The weather was great - it only rained twice, both at night, so no biggie. The one night it was just a brief downpour an hour or two before dawn. The second time it did rain for several hours after midnight, but we took advantage of it - a campmate and I went on a walkabout around the lake in the rain with a bottle of Ryan's Irish cream. It was a beautiful thing. (Getting soaked in the rain once during Pennsic is no big deal - I had dry garb, and the tent didn't leak - it's only when it rains for days on end and everything's wet that it gets annoying).
The days were (as usual) ungodly hot. Though many people said the heat was particularly bad this year, so it wasn't just me. I pretty much stayed in camp during the day, not venturing out until after sundown. In past years that used to really bug me, as I'd get bored, but this year I was smart - I made sure I brought things to do, and when I got too hot in my little personal pavilion up by my tent, I went down into the shade of the trees to hang out with the Shire of Hornwood (they technically camp 'next door' to us, but really our camps just merge into one big camp) and cooled off. So it wasn't too bad.
I didn't make it to any of the classes I considered taking, but I did do one new thing this year - went to opening ceremonies. It was pretty cool, and I got some nice pictures there. During opening ceremonies, the King and Queen of each of the 19 kingdoms in the SCA march in a big procession with their entourage up to the dais (set up in front of the castle fort). Then some of them give speeches, and War is "officially declared."
We had a catastrophic failure of our shade fly ...
... but it'll be replaced before next Pennsic, so it's all good.
Here's a picture of our neighbors, the Shire of Hornwood:
The last Friday of War was a Friday the 13th, and the Chalkman Pub played it up - you had to walk under a ladder to get in, and by the ladder was a broken mirror.
Speaking of the Chalkman, I forgot what should have been a big deal. Every year on the middle Friday the Chalkman has a music competition. The band, in its various iterations, has entered it for quite a few years, but never won. This year we won the overall slot. Pretty awesome.
We spent our last night at Pennsic 'holding court' in front of our gate, heckling passers-by and trying to give away the rest of the beer in our keg, so it could be stored to turn in for the deposit when next year's keg is picked up. (That's Robin, of course, in the picture - I wasn't in it because I had to take the picture).
And that's about all the Pennsic pictures. I didn't take a lot this year, except at opening ceremonies. But we had a lot of fun. And (as always) have a lot of plans for how to spruce up the camp next year. But more on that another time.
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