A day shy of a year after the previous venture to the
Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival, I was
returning here. Only now, "here" had changed. The festival was being held in the somewhat
larger town of Westfield, and the site hosting the event was also larger. Most everything about this
new site was excellent, except for the weather (hot, sticky, ick... but that was beyond the control of
mere mortals), and the dark concert hall, which made picture-taking chancy. Hence, the bands that
played this time around don't get their own web pages here. However, the gardens were impressive
(this was during the drought; some plantings were beginning to look a bit brittle and
all, but not so bad at that point. The lawn below looks downright luscious.)
The Brigadoons hale from Canada, and are four traditional musicians who performed an excellent set.
|
Six Mile Bridge, contrary to their name, boasts five members, who play a mix of traditional and
rock flavored Scottish music. Only one of the pieces performed that day used the bagpipes.
|
Also heard and enjoyed: Carl Peterson (a richly-vocalled troubador), the harpist Jerry
Marchand, and the inevitable bagpipe bands. I acquired a CD apiece of music performed by Six Mile
Bridge, and by Jerry Marchand.
The food was decent: meat pies and the like. One could also get a tablespoon sized scoop of haggis
(from a real sheep's stomach liner, not from a can) for a dollar; I went and splurged. The
homemade shortbread was once again, excellent.
I purchased a couple of books, one on the ancient Picts, which has turned out to be quite an
excellent resource on the topic.
Today's sporting event was the hay toss, wherein one grabs a pitchfork, jabs it into a bale of
hay (wrapped these days in plastic, no doubt to keep the poor thing from disintegrating during
its multiple traumas), and flings it skyward, to fly (with luck) over a marked region high up
on a ladder (out of visible range in the photo below).
This time, I was
able to watch the border collie herd sheep at a herding demo. Haggis on the hoof, as it were.
|
There was also a
crew of shelties being exhibited, but no regular collies this year -- no doubt that extra long
fur would be a drawback out in the hot all day.
|
I'm trying my best to
recollect what this handsome Highland fellow is called. Well, I doubt he knows, either...
|
|
the haggis pages
A RootGrafix creation