25th Annual Texas Scottish Festival

[Morris at Heathfield]

After the group photo I hurried off to the classroom where Torf the Kiltmaker was holding a lecture on the history & wearing of the kilt. It started at noon, so I missed the first part. By the time I arrived he was talking about the invention of the philabeg.



Not wearing his Kilmarnock bonnet, but it's clearly the same guy. Here he's talking about the number of registered tartans exploding in the early 19th century. Despite talking about registered tartans, he didn't seem to be aware of the online databases such as the STA's or the Scottish Register of Tartans.



A brief timeline of the kilt. I thought the knife pleats came a bit earlier, but I don't know when they became widespread. Not a bad general history of the kilt, and he did dismiss a number of pernicious myths, but I had a few quibbles with some of the information he gave, although I don't really remember what they were now. I couldn't help wondering what Matt Newsome would have said if he had been in the peanut gallery. I didn't really say anything, except for informing a few people of the Scottish Register of Tartans website.

[Morris at Heathfield]

After Torf's class was over I went up onto the upper mezzanine to take a look at the vendors and their wares.



I think I've seen this fellow at the Texas Scottish Festival before. I rather like the green shirt/saffron kilt combination.



Scotland Forever. And is that Merlin I spy on the right?



"Follow Me"



I decided to take a picture of the instructions on these hose because they're the same kind as what I wear, and I tossed the instructions when I received them. I've machine-washed and machine-dried my hose though, with no ill effects. In fact, they seem to fit better after several washes.

I was tempted to buy some navy blue hose, but needed to save my money for food.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The southwest corner of the stadium, apart from a Scottish dessert booth, seemed to be reserved for activities having nothing to do with traditional Highland games.



I don't know that you see this sort of thing at Highland games in Scotland, but it does make a bit of sense to have something like this at a summer event in Texas.



I'm not sure exactly what this is all about, except that the idea is to catch as many of the "greenbacks" that are blowing around you as you can. I imagine there are prizes, but I don't know what they were.

Speaking of prizes, later on I was accosted in the same general area and asked to enter a drawing for...well, I don't even recall exactly what the prizes were. I think I heard something about a vacation and a car. On Tuesday I got a call and was told I was a finalist (one of 200), and something about Mavericks tickets. I'm thinking there's probably someone else in the Metroplex who needs Mavericks tickets more than I do.

Also in the same area, there were a couple of folks selling some air conditioning ducts or something. One of them, a girl, asked me if she could take my picture, and I obliged. I recognized the product from the Prairie Fest, where my band had a gig in April, on St. George's Day. I asked the girl about it, and she remembered me. I didn't necessarily remember her, but I remembered there were two girls there, and one of them asked to take a picture of us, the drummers. I also go my picture taken with Flat Stanley at Prairie Fest, but that's another story....

[Morris at Heathfield]

I arrived back at the dance tent in time to see most of the awards. The last award given, for most improved dancer, or something like that, was given to the wee Asian lassie second from right. I was never at the dance tent while she was dancing, though.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The afternoon was wearing on, and I decided it was time for lunch. After considering various options I settled on a haggis plate with neeps and tatties at the Caledonian Kitchen. I also got a cherry limeade from a different vendor. The Caledonian Kitchen had samples of haggis at previous games, which I had tried, but this is the first time I have had haggis as a meal.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The hammer throw.



The caber toss.



Another toss.

I tried to take pictures of medic78 while he was competing, but I didn't get any good pictures. I fear I jinxed him with the camera, so in the future I believe I'll refrain.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The world's oldest clan society. I don't recall seeing a Buchanan booth at previous games, so I stopped by. While I was there a woman and her daughter showed up. The woman had questions about several surnames, and I ended up helping her find the surnames in a Scottish surname dictionary, pointed out the areas where they were found on a map of Scotland, and showed her the Roxburgh Red tartan (associated by Tartan For Me! with one of the surnames) in District Tartans. Sometimes all my obsessing over tartans actually pays off.



I stopped by Clan Donnachaidh's booth to see if I could find anything definite on the supposed connection between the Robbie surname (common in the Lowlands) and the Robertsons. I didn't find anything I didn't already know.



I passed the Stewart booth, but didn't stop by this year. I didn't see kscaddo there at this time, although I saw him later.



At the Campbell booth I made use of their copy of Campbell Tartan to find out what I could on the original Campbell of Breadalbane (Breadalbane Fencibles) tartan. I wrote down a couple of thread counts on a piece of paper. Unfortunately, it was the same piece of paper I wrote the NTCP&D's set list on.



At the Clan Donald booth I tried to see if I could find anything on an ancestor of mine who was apparently born in eastern New York state in the mid-18th century. No luck. I remembered that at previous games Clan Donald had a chart of all their tartans. I asked to see it so I could take another look at the MacRory tartan. Yeah, I know there's always the Tartan Ferret and the Scottish Register of Tartans, but it seems more real when it's on a piece of paper at the Highland games. I'm sure it would seem even more real if it were woven and made into a kilt....

[Morris at Heathfield]

There probably aren't a whole lot of Highland games where you can join the 9th Texas Infantry and relive the 1860s.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Apart from the piping and the dancing, what I was looking forward to the most this year was David Gressett's class on Gaelic. I took a semester of Scottish Gaelic in junior college, so it wasn't totally new to me, but I did learn a few new things. The class was packed and lasted over an hour, but there was only enough time for a brief introduction to Gaelic phonology, a few greetings, and a smattering of grammar.

Among the people who attended the class, a man wearing a Macdonald tartan kilt and a Balmoral bonnet with two feathers and a red hackle decided to grace us with his presence.



At the end of class the teacher had us sing a traditional Gaelic folk song.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The sheaf toss, near the dance tent.