medieval faire and michaelmas

we celebrated the medieval faire today, but missed out on our michaelmas cake as our oven is still broken.

 however, we did get to see a few dragons!

i drove uptown in the car with morgana and chanda along with their friends camille and yves, and their cousin alyssa.

checking out the . . swords and daggers!

camille's costume is from the metropolitan opera! i can't remember how they managed to get that one. the dress alyssa is wearing is a dress camille made for the faire a few years ago.

i think the music at the faire is always what i enjoy most. these days, for morgana and chanda, i think it's the jousting. it was always that for korrina too. she used to stage sword fights with friends, which you can see here.

a parade of medieval people . .


it's the bagpipes that got my attention . .

one of the cloister turrets . .

21st century lighting and 13th century style flags . .

fort tryon park has spectacular views of the hudson river and the new jersey palisades . .

at the pageant wagon . .

two sweet butterflies listening to medieval music . .

14th century damsels with lutes . . 

21st century knights!

 . . horses of any century? would these horses have been found in europe in the middle ages? thoroughbred, quarter horse, draft horse, morgan? draft horses and thoroughbreds were from the 16th and 17th centuries i think . . you can read about medieval horses here.

i couldn't resist a trip to one of my favorite cafes . . cafe buunni . . i sat outside on the bench and talked to a few residents. the woman who owned the restaurant next door had her two children handing out flyers . . two people tied their dogs up on the bench next to me . . both dogs were very friendly and struck up conversations with passersby. well, i suppose it was more that the passersby stopped and after saying a few words to the dogs, ended up talking to the dogs' owners . .

it was just a pleasant and warm afternoon. i walked through one of my favorite apartment complexes: the hudson view gardens on pinehurst avenue. it's a complex of tudor buildings with their own garden and children's playground. it's very quaint.

i sat in the garden and knitted for a little while before heading back into the park. janet was there with her parents, sisters, brother and children . . she has everyone visiting her as they are leaving tomorrow for a special family cruise to the bahamas. should be fun! morgana, chanda and i wished them bon voyage and happy trails and drove to a nutcracker rehearsal.