Winfield 2011
Thursday and Friday we were at the 40th Walnut Valley Music Festival, aka "Winfield." Woody's been a few times; I went once before; this is, of course, Max's first trip. Being the 40th year of the festival, there were a great many old favorite performers, so lots of names we recognized. We were only there for two of the four days (the campground celebrations started a week earlier), but it was fun, and Thursday, in particular, was uncrowded. You can see the performers and grounds here.

	The first thing we did was Linda Tilton's Ukulele workshop. Usually, Winfield workshops are more showing than teaching, but this was a solid, hands-on basic class.
	As you can see, we were bundled up: the temperature didn't get much above 60 for two days, and the drizzle and wind kept it chilly. It was a good year to be selling official sweatshirts....
	John McCutcheon is one of the most reliable and popular performers at Winfield, and a great guy. In addition to his own solo work, he invited Notorious up for a few songs, and joined in Bryan Bowers sets at least twice.
	In addition to the main stages, Winfield has a very lively campground jam tradition, with some groups returning year after year, with themes and logos. "Froggy Mountain" is the camp which some of Woody's Kansas City friends maintain, including Mike, who's one of the Kansas City Ukesters.
	More jamming! (Note the official limited edition Froggy Mountain frog cap! Most of the camp groups aren't that organized, but we did see some which involved great effort and focus).
	I wasn't trying to be anonymous, but Max and I were messing around and his hat ended up hanging from my cap. Naturally, he got a shot.

  ¶ Saturday, September 17, 2011 0 comments

  Little Balkans Days and Gutters

	Our traditional Little Balkans Days observances starts with the train ride. We got some extra tickets along with the family pack, so brought one of Max's friends.
	The next stop after the train is usually the petting zoo, yes. Max is getting a bit big for the pony rides, but the camel holds him just fine. Then we wander through the Car Show.
	This year we checked out the folk-life show, though the music didn't hold Max's interest all that well at times, he found ways to amuse himself.

That was last weekend. This weekend was more a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that, including a little it-might-rain-again-someday home repair (and it rained last night, thank you very much!) which did have the unfortunate effect of disturbing the amphibian below. Max was my spotter, and photographer, while I fixed the back, and helped clean out (and sweep up after) the front gutter/mulch pile.


This is a test of an animated gif. If it's working you should see flashing train lights:
  ¶ Sunday, September 11, 2011 0 comments