Too Much Sun and Too Much Mud

It's almost Autumn up here in the frozen Northlands and it's that time of year for the last gasp of summer. Everything is sliding down the slippery slope towards winter. That doesn't mean we still can't get extremely hot days, but we probably won't string several together again as can happen in June and July. It's time to move towards the end of our summer, and we started that out in fine style yesterday by attending the opening weekend of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

Yesterday's theme was "Silk Road" - belly-dancing, silks and
scarves to look through and buy. We didn't buy anything but some
food and coffee, but we had fun looking at the silken skirts. 

DH said he needed to give his body a day or two rest from building the castle walls, and although I have a TON of housework to do before Sharon arrives next week, I also couldn't resist the call of the outdoors. So we dressed appropriately and went on the first of several more drives out to the Festival grounds, settled in with our season pass medallion and a breakfast pie, and sighed, happily. Everything was falling into place and it was wonderful to be out at the Faire once more.

I'm a serious food fan for Ren Fest, including the Scotch eggs on
the far right here. I was good, though - only ate a breakfast pie,
a Jerk Chicken wrap, and shared some cake with DH. 

It had rained on Saturday, so we were expecting some mud. We weren't expecting quite as much as we had, though. Getting around was treacherous, and I used my walking staff to the fullest. But it was sunshine with puffy clouds and a really beautiful day on Sunday, so it did start to get dried up by the afternoon - at least in the shallower places. It was hard walking, though.

The mud wasn't quite this deep, but there were certainly spots where
it was over the soles of my shoes. DH wears sandals and his feet
were filthy by the end of the day. 

The one time when I really missed my parasol (I took my walking staff instead of my parasol) was when we stood in the sun for almost two hours to watch the annual longbow competition. Twenty-eight archers began the competition from 20 yards away from the target. The winner won from 65 yards out. The competition allows recurve and longbow styles of bow, but they award separate winners from each category. The 65 yard winner was using a recurve bow, the longbow winner won in a shootout for accuracy from the 60 yard line.

Although no female archers made it to the final
distances, they put on a good showing managing to
stay in the competition until the 50 yard mark. 

We had a lot of fun and stayed at the Fest, wandering the grounds, for almost the entire day. I'm beet red from sunburn today and it will take a few days for it to fade. We're still not sure about whether we'll be out there this coming weekend, but next week - well, next week we'll be everywhere with my BFF Sharon. Whoot! Happy Monday to all.