A February Painting Challenge Update. . .

This is the sight that greeted us Thursday morning. Time to fire up the snowblower. We had about 12" on the ground before it was all over.

Well, sir. . . We're down to the last couple of days in the current painting challenge, and I have just about finished those 22 Minden and RSM95 Prussian/Austrian musketeers except for the sword knots on two of the ensigns and, of course, the flags and finials, which I hope to address tonight and tomorrow (Sunday the 28th). Naturally, my camera is not charged, and my phone is two floors above me in the bedroom at the moment, so be sure to check back here for some photographic updates later. With any luck, glossing and basing will follow later in the week, and then it's onto several camp follower vignettes among which lurk a few surprises.

Right now, it's a waffle breakfast and then off to ski/toboggan with the Grand Duchess and the Young Master before all of our snow melts. We had about a foot of the stuff Wednesday and into Thursday here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold, but, very sadly, the weather forecast predicts rapidly rising temperatures well above freezing for the next few days, which means that much will melt, and what remains will refreeze and become crunchy. Hardly optimum for cross-country/Nordic skiing, so it's time to take advantage of what could be our last snow of the winter season.

-- Stokes

Still my little old '98 Corolla to dust off. I attended to that later in the day once the snow had finally petered out.

And I could hardly post photographs of our recent snowfall without documenting THE BEAST, shown here without its coating of snow before use that Thursday morning. Almost as soon as we accepted these new jobs here in Michigan last spring, we looked at each other and said simultaneously, "We'll need to buy a snowblower!"

Skiing in Lower Michigan, Saturday, February 27th. There is a park about five minutes from us with all kinds of trails and loops to explore. I was out for about two hours and never repeated a trail. Slow going at times, and I am definitely out of shape, but the glide wasn't bad for wet, ungroomed snow, the temperature was pleasant, and it was absolutely quiet except for the sound of my skis. Delightful!

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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