How I became a Merry Man...

Regardless of the slightly fishy title, this post is about how I became a midieval archer for a day, not about me coming out of the closet. Anywho, this past weekend I went down to Buckley, Washington with my friend Troy, in order to attend the yearly Washington Renaissance Faire. Since I didn't have a suitable complete costume I borrowed a good deal of things from Troy (who has a extensive collection of such things) and used a bit of things that I had. The end result was, if I say so myself, fairly impressive. I had leather boots, simple green pants, a green tunic, leather bracers with metal scales, a green leather hood with shoulder pieces, and a leather belt/harness which carried my short sword and quiver of arrows. Of course I also had a bow slung over one shoulder. All of this was topped off with my rather bushy beard which I had been growing for just such an occasion. Most unfortunately I forgot my camera at home and Troy did not have photographic equipement either. At some point I will dress up in the costume again and take a couple of pictures.

The Faire is quite large, and consists of a whole bunch of booths and tents selling midieval merchandise and equipment as well as several stages and places for events and shows. Costumed Faire-goers roam the event talking in british accents which were sometimes pretty poorly done, but I guess you've got to give them credit for trying. Lots of regular uncostumed folk attend the Faire as well, to browse through the booths and see the shows. There are stalls selling food and such as well. In short, it's many of the things you would find at a county fair, but with the added medievalness. It was a great time and I made a few purchases myself which I hope to wear at the next fair in October. I picked up a pair of pants, a shirt, some sandles and a leather belt pouch. Once pictures of this year's Faire are up on their website I'll snag a few and put them up here.