A couple weeks ago I helped my friends at Mirandum Pictures with a shoot that involved a sword fight. I'm honestly not much of a swordsman, but it was pretty simple stuff. And what's more fun than dressing up an clashing blades in a fancy garden? As a bonus I think we're going to use the picture below as the author photo for Nobody Likes a Goblin.
Another thing that comes with spring is arrows. Back in my SCA days my dad would take my sisters and me out to my grandpa's farm where we'd practice archery using some stacked straw bales as a target. Now I have some straw bales of my own and I'm teaching my girls how to handle a bow. Here's Zita and Angelica:
And here's Julia:
I've also been doing some of my own Arrow-speriments. Including:
Punching Ball Arrow:
and Exploding Arrow:
And finally, this past weekend I was able to fulfill a long-time dream of mine: fire breathing at the top of Buzzard Rock. The Rock is a mountain ridge in the George Washington National Forest that comes to a rocky, blade-like point. I've climbed up there many times, searching for wisdom or just a nice view, but I've always wanted to be up there after the sun set, spitting fire into the twilight. Now, thanks to some very patient friends, I can cross that off my list (photo by Colin Mason):
That said, the hike was rough. Three grown men and not a one of us remembered to bring water. We started late and so had to book through the whole hike to catch the very last gasps of daylight. We hiked down with a single flashlight to save us from being utterly lost in the pitch black woods. At least we didn't run across any bears.
Welcome back Summer. I missed you.
