Celtic Spring Band ::

Celtic Spring members are home from all their summer travels and have resumed their "back to work" mode, which means a return to long days of homeschooling and daily music and dance practices. Our family had a wonderful, rejuvenating summer, and once we got past the "back to school blues", we are actually enjoying the arrival of fall.

In between our performances in Tulsa (where we met up with our dear friends and "super fans," from OKC, Holly and Molly,) and Long Beach, and our week at fiddle camp, our dear Aunt Annie and Uncle Joe had their first baby, Dominic. The baby was due the week before fiddle camp and we are so glad he picked that one week to be born because that was the one week we had nothing else in our lives going on. We had no performances, summer tennis and swimming lessons had ended, there were no violin lessons, and we could actually be available to help the new parents with their precious new baby. Our whole family has fallen in love with Dominic and we are so happy that Anne and Joe have moved to Ojai so we can see them often.

We very reluctantly said good bye to Anne, Joe, and Dominic and headed up to the Redwood forests behind Santa Cruz to attend the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle Camp. This was our sixth year attending Valley of the Moon and the 20th Anniversary of the camp. A week at Valley of the Moon is a foretaste of heaven (very much like Tolkien's Rivendell,); 230 fiddlers of all ages gather for a week in a beautiful, old, majestic Redwood forest to learn Celtic tunes from some of the best fiddlers in the world. We meet up with old friends who we see year after year, (and make new friends!), and we all stay in cabins in the forest. Good food is provided in the dining hall, cars, telephones, computers are left behind (or parked for the week,) all our basic needs are met, and somehow, even sleep seems unnecessary. (My little children complained if I tried to get them to bed by midnight, and my four older children found 3:00 in the morning a good bedtime, not sleeping at all the final night.) The days are spent playing music and just playing: music sessions, dances, feasts, hikes and games in the forest with friends, an incredible celebration of life. Playing beautiful Celtic music in beautiful nature brings tremendous joy to all there. The week culminates with sharing the joy and the new tunes with a large audience in a Santa Cruz theater. Valley of the Moon is directed by the wonderful Scottish fiddler, Alasdair Fraser, and we are grateful for this annual week of joy and inspiration. Thank you Alasdair!!! God willing, we will all meet again next year!!!