The Lower Fort Garry (an original fort-not a reproduction) hosted its annual tea in honor of Queen Victoria’s Birthday. My buddy “Shirley A. Victorian”, Shirley’s sister, and myself dressed up for the occasion. The Fort was built in the 1850s and so that was our theme for our outfits. Shirley’s sister was dressed in an outfit made by Shirley.
I do not actually have permission from the sister to throw her photos out into the wild blue yonder so I will refrain from using face shots of her but I will assume that the permission I got from Shirley last time, carries over to this time.

Wanna know what got me thinking a shot of whiskey might be better than a cuppa tea?
When I first arrived at the fort, I felt something odd across my legs….

“Oh, crap! My hoops just fell off!”
Had to go behind a wall and a bush….

And Shirley’s sister had to “reapply” my hoops!
Mercifly, I decided to don some modern undies under my split drawers or I’d be more than a little embarASSed!
This is my favorite photo of just myself…

To bad it is in the basement and not the parlor!
I like it because I have a nice expression on my face and you can see the reticule my mom bought me. You can also see my very modern camera….
I also like this picture of myself in front of the store.

Is it getting hot out here?
Here is a good one of Shirley and I.

“Shirley…we must keep our porcelain skin protected…”
I take up 3 seats in this dress!

Good Gravy! No snuggling on the porch with a fella in this dress!
It is time to head home….

Time to leave this quaint little world….
And head on back to the modern one….

You can drive in a hoop skirt!
I have two things added to my to do list. One is to ask Shirley if her sister will give me permission to post photos of her face to the world because there is a really awesome one of the three of us!
The second thing is to shorten my petticoat and skirt by about 2 inches because I nearly killed myself walking in those things. They worked fine on flooring-gliding along nicely. But on brick, gravel, grass, rough wood….they clung to the surface and I ended walking on them. I was having enough trouble managing my fan, bag and parasol without having to haul my skirts around by hand too!