Faces of the Renaissance Festival

You’re never too old to dress up/cosplay/reenact…etc. The costumes people have worn at the Ren Festival have ranged from purchased at Party City to seriously and accurately handmade. And the makeup? Well, let’s just say that I salute those who go above and beyond just face makeup and cover their entire bodies.

Well done blue and orange fae!

Of course some of those seen throughout the festival are employees and their attire is amazing. Like the Queen and her court here.

Families, friends, couples and reenactment groups come to have fun, shop, enjoy their beverage of choice (it’s the mead for me) and a turkey leg or two. The turkey legs are quite filling by the way. Each weekend, save for the opening one, has been themed so there have and continue to be pirates, knights, vikings, fae and Lords and Ladies roaming about… to name a few.

Some weekends I was able to get quite a bit of photography done such as with the barbarians and the jousting and then there were times when I just got into character and enjoyed. By the way, corsets are not for the faint of heart.

Fare thee well…..

Teri

Wordless Wednesday: This Old House – Autumn Edition

Teri 📷

Acorns

Yesterday, we parked in a space that was directly underneath an oak tree; a tree that was dropping it’s acorns. They were all over the ground and later – we weren’t really paying attention to the top of our vehicle – we realized that quite a few had fallen onto the soft top of our Jeep.

We didn’t figure that out until we were picking up speed to enter the highway home when we heard a lot of little clunking noises as they rolled off the top and bounced away. Wonder what the driver behind us thought about that?

Anyway, all of those acorns reminded me of a song I learned back in elementary school:

I’m a little acorn nut
Lying on the cold, cold ground.
Everybody steps on me
That is why I’m cracked you see.

I’m a nut!*
I’m a nut!

Odd the things we remember from our childhood, huh?

Teri

More from the Renaissance Festival coming soon. Fare thee well…

And that’s when the fighting started…

The Cincinnati Barbarians put on quite the show at the Ohio Renaissance Festival and always get everyone in the crowd cheering for them to whack each other with their weapons. The battles start with one on one matches, move up to four against four and for the grand finale it’s an every man for himself rumble. Last one standing wins.

Hope your weekend is a peaceful one but if you must do battle then I wish you victory!

Teri

Wordless Wednesday – Rumble here often?

Teri 📷

Getting ready to take on the new week

Actually, while it feels like I may be going into battle with some things I have to attend to this week, this barbarian was getting suited up to do actual battle against his fellow barbarians in the ring at the Ohio Renaissance Festival.

And then the fighting began with much yelling and clanging!

Teri 📷

Reflecting Skies

Same night as the previous post but another direction as well as with a later time stamp. Now as far as a song to go with it? At first I thought of Billy Joel’s ‘Goodnight my Angel’ but then I remembered that there were sailboats heading back to their docks as I took this photo so…..

Well it’s not far back to sanity, at least it’s not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away and find serenity
Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see.
Believe me…. Sailing by Christopher Cross

May your nights (and days) be colorful and peaceful this weekend.

Teri ⛵

I’m not very good at parodies but…

I pride myself on being able to look at an image and find a song to go with it. I had been visiting a nearby lake to test drive shooting wide; like really wide, 14mm wide! The first couple of nights the skies laughed at me. One night the sky was crying. A few nights the skies were just sullen but then came this night and oh yes indeed!

If you notice, the tree that is in the foreground of the image was enjoying basking in the rays of the sunset. I didn’t notice it until I got the images home but I think it’s rather nice that you can see the golden light reflecting on it.

The sun had just about set when I took this image (or was it still inching its way down, don’t recall) to the far right when I turned away and saw what the skies were doing over here. They were literally dancing and spinning brightly. It was happy photographer time. So about those song lyrics…

While the song doesn’t have sunset in the lyrics anywhere, I began to hum it as the sun set and I packed up to go.

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me….

I only know the song by Mama Cass but turns out upon a bit of Googling that it was originally done by Doris Day and that Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong did it as well. What song would you put with a sunset image? Let me know in the comments below.

Teri ☀️

Ain’t no rest

“Oh, there ain’t no rest for the winged
Fish don’t grow on trees
I got no bills to pay
But I got mouths to feed
Fishing has to be done by my mate and me
I know I can’t slow down
I can’t hold back
Though you know
I wish I could
Oh, no there ain’t no rest for the winged
Until these fledglings leave the nest for good”

Parody of Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant

These images were taken the end of July just as the fledglings were almost the size of the adults but still not quite ready to be kicked out…er I mean be ready to fly and fish on their own. The parents would catch a fish but not bring it back to the nest immediately; encouraging the young to leave the nest and come and get it.

I did witness one of the young ones trying to catch a fish but come up empty clawed. I went back to the nesting area last week to see what was going on and everyone, adults and young, had moved on so I guess the parents might be getting some rest now.

Teri

Hard working adult bringing home the family meal.

These three were waiting for mom and dad to bring them something to eat. Young Osprey have spots on their feathers and their eyes are a reddish orange not golden like when adults.

Stop and smell the roses

Actually, the sign in front of the church said stop and smell our roses. I did and they were some wonderfully fragrant ones. But what does stop and smell the roses mean…besides literally that is? This phrase was about mindfulness before mindfulness became a new part of our vernaculars. Stop and smell the roses (why roses by the way?) means to consciously direct your mind to take in, experience and enjoy the present world that is around you. We may joke about “Oh that was a waste of time that I will never get back!” but that really is true. Once the time has passed, it is gone.

We can’t always take, or even have, enough time with the way modern life is but when we can we should. The laundry can be done later but watching a sunset that will never happen again with a loved one cannot be put off till later. That may be a bit of a weak analogy but I hope you see my point.

So take the time to “stop and smell the roses” as often as possible; it really is good for you.

Teri 🌹