A glorious weekend in An Tir.

Good day to you all, far too long since we've had an actual honest to goodness chat. Suppose I should fix that.

Lets start with this weekend past.. Many of you already know about this, but there are those who do not, and its to you and any comers after that speak.

Zahrah and I are officially engaged, I proposed on 10/07/06 before the Baron and Baroness of Dragons Laire, and the gathered people of An Tir and Dragons Laire at 'Last Chance Tourney'. As it turns out their Excellencies were engaged in the same fashion, which truly explains his willingness to make it happen in court.

Zahrah had just become Lady Zahrah, having been awarded an 'Award of Arms', becoming an Armiger of An Tir in her own right, and while she was still recovering from this surprise I came forth and asked their Excellencies permission to request their subjects hand. Having recieved their blessing, I turned to the populace, and told them how much inspiration I'd found in Dragons Laire, but that the greatest of those inspirations was the lady herself. Fatima Al-Zahrah bint Khalid. Most of you know her as Elengil, or Andrea, or even Zahrah. She's always been Zahrah to me, and always will be.

I knelt and told her that I came with no title, no lands, just me, all I had to offer was forever hers to keep. I was a bit concerned when she turned to her Excellecy Brigid, and asked 'Whaddya think?'. I can only be grateful to the people of An Tir as they cheered her on 'Say Yes! Say Yes!'.. I am happy to announce that she did just that.

As I was beginning to rise, her Excellency turned to me and said 'Aodhan... About that title? I can help you with that.. Take a knee." And I did, only to recieve, completely unexpectedly, my own AoA. We are now Lord Aodhan, and Lady Zahrah. A good day was only made better, to be followed by an excellent feast. For those of you who have never sampled the food of the Dragons Laire Culinary guild... GET TO ONE OF THEIR FEASTS. I have rarely eaten better (except for that my lady makes of course).


So this is the tale of our happy weekend, though I am sad to announce that there are no pictures, the memories live on in the telling. Many congratulations were recieved, and we couldn't have been happier to recieve them.

Since I Know you'll ask.. The wedding is the first weekend in June of next year, at June Faire. The very event at which we met.

Up the airy mountain, down the wooded glen.

Hello again, old friends and new, to the Valley. Its been a wonderfully nice day up here today, in the gentle breezes of our quiet home. But today, we did indeed go up the airy mountain, specifically, east to Newhalem and the dam there-in. On the drive up we accidentally stopped at a yard sale, by accidentally I mean we passed a pottery shop and decided to turn around and see if they did firing. Turns out they don't. BUT, while at the yard-sale we got a wonderful little ceramic teapot (pictures to follow, promise) for a whopping $2.50. In other words, next to nothin'. It was quite the little find.

Speaking of finds, yesterday we were up in Bellingham at a little street fair type thing, and while we were there, stopped in at a thrift store. At the thrift store we found a decanter that had a matching pattern to a glass tumbler set we have in the house, and another decanter that came with a nice little stand on which you could light a candle and heat the water within. Did I mention this decanter matches a large 22k gold gilt one we own?

But anyway, more on up the airy mountain. We headed up to the dam an hour up the mountain from us, and walked a long winding pathway up the mountainside to the most beautiful and enchanting falls you've ever seen. Yes, we got pictures, and yes, we'll share them as soon as Zahrah gets them properly edited for display.

08/07/06

Well folks, its another glorious day. This morning Zahrah and I woke to found a thick layer of mist over our valley, but up above the sky was a vibrant azure, and the air was crisp. As we came downstairs and began preparing breakfast, the sound of our roosters greeting the day drifted to us from their coop behind the house. Which always makes us smile.

Shall we note that the roosters don't make *EVERYONE* smile? Yes.. Yes we shall. You see, last thursday I spotted a pair of free roosters on Freecycle. Well, it just so happens that we have 9 chickens, and 1 rooster (at that point, we still thought he was a chicken.. He never crowed, still doesn't.. His gender is in still in question in my mind.). Anyway, back to the point, I saw these roosters, and wanted to see little fluffs of chick running around in spring. This.. Requires roosters. And whaddya know, here we are provided with two BEAUTIFUL roosters. Which Zahrah and I will provide pictures of in the semi-near future. (pokes pokes.. Right Zahrah love? Hopefully we'll be more successful at getting the pictures of the roosters than the water in the garden).

At any rate, one run up to Everson washington, and a box later, we have these two gorgeous specimens of Roosterhood. Dante is our Rhode Island Red Rooster, with his gorgeous deep auburn feathers and proud stance, and a crow to wake the dead, though rarely utilized. (We've decided that Dante raises the sun, as his is the only voice that will *REACH*).

And then we have our lady killer and prolific crower of lesser decibel.. Napolean. We called him this because he was the smaller of the two, is flamboyant in both color and attitude, and challenges everything that resembles a chicken.. (Before he mates with it). He is absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to see some of the mixes we'll get with these two roosters crossing with our whites and Barred Rock (Incidentally, our Male Barred Rock is called Shakespear.. Barred/Bard... Get it? *grins* I love my Zahrah.. Makes me so proud)

Anyway.. Since their arrival they've been adding a small degree of stress to our lives by... well.. antagonizing the parents. You see, the parents are sleeping in a trailer about 15 feet from the coop. So round about 5am when Napolean decides to greet the day, they get... Ring side seats. Strange how acoustics makes it so I can't hear them from bed only another 30 feet or so away. (maybe more, but really, its not far).

So Zahrah and I spent the weekend frantically trying to find a way to prevent them from crowing. We have unsuccessfully tried to make it so the light doesn't get in, we tried the 'roost them somewhere they can't stand up method', that didn't work. So tonight we're going to do a little jury-rigging on their coop so they have somewhere dark to roost.

Oh yes, and these two roosters have successfully driven our Rhode Island females into the old coop (which we cleaned out in anticipation of next years chicks, and they immediately took residence in).

Anyway, I am at work right now, so I should probably get ready to return to it after my break, but I wanted to take a moment to pop in and give y'all an update. Shortly Zahrah and I will be creating a joint Blog to post things about our newly joined life in the Valley, things about the animals and day to day things about us. And we'll maintain our seperate blogs for things of a more directly personal nature. :)

I'm lookin' forward to it, and I hope you'll all enjoy catching a glimpse of life up in the Valley. Till then gentle readers.