Real life is for people who can't handle LARP

[oloriel]

Real life, incidentally, had so much stuff coming up that I'm beginning to doubt I'll ever catch up. However, I am determined to try!

Before I get to the Drachenfest picspam, however, I have to get one very important information out of the way:
Felix can now walk on his own. I repeat, Felix can now walk on his own.
He generally sits down after a couple of meters because he's afraid of his own powers (if he doesn't, his impetus tends to make him fall forward at some point), but he is practicing eagerly. Now he just has to learn to actually pay attention to where he goes... so far, he just assumes that the ground is even, and is surprised whenever it turns out not to be.

That said, it's time for another heap of bad photos and half-assed commentary!





The first thing the pictures do is to show, kind of embarrassingly, how much I stayed in situ. Almost all of them were taken from right in front of my tent or at best from the border of the Grey Camp. I only made it up to the "town" twice. Like just around now, it was too hot for much - besides, Felix often kept himself occupied, so I didn't want to tear him away from whatever he was doing. These are two of our neighbours - the Dutch caravansery, and the Avatar's shrine.




Fortunately, I had my "job" right there with me - the "school garden" of the Grey Camp. I potted all those plants at home over the year and drove them to the DF site all in one go (hurrah for big trunks). Someone else made the cute owl signs, though. (The owl is one of the symbols of the Grey Camp, which fights for wisdom and knowledge.)




In town! A bardic competition at the Temple of All Dragons.




The cemetery.




The orc camp... from outside and well away.




"Look, mommy, I found you a box!"




Some army on the move. This was before (almost) everybody decided that it was too hot for fighting.




Healers at work.




That thing I said about toddlers in straw hats last post? Totally still applies.




Some speech at dusk. - There was a lot of nightly action, as it got really cool as soon as the sun went down. I didn't participate in any of it, though, for obvious reasons.




"This does not belong in a fantasy setting! Must cover it up."




The alchemist corner of the school garden. Those cocktail umbrellas symbolise in-game plants. You can't really see it in the small pic, but we pretended we'd buried the ship's cat in the upper right corner of this "flowerbed" - so we could have herbs that otherwise only grow in cemetaries...




My brother, ready to go to the masked ball. Tickets for that were highly limited, but as a diplomat and reasonably well-dressed character, he was invited (and not too happy about it, as he doesn't like to dance). He apparently stole the mask from AMC Maedhros ;)




The big thunderstorm approacheth. And I sat looking at the clouds all heat-bedazzedly, thinking "Cool, they look kind of like an eagle." Then my fannish mind sprang into action and went "AHAHAH! Narîka 'nBâri 'nAdûn! MUST GRAB CAMERA!" Of course, by the time I'd dug out the camera, the eagle-shape had already mostly disolved. :(
Then the thunderstorm of doom hit. Fortunately, I managed to get Felix to sleep anyway - and promptly fell asleep myself.




The day after the storm started out nice and cool and cloudy until it was time for the final battle, when it got hot and humid. Figures. - Felix really loved the garden - so many pots to turn over, so much mulch to move from one spot to the other, and all those colourful cocktail umbrellas...!




Preparing for the final battle. Amusingly, Argelion was asked several times whose side he was on - despite wearing this rather obvious breastplate...




Orc army waiting for enemies (i.e., everybody else).






Various armies heading into battle: Gold, Red (finally, their Avatar is wearing something that befits his rank), Silver, Green (with a GM blocking their Avatar from sight, boo), Grey.




Random shieldwall shot + onlookers




Some healers looking for work (the one with the dagger looks like she's prepared to make her own work...)




After the battle - Mother Grey holds a little speech. As you can see, she's quite amused. (Our coalition won - and two of the most battle-mighty camp banners, Red and Gold, were driven off the field by our very own warriors! MWAHAHAH. - Does the word battle-mighty even exist? Well, it does in Anglo-Saxon, so I'll damn well use it!)



Done. I won't make any predictions for what's up next - we'll see when it happens! For now, I'll go back to helping Felix practice getting down the stairs. (He insists on trying this repeatedly. Probably a good attitude that I should support, but it gets tiring ever so often!)

Comments

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I love his muddy little gown and the green cap. A perfect medieval toddler. OMG! He is WALKING!! Now the real trouble starts. Sorry I keep saying things like that, but misery loves company.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It turned out that the discoloration won't wash out of the gown anymore - apparently, there was so much tannic acid in the mulch that the colour stuck to the fabric for good. Oh well. Mud makes everything more authentic. ;)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I am working on a problem with Alex now which I never had with my children until they were teens--answering me in a snide sarcastic tone of voice (he turned five last month! So soon!).

Awww. The little baby dress! You should definitely save it as a keepsake, especially with the stains. The marks that won't come out will make it even more poignant than the lovely photos of him at this event. They grow up so fast. I still keep a couple carefully chosen pieces of baby clothing of both Laura and my son. Most I just cheerfully recycled. (Now I am getting all maudlin.)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Felix "inherited" a lot of my brother's and my old baby clothing - my mother kept much of it until now! (She let go of the larger sizes easily, but not the ickle baby stuff.)
Actually, that's a dress I sewed myself, so probably nobody else would want it anyway. XD