Saturday dawned sunny and clear.  A perfect day to spend outside in the beautiful woods of Carver, MA.

We rose early in the morning and after a quick stop for breakfast at Shaker’s, where we ate our fill,  we donned our capes and costumes and headed out to King Richard’s Faire with our friends.

The ride is about 1.25 hours from Worcester, and as each mile passed, I felt the stress and anxiety of the day to day fade away. As is always true, getting away from the city and into the woods changes me and slows things down. Even with the lines that greeted us at the ticket stand – there isn’t stress because once you are in the gate – the space opens up and there is so much to see and do that it’s worth any wait. We bought tickets ahead of time and were able to just zip through and pick them up.

I’ve only been to the Faire one other time, and was able to see the shops and get lunch and watched the joust. So this time, we set off to see some of the other shows and we had a great time!

The first show was “Tale of the Tiger – Big Cat Show”

“Tortuuuuurrrre”
After the Tiger show we  headed over to the Torture show which was  excellent and I made it only about a third of the way through before I had to go find some cider and a snack. Just don’t have the stomach I used to – but the fire portion of the show was awesome!
I’m sure the rest of it was just as good.

 There is so much to see at the Faire, craftsmen and costumes, and contests.  We spent some time talking with Kirin Stein-Heller from Fantasy Dimensions. She told us her story of how she got started in art and now owns her booth at the faire.
She is super talented and I loved her fantasy prints.

We browsed in the many artisan’s shoppes…

People watched in the shaded trees….

We even had a Homestuck sighting:

Costumes and people watching was so much fun…

            

Musicians were everywhere !
Guitars, flutes, fiddles, bagpipes and so much more!

We ended the day with a Game of Thrones costume contest and the finalists were truly amazing -Cat, Geoffrey and John Snow.

My own personal favorite photo is with Greenman Mage.
A kindred forest soul who made my day by taking a picture with me.

At the end of the day, I left feeling happy and refreshed from my time in the woods.

As I drink my coffee from my pewter mug,
I am already planning my costume for next year….