Der Other Fritz's Birthday

The Erbprinz von Hesse Seewald greets his troops on his birthday.

Yesterday, December 18th, I celebrated the passing of another birthday, my 58th one on this planet. I had hoped to get in a little bit of painting time, but with errands, Christmas shopping and waiting for the heating repairman to put in a new humidifier in the basement (lots of banging of sheet metal just a few feet away from my painting table), events seemed to conspire against me and I didn't get much time at the painting table.

I did finish off two more stands of Minden Austrian grenadiers, bringing my converged battalion up to 24 figures (2 stands of red-facing figures, 2-stands of blue-facing figures). I am working on two more stands of 6 figures in pink or rose facings to represent the Regiment de Ligne. I hope to have them completed within a couple more days.

Deliveries from the UK to the USA seem to be all discombobulated lately. I have three different orders posted to me in November and 3-4 weeks later there have been no pleasant surprises in my mail box, much to my regret. My understanding is that the Royal Mail got all backed up with the snow-related delays, and then add in the usual deluge of Christmas mail, and you have a recipe for extremely slow delivery. I am resigned to not seeing anything for a couple more weeks - if we get into mid January with nothing, then I might start to get concerned.

The weather has been very cold here in Hesse Seewald, staying between 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, versus the average temperature of about 35 degrees F for this time of year. We decided to make lemonade out of lemons, weather wise, and headed down the street to a steep slope, where we (the Princess and Mrs. Fritz) did a little bit of downhill sledding. It was more like getting on a luge run, with our little sled and icy surface, but we had fun, and then afterwards, made some hot cocoa and sat by a roaring fire in the fireplace. Not a bad way to tackle a cold winter day.