Jousting!

I have never seen live jousting until yesterday, here in our little town, at our modest Renaissance Faire. It was amazing!

The War Horses were a black Percheron, and a reddish-colored Clydesdale, big draft horses in our modern world, but astonishingly agile, despite carrying 500 lbs. of man & armor and running flat out in the blazing heat.

I was very happy to be able to get these photos, as everything happened SO fast. Their run was only about 200 feet (Bill noted that the Clydesdale mare seemed to get up to speed faster than the Percheron), and the CLASH! as they met in the middle was in the blink of an eye.

I can't help but think The Lords of Chivalry (as they call themselves) must be insane to do this! They travel around the country in a big trailer and put on jousting demos for the amusement and education of the peoples. What a way to make a living!

I love our annual Renaissance Faire. Nestled in the shady hollow of Crockett Springs Park (named for Davey Crockett's grandparents, who are buried there in the family plot!), it features belly dancers, fire manipulators, fairies, pirates, vendors and demonstrators. Here are a few heat-infused scenes:

We spent some time talking with Charles, an Iconographer, (where we learned more about egg tempura painting and the symbolism of the process of creating traditional icons than we ever needed to know), and Cora Lynn McKelvy, who demonstrated spinning yarn out of angora rabbit fur (she grabbed the rabbit out of the cage, pulled out its fur and spun the yarn, all in one swoop--it made us wonder if you could just hold the rabbit in your lap and spin directly off the bunny)!

There were skits, music and shows all over the park--The Nickel Shakespeare Girls, Johnny Phoenix (whom we saw last year--he cautioned children to study hard or they'd end up with a job like his, doing a fireshow in 100 degree heat, with the audience sitting on bales of flammable straw), and the Washer Women, a bawdy sort of medieval wet T-shirt contest with some very ample women:

After the joust, we wandered a bit more and finally decided we had sweated enough. Time to go home to the modern-day blessing of A/C!