I know, I know. It’s been awhile. And I’ve been busy–but I haven’t been feeling the desire to write much. Instead, I’ve been exercising those other creative muscles that were a little bit stiff. A lot of that has been poured into two substantial illumination projects, which I will get to in the course of this update.

Crown Tourney was a milestone of a sorts. We managed to have the tournament outdoors, despite some fine mist for the duration, with afternoon court moving indoors. I stepped up as Trillium Herald (complete with the full cup of water “anointment” (I did ask for it). And I got to get the almost-completed Court Barony scrolls for Gema and Dmitri signed–by Roak and Hyrrokin, who, as it turned out, became Prince and Princess that day.

The scrolls were then framed and presented at the wedding the next Saturday. The wedding itself was amazing–fairly small, but pretty much perfect, with all kinds of nerdy touches, including needing to roll a huge d20 to get the couple to kiss (I got a 19, even with my Dexterity bump from my D&D character). Instead of dancing, we all had games to play at our tables–ours played something called Quiddler, which involved drawing letter cards (one more each round) and attempting to form words from them. I won a couple of rounds (one was with the words queer and den, which was just too much fun). The food was amazing–the wedding cake involved cupcakes and was gorgeous. And the couple loved the scrolls!

The next big project was Court Barony scrolls for Avelyn and Dafydd of Skraeling Althing. I had taken on the assignment despite being fairly busy because it was my chance to do…murderbunnies! These were given out yesterday.

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Yesterday, after being in Toastmasters training for about six hours, I went to Niagara Falls to visit the newly-reopened Niagara Parks Power Station, which was built in 1905 and decommissioned in 2006. This involved a self-guided tour of the station, and then returning for a half-hour-long immersive light show dramatizing both the origins of Niagara Falls and the history of the building. It was quite spectacular, and we will definitely be back, as there are plans to open the tailrace, the enormous tunnel leading from the generating station back to the river (which I learned about here), in 2022. I do have a real love for vintage machinery combined with architecture, and this Richardson Romanesque building full of all kind of old equipment did not disappoint.

In between the visits, we had dinner at Betty’s (including amazing pumpkin pie) and then drove through Niagara Falls looking at the holiday lights, which had just been turned on.

I’m currently working on a new Rus’ tunic, adding pearls to trim. There will actually two of them–both the red one I am working on now, and a blue one after that. I have also completed an embroidery to give as a prize for QPT, which is in two weeks.

I’ve done the initial sketch for the next Shostakovich embroidery, which I plan to start on Wednesday, while I am in Montreal for the performance of his Fifteenth Symphony. That will follow very quickly with a performance of Trio no. 2 on Saturday evening. There is the pasta dinner on Thursday evening for Museum volunteers, which I’ll be going to after I return from Montreal. There are also plans made for December to tour a historic house on the 11th and then to see The Nutcracker on the 19th. There is also a bit of nervousness, because COVID cases are creeping upwards again. But as I’ve said before, I’m viewing each of these events with an eye now that nothing is certain. I am happy to know that it certainly looks OK for the events of this coming week, with the weather being the most significant worry right now. Some things do not change.