the wayside inn

     A few weekends ago, my mom and I headed up to The Wayside Inn, in Sudbury, Massachusetts-- the same Wayside Inn that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about in his famous Tales of a Wayside Inn.  We were there for the Sudbury Colonial Faire, a fife and drum muster that also has a full-blown colonial gathering with period-appropriate dancing, food, and crafts.

the man of the hour himself

uh-oh.

     There was also a reenactment of a Revolutionary War skirmish-- it was pretty intense.  I was standing near a little boy and his dad, and the father kept trying to explain what was happening in a historically unbiased manner, which doesn't necessarily compute with a four-year-old who's used to having clearly defined 'good guys' and 'bad guys.'  

I really like weathervanes-- there were some beautiful ones around The Wayside Inn.  This one was on top of a church.

this little pathway looked completely untouched by time, it was like something out of a fairytale.

did I mention that there were a lot of guys firing muskets?  well, there were a whole lot of guys firing a whole lot of muskets.

I love old stone walls-- I love imagining how many people in different time periods touched this one as they were out for a walk in the woods.

these golden berries were growing everywhere.

This is one of my favorite weathervanes ever-- simple and clean and pretty.

heading to the parade-- I've gotta hand it to this guy for marching barefoot, because it was not a warm day.

I hope you've enjoyed a peek into my trip to The Wayside Inn!

♥

westbrook

Good morning!

I mentioned a few posts back that I had gone to Connecticut for a fife and drum muster.  Here are a few of my favorite moments from the weekend!

When I was younger, my family used to go visit my grandparents on Cape Cod, and we always stopped at the Danbury, Connecticut rest stop to stretch our legs and have a picnic lunch.  The ground was always covered with these cool little rock sculptures.  A few years ago the rock sculptures disappeared, but this year when we stopped on our way to the Westbrook Muster, the sculptures were back!  Yay!

I watched the parade next to a very sweet man who had been coming to the muster for over thirty years.  Every year, he checks off the corps that perform, "just to keep track."

Our main canopy ended up right over a little puddle where water from the nearby basketball court drained, so we had eight amphibious companions for the festivities.  It was really interesting to see their behavior-- at any given time, two of them were standing guard either side of the drain pipe.  It was a little strange on the first day, having a frog pond in the middle of the campsite, but by Sunday, it somehow seemed perfectly normal!

I hope your weekend is off to a fantastic start!  

Tomorrow I'm going to a wool and fiber festival, and I'll be hugging alpacas as much as I can.  They have the cutest little faces, how could anyone be expected to resist?

Have a lovely Saturday!

♥

deep river

This past weekend was one of my favorite events of the year:

The Deep River Ancient Muster!

     For those of you who may not know, I spent pretty much every Friday night and most weekends involved in a fife and drum corps from the time I was eight to when I turned eighteen.  It was such a cool experience, and I made some of my closest friends through it.  While I haven't been overly involved in fife and drum since graduating out, Deep River is not to be missed.  It's basically a huge gathering of fife and drum corps that lasts from Friday until Sunday, in Deep River, Connecticut.  My mom and I camped out with hundreds of other corps members from at least fifty different groups.  Friday was spent setting up and hanging out at the campsite, then Saturday was a parade and mainstand performances.

Parade-side knitting, naturally.

(I was working on my Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica scarf all weekend, and I'm about halfway done!  Yay!)

My knitting attracted these two kiddles, who then stuck around for most of the parade.  Not surprising, really-- for some reason, children have always flocked to me.  I'm like Mother Goose, but 22 and a brunette.  And sans goose.

I thought this Celtic/steampunk look was pretty cool.  I always admire a man who can rock a scarf.

My mom's fife and drum corps!  Yay Mom!

The Ancient Mariners, who are known for being a little...hmm... raucus, shall we say.

They always put on a wild show and their musical ability is second to none.

I love that while they dress semi-uniformly, each member adds distinctive touches.

The littlest mariner

Oh, and Santa was there.  I guess we know what he does during the other eleven months of the year.

I loved the stud detailing on these snare drums, it gives a totally different look from the usual paint or decals.

This trio of kids cracked me up, especially the little guy on the right.  He's just doin' his own thing.

Heehee.

Saturday night was full of good food (hello, steamed clams at 10 pm) and lots of music, then we headed home on Sunday morning.

It was one of the best weekends I've had in ages.  I even made some lovely new friends (Hi Dawn!  Hi Steph!  Hi Carol! Hi Justine!).  I'm looking forward to next year already!

♥