Summer is Coming!

And Summer means outdoor activities. Last Autumn I discovered a Family LARP group in Svendborg, and started participating in their 'Vatnua' campaign, taking place in a Forgotten Realms inspired setting.

I have a lot of LARP gear from the time around the start of the millennium when I arranged an indoor fantasy campaign for young people, and as I quickly fell in love with the 'Family LARP' concept, I decided to start up a project utilizing our rather large garden/yard (more than 4000 sq.m. with various levels, lots of big trees and hazel bushes, a camp fire hut and two additional camp fire sites).

Today I have prepaired some 'gold coins' (Gylden), and earlier I have been doing some 'copper' and 'silver' pieces (Shillinger and Thalere).

I also got this little thing for the Human Faction. The old King is dead, and the throne is vacant (yes, I'm also preparing a throne).

Well. that's all for today. Stay safe out there!

Magical Days in Odense: Boat Trip Thursday Night

As usual, we attended the now 'not' Harry Potter Festival in Odense, and this year I had purchased tickets for the 'Zoolomagical Boat Trip in the Dark' for Anna and Lea.

For some reason, this year the check-in for the ride had been moved to the bank opposite of the quai, which caused some confusion, but eventually all the participants found their way over there.

 

Anna and Lea, too. The next couple of photos were taken from the far side of Odense Creek with zoom on my new Canon Ixus - I am somewhat impressed!

 

Luckily, the girls were placed on the same boat.

It still took a while before they departed, as the other boat had to go first, and it seems the skippers want to maintain a safe distance between the boats as they navigate up the creek to Odense Zoo.

I used the waiting time for snapping some pictures, and you can see the best results below.

After the boats left, I had to kill three hours, so I went to the Old Irish Pub in 'Elf Alley' Odense, to wait for my Wife and have a few beers.

Preparations for Going all Medieval

The girls are making dresses for the European Medieval Festival in Horsens later this month.

No, they do not sew by hand; it would be too time-consuming, and we are just going as guests, not actors.

Harry Potter Festival 2016: Zoomagical Boat Ride

The day after the Hogwarts Express ride, the girls went on the evening Zoomagical Boat Trip on Odense Å from Munke Mose to Odense Zoo, where some scary and wondrous stuff awaited them.

I still do not know how to manually set my camera for less than optimal lighting conditions, so the photos are not all that great, but I think you will get the overall mood.

Off they go!

The previous tour returns to Munke Mose

The late tour was somewhat delayed, and I walked up the river to look out for the returning boats.

At a bridge, I noticed this:

The return of the late tour. The kids had a great time, and if you ever visit Odense with kids during week 42, I can heartily recommend the festival.

Harry Potter Festival 2016: The Hogwarts Express

Odense Central Library each year organizes a Harry Potter Festival in the weekend of week 42 (Autumn School Break week here in Denmark).

This year I managed to get hold of 2 tickets for the Hogwarts Express (vintage train from Odense Railway Museum) trip, which marks the beginning of the festival on Thursday evening, and is one of the most popular events.

I took a bunch of photos from Byens Bro (the City Bridge) which traverses the railroad station area and tracks, and I apologize in advance for the many almost identical pics.

The pupils start entering the train.

The Express has taken off.

The following photos are from when the train returned to Odense.

The kids retrieved by my Wife - and Lea has spotted me! A certain professor is supervising the disembarkation.

The mandatory photo in front of the engine:

Making Some Arrows...

A couple of pics of Lea varnishing five arrow shaft for some home-made arrows.

The other five shafts are Anna's, and although they started working on these arrows May 1st, they have not yet finished the shafts; the arrows need to be sanded with very fine grain sand paper in between 4-5 layers of varnish, and it is difficult to find time in between homework, school choir, time with schoolmates, riding, and other leisure activities on school nights, and in the weekends we often do something away from home.

Furthermore, Lea strained her ankle in the garden trampoline last week, and has not been able to work in the workshop.

Anna, on the other hand, has carved nocks, and added the second layer of varnish to hers. We use the 'self-nock' method, to avoid glueing plastic nocks to our wooden arrow shafts