A wonderful weekend

I’ve been all week recovering from it, alas, but I really did have a great weekend.

It involved an SCA event up in Nebraska. Yes, I hear you say, Nebraska is at the end of the world and is filled with naught but corn and corn farmers, but at the same time I tell you, it is awesome.

I almost didn’t go. I had a long and stressful week, was tired and feeling a little ill as I packed up the car. I knew this was going to be a small event and I could only hope that I made enough money to cover my expenses — not inconsiderable with the price of gas as high as it is. I also knew that I’d get there well after dark, despite all of my efforts to the contrary, and I find setting up after dark to be extremely stressful.

But I went anyway. And after a half hour or so on the road, I found myself in a pretty good mood. Kitten asleep on my lap, good music on the radio, driving fast through beautiful country. And northern Colorado is beautiful.

Western Nebraska, I thought, not so much. I mean, Nebraska is flat, right?

Actually, no, it’s not.

This is where we camped. It was gorgeous. I indeed got there after dark, but got offers of help with setting up and with holding Loiosh. Camp took about ten minutes and I left the booth for Saturday. My helpers went back to bed and I took Mr Wiggly Pants for a walk.

I have not seen so many stars in years. And years. The sky was bright and crowded with them.

We walked about on the plain, Loiosh hunting bugs and God knows what else, me watching the stars, until the moon rose, and then we went to bed.

Up far too early the next morning — these folks get up with the sun! Farming community, I suppose, though I don’t think any of them actually farm. I got the booth up in good order and settled in for the day.

I spent some time watching the fencing — on a wooden bridge so narrow it bounced as you walked on it — and quite a bit of time hanging out with folks. The merchants next to me had a bored teenager who channeled her boredom into artwork (of which, alas, I got no pictures) and allowed me a piece of foam stuff to make a bit of wearable art of my own.

He wore them pretty much the rest of the day.

Sleeping angel.

His first set of garb — I’m so proud *wipes tear*.

Of course, then he became horrible.

Yes, that’s taken from inside my tent. No, he didn’t actually rip the mesh.

But it was a close thing. Amazing thing is he made it up there with his wings still on!

He wasn’t entirely sure about the whole thing, so I rescued him.

I wound up having an amazing time — the folks there were so welcoming! Even though I hadn’t paid for feast (I love feasting, but money is tight) they invited me to eat with them anyway. I was also invited to the autocrat’s camp for both Saturday morning breakfast and Saturday night dice. By the end of the event we were teasing each other as if we’d all known each other forever.

And I made more than enough money to cover expenses.

I highly recommend events in the Shire of Hinterland to anyone who might be close enough to attend. I had a wonderful, wonderful time.

What I Do on the Weekends

I go camping with my kitten.

This last weekend we went to an SCA event near Florissant. It’s up in the Rockies maybe a couple hours south of here, really pretty country. Due mostly to me messing around earlier in the week and not getting things done, we got there just around sunset, leaving me (once again) to set up in the dark.

Fortunately I found help right away — someone to help me set up camp and someone else to watch the kitten. Loiosh went off with a friend of mine while I started to unload the car. Halfway through setting up the tent said kitten-watcher showed up, sans kitten, to inform me that my kitten was at a party without me. Something called a Pamper Party. Complete with salmon and a masseur.

I half expected the guy to jump out from behind a bush with a camera and big lights yelling ‘This Is Your Life!’.

So, I finished setting up camp. Made my way to the party, and retrieved my kitten. Had him for no longer than five minutes before the Queen arrived and promptly stole him from me. So there he is, in the presence of royalty, getting fed cheese, while I float around the edges and try to look small.

Alas, I didn’t get any pictures of him with the Queen.

Eventually I got him back, whereupon I fed him salmon (half the salmon was gone, but people had left a lot of crumbs), and ate a lot of blueberries, and got a lovely backrub. So all in all, I felt better about having missed the earlier parts of the party.

Woke up the next morning and got the shop set up. No pictures of that, either. Kitten only!

Tangled in his leash! I even have a video on Youtube.

He woke up and was Evil Kitty, so I lent him to a bunch of small children for about three hours. ‘Don’t bring him back until he’s asleep!’. He wasn’t quite asleep when I fetched him but it didn’t take him long.

A new friend was kind enough to take a couple of photos of me with my baby — these are for Aunt Ann, who specifically requested them:

I love the attitude of ‘Moooom! People are looking! Stoppit!’ in the second one. Note the paw, firmly placed against my chest. ‘Do not kiss me in public!’

‘Mom!’.

In other news, I sold a bunch of stuff, slept better than at previous events, and decided I want a canvas round tent. Probably will have to wait until sometime over the winter. But really, that’s not the exciting part. I know you; y’all want more kitten!

In other news, yet another Etsy Treasury.

Better Than Sex Chocolate

So I suppose it’s time to tell you guys what I’ve been doing on the weekends.

I’ve mentioned the SCA before, if briefly. And I’ve mentioned that I took the kitten camping with me. What I’ve been doing is going to weekend-long SCA events, setting up my booth (and my kitten), and selling things.

I’ve also had the help of a couple of other SCA merchants, fine folks who run Better Than Sex Chocolate Honey.

They are not exaggerating.

This stuff is so good — so good — I cannot even begin to describe it. You simply must try it for yourself.

They’re also wonderful people — Dharma and Chris have watched Loiosh for me, they’ve helped me set up and tear down, they’ve fed me and hung out with me and generally been wonderful folks. And when I got to the SCA event I attended last weekend, they had a little something for Loiosh and I.

A get-well card, complete with kitten!

They call him Gilligan — ‘little buddy’. (And Hairball, and a couple of other things I probably shouldn’t mention…). Chris shared his breakfast with him, once.

And he really likes snuggling with his Auntie Dharma.

It was lovely to get a card from them — I owe them a lot. Check out their stuff if you like chocolate at all.

And in other news, I’ve also appeared in an Etsy treasury called, amusingly enough, Have Good Sex.

Because sometimes, you need a day off.

I can’t spend every spare moment working on my shop (much though I’d like to, and, well, do most of the time). Saturday I took part of the afternoon to drive up into the Front Range near where I live. Took a bunch of pictures with the new camera, many of which I’m mightily pleased with (and many more of which were horrid and have been summarily deleted, but that’s the way of digital). I figured I’d share the tale and some pictures with y’all, just to show that I’m more than just a jewelry factory.

The top one is a view of the mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park. It came fairly late in my trip but seemed a good place to start. In the summer you can take Trail Ridge Road all the way up and down the other side, but this time of year it’s closed — there’s probably twenty feet of snow on the upper parts of the road this time of year, and it won’t open again until Memorial Day weekend.

Partway up St. Vrain Canyon, the route I usually take to get up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s a beautiful windy road with so many places to stop and take a lot of pictures. If I’m not driving I have to be pretty careful not to get seasick, but it’s worth the risk. I once saw a small herd of bighorn sheep at about this spot on the road — running down the road towards me, in fact; the herd split around my car and kept going. I was petrified and fascinated.

I spent most of the day skirting around a snowstorm. I was worried I wouldn’t get a lot of good pictures due to awful visibility but instead being on the margins between sun and storm made for some really great opportunities. Once I learn how to really use my camera I’ll be able to really take advantage of that, too, but in the meantime, I guess these are all right.

The tree in the foreground really sets off the snow-veiled bulk of Long’s Peak there in the background. I’m pretty pleased with this one.

How often do you get snowed on while standing in the sun? I had to experiment for a while before I got this one right. Alas, there was no snowbow.

This one I’m particularly smug about. Edging closer to the storm here; I was under the clouds but the snow was actually lighter here than in the last shot. I tried not to look right at the sun but it was hard…

By now it was snowing pretty hard. The green of the tree shows up the snow pretty well here, though. This is as bad as the snow got; from here I was driving back out from under it.

My trusty steed. She’s journeyed with me a long, long way…

These two were taken from the parking lot of St. Malo’s, a little Catholic church built most of the way up to Estes Park at the command of Pope John Paul II. It’s a gorgeous place and someday I’ll get some good pictures of it as well, but I was fascinated by the interaction between the clouds and Mt. Meeker. Look at the way the clouds echo the shape of the mountain, in the first one, and how the shoulder of the mountains just peeks out from behind the show in the second…

Here’s where my camera falls down — the zoom isn’t great over long distances. It’s a typical drawback to digitals and given that I bought it mostly for closeup work I can’t complain too hard — but oh, I wish I could have gotten closer to this bachelor herd of elk here.

Ahh, but this guy…I didn’t even leave the side of the road for this shot. I didn’t have to; he was standing right there, about twenty feet away from me, ignoring me with sublime indifference. After all, he was hungry, and I was just another human with a camera.

I end, as is traditional, with a picture of my little cat. Meet Chocolate, my dearest friend and my inspiration. Also He Who Claws My Nose At Three In The Damn Morning.