rally round the flag, boys

Today, I ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Cinnamon rolls have a special place in my heart. Today, I am prepping to leave for a conference mom, Michaela, and myself will be attending for the weekend. We're staying overnight at my grandparents house "on the other side of town"-- this calls for mochas, more food, and Charming Charlie. I hope. Today, I am hoping for another amazing August sunset tonight. Those mystic purple-ish, blue-ish, gray-ish, orange-ish ones. Oh sky, I love you.


Today, my Civil War high continues. On Sunday, another dream of mine came true: I went to my first ever Civil War reenactment. It was everything I had imagined a big Civil War reenactment to be; I was completely in my "history buff" element, as was my camera. 

Now, I am more eager than ever to reenact. My envy for all my friends in their exciting far-away states  has been increases a thousand fold. =) I am more eager than ever to finish sewing my Civil War gown (though I'm afraid I'll look more like Belle from Beauty and the Beast than anything. Umm...) And more eager than ever to read Gone With the Wind. 

      

Sigh.

I love this era. ♥

Anything history-related gives me chills. From the time I was little, I read history text books for fun and played pioneers or Revolutionary War spies with Michaela. When I 13, I visited Colonial Williamsburg, fell head over heels in love (and have been in love since!) and came home with a desire to decorate my room with revoluionray war flags, copies of the Declaration of Independence, my three cornered hat... yeah. I was a bit insane. Thankfully my room has never undergone such a tom-boy-ish transformation, and it remains pink and frilly and beautiful even though I still love anything that has to do with fifes and drums and the Battle of Bunker Hill. =)

The sky was overcast that day, veiling the valley with violent downpours of rain. The little historical village, so usually quiet and uninteresting, was pulsing and brimming and swelling with the trill of fifes, the smell of wet horses, the sight of tent peeks packed in on every lane. Every kepi, every uniform, every hat pin, every hoop skirt, every strain of the bagpipe on the battle field filled my senses with the reality of the 1860's.

Oh, be still my heart-- the cavalry! 

"When I first met you, I thought: there is a girl in a million. She isn't like these other silly little fools who believe in everything their mammas tell them and act on it, no matter how they feel, and conceal all their feelings and desires and little heartbreaks behind a lot of sweet words. I thought: Miss O'Hara is a girl of rare spirit. She knows what she wants and she doesn't mind speaking her mind--or throwing vases."

 

"This was an inferno of pain and smell and noise and hurry-hurry-hurry! The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!"

"Why was Scarlett O'Hara, the belle of the county, the sheltered pride of Tara, tramping down this rough road almost barefoot? Her little feet were made to dance, not to limp, her tiny slippers to peep daringly from under bright silks, not to collect sharp pebbles and dust. She was born to be pampered and waited upon, and here she was, sick and ragged, driven by hunger to hunt for food in the gardens of her neighbors."

process of the battle in photos:

 

"The Cause didn't seem sacred to her. The war didn't seem to be a holy affair, 

but a nuisance that killed men senselessly and cost money and made luxuries hard to get."

all quotes are from Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell 

-anna