Saturday, July 2nd - belated Happy Canada Day to everyone

 It's been a bit of a whirlwind weekend, and it's only Saturday night! 

Since Friday was officially the holiday, I headed out bright and early to travel to Embro, not far from Woodstock, for their highland games. Patti and Tristen were coming a little bit later. He didn't have to be there as early as I did and we were going different directions when it was over this time, so, seperate cars.

It was a wee bit chilly first thing in the morning and there were threats of rain later on, but it all turned out okay in the end.  When I arrived I took a little walk around to see what was there. Each highland games and Scottish Festival seems to put their own spin on things. This one had a road race, which is fairly common, but no sheep herding events. There was, however, a highland cow. I was reminded of a highland cow I'd met once before, named Heather. (In the end, Heather was delicious)

I had 9 classes to watch over, but it was much easier than it sounds as several of the classes only had one competitor so the time went by pretty quickly. While I watched over the drummers, Tristen was competing on the other side of the park. He came in third, bringing home another bronze medal to add to his growing collection of hardware. (For 16, okay, almost 17, he really is a big boy!) Either that or I'm shrinking signifcantly!

As per usual, once the solo competitions were finished (or almost finished in some cases) there was the mass band. This was a somewhat small group but enjoyable to hear just the same.

With our required activities finished, I headed north and Patti and Tristen went back to Guelph. The three of them were returning later in the evening and going to Port Elgin, to Greg's parents, while I went on to Kincardine and stayed with my friend Kay and her husband Steve. They have a lovely spot outside of town. 50 acres to be exact that they have a trailer on as well as a large storage building and a tent trailer as well. Their son and his family were up for the weekend and I brought along a small tent, air mattress and sleeping bag. My little home away from home for the night. (Little being the operative word!)

Happy Canada Day - yes, there was wine!

After a delicious supper, we cleaned up the dishes and set about lighting a bonfire.  3 of Kay's grandchildren were there and she had bought some sparklers and some simple fireworks. The kids were delighted with all of them, before they headed off to bed. After sitting around the fire for a bit I had to call it a night as well. Lots of driving and fresh air for one day.

It turned out to be a fairly chilly night but I was cozy in my little shelter. I had planned to pack everything up  and take it all with me first thing as I had to be at the venue by 8:00 but since they only live about 10 minutes outside of town, it made sense to leave everything set up and get dried out before puting it all into the car.

So instead Kay and I went into town  and grabbed some coffees before time to go to work.

My job this time was to look after something called a Piobaireachd, which is a long, slow drawn out piece of music. There were 12 in my group. We started at 8:30 and didn't finish until around noon. Not the most uplifting of mornings but the sun was shining and it was warming up so it was all fine. 

Tristen was hoping to improve on his performance from the day before and he certainly did that, taking first place and winning another gold medal. 

Unfortunately because my event took so long, I missed the mass band, which in this case, was actually a parage through the middle of town. I caught them as they returned but they had stopped playing by then. 

I love the fact that Tristen's kilt is blue and stands out in the sea of red McRae Tartans that are those of the Guelph group.

All done here, and we were off for a bit of lunch before heading home. Boston Pizza was the spot for Greg's family including his mom and dad. brother Steven and his family as well as his inlaw's. Then it was back up to Kay's to pack up my stuff and head home. It's just under a two hour drive home and I was here just a little before 4:00. 

The cats were happy to see me, however the squirrel that had somehow managed to get into my upstairs apartment, wasn't quite so thrilled. The cats tried very had to catch it with no luck. It's been very quiet for the past couple of hours. I don't know if it has a new hiding place that the cats have yet to discover, or it's somehow found it's way back outside. Only time will tell. It could be an interesting night!

So this is my last highland games until Fergus in August. So no more shots of my beautiful knees sticking out from under a kilt for at least a month. 

Next on the agenda are my travels with Carle to PEI. She's really looking forward to it. Stay tuned for updates!