Preparing for the Move. . .

A seasonally appropriate and very pretty, quiet winter photograph of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset (Great Britain) [Thank you, Simon!] that I found online somewhere.

Well Sir, we are in the home stretch and move into our new house on Monday. My classes for the fall term finished yesterday, and I have spent the day here taking two carloads of clothing and various odds and ends we don't wish to repack into boxes over to the house and stowing them in bedroom and hall closets.

Since yours truly will be working with the crew of movers come Monday while the Grand Duchess and Young Master are at work and school respectively, I've also spent some time spotting where the various larger pieces of furniture will go and measuring where my wife's eventual baby grand piano will go when we get around to making that addition. Funny how several hours to oneself to get things done and think quietly without interruption eases and even cheers the spirit. A good day all the way around I think.

More of the same with Part II tomorrow, and Part III on Sunday. The movers arrive at 8:30am Monday morning to do the heavy work, and we'll spend our first night in the house that evening. The Grand Duchess and I have a date for a glass or two of wine by the working fireplace once the Young Master is in bed.

-- Stokes

T-minus Two Days and Counting (Saturday Morning Update). . .

Thank you for the good wishes, men! Yes, as soon as we can in the next few days, we will hang a very pretty (although it is fake and we reuse it each year) red berry wreath inside somewhere prominent, and a real evergreen Christmas wreath on the front door outside. Christmas trees to follow next Saturday once the ground floor (and the Young Master's bedroom) of Totleigh-in-the-Wold is in order. Ok. Enough wasting time. I've got a car full of clothing and odds and ends to deliver, unload, and stow at the house.

-- Stokes

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

And It's the End of September!!!

Saxony's Ploetz Cuirassiers, an illustration lifted from the Kronoskaf website, which has thus far guided my spectacularly glacial painting of 30 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers purchased all the way back in October 2016. A gray, cool Saturday here in Mid-Michigan with rain in the forecast. The Grand Duchess is away at a conference, so it's just "The Boys" here at home. The Young Master (almost 15) has retreated to his room for something or other following breakfast while I have stolen back down here to Zum Stollenkeller (masquerading as my office) with a second mug of coffee and both cats comfortably ensconced nearby. Enjoying the late morning and still in my pajamas! Not much planned for today beyond designing a couple of promotional flyers for workshops my department is presenting (small parties we will throw?) in October and November. With maybe a bit of on the next podcast script. More important, I am toying with the idea of returning for an hour or...

Happy September 2nd!!!

T his weekend, the question of what, precisely, constitutes an "imagination" came up in an online forum of which I am a part. To be fair, the issue originates from further afield in a Facebook group that I am not a member of, but I weighed in with my own view. The following was in response to the question posed yesterday (Sunday) morning by an exasperated member of my own rather more gentlemanly town square, who had been met with a strident response to information he shared about his (admirable) hobby activities on said FB group. Here is, more or less, what I wrote: To my mind, the concept of imagi-nation(s) is a broad one. It can range from historical refights or what-if scenarios/battles/campaigns between armies of a particular era, to completely made up combatants operating in a quasi-historical setting, to the rather generic red and blue forces of the Prussian Kriegspiel that examine a particular tactical problem, task, or exercise. ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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