scottish games

Two weeks ago, we attended the annual Scottish games in Woodland.  It's one of our favorite events of the year!  We first checked it out last year and spent the entire day there.  This year was no different! 

The first thing that caught Nathan's eye were some old cars...no surprise there!

This Triumph has a snazzy rear seat in place of the trunk, and those passengers even get their own windshield.

This car was beautifully restored, and I liked the little mirrors on the front fenders, even though I doubt they'd be of much use that far from the driver.

The MG was nice, but not as nice as classy as the Triumph.

Kristin, however, was more intrigued by the interesting animals, like the highland cattle. 

At noon, a parade of clans passed by.  They were led by some great pipe bands...

...then came the peasants...

...then the royalty! 

Mary Queen of Scots even made an appearance!

This is what we ate for lunch...tri-tip sandwich smothered in relish and barbecue sauce.

Here we are smiling...

And here's Kristin eating...

The fairgrounds were divided up into distinct sections.  There were craft and merchandise booths, a large field where the pipe bands performed, another field for the highland games, a large area set aside for clan booths, and then the royal camp. 

The royals have some great furniture, some of which folded up...

What they ate, though, left something to be desired.

The royal camp had some great displays, including swords.

They also had a WWI camp set up.  They did a weapon demonstration where they fired off some blanks and shot a tennis ball out of a grenade launcher.

Kristin enjoyed listening to a band called the Wicked Tinkers.  They play tribal celtic music - it's the kind you want to dance to!

We settled down for a while to watch the games.  We saw the championship caber toss and one of the weight throwing competitions. They're all so similar we can't remember which is which.  We also saw a little bit of the stone throwing and hammer throwing.

Funny booth...(no, they aren't a real clan).

We bought shortbread from McLaren's.  It was soooooooo good!  They also had teas, jams, curd, and scones.

Walking around the clan booths was fun.  This is Kristin's favorite family crest.

Kristin also found out that her mom's family would have belonged to the MacTavish or Campbell clan.  These are their crests.  You'll notice that either way, the emblem is a pig.  But what isn't as obvious is that both crests roughly translate to "Never forget."

handlebars and ladybugs

This was the look Nathan was sporting a few weeks ago.

He looked a little crazy...

Thank goodness he shaved it off!

And I finally figured out the solution to my aphid problem...

They did the trick!

coloma picnic

For a spontaneous April date, Nathan decided to take Kristin for a picnic in Coloma.  It was somewhat short notice, so we threw together a lunch.  Kristin came up with a really good turkey wrap using hummus and a red pepper chutney.  During our picnic, we discussed spirituality and how we could improve our spiritual unity and intimacy.  Then we set out on a walk to see the old gold rush town.

The American River, where gold was first discovered.  This discovery kicked off the gold rush of 1849.

This is a slightly odd-looking monument marking the location of the original mill.  Slightly up the river from this is the spot where they found gold.  That spot was marked, but it didn't make for very good pictures.  It's turned into a large, overgrown mud hole that is ripe for mosquitoes, so we'll just say this picture is sufficient.

Nathan's standing on the spot where the mill originally stood.

There was a quail playing in the mill.

The mill was a pretty simple design.  They would use a winch to pull logs up this ramp onto a sled, and the water wheel drove a cam shaft driving the saw blade up and down.  Then the boards would be slid off another ramp.

When we finished walking around, we read a chapter from Sacred Marriage and then drove to Placerville to look around.  We enjoy going to the Thomas Kinkade gallery there to see the new pictures, as well as the old, every now and again.  They had just released some really good paintings.  One was the Lion King from the Disney collection, one was a sailing ship out at sea, one was of Jesus walking through a garden with someone, and the last new painting was one that Kristin liked of a cross up on a mountain overlooking a wide river valley.  Nathan spent most of his time there looking for hidden things in the paintings (namely hidden "N"s and hidden hearts).

easter weekend

We had to start Easter with the dying of eggs, and that means hours of pondering the optimal designs followed by a couple hours of trying to pull off those designs.  This year, Nathan got ambitious, and while the eggs didn't turn out quite right, he gained valuable experience for next year.  (Kristin here: actually, his eggs were awesome...and yes, he did work for several hours.)

Here Nathan is cutting a design out of masking tape rings on his main egg.  While time consuming, this method has potential for small areas so long as the tape does not bunch up anywhere.  The places where the tape bunches will allow dye through.  Also, cutting requires carefully cutting with the knife tip as the long edge requires enough pressure to crack the shell.

In the spirit of Easter, Nathan hid the few eggs we had around the apartment for Kristin to find.

 The M&M egg found a nice ride with some friends.

One of the green eggs thought it might blend in nestled into the camo Snuggie, but something about the shades of green just weren't working for it.

The puzzle egg got devious and hid amongst some puzzle pieces.

The yellow egg didn't really fit in anywhere.  It tried hiding under a wedding bell, but that just meant Kristin had an audible hint since he's no silent ninja.

The second green egg hid in a candle stick.  It wasn't a great hiding spot, but it was high enough to be decent.

The final egg hid out under the coffee table with a movie the Easter Bunny left for Kristin.

While the colors came out much more dulled than intended, the general design came out alright.  For one thing, when dying yellow over darker colors, the yellow should be mixed a little light on the vinegar.

Through a mishap with the dye, some of my yellow areas came out as light blue, but you can still see the crisscross pattern.  Next year should be better.

The puzzle egg ended up with a nice blue to green fade, but the ink outlining the pieces smeared, even an hour after the pieces were drawn.  And, as mentioned above, the dye ran through where the tape bunched up.

Changing the subject...Kristin decided that it would be only appropriate to pick her first carrot for Easter dinner. 

It was a tad small...

...but it looked great on the salad! 

And speaking of food, here's what we ate.

Kristin made some of the most amazing cinnamon rolls!  Seriously...they were amazing.

For dinner, we ate some squash casserole...

...Nathan's famous deviled eggs...

...a delicious blueberry, bacon, blue cheese, and caramelized pecan salad...

...homemade rolls...

...and of course, Easter ham.

 

The recipes for just about all of that will be going up on Kristin's blog soon.  It made some enjoyable leftovers!