October!

I know I know, you might be thinking..."But Annie, its almost December!" Well, whatever! Its time to show you October!  So here's the basic outline of what we did in October.
(Disclaimer: I'm not using European spellings on purpose! Spell check/auto correct is doing it! )

Mom sent me a care package!

The first weekend we went back down to Edinburgh to assist our friend Leonie with an event she conceived of and organized herself: The Mega Yurt Event! She is hoping that maybe next year it can be an official Fringe Festival venue! The huge yurt came from her friends at Red Kite Yurts and we spent most of Friday afternoon putting it up. The event was held at the school where Leonie teaches which is a Steiner School (known in the states as Waldorf Schools). It was an all day event with food, all kinds of kids shows in the afternoon and musical acts in the evening, with 3 yurts all together! Leonie's dad, Malcolm Le Maistre, was kind of a big deal back in the day. He has a kid's band with a singing vegetable cart that played during the afternoon and a folk band that played later in the evening. Ben and I helped put up the yurts, paint the signs, man the door and tend the bar ("one for you, one for me"). It was a great success and they even made a profit which was more than they expected and makes repeating the event much more of a reality!! We also did a little more sight seeing and went to St Giles' Cathedral , the Greyfriers Kirkyard and the National Museum of Scotland.
 
Then, mid month we launched a little radio station from right here in Lumsden! Its only online for 2 hours each night, but is available for anybody in the region to come use. I'm not sure what the content currently is but if you would like to hear Ben and I interviewed and hear Ben play some banjo CLICK HERE TO HEAR! 

On the launch day we opened up SSW to the public for a full day of free activities including my pinch pot workshops, aluminium casting, radio broadcasting/DJing, films in the caravan, and lots of sweets and junk food! Then there was a kids disco and THEN an adult disco! Yes, the locals may have gotten super drunk and gotten into a group fight about some kind of boy-girl drama.....but they made up and went back to karaoke-ing. Honestly, I don't think they would have considered it a full Night Out if they didn't have a proper row! The kids dancing were super cute! It was really nice to have people from Lumsden and the neighbouring villages, not just other art people and existing friends of SSW.
I mean after all....we DID have a smoke machine!

Kids dancing is the best!

 The next big event: Halloween! We had a pretty full schedule! On Friday we went to a small music/story telling gathering hosted by a lot of the same folks from the Open Session at the Tin hut. We didn't really realize we were expected to contribute...but we we showed up and discovered that our group comprised half the circle...we started pulling things to share out of thin air. We went around the circle 3 times and SSW was able to represent on the 2nd and 3rd go-round with "spooky" stories, jokes or songs. AND (...after about 3 drams of whisky....-its cheaper than beer!!-) I sang a song! In PUBLIC! Whoa. Ben was mighty surprised as he has never heard me sing in earnest before! And he said it was pretty good! I know he's biased...but whateves. By the end he said he was like "Yeah! That's my WIFE singing!" Anyway, when the event was put up on our radio station...sommmmebody cut out the middle part and my bit. But once he sends it to me, I'll put it up and you can all judge for yourselves. I sang The Wind and Rain in the style of Gillian Welsh cause it's a murder ballad! Ben said a little bit of Georgia came out in my song. :)
Then on Saturday we first went to the Huntly Castle (reminder: Huntly in the largest village near us, about 15 mins away) for a Ghost dancing performance, we were then led to the town square by the Youth Pipe Band!

As you will see form the pics, I was dressed as Jesse from Toy Story (because we already had a red hat in the bothy and the whole costume evolved around it and cost me all of £5.!) Though in the absence of Woody, I voted myself Sheriff! Though I did find a Woody at the dance (ha-ha-giggle-giggle), I told him he could Just be my deputy. He was just supposed to be a cowboy, plus he got his get up in Canada! Anyway, its funnier for the sheriff to be a full head and shoulder shorter than the deputy!

I left the square during the costume contest because I thought it was just for kids, but later, the guy running  it said there had been one for adults and, had I been there, I would have won! Damn it! As we were parading from the castle to the square, I was kind of dance-walking to the pipe music in a way that I though Jesse would, and caught the eyes of at least two young kids who were totally star struck!! So cute. Next came the Ceilidh ("Kaylee") dance which is much like contra dancing.  At the end, I shook the hand of yet another little boy on his way out who's mom said in my ear "Jesse is his favourite and he thinks you're really her!" It was BYOB...so we got a taxi home...BUT not before going to the pub for two more rounds while waiting for said taxi! THEN we had an after party in the bothy (pics on facebook....not very flattering!). By the way, AMERICA, you need to start stocking THIS. And it's even better with whisky in. Needless to say...we all spent most of the next day in bed!!
To see all the October pics GO HERE.........

So there you have October! BAM! Minus our trip to Isle of Skye which we'll be coming very soon!
Update of right now: I have just finished all my wet work and everything is now either drying or in the kiln! Everything will be finished by this time next week and I'll begin installation of my wall piece for the opening of SSW's Winter Exhibition Thursday. After I'm gone, the pieces will hope make the rounds at few galleries! Emily is eager to show that SSW can do ceramics (that is, once the kiln's fixed!) and I'm glad to be the spokesperson! So as of next Thursday my resume enters a new level of coolness: "Internationally Exhibited Artist"! Woot!
And to close: A picture for Chris Golden!