The Scottish Festival

On Saturday, there was a Scottish Festival out toward the mountains at a place called Great Meadows in The Plains, Virginia. It advertised itself as being very dog-friendly and it was. Unfortunately, the weather was anything but...It was super-humid and hot. When we left home it was overcast so the heat didn't seem so bad. By the time we reached the event, and the sun broke through, phew, it was steamy.

No Scottish event is complete without bagpipes and kilts!

While primarily a Scottish theme, one of the fences was lines with flags from all over........



Near and dear to us Cardi loving folk....The Welsh flag.

An interesting fellow......

In order to interest John in going, I told him the event was including a British car show. Little did I know, it was a very, very small show!

These were about it for the car show. Ten to fifteen cars, tops!

Next we came upon a booth offering Welsh cookies. There was a whole history behind the cookies as they were the same recipe used for generations. These cookies used to go down in the mines with the men because they kept so well. So here you have a picture of my Welsh Corgis in front of his Welsh Cookies!

Who could pass up this photo-op?

Included in the event was a herding demonstration with a well-trained border collie. It was in a large field and the sheep were pretty far off. We sat in the only sliver of shade we could find, gave the boys some water, and waited. The woman hosting the show talked on and on....in the hot sun....and had lost half her audience by the time she finally got to the demo. As the BC started it's amazingly long and wide outrun to get the sheep, it's movement finally caught Jimmy's eye. I love the intensity in his eye. The wheels in his head turned on and started spinning. I know he must have been thinking: Oh! Thank doG! She did bring us to this stinking hot place for a good reason. Maybe this will be worth it afterall." Of course, it was not to be. I felt rather bad for getting his hopes up.



Wait a minute! Is that what I think it is?!?!

 And here is Wilson, taking in the scene. Knowing him as I do, I can see his wheels turning, too!




Now that's what I'm talking about! Sheep!



Jimmy to Wilson: Hey, dude, tell me you see it too!? I can't believe my eyes! Oh, happy days!



And what Celtic event would be complete without a dragon? Or a burly man in a skirt, for that matter!

 By the time we had walked to the end of a row of vendors and back, we were all over-heated and cranky. It had the potential to be a fun outing for the dogs, but they really do wilt in that kind of weather. Me, too!

But our day wasn't done yet! We hopped back in the car, got the A/C blasting, and headed for part two of our day! And it more than made up for the tease of seeing sheep! We went down to Lake Anna for a BBQ with friends who own a summer home on the lake. The second Wilson was out of the car, he could smell the water! I was dragged downhill to the dock and he was wet up to his eyeballs instantly, all thoughts of sheep-herding erased. One of the neighbors nearby was throwing a big party on their dock so we headed over there.
I so wish I had had my camera along. Several young adults were hurling themselves into the water, cannonball-style, one after the other, splash, splash, splash! Jimmy went ballistic wanting to control the herd of swimming people. He ran out into the water and started swimming for them as fast as he could! They were pretty far out and he just kept going. He was gonna round them up no matter what! After much shouting from me, he eventually turned around, and came back. So we played fetch for quite a while, much to the boys delight. At one point, another totally great photo-op I missed, Wilson dove off the side of the dock after his stick. The dock was at a minimum, two feet above the water! This left Jimmy stranded on the dock, wanting to jump in, but too scared. He frantically paced back and forth a few seconds, figured it out, and ran back off the dock, entered the water from the shore, swam out to Wilson, and stole his stick!

We finally headed for home at about 9PM. The instant the dogs were in the car, they were sound asleep! And they pretty much slept through Monday. I tried to take them for a morning walk, but they would have none of it. They took care of business and made it totally clear they wanted to go home.

Rain is in the forecast for pretty much this whole week. The boys have a long opportunity to relax and recover.