Florence Renaissance Festival &Angela's Halloween Party

Paul and I made it to the Florence Renaissance Festival this past Saturday. Hadn't gotten to go in a couple of years so it was nice to finally make it back. Its definitely grown a bit since last time; there are quite a few more vendors. We mowed down on a couple turkey legs and then wandered around taking in all the sights.

Various hilts from swords from a historical group that does some of the sword fight acts and a general information talk on life in the middle ages which is really quite interesting. I ended up carrying my practice foil actually - it added a nice touch to my outfit.


LifeSouth had a blood drive going on one of the blocked-off streets.


Loved this sign!


Water glass music is beautiful and eerie all at the same time.


A set of pretty little dolls one of the vendors had.


A random stranger asked if she could take some photo of us while we were talking to a friend which was kinda funny - I guess the three of us all had good outfits? She wanted me to look longingly at Paul... but no touching - because guys and gals weren't aloud to touch in public back then. She was really nice so we obliged. And then had our friend snap a photo of us together - which was cool - because we don't usually have anyone to take pictures of the two of us.


Later that day we joined the crowd at Angela's Halloween party only to discover Captain Ohad Sparrow...


Batwoman and her demon (whom we had to keep pulling back from the bonfire...poor thing...)


And a very Piratey crew... (for somereason 1/2 the attendees were dressed up like pirates - completely unplanned which made it all the funnier!)
ARRRRRRRRRRRRGG!!

My folks just came into town this afternoon and in a couple days it'll be my Dad's birthday - so I'm sure I'll post more photos soon!

On Guard!

Today was the conclusion of our beginning foil class. From left to right - that's Ben our instructor who's been fencing for 30 years or so then there's Mike, and our resident little squirt, Geoffery, Paul and I, and then Derek. My Mom and Dad came to the class and watched. Ben had us actually try out formal bouts against each other on a strip with all the stops and starts like a real fencing competition.

Pointy Metal Sticks

I gave a quick salute, double checking my foot position as I put on my mask, adjusted my grip on the foil, coming on guard to face my opponent. Advance, advance, parry, retreat, advance, retreat, parry lunge, repost, laugh a bit, parry, retreat, advance, lunge, lunge, lunge, Gotcha!

For 5 weekends (off and on) Paul and I have been taking fencing lessons. (No, no post hole diggers in this class.) Fencing - as in the pointy metal stick version. I've dreamed of learning to fence for a long time... definitely high school, maybe even in grade school. So when the opportunity of taking an 8 week course in beginning foil with the Huntsville Fencing Club I was stoked! I told Paul about it and asked if he'd like to join me. I'm pretty sure Paul never jumped out of bed in the morning with the idea he wanted to learn fencing, but I do think he's enjoying it so far.


And me? Well I'm loving it! Don't think I'm going to turn into Errol Flynn or anything, but I'm holding my own fairly well. What I've seen of competitive fencing is a far cry from all the fancy sword work in Flynn's (or Princess Bride, or Highlander) movies anyway. First off you and your opponent face each other in a straight line - there aren't any rocks, steps, or battleship decks to work on and over. Its also a heck of a lot faster. You use much smaller more controlled movements, often with just a twist of your wrist as opposed to your whole arm. If you tried doing all that fancy stuff you see in the movies - you'd have 5 touches against you even before you straightened out your arm to lunge.

There are 7 of us in the class. Ben, our fencing instructor has told us our class has been making some very good progress - and that overall - we're a bit ahead of the curve. At the end of the past two classes he's let us free-fence for the last 15 to 20 minutes. The first three classes concentrated on history, basic footwork, offense and defense. We've gone on to more complicated parries and combinations of footwork and attacks in the past two classes, culminating in trying to put it all together in the free-fencing at the end. Its really interesting to fence with different people and see what everyone does - each seem have their own forte - speed, defense, parrying, attacks - which eventually will turn into their own personal style depending on what type of fencing they decide to pick up.