O, to the Ren Faire we will go!

The World's Best Niece and I went to the opening day of the Texas Renaissance Festival in Magnolia. It was cloudy-ish, with a few little bits of scattered rain, plus some breeze--good Faire attendance weather.

Saw Wine & Alchemy and they were awesome as usual. Bought their new CD. Went by Cheryl Elms' booth where I bought my amazing sheepskin hat (I was wearing one of her tshirts), and traded a pair of my copper spiral earrings for a really cool shirt that the WBN assures me the Nephew will like. So I have a Christmas present out of the way. (My mind works funny. I remembered--a year later--that Cheryl had admired my spiral earrings and had commented if I brought some we could do a trade. This morning I pulled 3 pairs in copper, bronze, and silver, and tucked them into my purse. She remembered and we both went away happy.)

Wandered around a fair bit. Went to the massage booth where a lovely young man worked on the Evil Knee and my feet, and he recommended I do water aerobics and/or Pilates to build up the muscles around the knee. Bought a show tshirt. Resisted the many fried temptations and had some grapes and good lemonade. If you know where to look, the food at TRF is quite tasty.

Had quite a few great conversations with various vendors, all of whom admired the jewelry I was wearing and demanded cards. Resisted temptation at the wind chime booth (there was one made with a soup ladle and some other flatware), and bought a bottle of mead. By this time it was getting on to 4 and the Evil Knee decided, even with the cane, that it had Had Enough. As we were headed out we passed a little import shop with all those cute Indonesian animal carvings and went in on a whim. I found a plain white sign/hanging with a blacksmith's anvil on it and bought it for the princely sum of $5.

WBN and I had our usual great conversation on the way back.

And I am apparently well-known in Navasota, TX:

Today would have been my mother's 86th birthday. I miss you, Mama.