We're back......again!

We had a fun time on our holiday, Euan The Wonder Kid is growing - four months old today but not yet walking and taking, as we expected (obviously our expectations are a wee bit high) - all our family and friends in Canberra are well, and the folk festival was great.

First up, Euan The Wonder Kid looking serious while relaxing on his father's lap a week ago:

 Talk about living the life of Riley.  He's not fading away, is he?

A couple of days earlier we went for a Nice Sunday Drive on a Friday, and stopped here:

 Not to camp, but we had a look around and took a few photos.  Although you can't quite see it, the Murrumbidgee River is behind those trees.

Then we drove to Tidbinbilla......

 ......where we admired this beautiful eucalyptus tree, had to stand a long way back to get it all in because it was tall and wide......

 .......and when I turned around, we could see across the car park for a very very long way.

The countryside around Canberra is really lovely, so Australian, and can get quite cold; it snowed on some far-away hills while we were there, we could see it on the mountain tops in the distance.  No wonder it was slightly chilly for a few days!

As usual the folk festival was wonderful, spending time catching up with friends not seen since the last festival and seeing a few performances.  I had more artists marked in my program that I missed seeing because of time spent with aforementioned friends, and because I had a fabulous time playing music and singing......'my' festival is more about participating that watching, about making my own good times rather than watching other people make theirs.  A couple of souvenirs came home with me, a new hat in a gorgeous shade of emerald green to keep the sun off my face (because I burn fairly easily) and......a new baritone ukulele, the big sister of the tenor uke bought at the festival two years ago!!  I had no intention of buying a new uke, but on the first day went into the instrument makers' display to say hello to Doug who made my tenor uke and mentioned that I had been wondering about playing a baritone uke, whereupon his partner Dale handed one to me saying "here you are, Jennifer, it has your name on it"......I played a few chords......thought "geez, Dale, you shouldn't have done that" because it was so good to play and sounded so amazing......and I bought it.  A baritone uke is strung like the top four strings of a guitar, and I can play guitar, so this is easy to learn.

If only I could play a uke in each hand at the same time I would be one of the happiest women in the entire universe, because deciding which uke to play at any time is a Big Decision.  Uke class starts up again this week, so I shall be a show-off and walk in with two instruments.

Euan's quilt was handed over and duly admired, when he is older he can use it to play "I spy", and count how many dogs, and how many cats and penguins and butterflies and other creatures, and learn his colours, because it has every colour of the rainbow in it and a few others too.  Now comes the decision - what to work on next?  First up is to clean the machine, it's probably full of lint after all that quilting, then I can play with fabric again.

"Introducing yourself.
If, on entering a drawing-room to pay a visit, you are not recognized, mention your name immediately.  If you know but one member of the family and you find others only in the room, introduce yourself to them.  Unless this is done, much awkwardness may be occasioned."

Does this also apply, one wonders, when one joins in a music session - as happened at the folk festival?  I did know one person in the session and he knew me, we (two guitars, two mandolins and two ukes) had a great time playing together until well after 2am.  I never did learn the names of the other players.....but it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves.

Enjoy your days!