Silent Sunday

Nikki Dee in the Dirt

Nikki Dee in Her Hat

Nikki Dee and Her Button

Nikki Dee with Her Buppa and Her Bro

Foto Friday

Guess who turned three months old this week?

Foolishly Putting It Out There ...

... Warts and All

I have been dithering about doing this since I taped these clips several days ago, but here we go — two clips of me playing the fiddle — warts and all. I'm still a beginner who makes lots of mistakes — lot of mistakes — so beware. But what the heck: I've been mentioning my trials on this blog for a few years now, and since we have a vidcam on the computer these days (for Skype-ing), it's easy enough to take a clip and upload it. As you will see, I have trouble getting into a tune, but it goes somewhat better (only somewhat mind you — all is relative) once I get going. I have included a verbal apology in the first clip; Cuppa wanted me to take it out, but I always think that mistakes are made less somehow if one acknowledges them. I want you to know that at least I know that I make them and am not living in a tone deaf fool's paradise. I just can't seem to do anything about the slipups — unfortunately. :)

Fiddlin Country

The Open Up the Summer Kitchen Celidh

cei-lidh: pronunciation [key-lee]
–noun Irish, Scot., and Canadian (chiefly Prince Edward Island).
a party, gathering, or the like, at which singing and storytelling are the usual forms of entertainment

The fourth annual Open Up the Summer Kitchen Ceilidh was held in Almonte on Sunday. Yes, fiddling remains alive and well in this part of the country, and Almonte is one of the centres where this fine tradition continues to thrive. I took a few video clips with our little camera (I guess I should learn to use the kids' proper video camera), so please excuse the quality, especially the sound quality, but I do want to share this experience with those of you who live in areas where such wonderful traditions are no longer extant. (I also blogged about the event two years ago here.)

First up, we have The Barley Shakers. These are the people that I jam with ... more or less. I make this claim modestly because I am only able to play about every fourth song when we get together, and even then I often struggle with the fast tempo. Nevertheless, they humour me and let me continue to hang around the edges. They play great Celtic-style tunes. This clip is only about a minute long.



Step dancing and fiddling seem to go together, and the group called Fusion usually attends festivals such as these, and they were in very good form on this occasion. To many, this form of dance is unfamiliar, but I guess it's related to Irish dancing and clogging although it isn't exactly either of them. This clip runs for over three minutes, but I hope you decide to peek at a bit of it anyway because they're really good.



Finally, I present Andre Brunet, last year's Canadian Fiddling Champion. This clip runs for just under two minutes. He's a great stage presence and enjoys himself immensely. He was the only non-local performer of the day, and even then he only lives a few hours away in Montreal.

Silent Sunday

Making a Spectacle of Myself

Having been a parent, teacher, sometime coach, and now being a doddering grandfather, I should be used to making a spectacle of myself. But I have now ascended to new heights of spectacle-ness. Or should I say descended to new depths? I'll let you be the judge.

Nighttime reading, especially in bed when I read orally to Cuppa is always problematic. My nearest light is not quite near enough and not quite bright enough. Having made my problem known to my nears and dears, for some recent Father's Day or birthday, Thesha gifted me with a lighting device, but it hasn't been a great solution. I have to hold it over the page whilst holding the book, and even if I manage to keep the two aligned, much to my chagrin, I am confronted with the reality that not all books are the same or right size; it really only works for standard size paperbacks. Compounding the above problems is the caveat that I can't use it in complete darkness either; no, I quickly found that I must have some ambient light, or else weird patches of dark and light fall across my page, which is only okay if one doesn't mind missing every second sentence. I know, my life is difficult.

However, yesterday, after having been dragooned into an afternoon of shopping excitement in far flung places, I was totally chuffed to come across the lighted readers pictured above at Mark's Work Wearhouse whilst Cuppa amused herself to no end by trying on outfit after endless outfit. These are actually corrective lenses too. I took the mildest correction of 1.50 because that's all I require if not more. In point of fact, I can get read quite well without any correction at all, but I can deal with this negligible amount and even improve my vision to a modest extent. If you check the Panther Vision site, you'll discover that they have various lighted accessories including ball caps. Just look to your right if you deign to doubt my veracity.

I gave them a pretty good workout last evening, trying them in both the dimly lit sunporch and later in bed. They cast a pretty fair light and also give me a little magnification. I'm used to looking a little offbeat, but they're not as weird as the miner's helmet that I was contemplating. That lighted ball cap was and still is tempting though.

Foto Friday

From the Bicycle Trips This Week



Above: the donkey who waited for us to stop and say hello and then brayed when we saddled up again.

Below: quiet contemplation on the banks of the Mississippi River.