Wild Raspberry Picking: Imagination is a terrible thing to waste.

Raspberry Preserve

"It's a lot nicer than going round by the road; that is so dusty and hot," said Diana practically, peeping into her dinner basket and mentally calculating if the three juicy, toothsome, raspberry tarts reposing there were divided among ten girls how many bites each girl would have.

The little girls of Avonlea school always pooled their lunches, and to eat three raspberry tarts all alone or even to share them only with one's best chum would have forever and ever branded as "awful mean" the girl who did it. And yet, when the tarts were divided among ten girls you just got enough to tantalize you.

The way Anne and Diana went to school was a pretty one. Anne thought those walks to and from school with Diana couldn't be improved upon even by imagination. Going around by the main road would have been so unromantic; but to go by Lover's Lane and Willowmere and Violet Vale and the Birch Path was romantic, if ever anything was. - Anne of Green Gables 

Today the girls at summer camp spent their day in the woods picking wild berries. One for the basket, and a juicy one for their mouths. There was a group of young ladies who stuck by me in the kitchen, filling up buckets of water, sweeping, and helping cook the meals, even though there were numerous fun activities going on.

These girls already reminded me of me in my childhood. I was a constant dreamer. But unlike Anne Shirley my wild imaginings almost never involved queens or beautiful women with frozen cream skin and raven hair. I was more often a servant doing her daily chores, a colonial girl on the way to a one-room schoolhouse or a slave escaping to freedom than anything else. 

"Older sister," the girls said "We found a new patch of berries on Berry Hill!"

Knowing I would be confused, they introduced me to the "imaginative new names" of the places around the farm.  

Slapjacks to share.

It was extremely fun today to get to be the "older sister" of a bunch of dreaming Anne-girls. I would have loved to have spent a day collecting berries in the "Colonial times." It was fun to finally be a Josephine Barry, kindred spirits with the adventurous dreamers. I also realized how impossibly hard it would for me to be a Marilla Cuthbert. :)

150th Gettysburg Reenactment, GAC Event

The oft told story of Gettysburg, has impassioned millions. An army in tatters with low supplies, inferior numbers and miles away from home who consistently prevailed against an army of greater numbers, with ample supplies. Once the two armies meet at Gettysburg, the war and the little town changed forever.

I don't know anyone who doesn't get chills standing on the battlefield. It is beautiful and sorrowful, and the hills pull you in. The meandering roads loop through the rocky farmland and forest and the tragedies were so widespread and the battlefield so eerily quiet you almost expect to come across a scene of suffering every hill you ascend and every rock you walk past. It is a feeling like none ever.



Gettysburg is in everyone's hearts.

It is not always easy to separate personal, group or regimental issues from events themselves. Many times an event can be awesome but the "reenactor stuff" can get in the way. This is why you can ask 1,000 reenactors how an event was and get 1,000 responses. A big part of my enjoyment of events is getting to take great photos.

I love events where reenactors can watch the battle from a different place and viewpoint from the spectators. My friends are out there on the field and I'd love to get some nice photos of them in action. An event can be completely terrible, but if it results in me having a string of phenomenal photos, I will think the event was worth it.

That being said, the Gettysburg reenactment was a well run event. They had shuttles come through the camps and multiple stops set up around the event exclusively for reenactors to get around and avoid walking too far in the heat. There was ample ice delivered and tons of firewood left over after the event. For an event this size, I was impressed by how well the logistics were managed.  

I didn't get to take many photos at this event. I wouldn't say I had a bad weekend. For all that was happening, my group kept high spirits. But, this was one event where too much "reenactor stuff" was beating us down. Our group had a huge number of real casualties at this event, including a hospital visit. I didn't get to see any of the far traveling reenactors that I had hoped to but met a lot of new ones as many had come from overseas to attend.

I did not get to see any of the battles. I tried to see one on Saturday but was so hot after 5 minutes, I felt that I was about to pass out and had to leave. Issues in our battalion caused my, and many others lack of attendance in and at the next battle. I heard that the battles were fun and the photos I have seen from them look fantastic. The event was hot all weekend, except on Sunday when we had torrential rain right as Pickett's Charge was finishing up.

Since I didn't get to leave camp much and knew that this event was going to be photographed to death by spectator and reenactor alike, I decided I wouldn't worry and took some photos to show the little less seen parts of the reenacting experience.

Tents at Twilight

  

Dawn

Lazy Mid-day

 

The little bit of the battle I saw.

Tearing down camp in the rain. :)

 Sorry for the lack of battle photos but I'm sure they will be all over the internet soon! If you went to this event, how did you like it?

Did the 20th Maine Win Gettysburg?

Here's an interesting, short article about the 20th Maine and how they are portrayed in current history and fiction from The Guardian: The Maine Lesson of Gettysburg.

Historians have long known the effects of fiction and public opinion on the interpretation of history.  This is one I've been wondering about for the past few years but didn't do much research into it.

Hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday whether you are at Gettysburg, home or doing something else fun!

Packing For GAC Gettysburg

I'll be attending GAC Gettysburg. Years ago, when I first started reenacting, my group decided Gettysburg as an event wasn't worth it. Gettysburg was expensive, treated the reenactors like paid performers and expected a little too much from people who were paying to participate. The event seemed intended to wow the crowds of high paying spectators and the money wasn't being used to fund any sort of preservation or educational goal.


But, they promised we could do the 150th event just so we could see waves of soldiers and the sounds of thousands of guns echoing. I was looking forward to getting to see reenactors from all over the world, reportedly 48 countries represented. So this year, we were all excited to see the event of the century.

Except, what we found was that it was two events. I had heard of the other event in the past but it didn't really seem like a huge reenacting destination. But this year reenacting groups were asking the question "Which Gettysburg?"

Great, now all of our friends will be torn between two events and we won't get to see everyone unless everyone does both events. But we all knew that would never happen as not everyone has that kind of vacation time or money. These events are expensive, costing nearly $100 a couple, not including gas and food.

With the BGA Gettysburg event last weekend, the reviews seem mixed. But I don't think we can expect the same things of mega events as we do normal ones. It seems that a lot of people are still going to the GAC Gettysburg as well.  

I have never been to an event this big but am pretty sure what to expect. Overcrowding, mile walks to bathrooms, lack of wood, water and ice. Not to forget the multiple battles with ridiculously boring scenery, fighting in the parking lots, fighting in traffic, etc. I know what I'm in for. But I am still looking forward to seeing people going to this event. Is anyone going?     

The Secret Life of Bloggers Blog Party: Final Post

So this really is the end! I had to fight Firefox and Flickr today to get this post up. Firefox hasn't been working for the past few days. This week has been difficult for photos because there have been random storms every day this week.

6-21-2013

This is a photo of the "super moon" that we had that I snapped quickly just to show how bright it was around midnight.

6-22-2013

I couldn't sleep because the moonlight was shining in my window so brightly at 1 am. So I stayed up and took photos of it.

6-23-2013

A friend and I had a little road trip down to the other end of Delaware for a Sea glass Festival. We had fun looking at all of the pretty things made out of sea glass and spent some time sitting on the pier watching the fiddle crabs.


6-24-2013

Cooked for the summer camp kids.

6-25-2013

Had a full house today. Some of the family had a water gun fight outside. Andy and I made a new recipe for Spanish rice that had a lot of onion, and peppers. The recipe turned out well, although it wasn't the most photogenic food.   

6-26-2013

Huge rainstorms. Had a lazy day. went to Ikea and bought some new plates and spent the rest of the day being lazy.

6-27-2013

Got stung by something at work. Probably a bee as it left a stinger. I don't get stung a lot but the internet says this is a normal reaction, so I hope my leg doesn't fall off or something.

6-28-2013

How do you know when you need to dust? When the dust starts being a decoration on your furniture. I've been doing a serious cleaning lately and finally moved that stack of books on my dresser to expose a pretty dust pattern made from a lace mat.



I really would like to thank all of you that participated and kept the blogging conversation going. It was an honor to be let into the personal lives of others. Who's hosting the next party?

Please check out the *real*, awesome final posts:

Andrew from Air Nice-to-Livelands.  
Caroline from Dressed in Time.
Hana from Marmota's Dress Diaries. 
Jess from Musings of a Creative Writer .
Jodi from Curious Acorn.
Laurie from Teacups in the Garden and Teacups Among the Fabric.