Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Victorian Glamping

 photo camping_out-gsr.jpg Stereoscope card of an 1877 trip into the Colorado Rockies by a team of botanists, their wives and friends, guides and a cook.

 Recreational camping began in America during the Victorian Era, so I had wondered why camping, as far as I could tell, had not been embraced by the steampunk community. That is about to change. The Cowford Steampunk Society out of Jacksonville, Florida is organizing a Victorian Glamping event in October (which is when Florida weather becomes tolerable without AC).

https://www.facebook.com/events/219775821547894/

  In case the concept of "glamping" is new to you, it means "glamorous camping". Modern glamping looks something like this:

   photo 1-1.jpg Glamping seems to be particularly popular in the UK, which is where this picture came from (http://www.glampingholiday.co.uk/).

 The idea is to enjoy an adventure in the great outdoors without really roughing it.

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Annie Oakley

It's never too early to plan for something like this, so a few days ago, when I found an interesting little folding table at a thrift store, I bought it to go in our tent.

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I sanded it down and refinished it to match the wooden folding chairs we already have.

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The tag on it said it was a coffee table, but it folds flat and can be adjusted to different heights.

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If you would like to see more of the glamping ideas I've collect, I have a Pinterest board labeled "Steampunk Camping": http://www.pinterest.com/lisarooney/steampunk-camping/

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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Open House at the Mag Lab

I have been doing a poor job of keeping this blog up-to-date, but a very good job of keeping busy.

This past Saturday we took Blaze and the 3 year old I babysit for to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory for an open house. It was a great science field trip because there were so many fun, hands-on demonstrations for the children.

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The whirly gigs were a lot of fun, even though sometimes they headed towards the heads of parents, instead of through the hoops they were supposed to go through.

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She didn't understand the magnetic part, but she sure liked the shaking out the metal filings part.

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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Springtime Has Arrived in Florida

We had a good week here, even though the rest of the country is under record-breaking snow and ice.

Facebook was full of pictures like these this morning:

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Blaze and I spent Tuesday afternoon at Maclay Gardens, looking at the camellias, azaleas, and magnolias that are now in bloom.

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The house/museum at Maclay Gardens is only open January through April, so this was our first time being able to tour the house.

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Thursday was the Tallahassee Homeschool Valentine party at Optimist Park.

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The children made some very creative boxes to hold their valentines.

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There were lots of goodies, as well.

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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Transportation History Around Tallahassee

The sunny weather returned yesterday, so Blaze and I went to check out a train that we had seen from a distance, as we turned from the park the day before.

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Then, today, we visited the Tallahassee Automobile Museum for the fist time.

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The tour starts with Abraham Lincoln's hearse,

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then the automotive history begins.

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I have decided that this is my dream car:

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There is a collection of batmobiles:

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The museum has some other collections, as well.

Motorcycles:

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golfing memorabilia, Case knives, cash registers, boats,

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outboard motors, native american artifacts, toys,

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and a large collection of children's peddle cars.

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This was the car I had as a child:

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Crafty Crow