![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Faire Animals
Photographs of chain mail and armour-clad knights slashing each other with long steel blades is all well and good (just let me know if you want more of those shots) but today it's time to take a look at the "softer" side of the Ren Faire.
In this case, softer means feathery, furry and the slightly muddled. :)
Want to see what I mean?
Sir Alf (or, as he is more properly known, Don Alfredo, the Godfeather) was the biggest feathered hit at our booth. His lady stopped by to look at our jewelry and we struck up a conversation with her. She stayed around for quite a while, talking with us and allowing me to take lots of photographs of Sir Alf.
(Alf is an Eastern Screech Owl who was permanently injured and taken to the NC-Claws facility for help. As he cannot take care of himself in the wild, he's a permanent member of the NC-Claws staff and goes around to various educational events to promote wildlife safety)
Rahl is another resident of NC-Claws. He is a Red-Tailed Hawk who, like Sir Alf, is permanently injured and unable to care for himself in the wild.
I photographed Rahl after seeing the artistic "painting" stylings of Smithfield. Rahl was a welcome bit of wild normalcy after that.
Bonn has a soft spot for rabbits. She and Seren had a rabbit once upon a time ago and she occasionally mentions how great their rabbit was and wouldn't it be nice to have a rabbit around the house?
(Um, no. You get to explain the rabbit to the cats)
Still, when she saw this rabbit she insisted that I get up from my manknitting and take it's picture.
The final day of the Ren Faire was the only nice day of the three weekends. It was wet on the grounds, to be sure, but the skies looked blue and friendly and people were very happy to be walking around outside.
Ren Faires also seem to bring out the eccentric in people. Or maybe it's just that they don't mind going that extra bit further to make themselves stand out in a crowd of costumed people.
It's the ones that go over the top on their animals, not themselves, that worry me.
This teenager, however, was a very sweet guy who clearly loved the bird on his shoulder. Reba (named after Reba McEntire, the country singer due to the red feathers) officially 'belongs' to his neighbor, but he's the only one she's happy and content with, so it's likely only a matter of time...
This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. I mean, honestly. If these guys ever showed up at a Dog Playground they'd get the stuffing kicked out of them for being so... fairy winged.
Seriously, folks. If you're going to dress something up for the Ren Faire, let it be yourself. Your dogs are descended from wild wolves and you're just making their ancestors roll over in their collective graves. You, on the other hand, should only cast such humiliation onto yourself, not those around you who depend on you.
A show can be made good or bad by any number of factors, many of which are far beyond your control. The weather is one continually worrisome factor for shows. If the weather gets bad, it helps to have good neighbors.
Zenobia was one of our next door (next tent flap?) neighbors for the three rainy weekends of the show and she helped to provide us with a steady source of distractions when the weather was lousy. She travels the country doing Ren Faires along with her cat, C.A.T.
C.A.T. was a great cat, devoted to Zenobia but still wanting to investigate his surroundings in-depth.
Bonn had met C.A.T. earlier in the week, but Zenobia brought C.A.T. out to meet me on the evening of the last Saturday. As a result, Sunday was a beautiful, clear and sunny day.
She should have brought C.A.T. out the first weekend. :)
...
no subject
no subject
i took three shots of rahl before someone else came over and interrupted the shots -- someone who saw what neat shots i was getting and stepped in with their camera and annoyed rahl to the point of looking away. still, i love the expression on his face and the way he's looking straight at me.
thanks.
...
no subject
thanks for sharing!
no subject
...
no subject
no subject
i'd like to take more photos of the rescued animals at nc-claws.org. if nothing else, they could use them for educational purposes.
...
no subject
no subject
...
no subject
Why is it that other places always seem so much more interesting that wherever I am?
no subject
other places aren't any more or less interesting. it's all a matter of where you're head's at, isn't it?
i mean, to be realistic, the three weekends spent at the ren fest were filled with biting winds, cold temperatures and rain. and rain. and rain. we froze the first three or four times we were out there. what's so interesting about that? :)
...
no subject
Those "knights without armor" shots would be very helpful in bringing that little fantasy back from it's flight as well.
BTW - do screech owls really screech? Thanks.
no subject