Christmas Lights & Christmas Moon

I admit it – I LOVE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!  I loved them as a kid when folks put them up in October before snow & cold made the task ugly but didn’t turn them on until the 1st Sunday of Advent.  My family would turn ours on & then walk around the neighborhood looking at all the displays. 

Decorated Pine Tree

Pine trees were common in Michigan yards and many folks simply put lights on their yard pine.  Here in Virginia pines are not so common and not everyone with a pine lights it up.  This one reminds me of my childhood home in southwestern Michigan.

A Neighbor’s House

Plastic figures with lights inside were new when I was in junior high.  Now they have charm the inflatables just don’t have.

LEDs on Bushes

Virginians may not have pines but they usually have ornamental bushes so folks put light nets on them.

Another Neighbor’s House Lights

This house also brings back childhood memories.  Lights along rooflines & around windows & doors was a favored fashion on the single story homes of my Fair Plain neighborhood.

The Local Extravaganza

Of couse there was always a house that went all out & then some.  This house is about 2 miles away.  My wide angle lens couldn’t actually take it all in.  All set out like soldiers on dress parade too.

A Mixed Motif Display

There’s something for everyone here – white silhouette figures, an inflatable, a couple of plastic figures, and house LED lights.

A Nicely Done Mobile Home

Several units at my local mobile home park had nice displays.  This end unit had the nicest to my mind.

Most neighborhoods had a few houses decorated, but the uptown subdivion just up the road from me had every occupied house lit up.

Floodlights & Inflatables

It had been windy earlier, so some of the inflatables were no longer on their feet so to speak.  Too much eggnog, eh?

Exterior & Interior Light Display

These folks have a very nice balance of floods, LEDs & interior electric candles.  The candles even flickered.

Another Good LED Display

I really like the way the blue-white icicle lights contrast with the yellow white porch wraps & interior lights.  This house just says ”Ya All Come on in & Have Some Eggnog.”

Silhouette Nativity

Nativity displays were quite popular back in the day.  Not so much anymore.  I’m not sure if that is because folks stopped buying them or because stores stopped selling them in favor of Inflate-a-Santas and other items that require replacement every 2 or 3 years.

Another Neighbor’s House

This is the best lit house in my neighborhood.  It’s almost entirely just LED lights.  The fence around the back yard is fully outlined as is the house.  The tree inside is also visible through the front window. 

Christmas Full Moon about 1:30 AM

Of course the Big Light Show this year was the Christmas Full Moon.  The night was cloudy but the clouds were broken and moving so the moon kept popping in and out of the cloud cover.  The ring around the moon started small but kept expanding until it was massive.  This photo needed my 17-40mm lens set at 17mm on my full frame DSLR body.

Christmas Full Moon about 3:40 AM

The ring around the moon waxed and waned until sometime after 2 AM.  Then the moon became a Ghostly Galleon tossed about in the cloudy sea of the sky.  I’m glad I got to see it.

OVPR #5–The Traders & Cooks

Of course any decent Rendezvous has traders and the OVPR events are no exception.  Whether you’re looking for candles (which you forgot to pack) or a whole new set of clothes the excellent traers at the OVPR can probably take care of you.

Split Rails

The weather was so grand that Flick didn’t set up a full tent for his wares.  He had petticoats, shifts, trade shirts, breeches and his fine leather shooting bags & pouches.

Seams Colonial

Seams Colonial is another great place for men’s & woman’s colonial attire.  They also carry various working class caps, mittens, socks, nice modest cost powder horns, some knives and the like.  Custom work is available.

Barkertown

Missy Clark is again becoming a regular trader at OVPR.  Missy’s clothing is very well researched & second to none.  She offers both ready made clothing & made to order custom work.

Mountain Forge

Tom Muschlitz & Sons has been a regular OVPR trader since long before I knew about the event.  He sells just about everything a ‘Vouser could want in camp except clothing. 

CClay Smith Gunsmith

Clay Smith Firelocks

Clay Smith has been bringing his fine firelocks and firelock components to OVPR of late.  And a grand fellow to chat with about firelocks & their history. 

The Green Man Inn

The Green Man was back with its most excellent food.  They are just opening for breakfast here.

The Green Man’s Lady

OK, so she isn’t green or a man but she sure cooks up some awesome food.  Her fella isn’t green either but he’s half of the Good Food that comes across the counter here.

Green Man Patrons Awaiting Lunch

While we’re on the subject of food, let’s not forget the hard cooking chicken crew that make that barbeque for the Saturday evening camp feed & potluck dinner.  (The potluck part is optional.)

Tim & the Chicken Crew

Cooking the Chicken

Sigh.  Another OVPR has come, been celebrated and gone.  How long until March?

OVPR #4–Family, Friends & Camps

Rendezvous isn’t really about women doing things with other women while the mem do stuff with other men.  It’s about people doing stuff with their family & friends, stuff which happens to involve some of the skills of our ancestors who lived before 1840 on this continent.

Open Fire Cooking

Cooking and heating wash water over a fire is a daily event in every camp.  The camp fire equipment need not be fancy, these folks have dug a shallow fire pit and are using a modest sizefolding fire grate. 

Father & Daughter

This father & daughter are off to the range for the junior match.  They came back with the daughter grinning ear to ear so I gather it went well.

A Goodman and Goodwife

I’ve camped near or next to these folks the last couple events.  I very mush enjoy their company as neighbors.

A Goodwife Helping Her Goodman Dress

OK, sometimes it seems you can dress them up but you can’t take them out.

All Dressed Up & Ready to Go

Or maybe you can.  A glass or two of wine helps. 

Just 2 Friends Making Lunch

Sausage, cheese, a hot beverage, and a warm little mid-day fire shared with a friend – the best of lunches.

Waiting for Dinner to Cook

Open fire cooking just plain takes longer than stovetop & oven cooking.  Time to sit, chat, mind the fire, and stir the pot.

Another Family Cooking Supper

Supper tends to be eaten in the late afternoon rather than in the evening.  It’s best to be able to wash & clean everything before it gets dark.  Washing things by candlelight does not produce pleasantly clean dishes.

Heating Water for Cleaning

Sanitation is just important in camp as it is back home.  Soap residue on cookware and dishes tends to lead to frequent trips to the hooters, soap being an excellent lubricant for that kind of thing.  Which is not much fun.

Another Family Camp

Cleaning the firelock back at the lodge, a job repeated in camp after camp all over camp.

Two Old Friends, a Fire & Bacon Cooking

The coffee is ready too, and the scrambled eggs will replace the bacon in the frying pan once it’s done. 

Awaiting His Friends Return from the Range

Rendezvousers fit their camps in where ever it looks good.  This usually means fitting the tent, dining fly and firepit location around trees, stumps, humps, and depressions in the ground.  It can be quite a challange.

A Nicely Pitched Teepee

Buffalo Woman had her teepee set up on the other side of camp from this one.  This group actually had 2 teepees set up along with a dining fly and some other tentage.  It can be tricky to find enough vertical room for a teepee in a wooded site such as this one.

OVPR #3–The Lads

The OVPR was started by a group of lads who were shooting black powder muzzleloaders on the weekends and felt there could be more to it than just the shooting.  More even than shooting in period attire.  Now the shooting, the hawk & knife throwing, and the archery are a solid part of what makes a Rendezvous, it’s the spending time with your friends & family that actually is the heart the affair.

Shooting the Breeze

That’s right, just hanging out and talking to your friends about whatever is as important as the clothes & the skills of the era.  What a concept.

Cooking Food & Planning Shenanigans

Now the lads don’t have an Informal Tea or Men’s Social as organized affairs but that doesn’t mean they don’t plan shenanigans.  They just plan them a bit more spur of the moment.

Reliving Past Shenanigans

Of course planning new shenanigans requires reviewing old shenanigans to revisit past successes and avoid repeating past failures. 

Discussing the Finer Points of Shooting

Of course a Rendezvous does invole shooting contests, so there are consultations among the lads as to loads, loading techniques, and the like.

Gun Cleaning

Shooting a firelock means cleaning said firelock after the fact.  Else the firelock ceases to work in a reliable way.  An unreliable firelock is a dangerous firelock. 

Just Chillin’

Of course there’s also plenty of time to just sit & enjoy your camp, the weather, and the woods.

Attending to Camp Keeping

A bit of housekeeping around one’s lodge is a good idea too.  Just not a strenuous amount of housekeeping.  It helps if the lodge is small.

Firekeeping Duty

Fires need tending too, both for safety and so that the cooked food is also edible food. 

More Shenanigan Planning Sighted

It’s a good thing the lads spend so much time planning shenanigans, it leaves them less time to actually accomplish the aformentioned mischief.

End of the Day at One’s Lodge

There’s always a a quiet time at day’s end to just savor it all too.

OVPR #2–The Lassies

So here’s photos of the fine lassies of the OVPR camp.  It has been pointed out to me that my camp shots made it seem that this was a guytime event with a few stray women around.  Well it’s not, so I deliberately went out and photographic the ladies in camp.

A Lass at Her Lodge

Lassies’ camps are just as varied as laddies’ camps.  Some are very spare, some quite opulant, most are somewhere in between.

A New Outfit at its 1st Party

And looking mighty fine too at the Masquerade Tea. This is definetely a Wise Woman and not a witch!

Campfire Dutchoven Cooking

If a watched pot never boils does a watched dutchoven never burn on the bottom?  It’s late afternoon here & getting somewhat damp & chill – not ugly cold, just enough for a jacket.

A Faithful Dog Soldier Off Duty at Her Lodge

The dinner has been cooked & eaten and the dishes have been washed.  Now it’s time to kick back and relax.

Holly’s Happy Home Away from Home

Plain or fancy, a lass’s lodge is her castle.  Her hearth is warm and there is always room for a friend to visit.

Two Ladies on the Way to the Range

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Let it be known, the ladies love the shooting just as much as the gents. 

Another Lass Going to the Range

Unfortunately I missed the award ceremony so I don’t know how well these lasses did on the range.  I’m pretty sure they had fun though!

The Seamstress & the Cook Chatting

The Traders don’t get as much time to socilize as the rest of us.  Here the Seams Colonial seamstress and the Green Man Inn cook chat before opening up for the day.

A Powhatan Lady

A prosperous Powhatan lady out enjoying the fine weather & shopping at the Trade Tents. 

Two Ladies from the Northern Prairie

The OVPR Rendezvous asks for pre-1840 attire of the North American continent.  Many OVPR ladies choose 1700’s colonial attire of the Virginias, but attire from the 1800’s or other geographic areas is perfectly acceptable

When Two Ladies put Their Heads Together . . .

Perchance Mischief is About to be Managed – in fact I’m sure of it.  Hide the bucket, hide the alcohol, the game is afoot!                    Squirrel!

Buffalo Woman at Work

Buffalo Woman & I spent a fair amount of time ripping out machine stitched button hole stitches and buttons, then stitching handsewn button holes and sewing on buttons.  Mistakes happen in sewing, we were helping a friend fix them