Earlier I said that I won’t be taking my purple harp to the Pennsic War, a huge two-week medieval camping extravaganza put on by the SCA. See Hoping for Pennsic this year!

But now I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided that I can protect the harp sufficiently so that it won’t get damaged by camping. And I really can’t imagine going for a week without it, especially in a place where medieval music is a real highlight of the experience. I want to be part of it!

I’ll also be taking the psaltery, for which I’ve made a gig bag, and my new travel guitar.

20180115_210525.jpg
My psaltery
20180205_0053511313035889.jpg
My little Yamaha travel guitar

Really, as a musician, I do need to have my instruments with me… except not my Renaissance lute. It is much too fragile.

20180115_210619.jpg
My seven-course Renaissance lute, made for me by Hirotaka Watanabe.

Here is a slideshow of photographs by Ron Lutz II (aka Darter the Chronicler) from various years at Pennsic. Take the time to look at them–they are quite fascinating:

http://www.ronlutzii-photographer.com/frame/slideshow?key=QnCZT7&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=3&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1

I ordered a number of prints of his photos for my “Fake Memories and Old Boyfriends” album. See Fake memories and old boyfriends. I took the album along to Sewing Circle Monday evening and discovered that one of the prints I ordered, which shows a woman walking in the moonlight along the causeway to an encampment by the lake, is actually a photo of one of the women in the group, Stacie! Janet and Diana, at Sewing Circle, also recognized a couple of other people in the prints I had made.

Small world!

I really look forward to the Pennsic adventure. Although I’m still yearning to go to Iceland (see Iceland or Bust! and No Iceland for me), it just isn’t financially feasible for me, at least not this year. My friend Christa pointed out this evening at the weekly SCA Marche of Tirnewydd meeting and fight practice that just because I can’t do it this year doesn’t mean I’ll never be able to do it. Yes! I will think about saving up for Iceland in 2019.

But I also want to go to England (especially York) and Norway. LOL! 🙂 I think I’ve been bitten by an insatiable travel bug. Luckily, though, I also enjoy ‘armchair traveling’ a lot. ❤ It is so much cheaper, too! 😛