Saturday Photo Blog - Men in Kilts

It's Saturday, I'm running late, and Renaissance Festival opens today and will be going on for the next seven weekends. The State Fair starts next week, I have to get the lawn mowed on the house close to the Fairgrounds tonight because it will be raining on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday is too late to get it done. My thoughts are already pulled to the end of summer and my fall/winter schedule.

Twig the Fairy and two of her friends.

Because of all this, plus the fact that this weekend's Renaissance Festival theme is "Highland Fling" so lots of men in kilts, I'm doing a photo blog today of lovely men in kilts. Let's face it - I want some eye candy today, and I'm willing to share :-)

There's just something about men in kilts...

I love the T-shirts. It would be hard to resist the
"No Peeking" admonition if they were up on ladders.
Just sayin'...

Kilts are appropriate for any age, and you can dress them up or
dress them down. Just look at these three. All beautiful, whether it's
the vest and tie or the t-shirt. 

This kilt is strategically draped, and the man wearing
it is pretty nice too - LOL. 

Every man looks great posed in a kilt. And with this photo, I'll
leave you to your daydreams and your weekend plans. 

Have a wonderful Saturday and Sunday and I'll be back on Monday.

What a Perfect Sunday

It's been a difficult few weeks for us and we've been stressed to the max. When Renaissance Festival started we were unsure about how often we would be able to attend because of our commitments regarding DH's father's death. But we actually have managed to get over there several times and yesterday was another visit. Because it was just the two of us, we could go where we wanted, wander as we pleased, and relax.

Who can resist this kilt? It's a nice way to start out this grouping of men in kilts.

It was also Highland Festival, so we spent most of our day in the Special Events field watching the Scottish Games - caber toss (love it!), various hammer throws and stone throws and the sheep toss (no - they don't use a real sheep for this). We had a wonderful time, the weather was perfect - overcast with a few small sprinkles of rain and temperate all day - and we had a relaxing day. We really needed it. Getting home, DH watched his football team lose - badly (my football team had won decisively earlier in the week) and we called it an early night. Happy!

True Scotsmen look marvelous wearing their kilts. This is
an old B/W of Compton Mackenzie (click on the link if you want to
know more about him).

As they get ready to flip those kilts allow your imaginations to take over - LOL.

Only a Scotsman can wear a kilt comfortably in any setting,
and few look as good in his formal wear as Mr Connery does.

So, since it was Highland Fest, I've shared pictures of men in kilts. Now for a few pictures of the beauties of Scotland to share because the land is more than just men wearing kilts...at least I think so.

This is Dunvegan Castle. It's quite lovely, isn't it? I want to see in person!

Here are the Fairy Pools on the Island of Skye. Aren't those waterfalls
just too amazing? 

I am totally in love with this valley - so stunning!  For fans of the Nightrunner
series - I can just imagine Alec and Serigil's cabin just behind the photographer here. 

And finally, because they are so wonderful - here's a Scottish Thistle to send you into your day.

Scottish thistle - so beautiful and so prickly.

My DH and I have Scottish (and Irish) ancestry through his mother and her tartan is beautiful. We want to order yardage and wear our tartan proudly and I contacted the mill many years ago for samples. We know which variety we want - maybe someday we'll indulge and wear our family tartan to days like yesterday's Highland Festival.  Have a fantastic Monday.

Looking Forward to a Great Sunday

I was already looking forward to my Sunday at the Renaissance Festival - it is Highland Weekend, so I'll have lots of Men in Kilts to look at (pause for happy sigh), I'll be watching the Caber Toss, and I'll happily sit in the Special Events field for hours just watching the games. Guiness, kilts and the caber toss - it just doesn't get much better than that. But....it DID!

I just LOVE watching the caber toss...

Because...late yesterday afternoon I heard a familiar voice from the front room and there was my "sister", "nephew" and his girlfriend. My sister lives in San Antonio, Texas, my nephew and his girlfriend live in Washington state and I haven't seen him for several years. What a delight. And...it turns out that they were planning to go to the Renaissance Festival on Sunday. So, I'll not only have men in kilts, I'll have my wonderful extended family-by-choice to spend some of the day with. Squeeeeee!

Of course, I am behind in my writing again/still/etc., but I'm giving myself this week to get my "vacation" out of my system and then I'm settling down to some serious work. I'm determined. I have people who are counting on me and I can't let them down. Letting myself down happens periodically, but I refuse to do that to other people. So...keep the faith, Lai. I'm getting to you on Monday night!

Weekend Musings

So, today is Saturday, and most of the working world begins their two day weekend off from work today. So...it would be really nice if we were busy at the shop today. Especially because it is supposed to be rainy during the day so people won't be able to mow their lawns or plant their gardens.

But as you can imply from the paragraph above, I have to work today. In fact, in retail, Saturdays are busy and very important days to the bottom line. So we give up one of our weekend days for the sake of commerce. Unfortunately that means that we miss out on some things that we would much rather do because they are single day events on Saturdays. Today that something that we're missing is Highland Fest.

Highland Fest used to be a two-day event located within one of the college campuses in Saint Paul (as I recall, it used to take place at Macalester College, a highly appropriate venue). But they were losing money, so a few years ago they pulled the festival outside of the city and dropped it down to a single day - Saturday. Since that time I haven't been able to attend. I miss my men in kilts and caber toss competition. The only time I get to catch up with these are at Renaissance Festival in August-September. So I'll continue to dream about men in kilts, and I hope those who do attend Highland Fest have a wonderful time. But if they feel like a break from tartans and meat pies, come on by the shop and buy some beads - LOL.