A diary of the projects, hurdles, rewards and family life at we recorded at Wise Acres, our former homestead in Horsefly, BC. (Careers and teenagers have forced us back into the city, at least for a little while.)

Friday, August 7, 2009

Two Festivals and a Wedding

What a glorious summer it has been! We kicked off our summer holidays around here with Arts on the Fly at the beginning of July.
What a blast and in our very own town! The Horsefly school grounds were transformed, with a beautiful outdoor stage, an artisan market, the Inspiration Station for children and over at the Community Hall, a wonderful fibre arts show. I think the highlight of my family's weekend, was a last-minute request to host some artists for the week-end. Linda McRae and her hubby James (Sr.) and Steven Nikleva and James Lillico all bunked down with us Friday and Saturday night. They were good sports, especially since Steven and James had to sleep in my daughters tiny twin beds! They enjoyed the trampoline with my girls and even went with Erich to feed the chickens and move the chicken tractors. Then, they put on an amazing show on Saturday evening!
What an awesome group of musicians, between them they played the stand-up bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin and banjo. What a treat for us! Especially since we are huge Spirit of the West fans, and have seen Linda (one of the original band members) play with them several times.
It was a great week-end but also very tiring...as you can see Mimi passed out in the middle of the show...
**All photos taken by Florian Krumsiek

Check out this youtube video of them performing one of my favourites...


Last week-end we had the pleasure of seeing Linda play again at Arts Wells, another music festival in the North Cariboo town of Wells (close to Barkerville). Another great time, we camped out in Wells for two nights with some friends and family. Arts Wells is a huge festival, with over 70 musical acts of folk, jazz, country, funk, hip hop, electronic, world, pop, roots & more. Click on the poster for more info...
Phew...and in between all of that we squeezed in a fabulous family wedding out at the ranch in beautiful Beaver Valley. Remember those pictures of the hayfield well that was the backdrop for the reception and barn dance that went on til about 4am (apparently...I only stayed standing til just after midnight :) It was a beautiful wedding, with girls arriving in horse-drawn covered wagon...groomsmen on horseback (really something to behold) and seating for the crowd provided by some comfy square bales. It was a really hot day, but the breeze off of the lake felt good, and we were able to cool off with a quick dip after the ceremony.

This week-end looks like another road trip to pick up our little ram lamb...his name is Hvítkárr. More about that later...