SUNDAY RERUN: Portland Pirates, 2009

Time to repost a favorite! (Everyone has favorite blog posts; Click on the button in the lefthand sidebar to join Chari's Sunday Favorites blog party!)

This week I'm posting a slide show of pictures from last year's Portland Pirate Festival. It's what I'm doing this weekend, only we have wet, Wet, WET weather to contend with.

This is the first of two slideshows. In the next one, I'll put face painting shots, and maybe a few other just-looking-at-all-the-fun pictures; this one shows the costumes, the action, the fun, the relaxation of all those adult inhibitions about doing things "they" might think are silly. It's one of the reasons I love the festival: Nobody worries about anything but the moment, and even the growed-ups play!

Gotta run now--it's time to get into pirate wench mode, and go paint, hopefully, a whole lot of little pirate faces and arms!

SHOW & TELL SATURDAY: Rain, rain, rain

Well, I spent a wet day at the Portland Pirates Festival yesterday. It wasn't actually raining when I got there to open my booth, but had rained so much during the night that my skirt was wet six inches up from the hem, and my shoes, socks, and feet were damp all day.

For some of the day, it just poured buckets. Even the ground was so wet that the legs of my stools were sinking into it, even though I had a heavy cloth spread for them to sit on. One man sat down on the stool to have his face painted, and the back legs sank in so deep the stool toppled! He jumped up and didn't fall, but after that, when a child sat down, I'd make sure his/her feet were on the top step (it's one of those with steps that fold out) and then firmly plant one of mine on the bottom, just to be safe.

Still, Portlanders are a hardy lot. It was POURING rain (notice the drips from my tent pennants) and while attendance was down, a lot of people didn't carry umbrellas or even seem to notice they were getting wet. I was soaked just getting from my booth to the car to go home, but we've had so much rain this year, I think people have given up caring.

I took this video later in the day. Before this, the crowds seemed almost as heavy as they have been in other years.

The forecast for the day shows some heavy showers on the way, but scattered, and it looks like maybe it won't be raining when I take down the booth.

Oh, and immediately after the festival, I have another event, a pub sing to benefit Portland Revels. I'll be helping to lead the singing. I don't think I'll have a chance to change out of my Pirate Wench costume. Pray that I'm not too bedraggled when I get there!

PORTLAND PIRATE FESTIVAL SLIDESHOW

This is the first of two slideshows. In the next one, I'll put face painting shots, and maybe a few other just-looking-at-all-the-fun pictures; this one shows the costumes, the action, the fun, the relaxation of all those adult inhibitions about doing things "they" might think are silly. It's one of the reasons I love the festival: Nobody worries about anything but the moment, and even the growed-ups play!

PICTURE A DAY, 09/19/09

Is it cheating if my picture for the day is one taken by someone else? It's me in wench-wear, taken before I headed over to the Portland Pirate Festival yesterday:


Just in case that photo doesn't count, here's one I took myself, an example of something that never fails to make me smile--the obvious anachronisms walking around the park all day, both days:


It wasn't until after I took the picture of these pirate types that I noticed the camera and name tags, and of course, the utility kilt, while looking "oldish", did not exist in the century being portrayed. But I'm not complaining. A festival that encourages costumes to the point that a person in street clothes may feel underdressed is nothing to sneer at, to my way of thinking!

PICTURE A DAY--PIRATES!

One day down of the Portland Pirate Festival, and all things considered, not a bad day. It was raining when I woke up, and as I dressed, fixed breakfast, and ate. It was raining as I drove to Cathedral Park in St Johns. I was damp, damper, dampest as I unloaded things and took them to the tent I'd set up yesterday.

You know, a chilly drizzle is not good news for a face painter!

Fortunately, the rain tapered off by early afternoon, and after a while the sun even came out. As usual, I enjoyed myself. I mean, what's not to like about tickling little and big kids with a wet paintbrush, and then collecting smiles, thank you's, and five dollars?!

At one point, I decided to stretch my legs. I asked the folks in the next booth not to let mine walk away while I was gone, and a sturdy gentleman volunteered to handle my customers in my absence. I came back to this:


Uhm...I think maybe he meant that "handle" a bit more literally than I'd thought!

Sun forecast for tomorrow. I'm going to set my hair, and get to bed. Sun and a pirate festival can translate into a very busy day. Yay!

PICTURE A DAY--DANG IT!

Well, just like Pragmatist's, my camera card bit the dust today. I had nearly 500 photos on that thing, many of them from our trip to the coast. I bought a CardRecovery program, choking over the $40 price, which just about cleaned my PayPal account out, as I've been spending more than I'm making of late. But I wasn't going to lose those shots if I could help it.

Since it took me all evening to recover the files and then reformat the card, my picture for the day is one that the card screwed up for me, just to show what that can do. And that's why this Picture a Day photo is called "Dang It!".

There's a lot of white space up there. It's the bottom of what's left of the photo. Sigh. Well, I recovered a lot of the pictures, if not all.

Tomorrow is the Pirate Festival. And Sunday. It's supposed to rain until noon tomorrow, and then warm up to about 70. I'll be painting faces for it, dressed in my pirate wench costume. Sunday they forecast sunny, so at least part of the weekend should be actual fun!

PIRATES & PAINT

The Portland Pirate Festival was this past weekend. As usual, it was great fun. Don't want to write a lot, because it's already after midnight, so I'll just post pictures.

Since I was there as the face painter, let's start with those:

I think it's safe to say we all had fun!

Tomorrow:

Friday Fence Post #3
More Pirate Pictures