Crown Feeder

 With my new schedule and need for sleep I have been keeping the cats out of my room.  Last night I decided to prop the door open for them and Nanni decided that she wanted all the attention.  She even woke me up at some point for more petting.  Perhaps I picked the wrong night since I had to get up early this morning to go to the Crown Feeder Tournament.  This was the first live SCA event that we have gone to since things closed down at the beginning of the pandemic.  This event was thankfully limited to 150 people and was specific to narrow down the prospective contenders for the next Crowns of the East.  More sleep might have been nice.  Here are other happy things from today:

• Getting to see people that I haven't seen in a very long time and being able to hug.
• Keziah did all the driving and we were able to provide a ride for a friend too.  Good company!
• Seeing the fighters be honorable and safe as they fought today.                                                                                     

• From this event, eight couples are advancing to the finals which happen in two weeks.  Two of those couples are from the Barony of Stonemarche and one lived in the Barony until just a few years ago.  It is exciting to think that the next crown may be from the Barony. There was another feeder tournament held further south with another eight couples to compete in the finals.
• Towards the end of the event I was peopled out.  I took a peaceful walk around the grounds of the event site and found a pond and a path through the woods by a river.  It is a beautiful area.

• After the event a bunch of us met for ice cream and got to visit.
• My garb today was fourteenth century and I had to braid my hair in the front to achieve the right look.  

All dressed up.

Before taking it all down.

WIthout the cap and veil.
Very silly by today's standards.

• My door is open again tonight.  Nanni seems a bit more tired this time.

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Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading, stay safe.

Some more pictures from the event.

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Oops, Forgot to Publish This On Wednesday

 Only one more day to my work week-unless there is overtime.  Since I am still very slow at the job, I might not be asked.  Today there was a major computer problem which caused way too much downtime for me.  But you know what?  I made it through and will go back tomorrow to try again.  Other things I am happy for today:

• The moon was shining when I left for work this morning.

Early morning moon.

• While outside at work, waiting for some equipment to free up, there were a pair of hawks circling overhead.
• Gideon welcomed me home today with hugs and we talked about a library book before I went to sleep.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading, stay safe.

Firefly

 It was a day full of people.  We hosted a yard sale for SCA people.  This meant that people brought garb that no longer fit them, fabric that they didn't need, swords, feast gear, and the like.  I don't know how well people did with their sales, many people came just to be able to spend time with others.  There were so many wonderful hugs.  The first person that I shared a hug with I hadn't seen in well over a year and I almost cried.  It was so good to see them.  Later, she and I talked and we may start hiking together this summer.  Other happy things for the day:

• It was wonderful to see everyone.  I didn't spend as much time with some of the people as I would have liked.  At the same time, so many people (I don't think there were more than forty people at the same time) that I am not used to being around, was a bit overwhelming.  It was okay though, I made it through.
• When things were winding down Zed noticed the cherry tree was attracting birds and that many of the cherries were close to ripe.  One of the attendees and Zed decided it was time to pick some and the attendee took the ladder and climbed the tree.  He picked quite a few cherries.  I noticed that many were rotting on the tree even though they hadn't become ripe.  Tomorrow we will go through the cherries more closely.  I tried one (one more than last year) that was not quite ripe enough and it was a bit too tart still.  The birds didn't get them all this year though.  Yay!

Up in the Tucker the Cherry Tree.

A sampling of how they look.

• Gideon had many friends to play with today.  He seemed to do a great job of playing with them and keeping them all happy.
• One gentleman brought bracelets that he handed out to people who were vaccinated.  

• A few friends were able to stay late and visit.  Stories and laughter were shared.  
• Eventually a few lightning bugs began to make an appearance.  
• Saying goodbye to friends I noticed the moon low in the sky.  It was the tiniest sliver, though the camera makes that sliver look larger.  The whole circle of the moon could be seen.

The moon phase is a waxing crescent and 
according to the internet, it is at 6.7%.

• After everyone was gone I pulled out the Canon camera in an attempt to get better pictures of the moon.  That didn't happen because I have a hard time being completely still.  I was able to capture some of the fireflies in motion.

I know it is hard to see, but there are three dots on the right corner that is a firefly.

The brighter, moving dots are the fireflies in this picture.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading, stay safe.

Fabulous

Waking up early used to come easy for me, not so much lately.  I was able to get up and out on time this morning to go pick Keziah up in Massachusetts.  The drive went well with no traffic.  It is wonderful to have my daughter back safely.  Other happy things for today:

• I wore my fabulous socks to help guide me in having a fabulous day.  

• This is one of many times that I will be mentioning hugs.  The pandemic made hugs problematic.  It is strange to be able to hug again, but I am loving it though.
• There are itty bitty beginnings of peaches on Marjorie.

Marjorie the peach tree.

• Making dinner today I turned on some music and danced around the house.  It was fun and helped me reach my daily step goal.

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Currently reading: The Burgess Book of Nature Lore, by Thornton W. Burgess.

Stay safe.

Elevation

  What a long and wonderful day. After lots of planning and preparation by many people, a friend in the SCA was honored by becoming a member of the Laurel. That is the SCA's highest honor for arts and sciences.  The coif I have been working on was for wearing today.  I know I promised pictures of the coif, but my phone isn't cooperating.  Other happy things from today:

• Seeing a young child (age around four) possibly (there was distance) bend in to give the almost two year old a quick kiss through a mask. Really wish I got a picture of that.
•  All the older children (ages four-ish to nine)  were helpful with take down and clearing things up after.  That same young child, though, was super helpful and took a special interest and extra energy in being helpful.
• It took a while today for me to feel comfortable with so many people. When we left, I was able to hug people again. It was magical and something I have missed about seeing people outside the home.
• I am thankful to the parent of the helpful children because she took a picture of Keziah and myself on the thrones during the ceremony. The woman in front of us is the one who earned her Laurel.

• The sounds of laughter as the children, with some help from adults, played together.

• Tomorrow, dear reader, I hope to share with you some of the images from the wildlife camera.  Zed and I took a peek when we got home and there is definitely some interesting video.  I'm excited to see it on the computer.

A couple pictures from the day...

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Currently listening to: The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Stay safe!