighted that no one sent regrets (and all attended even with the terrible weather we are having) though I imagine everyone was curious, especially the women, to see what changes I’d made to the castle and to judge the new Baroness ‘in performance’.  Not leaving anything to chance I had the conversations in the bathrooms recorded so I could hear the comments when the women (especially) though they were alone. Being reviewed by ones jealous and sometimes hormonal neighbors is not particularly pleasant, but I’m very pleased to say the castle and the meal were given very high marks! I was given high marks for both hospitality and presentation, but my reputation as a Cougar and an expert in the art of Pompoir was well known and the women all talked about keeping their men out of my aura as even some of the women found me attractive. I really want to try and stay away from establishing sexual relationships with married neighbors since if they go bad having a disgruntled neighbor can be unpleasant so I don’t think the local wives have anything to fear from me as I’m not giving local married men (not that some aren’t worthy of my time) any romantic encouragement.

In welcoming remarks before we sat down to dinner I confirmed that I will continue to allow hunting, fishing and trapping on Barony land as long as applicable laws are followed. I had been holding that announcement back building the suspense. There had been a rumor in the village that I might forbid hunting, fishing and trapping on my land so there was a sigh of relief and a applause when I got that out of the way as one of the first things I talked about. Another thing that I knew local people are edgy about, but no one dared mention, at least not to my face, is that I wasn’t born in the UK and therefore “She’s not one of us.”   

It’s true that I was born in Virginia and have an East Coast accent to the extent I have an accent at all and not a plummy one from a posh school in the Home Counties or Switzerland, though as an actress I can speak in one when necessary. And my immediate family hadn’t been of the aristocracy nor lived in the UK for years. So I tried to allay any fears by mentioning that while born in the U.S. I was of British parents whose ancestors can be traced back for hundreds of years and in the case of my great aunt’s family from whom I inherited the Barony for almost a thousand years. Too, I am very interested in my Welsh heritage and the history and legends of the Welsh nation if I’m permitted to use that term, not that I’m a nationalist. Actually, I’m a Royalist and support the Monarchy even though HM may not be too pleased with my forms of employment and amusement. Not that some Royals aren’t above a roaming hand in a girl’s tights or down her cleavage when the opportunity presents itself.  

I’ve been engrossed for months in reading a new (2007) translation of The Mabinogion by Sioned Davies to get a feel for ancient Welsh legends that began as oral tales and much later were set down in manuscripts very few of which have come down to us. So I thought it would be fun to have as entertainment for the final evening of our gathering one of the legends recorded in the Mabinogion performed from memory by a troupe of Jongleurs.  The troupe used Sioned Davies translation as their script and had been working on their lines for the past few months and for the last several weeks has been rehearsing in great hall. They are amazingly good with voice changes for the different characters in the tale! The story we chose was How Culhwch Won Olwen.

How Culhwch Won Olwen: In the introduction to her translation of The Mabinogion Sioned Davies says this about the legend How Culhwch Won Olwen:

“How Culhwch Won Olwen portrays a world far removed from that of European romance, a world where Arthur holds court in Celli Wig in Cornwall and heads a band of the strangest warriors ever… who, together with Arthur, ensure that Culhwch overcomes his stepmother’s curse and marries Olwen, daughter of Ysbaddaden Chief Giant. The interest throughout is in the action with the hunting of the magical boar Twrch Trwyth reminiscent of a fast moving film as he and his piglets are chased by Arthur and his men from Ireland across south Wales, and eventually to Cornwall.  All characters are stereotyped – the beautiful Olwen, the handsome Culhwch, the treacherous Ysbaddaden; talking to ants, owls, stags, and salmon poses no problem as one of Arthur’s men, Gwrhyr interpreter of languages is there to translate. Indeed, the story with its rhetorical set-pieces and burlesque scenes, is a world apart from the restraint and control of the ‘Four Branches’ [the first four stories in the Mabinogion] and is without doubt, a tale to be performed – vocality is of its essence.”

That particular tale’s vocality is why I hired the Jongleurs to perform it during my house party at the castle to boost interest in Welsh history and develop regional (if not national) pride. Years ago all Welsh children were read tales from The Mabinogion so they became familiar with the legends and characters in them. Now however, that’s seldom the case. So I included a brief synopsis (below) of the story, from Wikipedia, for each guest as sadly there are great many people in Wales these days who are unfamiliar with the Welsh legends set down in The Mabinogion. You can read the full Wikipedia article HERE.

“Synopsis: Culhwch's father, King Cilydd son of Celyddon, loses his wife Goleuddydd after a difficult childbirth. When he remarries, the young Culhwch rejects his stepmother's attempt to pair him with his new stepsister. Offended, the new queen puts a curse on him so that he can marry no one besides the beautiful Olwen, daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr. Though he has never seen her, Culhwch becomes infatuated with her, but his father warns him that he will never find her without the aid of his famous cousin Arthur. The young man immediately sets off to seek his kinsman. He finds him at his court in Celliwig in Cornwall; this is one of the earliest instances in literature or oral tradition of Arthur's court being assigned a specific location and a valuable source of comparison with the court of Camelot or Caerleon as depicted in later Welsh, English and continental Arthurian legends.

Arthur agrees to help, and sends six of his finest warriors (Cai, Bedwyr, Gwalchmei, Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd, Menw son of Tairgwaedd and Cynddylig Gyfarwydd) to join Culhwch in his search for Olwen. The group meets some relatives of Culhwch's that know Olwen and agree to arrange a meeting. Olwen is receptive to Culhwch's attraction, but she cannot marry him unless her father agrees, and he, unable to survive past his daughter's wedding, will not consent until Culhwch completes a series of about forty impossible-sounding tasks. Fortunately for Culhwch (and the reader), the completion of only a few of these tasks is recorded and the giant is killed, leaving Olwen free to marry her lover.”

Imagination and romance: The Jongleurs with their marvelous performance kept everyone at the feast on the edge of their seats, entrancing even most skeptical and the faint-of-heart as they told of Arthur and his men gathering items required in the 40 tasks needed to win Olwen and chasing the magical boar, Twrch Trwyth, and his piglets through Ireland, Wales and Cornwall. The audience responded with sighs at the frequent and vicious fights and high death toll of Arthur’s men in bloody battles with the forces of the magical boar; and cheers when Ysbaddaden, Olwen’s father, faced with having all his demands met reluctantly gives her to Culhwch and then was beheaded. Even the most rational guests found themselves spellbound suspending disbelief for the time it took to enjoy the performance.

Although everyone knew better there was a definite feeling among my guests that the delicious wild boar tenderloin that was being served was from Twrch Trwyth himself. For the two hours that the Jongleurs were performing my guests and I were drawn so deeply into the tale that time passed very quickly. It was as though we were hypnotized by the fluidity and cadence of the narrative as the marvelous performers told the ancient tale.