Well. You may have noticed that I was not included in any of mom and my Auntie B’s adventures.
I don’t know how they could have left me out!
I would like to point out that I am a big girl now and I think I should be included in everything my people do! Don’t you agree with me?
Don’t you like the way my fur is starting to flow in the wind?
After all, I will turn 9 months old next week, and that’s pretty old if you ask me. Don’t ask my folks, they still treat me like a baby.
Well, OK, sometimes I DO still get a little bit scared.
Anyway, once mom and Auntie B returned home, with plenty of great smells on them I might add, I insisted on going with them everywhere, and a couple of days that everywhere included a local park next to our town’s small cemetery where my aunt could practice her bagpipes for an upcoming competition she will be in.
This is my Auntie putting in her ear protection. I noted I didn’t get any ear protection.
She said she hadn’t played in way too long and she needed to practice somewhere. I guess you can’t play the bagpipes just any ole place.
Wait a minute, mom! What’s she doing?
At first I wasn’t sure about the bagpipe sound, but mom urged me to come with her for a walk and we left my aunt to play in the park while we explored the cemetery next door.
I found out there were lots of whirly-gigs and flags flapping over there and I wasn’t too sure about all that at first.
Hmmmm….this stuff moves!
Then I found this little dog and I tried to talk to him, but he was more the silent type.
Hey buddy! Wanna play?
And then I saw this little boy and tried to play with him, but he wouldn’t move and suddenly that scared me so I went and hid behind my mom’s legs.
Maybe YOU will play with me?
That’s ok, right mom? Whenever I get scared I can hide behind you, right?
I’ll just rest a moment back here, OK mom?
Anyway, I practiced sitting pretty a lot, and getting my picture taken. My sister, angel Katie, says that’s just part of the game plan when you live with our mom.
OK, mom, I’ll sit here. But I’m not going to look happy about it.Unless you have cheese?
I’m getting pretty good at it too, though Katie says I need to be more insistent on getting my share of treats for the work I do modeling.
Sometimes mom gets kinda close, but I’m not afraid of the camera any more.
I’m getting prettier and prettier by the day now, so I don’t mind showing off.
Mom says it’s all about the light, but I know it’s really all about me!
Meanwhile my Aunt played on.
She played way on the other side of the park. It sounded cool!
And the resident cranes listened too.
Mom wouldn’t let me go say hi to them.
We all had a very good time, both days we wet to this park, and I guess I’ll call this a mini adventure, but I’m telling you, I’m up for something truly epic.
This was not really adventurous, mom. Try to do better, OK?
Time is marching on, faster and faster, and if I don’t write this post now I will begin to forget all the fun stuff we did on our four night camping trip in Ontario Canada, on the shores of beautiful Lake Huron.
The beach in downtown Kincardine. It reminded me of the beach on a Caribbean island.
We were able to stay two nights at Point Farms Provincial Park, but they were booked for the weekend, so we planned on packing up Friday morning and moving to our next reserved campsite at MacGregor Provincial Park about an hour north, beyond the town of Kincardine, where the bagpipe parade would happen on Saturday evening.
The beach at Point Farms, early in the morning.
Very early Friday morning the sound of the lake roaring woke us. We hadn’t heard the lake from our site during any part of our two day stay, but Friday morning it was obvious something was going on.
Both of us popped out of our tents and said, “Is that the lake??” Then we scurried down the long set of stairs to the beach to see what there was to see.
Good morning!
The sun was just getting high enough in the sky to start illuminating the water and there were pretty little puffy clouds turning pink along the horizon.
Pretty big piece of driftwood.
We spent a long time wandering the beach and taking pictures. Good thing we had until 3 to vacate our site!
Early morning light on gull wings.
Eventually we went back up to the campsite and began to pack.
Didn’t count the steps, best not to know how many.
Normally it takes about an hour to get everything stowed in the car. It takes longer than that if everything is kind of wet, which it was.
Time to move on.
But we only had to go about an hour north, so no worries. Plus there were lots and lots of pretty barns between where we were and where we were going to be.
On the way out of Point Farms.
I guess I’ll show you those in a separate post, there were so many!
Well, OK, here’s one of the pretty barns we saw that day.
Finally we arrived at Kincardine, but we were too early to check into MacGregor Provincial Park and our site. So we explored the town’s beach, watching beautiful sailboats and clouds move at the horizon…
A steady wind caused both the boat and the clouds to move right along.
…and a very large boat come into the marina….
The boat’s name was 2nd Seabatical, and it was from Houston.
….and of course we saw the town’s lighthouse.
The photogenic lighthouse next to the marina.
Kincardine is another pretty town, and we enjoyed walking on the beach…
This post’s artsy-fartsy image.
…and eating a quick lunch sitting on a bench along the boardwalk watching people and their dogs.
We talked to this doggy grandma about her dogs and the town of Kincardine.
Eventually we made our way to McGregor Provincial Park.
This is a giant bat house near the ranger office. They said no bats lived in it, they chose to live somewhere else. Silly bats.
This park had sites tucked in among the trees and brush, so there was quite a bit of privacy, though noise from other sites certainly carried over to us.
Setting up at our very nice site, which was surrounded by poison ivy.
We explored the park; the beach that didn’t allow dogs…
It was nice to sit in the sand.
….and the beach allowing dogs. The dog beach was definitely the better choice.
That’s sunset point out there.
And then we walked out to the end of sunset point, to consider whether that might be a prime stargazing location. It seemed promising.
Friday afternoon out on Sunset Point. There would be no stars that night.
But we were really there to see the bagpipe parade, the parade that had sparked this entire trip. So… did we find the parade? Well of course we did! Even better, as we walked into the park where the bagpipers were congregating, we met Quinton, a beautiful little sheltie boy and his owner.
Quinton showing off his tricks and getting a treat, of course.
We had a great conversation with Quinton’s dad, learning some of the history of Kincardine, what the winters were like (not as snowy as they used to be), why the parade route was altered (Queen street was being dug up to replace ancient pipes underneath), our mutual love of shelties (he had 2 before Quinton, one died of kidney failure at age 7), and where to stand to get the best view of the parade.
A very good boy.
Then we went to listen to the bagpipes warm up, talked to one of the pipers and headed over to the parade route, smiling in anticipation.
Warming up.
The sun was setting over Lake Huron as the pipers began to march and play.
Waiting for the start of the parade.
It was pretty magical, though odd, as they marched down the street for a block, then did a complicated turn and marched back up the block again, then turned and marched part of the way down again.
Making the turn around.
I hope when Queen Street is opened again they might be able to march further in one direction. I imagine they hope so too.
They do this every Saturday evening all summer!
After the ‘parade’ the musicians moved to the center of the park, formed a big circle and played for the several hundred members of the appreciative audience that had settled on chairs and picnic tables.
It felt like the whole town turned out.
Kids played in the grass, neighbors caught up on their personal news, extended families gathered, people nodded and tapped their toes to the music. It was a beautiful evening of community togetherness.
Even the lighthouse showed up to give high fives!
My sister and I were both smiling as we made our way back down to the beach where we had parked. Mission accomplished, we’d seen the bagpipe parade, the event that spurred this entire trip.
One of many beautiful buildings on our walk back to the car.
But….would there finally be stars on this, Saturday night, our last night in Canada?
I’ve been lucky, not just because we have a new little puppy chewing our feet, but because my sister has been here for the past couple of weeks, and because we got to experience 3 different concerts over the weekend.
On Friday night my community band performed our concert, “Spring Potpourri,” directed by a guest conductor and featuring several of our members as soloists on assorted pieces.
We’ve grown a lot over the years, both in numbers and musicality, and it was fun to play together, under the lights on a stage with a pretty decent sized crowd applauding our efforts.
I’ve said it before, and it’s still true, as adults there are few opportunities to receive applause. No one claps when we make supper or do the laundry or go off to work or mow the lawn.
Most people have never had the thrill of accepting applause for anything.
Applause is one of the many rewards for playing in a community band. Friendships are another. And the joy of playing music is the best reward of all.
Saturday evening my sister, husband and I went down to hear the Ann Arbor Symphony play Debussy, Prokofiev and Dvorak. This concert was played at the historic Michigan Theater, built in 1927.
It’s a beautiful building and we had fun, prior to the concert, taking pictures of the ornate architecture. I liked the Dvorak piece, Symphony No. 7 in D minor, but my favorite was Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, with the beautiful flute in the beginning and woven throughout.
The principal flutist talked prior to the concert about what a responsibility she had playing this piece, the work is so famous and the expectations are so high. Of course she played it absolutely beautifully. My sister plays flute, so it was special to listen to this work on Saturday night.
Then on Sunday afternoon she and I drove about 45 miles to Imlay City to listen to the Belle Valley Community Band play their spring concert, which was filled with Irish and Scottish music, and featured the Alma College Pipe Band.
You don’t get to hear a pipe band every day, and since my sister also plays bagpipes this was a very special concert as well. The community band was so fun to listen to and when you add in bagpipes, well, it was spectacular!
I was thinking as I looked at the crowd almost filling the gym bleachers and seated in rows of folding chairs down on the gym floor, that it was pretty cool to see a community come out in such numbers to support their local musicians.
And I wished that every community band or orchestra, every community theater group, every group of artists putting together a show would have such support. It’s a win/win for the artists and their communities. Everyone leaves smiling, no matter the venue, no matter what type of art.
Please go google the words community band, or community orchestra or community theater in your town. Odds are you have one near by. They’ll have a website and you can probably find their spring concert or their spring production, or their spring art installation.
Mark your calendar and then show up. You’d be amazed at the talent all around you.
And they’ll be thrilled to have more people there, enjoying their work and applauding.
Change Is Hard 