Celtfest Weekend 2011

It has taken me a week to recuperate and find some time to get some pictures posted, but we had a wonderful time at Celtfest this year. The Tucker's joined us for the weekend, so we started the celebrations at Wheeler's Pancake house for brunch on Friday. AC and I sat in the wooden rockers on the porch outside the museum while we awaited the arrival of the T's. It was a beautiful day and a fabulous spot to sit a while and soak in the atmosphere.
The T's soon arrived, and we shared hugs all around before heading into the restaurant for a delicious pancake feast. After the feast we made tracks for home, but stopped in Lanark to visit the terrific bookstore there, Nature Lover's Bookshop. I could spend hours at this store and still not see everything they have on the shelves. I love it.

The guys stopped at a pretty spot along the river to take some pictures so Heather and I wandered around taking in the sights, gabbing, gabbing, gabbing as we walked along. All of a sudden two deer ran out in front of us and stopped in the middle of the road to look at us and give us the once over as if we were intruding on their territory. I could see a car approaching so I stomped my feet and clapped my hands to get them to move out of the middle of the road. If I hadn't been doing that I might have captured a better pic of them. As it is I only managed to snap this rather blurry one of them as they scampered off into the woods on this property. One is already in the bushes, and the other stopped to turn and look at me again before she disappeared.
The guys soon joined us and went in hunt of the critters with their fancy-shmancy cameras, but no luck. The deer were well hidden in the woods by this time, so we sauntered back to the car and continued on our way home.
We made a stop at Balderson for some cheese and an ice cream cone. Yum! By mid afternoon we made our way home to rest up before we headed out for dinner and a pub-crawl, featuring different celtic musicians at each pub. In the pic below we see AC and Brian deep in conversation at home...
...yes, Brian was all bundled up while the rest of us were hitting the cool button on the air conditioning unit. He looks like a wise old monk doesn't he?
After our short rest at home we were off to Thesha's for dinner and a visit with the kids. Good old Uncle Brian helped the kids assemble a new toy, while the gals relaxed and caught up on all the news.
JJ thought his Uncle did a great job reading the instructions for him.
"What should I do with this piece Uncle Brian?"
The next day it was off to the park for two days full of fiddle music, step dancing and song! It was hot and sunny, but we managed to chase the shade around the field and for the most part...
sat cool and comfy under the branches of the big maple tree. Our view of the stage was a bit obstructed, but the music came through loud and clear.
During some of the step dancing, Brian found a perfect spot in the tree to take some clear pics of the stage.
Lots of people got up and danced on the grass during the afternoon. I think Heather is doing a jig in this picture.
All in all, it was a great weekend, and we look forward to doing it all again next year.

AC has posted pics on his blog here.