Memorial Weekend in TN
Well, TennRen is now officially over. We spent the better part of today cleaning up, breaking down, and hunting for a branch of the boss man's bank (which we did find). Folks often comment on how much fun my job must be; they obviously don't think of the heavy manual labor involved in tearing down and moving a fully functional silversmith's shop every few weeks (sometimes several consecutive weekends), much less the rigors of living in a tent. I've managed to get in some computer time at Faith's desktop while the three of them are out to supper. I opted to stay home to work on garb for next weekend, and the off chance I might get a hold of my brother-in-law Steve, who lives only a couple miles from here.
Faith’s place has a certain charm to it. An old farm house, the city built up around it. You wouldn't think there would be a little place like this in the middle of the shiny new suburbs, but there is! The bulk of the family property got sold to the local school system years ago, but she still has a good 10 acres or so of land, that has gone all to forest. She just got city water last week. Last year my "rent" for staying with her was scaling her tin roof to patch the chimney (she is eldery and getting up there is beyond her these days). This year I got off lightly; she asked me for a start of one of my garden plants, that I gratefully gave her.
You can still encounter all sorts of wildlife on her land. Deer, wild turkey, chuck-wills-widow, and all sorts of things live in the overgrown wood. There hasn’t been a night here where I haven’t heard “poor chuck will” calling outside the window. There is even reputedly a wild cave on the property, though no one is brave or motivated enough to check it out anymore.
And of course she has a shaggy old dog, Shadow, who is always looking for attention. Here she is, wearing her "Love Me" look.
I discovered that they raised the second turret on Castle Gwynn this past Thursday. The lifting must have been quite a sight! The new tower on the castle is pretty; the roofing is copper, and still new and bright in the sunlight. Security is happy its up; the price of copper is high enough apparently they thought the roofing material was a theft risk when it was on the ground.
The new garb I managed to put together seems to be a hit. I got several compliments and photo requests, which is rather unusual for me… But then I have always previously tried for “practical authentic” with my garb, not “renfaire glitz”. This was my first flashy outfit, designed purely to attract attention. At least it works. Here’s our booth, down in our usual spot. Sorry, no photo of me, I didn't think to get one. Maybe next weekend.
On the way back to Faith’s house Friday, we heard a jazz number announced on the radio by a group called “Road Work Ahead”… while entering a construction zone! And the sunset last night was really something. What’s that old saying? Red sun at night, sailor’s delight?
And in a truly weird and somewhat disturbing bit of internet cultural bleedback, I saw someone wandering around the faire this weekend with a piece of headgear the made it look like he had an exclamation point floating above his head! Real life should not look like World of Warcraft! I don't want to see real people wandering around looking like computer avatars! Ah well, tomorrow we set off for Virginia!
Current Annual Highway Miles: 5415
Faith’s place has a certain charm to it. An old farm house, the city built up around it. You wouldn't think there would be a little place like this in the middle of the shiny new suburbs, but there is! The bulk of the family property got sold to the local school system years ago, but she still has a good 10 acres or so of land, that has gone all to forest. She just got city water last week. Last year my "rent" for staying with her was scaling her tin roof to patch the chimney (she is eldery and getting up there is beyond her these days). This year I got off lightly; she asked me for a start of one of my garden plants, that I gratefully gave her.
You can still encounter all sorts of wildlife on her land. Deer, wild turkey, chuck-wills-widow, and all sorts of things live in the overgrown wood. There hasn’t been a night here where I haven’t heard “poor chuck will” calling outside the window. There is even reputedly a wild cave on the property, though no one is brave or motivated enough to check it out anymore.
And of course she has a shaggy old dog, Shadow, who is always looking for attention. Here she is, wearing her "Love Me" look.
I discovered that they raised the second turret on Castle Gwynn this past Thursday. The lifting must have been quite a sight! The new tower on the castle is pretty; the roofing is copper, and still new and bright in the sunlight. Security is happy its up; the price of copper is high enough apparently they thought the roofing material was a theft risk when it was on the ground.
The new garb I managed to put together seems to be a hit. I got several compliments and photo requests, which is rather unusual for me… But then I have always previously tried for “practical authentic” with my garb, not “renfaire glitz”. This was my first flashy outfit, designed purely to attract attention. At least it works. Here’s our booth, down in our usual spot. Sorry, no photo of me, I didn't think to get one. Maybe next weekend.
On the way back to Faith’s house Friday, we heard a jazz number announced on the radio by a group called “Road Work Ahead”… while entering a construction zone! And the sunset last night was really something. What’s that old saying? Red sun at night, sailor’s delight?
And in a truly weird and somewhat disturbing bit of internet cultural bleedback, I saw someone wandering around the faire this weekend with a piece of headgear the made it look like he had an exclamation point floating above his head! Real life should not look like World of Warcraft! I don't want to see real people wandering around looking like computer avatars! Ah well, tomorrow we set off for Virginia!
Current Annual Highway Miles: 5415