Lyrics for Tuesday and Hammond Castle Renfaire

The Last Farewell 

By Ron A. Webster & Roger Whittaker 

There's a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbor

Tomorrow for old England she sails

Far away from your land of endless sunshine

To my land full of rainy skies and gales

And I shall be aboard that ship tomorrow

Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell

For you are beautiful and I have loved you dearly

More dearly than the spoken word can tell

I've heard there's a wicked war a-blazing

And the taste of war I know so very well

Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising

Their guns on fire as we sail into Hell

I have no fear of death it brings no sorrow

But how bitter will be this last farewell

For you are beautiful and I have loved you dearly

More dearly than the spoken word can tell

Though death and darkness gather all about me

And my ship be torn apart upon the seas

I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands

And the heaving waves that brought me once to thee

And should I return safe home again to England

I shall watch the English mist roll through the dale

For you are beautiful and I have loved you dearly

More dearly than the spoken word can tell

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Tuesday was another gorgeous day. I spent the morning folding and putting away laundry and organizing some paperwork, and the afternoon finishing the ridiculous project I've been working on for the past few days, then I took a walk to enjoy the weather and talked to some neighborhood dogs. Only two other people from my DS9 group could come tonight, so we just chatted. 

We ate leftover Chinese, then we watched the excellent VisionQuest finale, which wasn't quite as moving as the penultimate episode but wrapped up the entire trilogy really nicely, let Spader chew all the scenery, and had some really lovely surprises, plus the best use of "Rhinestone Cowboy" ever. Here are some photos of Hammond Castle Museum with the Renaissance faire in full swing:

Poem for Monday and Artist Gnomes

A Shuffle 

By John B. Tabb 

There was a rumpus in the Pack,

Whereof the King and Queen and Jack

Were playing knavish parts.

On Club and Spade was put the blame;

But these asserted 'twas a game

Of Diamonds and Hearts. 

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I had bunch of chores to do on Monday -- laundry, bathroom, cats -- but the weather was great, so I got to take a walk and eat an early dinner before neighborhood mahjong, which my group told me I won but then I was told they didn't even know the rules about when you can use jokers -- and they play at the JCC, so I'm starting to think the rules are just arbitrarily made up by whatever group you play with. Not sure I love the game but at least I'm getting to know some of the neighbors! 

We're watching The Housemaid, which I was told by a couple of people isn't the movie it was advertised as, and in fact the movie is to some extent a commentary on what people expect when presented with a good looking, sweet male lead and a couple of women who are clearly troubled -- in the movies and in life -- so I enjoyed it despite the violence. Here are some of the Gnomevember artist gnomes at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, including Van Gogh, Lichtenstein, Kahlo, O'Keeffe, Monet, Kusama, and Ross:

Greetings from Gloucester

Another quick post -- spent most of the day in glorious Gloucester. We met Meredith, her sister, her son, and her nephew at Hammond Castle, which was hosting the North Shore Renaissance Faire, quite small in terms of faire features (only a handful of vendors, a couple of musical groups, armored combat a couple of times out back). 

But the faire takes place in an actual castle built by wealthy entrepreneur John Hays Hammond, Jr. It has a drawbridge, massive great hall with pipe organ and rose window, covered water courtyard, decorated guest rooms, gorgeous library, art from all over medieval Europe, and exhibits on Hammond's inventions and collections, plus his unconventional family. 

We ate lunch at the food trucks that came to the faire -- I had barbecue tofu -- and, since we were in Gloucester, went to Half Moon Beach to see the tidepools and shells, then the nautical monuments and waterfowl visible from Stage Fort Park along the water, before we headed home under a spectacular sunset.

Greetings from Boyleston and Fitchburg

Very quick post after a nice day out despite a lot of rain. We went to Tower Hill Botanical Garden for the local holiday marketplace, where we got maple sugar goodies, and to see Gnomevember, in which artist-designed gnomes appear all around the gardens, plus we got to see Night Lights being set up for the holidays. 

We went to Shaw's to get food for the week, dropped it off at home, then went to Adam's house to watch the Rankin-Bass Hobbit, which Haley and their friend Andy had never seen and we're always up for. They had been at Andy's birthday party, so weren't very hungry, so we had hummus and leftover Halloween candy for dinner.

Poem for Friday and Salem Witch Shopping

The Withering Of The Boughs 

By William Butler Yeats 

I cried when the moon was mutmuring to the birds:

'Let peewit call and curlew cry where they will,

I long for your merry and tender and pitiful words,

For the roads are unending, and there is no place to my mind.'

The honey-pale moon lay low on the sleepy hill,

And I fell asleep upon lonely Echtge of streams.

No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;

The boughs have withered because I have told them my, dreams.

I know of the leafy paths that the witches take

Who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool,

And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake;

I know where a dim moon drifts, where the Danaan kind

Wind and unwind their dances when the light grows cool

On the island lawns, their feet where the pale foam gleams.

No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;

The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.

I know of the sleepy country, where swans fly round

Coupled with golden chains, and sing as they fly.

A king and a queen are wandering there, and the sound

Has made them so happy and hopeless, so deaf and so blind

With wisdom, they wander till all the years have gone by;

I know, and the curlew and peewit on Echtge of streams.

No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;

The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.

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We had rain from before dawn till after dusk on Friday, so I had a quiet indoor day mostly working on a ridiculous personal project that's a lot of fun. Paul worked from home, so we had lunch together and were supervised by cats. Since we forgot to have bangers and mash yesterday for Guy Fawkes Night, we had it today instead. We watched the new episode of Newlyweds, but I'm still not sure I love Tea, Tim, and Jamie enough to put up with the canned laughter. 

Now we're watching Disclosure Day, which has occasional moments that are great -- there could be an entire movie in the throwaway line when Margaret screams "I don't want to be anyone's religion" -- but it's mostly a mediocre conspiracy movie with too many fight scenes that doesn't hold a candle to the magic of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Here's some photos of witch shopping in Salem before Halloween, though Laurie Cabot's Enchanted Shop operates all year:

Greetings from Scary MD

Ran late on Thursday night chat after a chatty day (my friend Alice, my friend from grad school, my father-in-law) so I'll be quick. Once again we had beautiful weather so once again I took two walks, plus I had to drag our trash bin across the street to the dumpster our neighborhood has installed by the clubhouse because our trash company again failed to pick up on trash day and Other Options Are Being Considered. 

The rest of my day was mostly being in a good mood about the election, watching the Ravens get absolutely clobbered by the jaguars, and ordering Chinese food for dinner because Paul's train was extremely late due to some kind of signal malfunction. Now we're catching up on Newlyweds. Before it's too late for Halloween, have some decorations from my parents' neighborhood in Maryland:

Poem for Wednesday and Autumn Knights

Happiness 

By Jane Kenyon 

There’s just no accounting for happiness,

or the way it turns up like a prodigal

who comes back to the dust at your feet

having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?

You make a feast in honor of what

was lost, and take from its place the finest

garment, which you saved for an occasion

you could not imagine, and you weep night and day

to know that you were not abandoned,

that happiness saved its most extreme form

for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never

knew about, who flies a single-engine plane

onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes

into town, and inquires at every door

until he finds you asleep midafternoon

as you so often are during the unmerciful

hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.

It comes to the woman sweeping the street

with a birch broom, to the child

whose mother has passed out from drink.

It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing

a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,

and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots

in the night.

               It even comes to the boulder

in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,

to rain falling on the open sea,

to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.

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It was nearly 75 degrees here on Wednesday! I took two walks to enjoy the outdoors and switched the bird feeders; now that it's after November 1, we're allowed to have birdseed instead of hummingbird feeders, though it took me a long time to wash those out. Pretty much everyone I know was in a great mood about the election so there was lots of texting and messaging, too. 

I talked to one of my high school friends and watched the second half of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales with Cel and Laurie. After dinner we watched the Halloween Ghosts we missed last week, and now we're finishing the new season of Lupin, which is very Da Vinci Code/National Treasure. Fun at the Autumn Knights Renfaire last weekend:

Greetings for Election Day

Most of my Tuesday has been about the election -- we voted in person for the first time in a long time at a local elementary school -- and now we're seeing the results come in, though I did get to talk to Chris, stream DS9's "Indiscretion" with my Tuesday Trek group, and watch VisionQuest with Cheryl. I'm going to call it a good night, more tomorrow!