Great Western War

Photos are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157602308190120/
You may now admire the view from the House of Cheerful Monkeys at sunset.
Did I mention the neighbors? We had a flock of geese who paraded into camp several times, looking to mooch food. I got all Cranky Swan on them when they tried to raid an open tent.

Saturday morning I actually attempted a visit to the battlefield to watch the fighting. That lasted only a few minutes. I stood near the curb, shot a couple of photos of our guys before the first charge and watched the first charge. You know, the one involving spectators with digital cameras. I thought they got WAY the hell too close. After several minutes of not being able to see anything but the backs of future Darwin Award winners, I started heading back towards Merchant's Row. Duchess Constantina had done the smart thing: she was perched on top of her van in the parking lot and had an excellent view of the fighting from there.

Pretty much spent the day busking. I rotated to various shady spots around the merchant village for several hours, with a break to chat with sasha_khan and cristobal, who showed me the stunning embroidered vexillum of Poseidon she had made for the Legio IX Hispana (Sasha's journal entry is locked or I'd link to the photo which does not do it justice).

gottasing recently acquired a used hurdy gurdy of the same make and model as mine. (I see no reason to say which it is as the maker responded most snottily to one of my inquiries on care and maintenance awhile back and doesn't deserve promotion here if he's going to be that customer-unfriendly.)  She brought it out and I showed her what little I knew about how to shim the bridges and apply cotton to improve string contact. It was tuned awfully high and the strings were under a lot of tension. I dropped the tuning a bit, got it sounding a little happier and suggested she gradually continue to drop the pitch to allow the strings to adjust to it.

Too exhausted to do much of anything Saturday night.

Sunday, woke up and enjoyed breakfast on my "veranda." Received a compliment from Duke Jade on the attractiveness of my set-up by the lake, particularly with the Tosenin kosode hung across the blinds. Watched cranes taking off and landing in the tall grass on the island opposite. There's a waka germinating on that image that'll probably pop out later today.

Played dance music for momstable's  English Country Dance class - and realized JUST how rusty I am. Busked a little bit by acanthusleaf again. Ran into sasha_khan coming AND going and geeked over his new saz. (What do I know about Saracen guitars anyway?)  Note to self: start looking at stuff from the Cantigas de Santa Maria with jam potential for Estrella.

The war appeared to be lightly attended, by all accounts from my merchant friends. The distance may be throwing some of the Caidans into a state of "well, maybe not this year." I'd go back. The site is reasonably accessible (4 hours for a weekend event is not unheard of for me), the location is beautiful, there's potable water onsite, the choice of permanent and portable rest rooms, and there was grass and a fair number of shade trees.

Made good time coming home and was blessedly clean and in bed at a decent hour.