Reading about it is one thing. Being there is entirely different. Linett records what she finds in lands far from Bree, but you really ought to see it for yourself.
Locney and I are becoming quite attached to our role as Ales and Tales co-hosts, filling in for Harperella again this week up at Tham Gelair, home to an astonishing number of wolves and rats. Of course – Harperella’s return next week just means we can return to playing in Old Winyards as usual! Win-win, yes? Still, it’s been fun running things for a while!
It doesn’t have a name, really. It’s just a nice tall hill in the Green Hill Country (so, ipso facto, one of many such hills). But we started calling it Two Tree Hill when we held Ales and Tales there last night. It does get tedious to repeatedly explain “You go south out of Frogmorton, through the apple orchard across the road, and then up the hill till you find the spot with two trees standing alone. That’s the stage.” In other words – one of our more rugged and obscure Ales and Tales locations, but as beautiful as only the Shire can be!
And as you can see from that picture, with Harperella on vacation, Locney and Lennidhren acted as hosts again. This is fun!
Continue reading ‘Ales and Tales on Two Tree Hill’
For the two weeks whose writeups I missed, here are the photo albums:
March 21 at the Nos Morel kinhouse
Perhaps I will yet get the writeups done, but don’t count on it…
Also. Is it just April Fools’ Day hallucination, or is the My.LOTRO global feed working again?! I see a new post there today!
I’m behind on my Ales and Tales reports again! So here is this week’s, and then we will see about the weeks I missed…
Harperella is on vacation, so Locney and Lennidhren are hosting in her absence for a few weeks. Yesterday we gathered at the Bree Fairgrounds.
But is the presence of a dance instructor so near the party an advantage – or a hindrance? More on that from Melanie, later in the program!
I liked this week’s corner of Gondamon much better than the last time we held Ales and Tales here, though! (Then, it was on the steps in the main courtyard. Steps are tricky for screenshots.)
This is LAST week’s Ales and Tales. Yes, it took me a whole week to get the writeup done. I was so tired every night last week…anyway, I can’t let this one go unwritten-up! Not when it combines MVT and Dharius’ first gig as an A&T host! Harperella was unable to attend so Dharius acted as MC, and I helped out as stage manager. Which was possible because of the fact that Old Winyards got to take a break and let Mar Vanwa Tyalieva play as the house band at their kinhouse!
I came this close to calling this post “Ales and Tales with Captain Cowbell.” Sorry, Andeon. 
This week’s Ales and Tales celebrated the grand opening of the Harp and Dragon Inn, located in one of the kinhouses in the Lonely Mountain Band’s Bree-land neighbourhood of Raglan. Harpertara, proprietress of this fine new establishment, welcomed guests to the inn and invited them to help themselves to snacks at the breakfast table. But I don’t have pictures of that because Old Winyards was running a bit late after some of its members had been having problems staying connected and so our practice got started late. Anyway…we arrived at the Harp and Dragon to find Rayana just about to open with a song about a Hobbit inspired up atop the Hill.
Continue reading ‘Ales and Tales at the Harp and Dragon’
It seemed actually not that much smaller a crowd than usual, and it certainly wasn’t any smaller a lineup of acts than usual, when Lennidhren filled in for Harperella at Ales and Tales this week in Duillond!
We had originally planned to have Ales and Tales in the grotto near Duillond where the shrew stomping takes place at festival time. But instead we used the gorgeous pavilion where, during festivals, the elven dances are taught. The NPCs who hang out there during the festivals were all on vacation and we had this beautiful stage and dance floor all to ourselves!
Bindbole Wood, north of Bag End, is full of bears, spiders, and the occasional goblin. But did you know it also features a curious old ruin on top of a hill, from which there’s a gorgeous view of the surrounding area, even a waterfall off to the northeast? With its circular dance floor, this ruin made a splendid location for another out-of-the-way Ales and Tales this week!
Where is Starmere Lake, you ask?
Yeah. So did everyone. I was thinking Everclear Lakes myself, and in fact, the Everclear Lakes would make quite a nice spot for Ales and Tales.
But Starmere Lake is a bit more remote. It was a good thing Lennidhren set out early to find it – several hours ahead of the event, in fact! Soon she called for help from kinmates Cressley, Dolongi, Laraan and Fillarion to scout out a good spot, and we all decided that the northernmost island on the lake was suitably picturesque. But it is certainly not an easy place to find! So we had escorts helping folks get there from Adso’s Camp, and captain Melanie summoning folks there, and with everyone working together we managed to collect quite a crowd on that island.
Ranna Plays the Flute!
