We didn't manage to get a photo of all nine Downers (The Nine were abroad!) at once;
Guinevere and
narfforc were missing at the Tolkien graveside ceremony on Sunday morning. Here are:
Esty,
Faramir Jones,
Poison Ivy,
The Squatter of Amon Rûdh,
Hookbill,
Rune, and
Bêthberry.
We all enjoyed having a group with which to spend time, and once again managed to adopt a first-timer and (hopefully!) convert her to joining us here. Random comments: The weekend was definitely too short. The food was fantastic. The weather was lovely. The talks were quite varied in subject, style, and quality. I really enjoyed Caspar Reiff's recordings (both sound and picture) of pieces from the Tolkien Ensemble's new Hobbit musical, which is in the works. The big hit of the evening entertainments was the Slovenian Society's hilarious comic film of the tale of Turin.
I always love seeing the various costumes - the imagination and work that people put into them are fantastic. And I'm always inspired to future costume planning and making when I've been there - my next one is going to be great fun! But "shhh" to those of you who were there and heard about my ideas - not a word in public, please!
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth..
.'