Faire Damsel from Main Street Exchange, Saranac Lake NY

Sarah is the faire damsel at Main Street Exchange. She is filling up her shop with a Medieval collection that is looking pretty good. I am excited to see how the designs are taking shape and Saranac Lake's Winter Carnival begins next week!

Here Sarah is wearing my black cotehardie with shimmering tippets and an extravagant hennin of purple and black!

Link to Saranac Lake Winter Carnival

Building an Ice Castle

The excitement is mounting in Saranac Lake as the Winter Carnival approaches. In fact, this week they began building the ice castle, the symbol of the longest running celebration of winter in the Eastern USA. I am really delighted to be here this time of year. This is my first winter in the Adirondack Mountains and I have found that inspiration flows freely here.

Howie and I stopped by the construction site and snapped some pictures, like the one of the raw materials are cut from the lake.

A crane is used to carefully placed each block on top of the other, guided by a man perched on the top of the wall.

Chilling, half frozen, slush are brought in buckets and hand rubbed into the cracks. I imagine that when if drops into the sub zero temperatures, this works as good as any mortar can! A job I would not like.

Impressive walls of ice rising up off the lake to form the massive castle.

There was an article in the newspaper that talked about the construction of the castle beginning. It said that it will have some "suprises" inside...tunnels, dungeons? Read about it here:Ice Palace Construction Begins