A few crumbs from The MDRF site,
Hey there,
Just catching a few minutes of time out from the woods of Crownsville at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. We are mad at work, getting the booth ready, cleaning, painting and building. It seems that no matter how much work we do from year to year, we can always find more the next. So, rebuilding the entire bubble cart roof, rebuilding my garden gate which finally rotted out. (It was built from the scraped doors from the former hat shop next door), will be rebuilding the old desk in our back room, putting up the rest of the trellis on the garden to give "Green George" the English Ivy a place to grow, (which is a one of the traditional names for the Green Man in Russia)
The site is lovely and cool this year. Not too much dust and the heavy rains of spring means lots of grass. I haven't been over the site too much so no news of rebuilds. But there are lots of babies, and this I like. Several booths have new babies and the older babies get bigger all the time.
We met our new Bubble Fairy today and she is great. Funny how the universe sends you folks just when you both need each other.
Today was the annual fire marshal booth inspections. Everyone is all ways buzzing about, a little worried. Funny really, because everyone all ways gets pass. One of my favorites is catching up with old friends in the line to get our fire extinguishers serviced. A long line of sleepy boothies cradling red cylinders chatting on the past year. Ellawyn waited with me and got lots of comments on how big. She will be five on Friday, her birthday falling the day before festival again, just as she was born. There were several dogs in line with their people. One thing about faire that non participants never see is the four legged Rennies. There are plenty of dogs, cats, birds, and a couple of ferrets on the grounds who spend their weekends in the booths. These little beasties are as much a part of our community out here as their people. I remember pets sometimes before people. So Ellawyn got some dog love in.
One of the best things that could happened today. We ran into the always wonderful Kate Cox, lady Jouster and wife of Roy Cox. Together, they are the heads of the Free Lancers, our show's jousting troop. http://freelancers.faire.net/
Kate and Roy adopted a lovely little baby girl a couple of years ago and Kate is a darling and skillful mother. She always stops and says a few things to Ell. Today, while the the Lancers were practicing, Ell can go to sit and watch as we can see the benches from our booth. They made her day and offered her a ride. So she got to take a couple of turns around the arena on "Duke", a dusty buckskin with feet the size of dinner plates. I sadly, had left my camera at the trailer, so no picture, but there may have been one taken. She was great, the saddle shield almost covering her up, sitting in front of a Lancer, holding the reins. Some of my friends may not know it, but Leah and I are a little horse crazy. I grew up riding in Texas, rode for Medieval Times for over a year as a squire, and once was the field boss for a Thoroughbred Breeding Farm with 80+ head! So if you see my arm tattoos, you note the horse shoe arm bands. It has always bummed me that my kids haven't gotten the opportunities to experience these wonder animals like I have. This was Ell's first time on any thing bigger than a pony and her eyes were HUGE!
Jared as well got some time in the arena, getting in a practice session with the archery. Two years ago he made a longbow at the militia tent and sometimes goes into the fields during the archery demo and gets to shoot. So if you are attending, watch for him during that event.
And the animals of the grounds, the wild ones, are running about, as once again, the first dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands of humans invade their space. The squirrels are bold and brash and full of nuts, chattering and barking, running over the booth tops. And the deer, a herd of 9 or 10, each night there green winking eyes betraying them, graze the parking lots. Soon they will retreat to the wood edge and only come forth during the early morning hours. But for now, the lot is theirs.
That's all for now, and I hope to see some folks this weekend.
Kubiando!
Just catching a few minutes of time out from the woods of Crownsville at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. We are mad at work, getting the booth ready, cleaning, painting and building. It seems that no matter how much work we do from year to year, we can always find more the next. So, rebuilding the entire bubble cart roof, rebuilding my garden gate which finally rotted out. (It was built from the scraped doors from the former hat shop next door), will be rebuilding the old desk in our back room, putting up the rest of the trellis on the garden to give "Green George" the English Ivy a place to grow, (which is a one of the traditional names for the Green Man in Russia)
The site is lovely and cool this year. Not too much dust and the heavy rains of spring means lots of grass. I haven't been over the site too much so no news of rebuilds. But there are lots of babies, and this I like. Several booths have new babies and the older babies get bigger all the time.
We met our new Bubble Fairy today and she is great. Funny how the universe sends you folks just when you both need each other.
Today was the annual fire marshal booth inspections. Everyone is all ways buzzing about, a little worried. Funny really, because everyone all ways gets pass. One of my favorites is catching up with old friends in the line to get our fire extinguishers serviced. A long line of sleepy boothies cradling red cylinders chatting on the past year. Ellawyn waited with me and got lots of comments on how big. She will be five on Friday, her birthday falling the day before festival again, just as she was born. There were several dogs in line with their people. One thing about faire that non participants never see is the four legged Rennies. There are plenty of dogs, cats, birds, and a couple of ferrets on the grounds who spend their weekends in the booths. These little beasties are as much a part of our community out here as their people. I remember pets sometimes before people. So Ellawyn got some dog love in.
One of the best things that could happened today. We ran into the always wonderful Kate Cox, lady Jouster and wife of Roy Cox. Together, they are the heads of the Free Lancers, our show's jousting troop. http://freelancers.faire.net/
Kate and Roy adopted a lovely little baby girl a couple of years ago and Kate is a darling and skillful mother. She always stops and says a few things to Ell. Today, while the the Lancers were practicing, Ell can go to sit and watch as we can see the benches from our booth. They made her day and offered her a ride. So she got to take a couple of turns around the arena on "Duke", a dusty buckskin with feet the size of dinner plates. I sadly, had left my camera at the trailer, so no picture, but there may have been one taken. She was great, the saddle shield almost covering her up, sitting in front of a Lancer, holding the reins. Some of my friends may not know it, but Leah and I are a little horse crazy. I grew up riding in Texas, rode for Medieval Times for over a year as a squire, and once was the field boss for a Thoroughbred Breeding Farm with 80+ head! So if you see my arm tattoos, you note the horse shoe arm bands. It has always bummed me that my kids haven't gotten the opportunities to experience these wonder animals like I have. This was Ell's first time on any thing bigger than a pony and her eyes were HUGE!
Jared as well got some time in the arena, getting in a practice session with the archery. Two years ago he made a longbow at the militia tent and sometimes goes into the fields during the archery demo and gets to shoot. So if you are attending, watch for him during that event.
And the animals of the grounds, the wild ones, are running about, as once again, the first dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands of humans invade their space. The squirrels are bold and brash and full of nuts, chattering and barking, running over the booth tops. And the deer, a herd of 9 or 10, each night there green winking eyes betraying them, graze the parking lots. Soon they will retreat to the wood edge and only come forth during the early morning hours. But for now, the lot is theirs.
That's all for now, and I hope to see some folks this weekend.
Kubiando!