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A Day of Fests
Sep. 25th, 2006 10:43 amHawkFest is up first - we went over to the trail head near Bake Oven Knob and talked with the good folks from the Wildlife Information Center. Justin and Rachel were able to handle a corn snake and a couple of turtles, as well as look at a number of other local critters, including a just-hatched-that-morning turtle. You could still see his bellybutton, which will disappear as he grows older.
Over the course of three hours, we sighted nearly a dozen osprey, almost half a dozen broadwings, a couple red tails and sharpies, and about forty or so turkey vultures.
We headed down to CelticFest, and, after looking everywhere else, finally tracked down the clans. Two were left, and only five or six had even shown up. They put them in an out-of-the-way low traffic spot, away from the music. With less people stopping by, and less of a chance to be in the middle of the festival, you can't really blame them. I'm not sure Clan Riddell would have been represented under the best of circumstances - they don't seem to be as active as some and they only show up on a few of the many clan listings.
I also stopped by The Harp and the Dragon and discussed Uilleann pipes - downright affordable at only $1675 for a full set. And yes, one of the things that I discussed with Ann was that it's best to start with a starter set and then add the drones and regulators. And, if I ever happen to get good at them, I can always get a set from Seth Gallagher (for comparison, the starter set can cost more than $1825... =) Ann had mentioned used sets - mostly from people who ordered the half or full set and then gave up learning to play it because they didn't start simple - but I wasn't able to find mention of it on their site. As these are bellows-powered, I would have no problem considering a well-priced used starter set or more, if it was really well priced - I would just remove the extra stuff until I became somewhat competent. Although I suspected, just from looking at it, I made sure I verified that there is no correspondence between the chanter of the uilleann pipes and the chanter of the highland pipes (which I will be picking up when I go to MA this coming weekend.) Learning one won't help much with the other, except, I suppose, on the basic level of putting your finger over a hole or releasing it and having that change the sound.
As we didn't get much information about the clans, we did try several of the heraldry vendors, only to find the same canned information. They really can't provide anything more specific for the $10-40 they offer products for. I'm starting to recognize the language used, about how they imply much without providing specifics - The Warren Family book we have consists mostly of that sort of thing. It's kind of sad - I kept looking at it (as I have done in the past,) hoping it would reveal some Great Secret but knowing that it was too generic and too vague to do anything. For that, it takes going through census records, marriage records, and so forth. Anyway, because of that it wasn't much of a disappointment - expectations were not very high, and they were met.
Over the course of three hours, we sighted nearly a dozen osprey, almost half a dozen broadwings, a couple red tails and sharpies, and about forty or so turkey vultures.
We headed down to CelticFest, and, after looking everywhere else, finally tracked down the clans. Two were left, and only five or six had even shown up. They put them in an out-of-the-way low traffic spot, away from the music. With less people stopping by, and less of a chance to be in the middle of the festival, you can't really blame them. I'm not sure Clan Riddell would have been represented under the best of circumstances - they don't seem to be as active as some and they only show up on a few of the many clan listings.
I also stopped by The Harp and the Dragon and discussed Uilleann pipes - downright affordable at only $1675 for a full set. And yes, one of the things that I discussed with Ann was that it's best to start with a starter set and then add the drones and regulators. And, if I ever happen to get good at them, I can always get a set from Seth Gallagher (for comparison, the starter set can cost more than $1825... =) Ann had mentioned used sets - mostly from people who ordered the half or full set and then gave up learning to play it because they didn't start simple - but I wasn't able to find mention of it on their site. As these are bellows-powered, I would have no problem considering a well-priced used starter set or more, if it was really well priced - I would just remove the extra stuff until I became somewhat competent. Although I suspected, just from looking at it, I made sure I verified that there is no correspondence between the chanter of the uilleann pipes and the chanter of the highland pipes (which I will be picking up when I go to MA this coming weekend.) Learning one won't help much with the other, except, I suppose, on the basic level of putting your finger over a hole or releasing it and having that change the sound.
As we didn't get much information about the clans, we did try several of the heraldry vendors, only to find the same canned information. They really can't provide anything more specific for the $10-40 they offer products for. I'm starting to recognize the language used, about how they imply much without providing specifics - The Warren Family book we have consists mostly of that sort of thing. It's kind of sad - I kept looking at it (as I have done in the past,) hoping it would reveal some Great Secret but knowing that it was too generic and too vague to do anything. For that, it takes going through census records, marriage records, and so forth. Anyway, because of that it wasn't much of a disappointment - expectations were not very high, and they were met.
