Berry beefy men in skirts

The Tartan Warriors discussing strategy, no doubt!

Yesterday we went to the Berry Celtic Festival and it was a real treat.  There was everything you could possibly want. There were different bands marching and playing bagpipes, and Scottish dancing, and stands for the different clans where you could buy clan paraphernalia or get to know fellow clan men.

They frequently have highland games here in New South Wales since many of the original arrivals to this country came from either Scotland or Ireland or other places with Celtic origin. These particular highland games consisted of caber tossing. and lifting and running with big, very heavy rocks, and another variation of throwing a heavy "thingy" backwards over your head, very high, over a bar, like a pole-vault bar. I think it was called "weight for height".

I can now confirm that they do wear underwear under the kilt.

There were several different bands playing and some had dancers as well.

I almost managed to join a band.

The whole family dressed up and ready for the festival.
Mom and Dad didn't want to be in the photo though.

It was also nice to walk around a visit all the different stands. There was also fiddle playing and very mournful singing.

I also enjoyed the weaving and  the one-hundred-year-old knitting machine for socks. My thoughts obviously went to my sister-in-law who loves all that crafty stuff.

Just as we had walked out we could hear over the loud speakers that there were 20 frozen haggis up for grabs. We almost walked in again but stopped ourselves. Both of us remembered when we lived in Scotland and had our first haggis. Certain things are just better enjoyed in the country where people know how to cook them (and even then it is iffy) and in that certain ambiance in which you have it.

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Another example of this is frogs legs. I liked it  when we lived in France but wouldn't go out of my way to cook up frog's legs here in Australia.

Leaving you with some photos from the dinosaur museum in Canberra. I went there last week with our son to renew his passport. No take that back, we went to the embassy for the passport and to the museum for fun photos. The passport formalities were over so quickly that we had time for some sight seeing and wine tasting and lunch in an Irish pub as well.

"A man never knows how to say goodbye; a woman never knows when to say it." -Helen Rowland

I am beginning to think it is true, since this blog entry is becoming very long, sorry about that. Here it is- goodbye!