Two days of very gorious faire-fair weather ahead...70s and sunny both days...hope to see you all out at Revel Grove. Look for the guy with the squirrel...

Saturday...Maryland...Crownsville...Revel Grove...Rain...more rain...I couldn't believe the large crowd awaiting the gate opening on Saturday morning...no tropical depression there, for sure, just smiles and anticipation as the drops came down, sometimes lightly, most times in a constant deluge". Lots of good folks there, and it was great to see so many turn out for Rain Fest '08. I was thinking about calling in bridging support...my plushy squirrel was quite soggy, and is still drying in the umbrella stand...the blow dryer scares him, and, he hates having his tail "ringed out"...wouldn't you? Hopefully, he'll be dry by Saturday. The parking lot looked like a giant mud-bogging meet, only with minivans and compacts instead of massive four-wheeled drives...my old Jeep Commanche did me well...looking forward to this Saturday...see you all there...

Cheers!

Am

Headed to Scarby with dear members of the Maryland Elfwine Camp in tow...hope to see lots of you there...

Had a great vacation at the International Festival at Dollywood...had a great bodhran lesson from noted Irish Bodhrani Brian Fleming...pictures to follow...

 Is it just me, or did renspace eat my profile? Oh well, I'll rebuild it when I get back from Texas.

Love to all!

The Spirit of Ren!

So, there I was, a young kid growing up in the 60's in the sand dunes of NE Florida. Hardly explains a ren addiction, does it? I mean, sand castle building, oyster digging, mullet netting, kite fkying, dune buggying, gator skulking, surf board waxing pine flats hardly qualfies as the most genteel of environments to develop an addiction to the likes of recorder music, Shakespeare, sackbut and bodhran playing, wearing tights and plumed hats...you get the idea. But wait...does it now?? I may be old, but I'm slow...St. Augustine is the answer...it is a renaissance era city right there in the middle of the redneck riveria. I grew up playing on the ramparts of the Castillo de San Marcos. My heroes were Ponce de Leon and Don Pedro de Menendez. I smile as I realize that I grew up loving the ren era because it literally existed right there in my back yard.

Huzzah to all my fellow history geeks, whoever you might be.

Why do we do this renfest thing that we do? Here's a little something I added over at my "home site" at http://fomdrforg.proboards54.com/index.cgi

The question was asked, "Why do they go?" The question was the cause of much meditation and introspection.
Why? The entertainment? Perhaps, but certainly there was entertainment available aplenty to them all, and besides, had they all not seen the shows ten times ten times each?
Was it the fine ales, wines and other potables? Could be, but again, fine eats and drinks can be had almost anywhere.
I know...it was the shopping!! Stall after stall of fine wares...but no, today one can't pull out of a carriage house anywhere without running into a mall or shopping center, and everything under the sun can also be had with the stroke of a computer key.
And then, like a thunderclap, the reason materialized, as if a mirage at a desert oasis had been made real.

They went there for each other.

For, without the friendship shared amongst the setting, all of it, the song, the drink, the shopping, all of it shrank to striking, mundane-like insignificance. Without each other to share the songs, without that long-time fest drinking friend to share the ale, without that long unseen and missed friend to share a hug, it was no experience at all.

~Amras Elfwine Ancalime', from "A Good Smoke: The Many Lives of an Old War Horse"