Come dancing

Last Saturday we went to the Turner-Dodge House for the first time since New Year's. Also the first time we've been there when it wasn't a New Year's. They were having a Fairy Tale Festival, the first of what I gather they'd like to be a series. The house was open, and there were events like an Alice In Wonderland tea party for the kids and all. They encouraged folks to come in their fairy tale costumes, too. I didn't have one, but bunny_hugger pulled together her dragon costume, used for a couple Halloween events, to be in good form for it. We'd hoped to see someone from pinball league whom we've learned is into fairy scenes, but they left minutes before we got out there.

It was a low-key, fun event. Most of the activities were outdoors, with a little marketplace of people selling ... you know, sparkly jewels and paintings and dragon- or fairy-themed stuff. A number of people walking about in costume, including a really spot-on Tinkerbelle, and some folks as knights or witches or such. bunny_hugger's dragon outfit never stopped attracting attention, all of it positive, and she kept getting asked for photographs. Also compliments on her purse, an old cloth bag she'd hot-glued party-favor coins over so it looks like carrying a bundle of treasure around. At one point she walked onto the balcony of the house, and later people would say how they loved seeing this dragon atop the house looking out over the lands.

The festival also had a couple of shows, mostly dancers using the house's front porch as the stage. There was also a bounce house we were too big for. And a setup of some statues and sculptures, including a large sea serpent above a mermaid that's been part of the town's art festival in past years and, I gather, will be again. People asked for photographs of the dragon bunny_hugger besides the sea serpent and who could deny that?

The house itself was a bit disappointing. We had gotten the idea it would be set up with fairy tale displays inside and it wasn't. It was simply the house, in an approximation of how the Turner-Dodge Family lived in it, without the Christmas setup. (Also they'd left open a door to a room upstairs that had the pool hall and a bunch of mannequins and other stuff meant for Halloween or Christmas displays.) But this was also the first time we could go out on the upstairs balcony; it's closed tight in the winter. And could see the grounds of the house from that far up, without enclosure; that was lovely.

The Turner-Dodge House was one of the places we considered for our wedding. It didn't make the cut largely because we would have had to arrange all the catering and that was beyond us. This would give me the chance to imagine in a more tactile way what it might have been as a wedding location, though, with the light and the weather closer to what we actually had, and the roses around the pergola in full bloom and all.

We stayed around to the end of the event, of course. As we were leaving, a woman told a kid with her that look, over there was a dragon. The kid was upset that he had missed seeing the dragon, and the woman said they'll have to come back next year. So will we, sounds like. It's nice to be wanted.

And now the last of my Anthrohio Friday pictures. This may seem like I took fewer than usual and maybe I did; I was torn between not taking photographs that look the same as every year's and between taking pictures of yeah, but this year because who knows when the next convention will be. Anyway I didn't time the subject line to match up with these pictures, but I'm not sorry it happened that way either.

The dance! This was getting late in the day but at least it's distinct from all my furry dance photographs.

Got a moment with the lights up. Also notice at least two people with those neat LED badges reading out names and whatever jokes they offer.

And outside the dance, people were at work setting up a cute noise-making gizmo. We'd see it amusing people the next couple days.

Trivia: Reuters sold its (British) telegraph network to the government in 1870. Arbitration ruled the price should reflect twenty years' worth of profits, and so came to £726,000 for a telegraph network that cost £153,000 to build. Source: The Power Of News: The History of Reuters, Donald Read.

Currently Reading: Moon Launch! A History of the Saturn-Apollo Launch Operations, Charles D Benson, William B Faherty.