Things We've Seen and Done

Will write more in depth on things like Fetes, Arthurian festivals, and countryman's fairs, but for now, here's whats been up, along with an enormous side of Olympics. 

We've seen this sign regarding a bull

climbed this tree

saw these... goats?

and these pigs

and these horses.

Fran tried his hand at treacle tart.

We attended a folk festival and saw Ruth Notman

and Nic Jones.

We went to a driving range

where Fran taught me the ropes.

We also attended a country man's fair.

I've been learning to draw

while Fran goes fishing to catch stuff like this

which turns into this.

Bust mostly we've been donning these

and heading here to hit the waves.

A this week in May

Carburritos with Mubbs

Night Light

Jessica Long and the New Kind

Band buddies

River Whyless

Church Picnic: Keri and Abby

Church Picnic: Mom and Dad at horseshoes

Mr Beamer's BBQ

Culverts

Cornhole

I travelled up to Chapel Hill to see some old friends play in Jessica Long and the New Kind. They were on tour with the River Whyless and I would recommend you see them both.  Halli from Whyless played the violin so well it made my heart ache.  It made me want to play it well too.  Why is simply listening never enough?  I laugh at my feeble attempts to sing along in tune and key with Gotye.  It was so good to see old faces, visit old haunts, and meet some of the New Kind and Whyless. All are ridiculously talented.

I spent Friday morning trolling through the stacks of UNC library.  As an undergrad I didn't realize how exceptional they were: it was just the library.  Now I walk among them in awe and gratefulness. We drove home that night and attended the church picnic Saturday. Horseshoes, frisbee, and a three-legged race, which I lost to my mom and sister. Mr Beamer made his own BBQ. I wish I could take it back to Scotland and say, "Taste and see that this is good. Now how can your life ever be the same?" That or lemonade.

That night we went on a walk and took a detour to the culverts. We used to race through these as kids, one in each tunnel, blindly competing, hoping desperately not to fall in, get stung by yellow jacket, or worse, lose. We also used to swing across the creek, with it's pathetic shallow bed, on a rope swing, and catch crawdads in the shallow rocks. I wonder if we weren't half wild. I wonder more that we didn't see more snakes.  Annabelle had never seen them before. Silly dog.  She pushed Abby in the water in her excitement. On Sunday dad and I worked on making our own cornhole, perhaps I will post more on that later, and all of us watched the new Sherlock Holmes on PBS. (Won't Martin Freeman make the most adorable Bilbo?? Much better than my childhood vision of him as this.) Sunday night Mystery has been a family favorite for ever so long and I love the introduction PBS uses to accompany the series. 

Blossoms

 

I really should be posting about Abby's graduation and how wonderful it was, but I took so many videos they'll need a bit of editing, and I'm still wrestling this Hydra of a 9 month review.  For now here's some of my last week in Edinburgh with blossoms strewn over any visible surface.  The first photo is a sign we pass every day coming home from school (Thing 1 and 2), and it's a favorite.  The second is homework from Thing 2 in which I appear in sentence number three. I know it may not appear very flattering, but I'm convinced this is their way of showing I'm alright. 

This Week: March #2

- Spring
- The walking shots are courtesy of Thing 2
- Thing 1 broke his finger in 2 places
- Fran's reaction time is 42 for 60 seconds
-Felix's color is changing to more brown
- Of Mice and Men made brought tears to my eyes
- Fran's parents were in town for the weekend
- This is how one should be buried
- The Box Car Children
- A cat amongst the ivy
-Gorgeous walk to Leith
- The Royal Brittania