Yes, that is lovely. Thanks for showing!

When I was a teenager in Minnesota in the early 1990s, someone gave me a pair of sheepskin mittens, wool side in, from the Amana Colonies. They were excellent and I wish I still had them. My sister knitted me a pair in about 2000 to go with an Icelandic sweater she made. They work best layered with ...

I made one from a Swiss army blanket and have worn it quite often on the coldest days here. It's very bulky, but it works well, even on a bike.

I've been away from the forum for longer than I meant to be and I'm sorry about that. I got a Bocksten cloak made of olive green wool serge from Grommets Leathercraft, and while I wait to build more kit to go with it, I've incorporated it into my everyday wardrobe. Last fall I attended a Bilbo Baggi...

Lovely. Does eucalyptus wood have a noticeable smell? This is giving me ideas ...

Oh but those are lovely cauldrons! Thanks a lot guys (meant earnestly and ironically at once): after reading recommendations for copperware I've bought some pieces: a vintage tin-lined saucepan from ebay and a new Mule mug. The Mule mug is unlined, so although it's the only piece I've used so far, I...

Yay Montana! Glacier is beautiful enough to be Valinor. Yesterday to commemorate the Professor's death date I stopped on my bike ride home and took another walk onto Mahogany Mountain. In my last post I showed a little hill I didn't have time to scale; this time I did. It commands some nice views: h...

I understand. It could be too easy to lapse into LARP. I want to keep a perspective of what would be possible and plausible. It's an interesting mental exercise, drawing on all the lore and practice out there that's focused on accurately representing historical periods to try to apprehend a plausibl...

I'm in a similar situation to Iodo: not yet having gotten cooking gear that would pass for preindustrial and most of the time having to do without an open fire. For small portable wood stoves, a really cheap alternative to a bushbox is actually a folding Sterno stove: I've built several little fires...

I took two bottles of a similar mixture on my latest hike - all day, about 14 miles total. Mint-sage tea (from garden-grown herbs) with some white wine vinegar and honey stirred in. Not overpowering, but tangy enough to tickle a thirsty throat. Still, very refreshing, and I drank the last mouthful w...

Reminds you of Led Zeppelin? I take that as high praise - and an indication that I achieved a proper Middle-Earth spirit as well.

Well, I'll have to start practicing it. I've built up more of a familiarity of rhyme over the years, so that I often find myself coming up with rhyming phrases on the spur of the moment - nowhere near the ability of, say, a rapper, but I can tell that's where most of my poetic thinking has been orie...

Highlander clothing is a lot of fun, and more comfortable than I would have thought. I for one would be glad to see pictures of your kit and read more about how you put it together. I wonder about how it could be adapted to Middle-earth reenactment since it's so specific to time and place, but then ...

I'd like to get out that way some day - closest I've gotten was a summer in Virginia over 20 years ago.

If you post pictures of your views when you go out on hikes and camping trips, nobody can tell what kit you are or aren't wearing or using.

Lovely White Mountains, they stretch such a vast distance. It's a hot summer here in Lebennin and I'm pining for the heights. Welcome!