Goodbye Celtfest

Well ... let's wrap up Celtfest for another year, shall we?

On Friday night, I looked around and spotted this fellow dancing freestyle all by himself. I congratulate this free and uninhibited spirit.

Searson was the penultimate group on Saturday evening, and they should have been the ultimate. The sisters and the others were vivacious and enthusiastic. I would have liked to ave listened to them longer, and also as the wrap-up act of Sunday afternoon, but we had been chased by the rain.

Above: the sisters do some exuberant Ottawa Valley step dancing, which always delights the audience. Below: an intense moment.

I didn't get too close to the last group, Ecosse, but I liked the light as the sun went down in the background.

The floodlights even caught the leaves of the nearby overhead tree.

And that is likely all  that I will post of Celtfest for this year. Meanwhile, I will hope for dry weather for next year.

De Temps Antan at Celtfest

For the second consecutive year at Celtfest, the headline Friday night band was French Canadian. Where we live, French Canada (Quebec) is not far away — at least not geographically far away. Montreal, for example, is closer than Toronto.

I quite enjoyed De Temps Antan which would translate something like Old Times. And to be fair, Celtic music is old although there are lots of new works too.

I guess the star of the group, although that may not be putting it correctly, is André Brunet and accomplished grandmaster, one time Canadian champion, fiddler. The other two members are Pierre-Luc Dupuis and Éric Beaudry. The three are seen left to right in the following photo.

I love it when the stage lights go red, and I managed to snatch a few photos.

I like the two above, but I do appreciate the expression that I captured on André Brunet in the next photo.

One more capture, this of Pierre-Luc Dupuis, that I like. It's nice when you can capture that special expression.

The Stage is the Thing

With that nod to Hamlet in the title, I would like to show you a few stage photos from our Celtfest weekend.

First, if I may say so, the weather was problematic. I missed the first act or even act-and-a-half on Friday due to rain, and when I got there, it was muddy in spots, including in front of the stage. Perhaps for that reason, I took more photos of the stage and fewer close-ups of the performers this weekend. The mud remained for the duration of the weekend, and so did intervals of rain.

The band that night was De Temps Antan, a French Canadian band from nearby Quebec. They featured a topnotch fiddler, Andre Brunet.

Friday night brought more rain, which helped to ensure the prolongation of the quagmire on Saturday. I don't bother with daytime photos much anymore, but this is what the stage looked like during Searson's set. Searson is a band featuring two sisters from nearby Eganville.

The last group of the evening was Ecosse, an older group. They were fine but not lively enough for the closing set. They should have been the penultimate group and Searson should have been the ultimate band.

On Sunday, knowing there would be no significant stage lights, I didn't even take my camera. I know that seems odd, but I decided not to tempt myself to take photos which would only disappoint me. As it turned out, the skies opened, and we were soon moved to beat a somewhat hasty retreat to the dryness of home.

Fifteen Paltry Bucks

Sue recently read a post, Nobody Wants Your Stuff. The gist was that we collect and save certain artifacts because they mean something to us, or they seem too valuable to toss, or they meant so much to someone else that we can't bear to discard them. Therefore, we should take pity on our children and deal with these treasures in our own lifetimes.

Not long after Sue pointed this out to me, the truth of the thesis was made very clear.

You see, in her later years, when she could afford to do such a thing, my mother collected a very pretty set of china: Blossom Time. Of course, she paid a pretty pence.

She added to the set piece by piece until it was complete: tea pot, serving dishes, the works.

It is quite a lovely set, and we have maybe used them a handful of times, or maybe handful is actually overstating it because they sure haven't been used very often.

After I was advised of the notion that nobody wants your stuff, I saw a Blossom Time set being advertised on Facebook for 15 bucks. That's right, 15 bucks for the whole set. Fifteen bucks for the set for which my mother paid hundreds of dollars. To be fair, I don't know if it really was a 100% complete set, but still — 15 bucks — for the set. Not just for a dish but the set. Fifteen paltry bucks.

It's true, nobody wants your stuff; it has no value.

But we might as well hang onto it anyway because ... well you know.

And then there's our own set of barely used serving ware. Good luck with that, dear daughters.

I found this site which explains that the set was designed to tie-in with the Apple Blossom Festival in Cornwallis. It was produced from 1933 to 2001, 2 years before Mom passed away.

Disndat

Just some dumb stuff to share because ... because I have no idea why.

We just had 18 consecutive days of rain. We've never had more.

Facebook wanted to know if I want this message translated from Haitian Creole. I didn't.

I became overwhelmed with requests for donations, so I recently had to give up and trash this pile.

And the pile has already had all envelopes removed, which was two for each request — one incoming and one for my contribution.

Unsolicited cards and many return address labels were also removed prior to shooting.

But I do hang onto pens and notepads.

Clearly, I donate to charities; if I didn't I wouldn't have so many requests, even though there are a few mailing lists that I don't know how I got on. Covenant House?  But the pile overwhelmed me, and I had to start over. Then I got another envelope in the mail right after binning the above. It quickly joined the others.

Obviously, they generate income by sending requests and freebies, even if many of them get trashed. But I wish there was another less wasteful way.

Happy 1st and 4th

It's kind of neat that our two days, Canada Day and Independence Day, occur so close together. It rained and thundered and lightninged for much of Canada Day here, so I didn't go out for the fireworks. However, we can see them in the distance from our bedroom window, so I zoomed in and happily snapped away.

For most of these photos, I have composited several bursts into one photo. The last two are single exposures where you can see the roof of a building in the foreground. I have never photographed fireworks before, so I was eager to try, even though shooting from the bedroom did not seem to be quite optimal. However, I am pleased enough with the results.

Of interest to some will be the specs: lens 70-200mm set ~100mm, focused manually at infinity, shutter speed 4" (for most), aperture f11, tungsten white balance, tripod with lens stabilization deactivated. (I would have used a remote shutter release if mine hadn't broken, but it worked well enough pressing the shutter.)

Anyway, Happy Belated Canada Day to some of you and Happy Independence Day to others.

Seen from the Bedroom Window.

We live in a townie; lots are small. The neighbours have a pool: a small pool. They have 5 floaty thingies in the small pool. We think it's kind of funny.

One morning last week Bowen went off the road and into the ditch in the rain. Somehow, he missed poles and fences. We wondered how they would extricate Bowen, but it turned out to be easy peasy as the video will prove.