Scotland the Brave

I spent all of today at the Alma Highland Festival which was a welcome break from this past week of insufferable boredom. Rebekah (my older sister) competed in the fiddle competition and got second, and just really nice to be there again and hear the mass band (a football field full of pipe bands, fabulous!) and poke fun at the terrible reenacment group. Speaking of which, this group is 'reenacting' a Scottish regiment during the French and Indian war and of course they have camp followers. Can I say how foul it is when older, dumpy women wear pastel bodices with no support whatsoever! And the younger woman wore a purple corset (over a chemise) with nothing on top of it! Oh, and those who were wearing bodices laced them up with ribbon...and are portraying penniless camp followers...sad. Not to mention the soldiers themselves! The sergent didn't have stripes, the privets carried swords and didn't wear leather stocks, the officer wasn't wearing a sash and was carrying a musket, and they all had fixed bayonets while marching! I was strongly tempted to point and laugh, but managed to restrain myself. It was quite amusing though.

One very exciting thing was finding a book that I loved when I was a kid and haven't found since...it was a beautiful hardcover edition with original illustrations for nine dollars! I was happy. The Princess and the Goblin is mine again. Mine! And now I can rest assured that if I ever have kids, they too will be able to read this wonderful book.

Oh, and I'm seriously considering learning the bagpipes and joined the pipe band that Rebekah's a part of (she plays snare drum). I know the clarinet and tin whistle and a bit of oboe, so it shouldn't be too dreadfully hard to learn. But I have a sneaky feeling they are terribly expensive.