Autumn Faire

We attended the Annual North Carolina Renaissance Festival a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic! The Festival is still on this weekend and next, so if this post inspires you and you can make it to the Charlotte North Carolina area, join the fun.

 

 

Your tour guide for the event (me).

I get the feeling this is going to be a little different...

 

 A Reaissance Festival (or Ren Faire) is a trip back in time.

This lovely old time traveler was parked near us.

 OK, maybe it is not 100% accurate Medieval Recreation, but it is fun.

We started with a trip to the Cappuccino Inn shown above.

Have a good look at the buildings, this festival occurs out in a field.

I do not know if the buildings are from previous years or not, but they were substantial.

We certainly met some interesting people.

Some of the people in costume are paid performers, but not all.

Some, like me, just love an excuse to play dress up.

Dressing up is certainly not required, but it is fun.

 

 I found a friend.

 Looks like My Sweet Husband found a couple of friends too.

(Hey, that is my Pumpkin Ale he is holding)

I am rather fond of Pumpkin.

There is music everywhere at the Faire.

Some performers have set stages.

This One Woman Band provided a very pleasant accompaniment to our lunch 

(I'll show you that later). 

I believe this is Twig, the Fairy (and yes, I do believe in Fairies, do you?).

Charming. 

I have added a new band to my list of favorites. Cu Dubh.

Awesome, how can you go wrong with pipes and drums?

Check them out Cu Dubh

There was plenty of food on offer.

The stuffed baked potato was an excellent choice.

(Although, once again, not really historically accurate. Potatoes came from the new world.)

Click here for potato info.

 If you are looking for a new career, the Faire has many possibilities.

You could be a flower seller.

 





Or a target.

This young man hurls insults at the audience and some of them pay to hurl tomatoes back at him.

Tomatoes also originated in the New World.

I can't imagine what cooking was like before they became popular.

 These look like fun. Once again, options for everyone.

What sort of career requires the outfit on the right?

Then of course there is the Knight in Shining Armour.

This one was the bad guy.

Great show.

 This is one of my favorite photos!

Meet The Lady Christie and Widget.

I learned several things at the Festival.

My traveling companion.

My best friend.

The reason I am such a lucky girl!

 

Cheers,

or shall I say

Huzzah!

Kat

 



Autumn Post

Autumn Color

 

 Heintooga Roundbottom Road

Blue Ridge Parkway

North Carolina

 Glorious Color

 The perfect moment in time

 Majesty

 Choosing Apples

 

Bounty



 Time Travelers

 Where too next?

 

Cheers,

Kat



Day trip part three, produce stands and home. Contest!

Almost forgot,

we stopped for a picnic lunch before our walk on Heintooga Round Bottom Road

(Don't you just love that name)

We had home made bran muffins with peanut butter.

We headed home after our lovely walk. 

We stopped at a produce stand on the way back down the mountain.

 Isn't this a great harvest display?

There are several stands and each is a little different.

 They have beautiful pumpkins

Some with nice twisty stems.

 An assortment of gourds.

Some of these are quite fantastic.

 There were several different kinds of apples on offer.

We bought some King Lush,

 and some Arkansaw Black apples.

They are organically grown.

They were selling several kinds of grapes too and you could smell them.

 Inside the place is an antique / stuff store.

It is choc-a-block with things.

Here we have an old telephone,

a fire truck peddle car,

and gallons of cider.

 Anyone need an old mountain still?

Just look at this place,

my Mom would have loved it!

 A display of canning jars on window shelves.

 One of the kind gentlemen working at the stand saw me taking photos

and suggested I walk around out back.

This is the view.

 From a different angle.

 This old sign sits out back.

Notice the bird with twirly wings on top?

Just so you know,

I could go for everything on the sign,

except the boiled peanuts.

No thank you!

The last bit of enjoyment for the trip?

German apple pancake made from the King Lush and Arkansas Black apples.

Guess what I am having for breakfast this morning?

Don't forget the contest folks,

It goes till next Wednesday.

I really would like to know who looks at my posts,

and what you think of them.

There are three easy ways to enter the contest.

1. Follow me,

2. If you are already a follower, leave me a comment,

(You can comment on any post between now and Wednesday, I will give one entry per comment)

3. If you do not wish to follow or leave a comment,

send an email too 

akatscorner@aol.com

tell me what you think.

Can't wait to hear from you,

Cheers,

Kat

Summer fun.

My Sweet Husband had a great idea.

We took my Tacoma up to haul the tubes.

It is a comfy little pickup truck.

Just look at him, can you imagine how peaceful this is?

There were a lot of other people with the same idea, 

that is OK, it is a big river.  

It is really hard to stay stressed when you are out playing with someone special.

It is good to be a kid! 

We did this last summer too, but I did not get any photos.

This year I decided I better, so I can share.

Hope you find a little time to play too.

Cheers,

Kat

More information on digital magic post.

Last August, my Sweet Hubby and I went to Craggy Gardens.

I took these two photos (and if you know me, a whole lot more).

When I got home and looked at them on the computer, they seemed to suggest the butterfly was taking off.

So, I started to play.

Craggy Gardens Butterfly one 

Craggy Gardens Butterfly two 

This is the first step.

I used the computer to desaturate the drawing.

Then I opened it with Corel Painter Essentials and used a wacom tablet and pen to draw the butterfly's details back in. Once I was happy with the butterfly, I started working on the background.

I went back and forth between Corel and Photoshop Elements to get the effects I wanted. I saved variations as I worked. There is quite a bit of hand work in this set.

A Blue Ridge Mountain Road.

Craggy Gardens is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

The Carolinas are calling.

Cheers,

Kat

A little bit of winter and a little bit of spring.

 A very good friend of mine had an idea, I thought it was a good idea. So we jumped into her little car and headed north. North? In the winter? Yeah, sometimes you just have to do something silly.
We spent the weekend in Cherokee North Carolina. The drive was amazing! So pretty. 

                                                                 Snow by the roadside.

                                                                 Our trusty ride. 

 The Cherokee Casino is full of hand carved native art. This line of masks caught my attention.

Meanwhile back at home, our road doesn't have any snow, but it does look cold.  I love our walks, we find all sorts of surprises.

Last, but not least, the first of our Camellias has bloomed!

Cheers,

Kat