22 April, 2007
The long weekend at faire is over and the dogs know it.
Cormac sits at attention here because he knows he’s just about to “load” into the car for the trip back home.
~KR (22 April, 2007)
Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.3 sec (3/10)
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 44.3 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
21 April, 2007
Saturday the 21st and another day at Scarborough Renaissance Festival. After the previous two weekends and their respective snow & bitter cold, I wasn’t looking forward to this. East Wind Games was having a poor showing, financially, at the festival because, frankly, who wants to sit and play games when your bollocks are freezing?
But, this weekend dawned brisk & warm and it was made the better for my good friend George having left his home in Wisconsin to come visit us for a few days.
This is George. I asked him to scowl, and he gave me a scowl…a right royal scowl. Despite the excellence of the subject, the photo didn’t come out quite right, it’s a little too blurry for my taste and I was ultimately disappointed. So, I bipped it a bit with PhotoShop to get this:
Cheers.
~KR (21 April, 2007)
Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.2 sec (1/5)
Aperture: f/3.1
Focal Length: 20.4 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
20 April, 2007
I most certainly made up for my lack of photos on the 19th by taking a great many on Friday the 20th. I took the day off work and spent the early part of it running errands for MB who was still feverishly working on clothing for the Scarborough Faire cast as part of her A Wardrobe in Time business. But, that evening, as we had planned for weeks, we went downtown to the Ft. Worth Main Street Arts Festival. This festival attracts many of the country’s greatest artisans from all works of media and the display and potential for beauty and fun is enormous. There are also a great many shows of great diversity; rock, country, clogging, theatre, comedy…it’s all represented at this phenomenal event in Ft. Worth.
The photo is a snapshot of a moment in the Arche Dream for Human Kind’s 45 minute (or so) allegorical dance production called Balance. It’s worth your time if you ever get the opportunity to see them.
Cheers.
~KR (20 April, 2007)
Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.6 sec (3/5)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 58 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
19 April, 2007
When I started this project, I don’t think I realized the magnitude of commitment involved. I’m not unused to commitments; I’m not unused to photography nor even writing. But, when all three elements are thrown into a must-do daily mix I suppose there will be some days in which failure is going to occur. This day, Thursday, April 19th was one such day. I can make all sorts of excuses as to why there wasn’t a photo taken on this day: dead batteries, exhaustion from a very long day in Philadelphia the day before, a long day at work, whatever. But, they’re just excuses to cover a failure. I failed to take a photo on this day.
30 April 2007
A Monday . . . and a Monday I could finally justify taking off from my work! My dear Kat was in town from Kenosha, and she and Laura and I went out to a decadent breakfast (okay, so it was noon—we’ll call it brunch) after I had taken Kyle to work, finished some paperwork, some phone calls and delivered his car to the tire guys. After our meal, we headed toward Fort Worth, and I gave the two northern girls my whirlwind driving tour of downtown, finally landing on the northside, in “Cowtown,” just one hour before the daily cattle drive! So, we enjoyed a bit of window shopping, and sightseeing, and took a bunch of photos of the real live cowboys and cowgirls “driving” the real honest-to-goodness Texas Longhorn cattle up Exchange Street, past the beautiful Livestock Exchange Building. I figured there simply aren’t many places in the world to witness such a thing, and no one should really visit here without experiencing that! We had fun, and in a goofy moment, the idea for this photo was born.
We had an incredibly blessed, uneventful trip to the airport, dropped off Kat, and Laura and I met Kyle and Terrill for a couple of drinks at No Frills. Donny and Mary showed up there, and we all had dinner and then came back to the house where I received the benefits of a much-needed massage.
Early in the morning, I’ll be on my way to Waxahachie again, for Kid’s Days at Scarborough. <sigh>
~MB
29 April 2007
These three musketeers (I’m resisting the urge to capitalize that) are an impressive trio at Scarborough Renaissance Festival this season. They have each added to their lovely ensembles over the years, and I asked them to pose for me this afternoon ’cause they just looked so good! Their outer tunics pulled aside, they are revealing for me, that each one of them is wearing a full outfit from Pendragon Costumes underneath! Thanks guys, for looking sooooo good!
It was a long, very warm weekend. Although sales pretty solid, and actually East Wind Games had a great weekend, I must admit I was pretty glad to hear that Sunday closing cannon! Now, this week is full of “Kid’s Days” adventures. Oh, boy . . .
~MB
28 April 2007
Our friend, and my very patient customer, Bill, finally had his new outfit to wear at faire this weekend. I am rather delighted with the way it turned out, and he looks very dashing in it! Thanks, Bill, for the opportunity to do this for you.
~MB
27 April 2007
What a day. First thing this morning, we discovered I’d been a ninny and left both my cell phone and my xm radio plugged into my truck. All week. Result: very dead battery. Thank goodness for my Allstate Motor Club. I finished Bill’s order—photo forthcoming—got almost all of the other stuff done I needed to do, and we finally got to the faire site around 10 p.m. Realizing at that point that I had taken no photos all day, I shot this one, of one of Kyle’s hats hanging on the wall. The light was hitting it just right and I thought it might make a neat photo.
A close-up of the feathers was taken by Kyle.
~MB
26 April 2007
As I stepped outside this morning to blow my good-bye kiss to Kyle as he left for work, I had this little floral treat. This is the little plant I took a photo of when it first began to show spring growth, and now it has bloomed. And once again, I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I have no idea what it is. It looks like a daffodil, but I’m pretty sure it’s not. The neighbourhood daffodils have come and gone. And I don’t think I’ve ever planted any daffodils—and I don’t think this is a bulb. But, I’m too far removed from my gardening research right now to remember more about it.
Mostly, I loved the way the morning sunshine had this little glimpse of spring in a “spotlight” of happy light. It makes me smile.
A good day for me, today! I stayed up all night–not even feeling the least little bit tired until I heard the birds begin to sing and realized the sky was starting to be light! I got Bill’s order ready for his fitting tonight (which went perfectly!) and I built Kyle’s new parade banner for East Wind Games. Then today, I was able to work on stomacher sets and alterations with no stress, no rush. I enjoyed a couple of great phone calls (Lisa and Mama and Anna and Kat) and got some business calls made as well. It was a day of feeling productive and pretty much worry-free! My first day like that since January!
So, now that it’s eleven o’clock and I’ve had a grand total of one hour and twenty minutes sleep in the last two days, I’m calling it a day.
~MB
25 April 2007
Here’s another botany quiz: I’d love to know what this little tree/bush/shrub is—this is the first year it has ever produced blossoms. I opened the door to put the pups outside on this morning, and voila! There it was, full of blooms! I went out and investigated, and got my camera to document it, in the hopes that somebody can identify it. The flowers smell lovely–kind of like honeysuckle, only not nearly as strong as I think honeysuckle is.
I planted this thing probably ten or eleven years ago. I’ve always cut it back more than I did this year—in the hopes of making it fuller and bushier, and less of a “switch” producer! Perhaps my lack of pruning is why it was able to blossom? I’d love some help on this subject, if anyone has any knowledge to share.
~MB
