Festival of the Four Rivers

This weekend Becky and I went to a bluegrass festival in Hinton, WV; the festival is called the Festival of the Rivers because several rivers converge near Hinton. It was 50 minute drive for us, and it took us deep into the hills of West Virginia. Luckily the weather was nice. It was a beautiful drive, but, like most country roads here, it can be twisty and can make you car sick if you’re not careful. Hinton, we learned, is a small town surrounded by tall mountains on every side. It’s set right on a river bank too. It seems isolated and peaceful, though a little bit rundown too. The mountains here aren’t exactly like the mountains out West; they’re not as high for one thing, but they are too steep to climb; and here you never see the actual ground because there are too many trees growing. So you get these lush green walls rising up all around. It is a very pretty area.
The festival was set up next to the city swimming pool. The first thing I thought when I got there was “coming here was a mistake.” There were a few small bleachers and two or three small food venders set up and about 10 people listening to the performer. The performer had lots of heart, but it sounded like the kind of performance you hear at an audition for a school talent show (just the audition, because the singer doesn’t get into the actual show). He was very religious, and for awhile Becky and I felt like we were at a revival. One of his songs was a knock-off of the rock-n-roll song where the chorus is “Give me the beat boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in the rock-n-roll and drift away.” This man sang: “Give me my Jesus and free my soul, I wanna get lost in the Holy Ghost and drift away.” I had to chuckle a little bit when I heard those lyrics.
We decided to stay for the next band, and I’m glad we did. The next band was actually quite good. They were a bit more blues than bluegrass, but they had a fun sound. I’ve uploaded 2 videos of them for you. They don’t come through very well on our camera, but they were actually pretty fun to listen too. The second band is named Margo and the Bluegills. By the time we left many more people had arrived, so it was starting to shape up into a pretty good festival. We looked at the program and saw some bands that had traveled quite a distance to play at the festival. The moral from this trip is: Don’t arrive too early; or perhaps: Don’t judge too quickly.
It was fun to get out and do something out of the ordinary on Labor Day. We don’t have any special love of bluegrass music, but it was nice to just change up our routine a little and see something new. Now we are just hunkering down and waiting for Sophie to come; I’m sure that she will shake up our routine enough to satisfy even the strongest urge.

This is a picture of the cutest girl at the festival! (I'm talking about the girl in blue looking at the camera by the way)

This is the first singer and a friend of his.

This is the second band, Margo and the Blugills. You'll notice the old couple off to the left dancing to the music.

My Project

Last year I started a project here in my home with the hopes to one day sale my homemade items to folks here locally or maybe on line. My idea was to make a blanket that had a road on it, so the child could use it both as a toy and blanket for sleeping. I began this blanket before I found my current job, but shortly there after I started working as a receptionist part time in a dental office, so my blanket was put on hold. After things settled down I started working on my blanket again. I had it nearly finished by the time Stewart and I went home to Idaho for the summer, I decided to take it with us so I could get Stewart’s Grandma (who is an amazing quilter) show me some of her neat quilting tips, and tricks of the trade. By the time we left Idaho my blanket was finished! I am very happy with how it turned out, yes I can see my simple errors I made while in the learning process, but with every mistake I made a note of what I will do differently when I make the next one. I just recently sold this blanket to my office manager at work who will give it to her grand kids; she was so excited to have it from the moment I showed her. I decided to post some pictures of the blanket, to show you just what I am talking about. It was lots of fun to mentally take an image and see it go from the pattern stage all the way to the completed stage. The best part is it turned out just the way I pictured it! Many thanks to all who offered there opinions, and advice... I could not have done it without you!

The pattern Stage

The Finished Project

More Finished Project

Close up of some of the buildings or houses

Finished Project with the Backside