Coralie's Armour

This is Coralie, who spent several days in my shop making her armour. This is the three piece backplate she made....normally a fairly standard design, except of course for the customizing details....her high waist, and superior posture make for a custom armour which looks very nice. I'll post pics of the front as they are made.

Snow29Mar08

My poor unfinished second story deck, looks like it is supporting the snow without difficulty!

Gilbert Gargoyle, trying to not see the snow which is almost up to his perch.

Spring must exist somewhere. Not here though. The snow on the roof came down with such violence a month or so ago that it went through a window. A lot of the snow that you see in the above pictures has been carefully stacked against said windows to prevent any more damage. So it looks a little worse than it is. The snow is so deep that the frost has come out of the ground, and so there is a sea of mud under all this.

Hmmmfh. Insult to injury!

On the other hand, the sap is flowing in the maple trees, and the sugar bush is open for business. Mmmmmmm....maple taffee on the snow!

Fiddler on the Roof

The Greeley Players are a volunteer community theatre which is several notches better than average. They performed Fiddler on the Roof. This is an excellent play for large numbers of people, but much more difficult for a small troupe. A lot of action...lots of people..it is a village after all, and everybody has something to say! The book was written by Sholem Aleichem, translated and compiled by Joseph Stein, and was originally entitled "Tevya and his daughters".
Jerry Brock wrote the music for this musical, and they have become familiar to us all. "If I were a Rich Man" still remains my favorite, but my mother's favorite was "Sunrise-sunset", a real tear jerker.
This great classic play was the first that the Greeley Players had done back when they first came together in 1990. They did the longer version, the one that set records on Broadway (more than 3000 performances!! Oh my!) rather than the slightly less scary version that Stein had written for high school theatre. Last night was opening night, and it seems to be sold out for the entire weekend.
I found that during this performance, I identified more with Tevya than with his willful daughter's tailor husband. Interesting what a different perspective one gets when you see this play again after 30 years. And a good time was had by all!

more info here....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler_on_the_Roof


This was the second play I attended in under 7 days! Last week it was "Shakespere's Dog", this week it is "Fiddler on the Roof". And in about 2 hours, I'll be doing a demo at a public school, dressing the teachers in armour and fielding questions from grade fours. That should burn me out!

Weekend Flowers

Judy's pictures from October.

sigh.

Ice.

The above pic was taken on 3 March, the ones below were taken only 2 weeks later! The icicles are really cool, long, and look at the stalagmites coming up on the rain barrel! The ice dam is starting up top. Compare these cute little (?) icicles to what they became in only two weeks!

Looking out my front door. The snow from the porch roof had to be tossed overboard...it was sagging, and I had to install jack posts to hold it up! The resulting pile of snow is too high to see over!

The pretty church next door looks like a Xmas postcard. Snow is up to the windows. And the rest of the porch snow got tossed into the driveway...so much for having a driveway this winter!

The garage roof seems to have a glacier on it. twenty pounds of salt may get rid of it...mayby. It is a classic "ice dam", and if it gets much worse, the meltwater will back up under the shingles to come inside. So far this has not happened.

And amazingly enough, this glacier got even worse after I shoveled off that half yard of snow from the garage roof. Ah well, and people wonder why I don't have time to finish their armours! Just surviving in this horrid climate is trouble enough!

Oh, and this week we graduated two courses at the College, a Basic and and Advanced which were running in parallel streams have graduated, and have now come together in an Advanced class which will run for another 8 weeks.

Tuesday Toons

Doggies

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
Take naps.
Stretch before rising.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

Judy's Pictures from September

After the unrelieved "white" of this last month, it is helpfull to remember that there are flowers out there. Under the snow. Thanks Judy for letting me use these pictures.

Origami

http://detinha-origamis.blogspot.com/

The bootom one is not from the referred web site...I just thought it was cool. An origami Yoda. Gracious me!

Piercings

These cannot be made bigger by clicking on them, however you get the idea. Pierced glasses. Oh dear.....