Sitting on the dock

Photography can be hard, but sometimes, a little perseverance pays off. This photo from the weekend was taken with my phone, the camera itself propped up against a seat and with a 10 second timer so I can lean forwards, then hastily shuffle back into what I hope will be a good position before it clicks. Getting the tents in the background was the ideal.

To make things trickier, there was a bright blue portaloo to one side in the background and a farmhouse at the other side. Getting it framed just right was tricky. I took quite a few in the hopes that one of them would be good and I am so, so pleased with this one! It even shows the buttons all the way up my arm and I look for all the world like I've been sitting there contemplating something and not scrambling to arrange my dress in less than ten seconds.

I really love this photo. My definite favourite from the weekend!

Trotula testing

The testing and experimenting of the Trotula hair powder recipe at the 1300-1600 Medieval Collegium Event was wildly successful and worked so much better than I expected. I learned quite a lot and certainly there were quite a few surprises along the way with not only the ingredients, but the methodology also. I'll be doing a post about what I expected and what happened in the next day or two.

There was an enthusiastic crowd of fellow history nerds, so I was able to think out load about my process and what I was expecting and things which worked and didn't.  I was fortunate that I had a fearless friend who let me test out the powder and the comb dip liquid on her actual hair and then let people sniff her hair. The entire crowd all agreed that the recipe certainly did what it was supposed to, and it was fun playing around the the quantities. 

I did manage to take photos along the way and over the next week, I'll edit them for the proper blog post, but this photo was taken by a member of the audience. Not for the first time, I was glad that I had accumulated a bunch of small, ceramic dishes that I didn't need because "someday I might want them" because they were PERFECT for the demonstration.

Tonight I poured the left over powder and hair comb dip into my bathwater and soaked myself and my hair in it and quite frankly, it was wonderful-smelling! The residual smell in my hair is very subtle since it was very dilluted in the bath water, but it is still there.

Stay tuned for more Trotula Hair Powder!

(still) Sitting on the dock

Another photo taken by my friend down at the jetty and the thing I love about this is the way the sky and the tents are reflected in the water.

I must admit, I did feel a little silly taking so many photos over the weekend, but now that I'm home, I'm extremely glad I did. No members of the public meant that it was easier to take photos without modern people and strollers in the background, but also that friends were available to photos. I also needed to get some photos of garments which weren't new, but that I had no decent photos of for my inventory. My friend, Michelle, from Cabinet of Medical Curiosity (who does a series of historical medical displays) also had no good photos of her outfits either, so I was able to take some for her.

I also took the opportunity to get some funny faces ones for future book posts, because I never seem to find facial expressions which match things sometimes.

I really wish I had this lake on the other photo with the buttons on the kirtle, so there might be a photoshop job for me to combine the two in my future.