mld, October 28, 2003 at 3:46:00 AM CET

The Water Gardens

King George, as the founder of TRF is known by those of us that work there, is a compleat maniac for landscaping and flowers. The grounds at the faire are lushly planted and manicured, and over the years he's built several gardens and arbors and nature walks and stuff. There are planters all over the lanes, hanging baskets of ivy and flowers in front of each booth.

As an example, here's a shot of a flower, (dunno what kind) that sits in a pot in front of the candleshop.



Though it's not usually one of the more popular weekends, as it's hotter than the others, one of the huge advantages of going on the first weekend is that you get to see the faire before the crowds have trampled all the grass into the ground. The faire is never greener and more beautiful than that first day.

Sunday was cold and misty, so the crowds were light. I took the day off to see some shows, and try to get some decent pics, though the light absolutely sucked on this gray and overcast day. It made it tough to get good shots of any of the acts, as they were moving, so, after a bit of frustration, I decided that static shots were all the light would allow, and headed over to the Water Garden, a relatively new addition to the faire, only a few years old.

The Water Garden is a large square with arches along each side, and a huge fountain in the middle. Each wall is lined on the inside with a pool.

This is a shot on the inside, looking down one wall.



Every now and agin, I'll take a pic that I like well enough to post the full-sized, hi-res version, despite the cruddy download times you folks are gonna get, and the greater load on the servers here. (Yeahright, like I have so many readers and traffic. Not.)

So, if you really like flowers, you might think this pic is wallpaper worthy.

 

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mld, October 27, 2003 at 3:59:00 AM CET

The PussyCat Wench

This might be the favorite pic I've taken so far this season - of one of the exotically garbed wenches often seen lurking around Lord Entropy's shop. I caught her early one morning a few weeks back sitting in the Sea Devil, and the light was just right. (You have no idea how much I like good light)

If you wanna see a huge hi-res version of the pic, it'll pop up in a new window when you click here.

UPDATE - 11/04/2003: More pics of this girl can be found here

 

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mld, October 26, 2003 at 2:42:00 AM CET

The German Jouster

My friend Christina, who lives in Croatia, of all places. had put in a special request for pics of horses, so I hied myself off to the joust to see what I could come up with. Poor kid lives in a country where they don't even have a renfaire, so it was the least I could do.

I stationed myself in one corner of the arena, as it happens the one where the German knight began his charges. In later weeks, I hope to get pics of the other three, those representing France, England, and Spain.

The German knight is the champion for, and encouraged by, Lady Chloe von Schmaltzbaden



How the hell those guys managed to see well enough in those barrel helms with tiny little slits, I'll never know



Yeah, I know, I cut off the top of his head, but do you know how hard it is to capture a running horse with a digital cam on a cloudy day?
 

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