Avoncroft 2025

 Greetings

We had arrived back from the Eastercon ( in Belfast) on the afternoon of  the Wednesday after Easter.

On the Friday afternoon we travelled up to Bromsgrove to stay ( as usual) at the Hanbury Turn for our visit to Avoncroft.

We decided to do both days in costume this time. I chose something that I would not have to change completely out of in order to drive home.

On the first day, Teddy wore his Regency suit, but with a new waistcoat that he had bought at the last Re-enactors Fayre.

And I wore my Queen Ann with blue velvet coat and Full peruke.

 

and on the second day I wore my 1750's coat with my tie-wig and real beacver-felt tricorn.

While Teddy wore a Fifteenth century houpeland.

There were very few traders there. We gathered that the venue was charging them more this year and that most had decided they couldn't make the numbers work...

Still, that did mean I didn't buy much- just three bottles of mead.

We still had a good time and enjoyed the breakfasts and evening meal at the Ewe and Lamb with our friends Kate and Malcolm.

We've booked the rooms for next year.

  

Until next time

Adieu

Stretch 9

 Greetings

Here the next version of this piece.

Until next time

Adieu

Painting Detail 3

 Greetings

Here are some more details from my latest oil painting.

These are close-ups of the flowers and plants.

I am particularly please with the daffodils in the mid-ground. They are only about a half cm across.

Until next time

Adieu

Stretch 8

 Greetings

Here is yet another version of this computer artwork

Until next time

Adieu

Eastercon Belfast 2025 1

 Greetings

My sales from the art show were a little disappointing.

I sold two cartoon prints

and

We had a very slightly heavier swell for the ferry trip home, but I still coped fairly well. Though it did leave me with  the rather odd sensation of the floor moving if I stood still for too long. That lasted a couple of days.

On leaving the ferryport, however, we had a little excitement, as we were flagged down by a policeman, who wanted to know where we were going. 

He was a little surprised to be told " Knutsford"( which was not far away), but relaxed when we clarified this was just an overnight pitstop on our way on to London. Once he'd checked which bits of London we were heading for, he waved us on.

As we left, I saw the car ahead of us had been diverted off to one side, next to a van labelled 'Immigration'. 

The rest of the trip went smoothly. We dropped Gail back to her house and then drove home.

The cats were pleased to see us. 

Until next time

Adieu

Stretch 7

 Greetings

This is another variant of my latest computer art

until next time

Adieu

Eastercon Belfast 2025

 Greetings

Teddy and I had been persuaded to get memberships of the 2025 Eastercon  in Belfast at an earlier convention. 

I knew I would have to  do the driving and ferry thing, as I wanted to take framed pictures for the art show.

However, as my experiment with prints had gone alright at the Filkcon, I decided to only take ten framed works and put a lot more into the print shop. This meant I could also try selling prints of some my big paintings ( which are both too large and would command too high a price to sell at a con).

We had also committed to transporting Teddy's cousin. Gail, who uses a wheelchair.

As (again) I would be the only driver, we decided to split the journey on the way there and on the way back and booked a Premier Inn and a Travelodge.

We were getting a ferry from Liverpool and the journey up began very well,  We were going to go round on the M25 and go back into London a little to collect Gail. Unfortunately, Teddy made the classic mistake of commenting that we were going to get to Gail's early.

Soon after that the traffic ground to halt just before the Dartford Tunnel.  Teddy looked at my phone and found out that a car had caught fire coming out of the tunnel on the other side, so we weren't an hour early; we were half an hour late.

The rest of the journey up went mostly to plan, though my satnav did try to hide the Premier inn from us. We got up early and were in good time for the ferry. I don't like boats, but the crossing was very smooth and my only mistake was not walking about enough.

The convention was great. I don't think I have been to so many programme items for years. They had Interesting Items! 

There was no masquarade, but Satuday was Hall Costume day and they were going to have a Cosplay Competition  that evening. I had only brought the Jedi Robes that Teddy commissions Mikki Dennis to make me. As I hadn't made them, I was just going to wear them as Hall costume, but, as they only had two entries for the Cosplay Competition, I , and every other person they could find wearing costume, was dragooned into taking part to bulk out the item.

This is the first time I've done Cosplay rather than Masquarade and I thought I'd just subvert the MC's questions by pretending rhe Galactic Chancellor had sent me to try to use the Force to alter Trade Policy and then do a couple of poses.

I did manage my plan and the judges did immediately work out I  was joking. 

Here's my pose ( All these photos are by Sue Dawson and are used with consent)

  But then...

One of the child entries who had gone on first was dressed as Kylo Ren and they persuaded him to come back up and fight me.

Now, I'm a re-enactor. I've been sword fighting for forty years and I'm one of my group's instructors, so it could easily have been a one blow fight.

However, I am also well versed in making my opponent look good.  He did very well and I waited till the MC made a comment before ' making the kill'.

I found out later that he did some martial arts, so that explains it.

I will post more later.

Until next time

Adieu