Dancin' Round the Maypole

 

Black Joak Morris was a wandering troupe at the Cobargo Folk Festival. There were not too many like them! We got tickets to the Festival when we knew we were settling here (back in Dec, I think). We thought it would be a great way to meet village folk. It was way too big for that. Generally there were about 5 performance venues going simultaneously (besides the wandering troupe) along with the Renaissance festival type food and knickknack booths. 

The bands ranged from relatively local to ones from Canada and Spain. The event was much much bigger than we anticipated. It started with a busking competition at the Cobargo Motel/Hotel/Pub/ Laundry/RV park on Thursday night. This overflowed into the street and had a bus to drive folks to and from local areas. We were off doing more rural fire service training so saw it but avoided it. [We went drafting instead-practice pulling water from a dam to reload trucks.] 

We did hear some amazing singers and instrumentalists. We also saw/heard some not so great ones. I really enjoyed "The Other Noonans", a blind couple who wrote and sang songs that might butt up against the estabilishment a bit. I liked "Denial". I haven't yet found that recording but you can subscribe to their Youtube channel and listen to others. Careful if listening around kids - you might be explaining more than you want to. 

This guy  (below) was more showman than singer - he had to retune his guitar between every song because he kept batting it and slinging it around: 

The Spanish group  (El Pony Pisador) had a goal of getting everyone up and dancing- they played well and did a credible job of making that happen

The crowd did tend to dance, regardless - note the group at the front while Felicity and Josh were performing:

Lots of long beards and bare feet. It was muddy and shoes just sank. We have gone from very dry to standing water in many places. Much safer for fire risk but made the festival grounds a bit harder to negotiate. 

It has also made the ground too soggy for our resident black snake - he hangs out by the creek and is usually not visible but now we have frequent sitings!

Scott has also decided to enter the fungi photo competition - he currently has lots to choose from. 

Casey came into town last Thursday and is staying until midMarch. She went to the festival with us and has now seen some highlights of Cobargo - the used book store, the coop, the post office and the tip (dump). Planning to take her down the road to Bermagui today. While there are yet unexplored bits of Cobargo, she also wants to trek over to Canberra before she leaves. She took a bit to get here. Besides the long cross-Pacific flight, she got delayed from Sydney to Merimbula. The airport experience is a bit different here. I parked in overflow - across the highway in the muddy lot. Then the first flight didn't have her on it; I panicked until I realized it was from Melbourne, not Sydney. They don't usually get two flights at once in Merimbula so her flight unloaded into the garden area outside the terminal. After we found her luggage (next to the cafe and no bag scanners to be seen), I retrieved the truck as it seemed unwise to try and navigate the highway and mud with luggage and a tired daughter. 

We have set up three "open houses" to meet our neighbors. The neighbors likely think we are antisocial since we officially moved here in early December but then were not seen again until February. We had two young people (future house sitters) the first night, none the second but lots of RSVPs for this Sunday. 

Another neighbor just stopped by for a visit - they are redoing the solar on his home and his dogs needed to be elsewhere so they walked over here. The dogs have now approved the house and have started on the yards. The sheep are huddled together in the top paddock as far away as possible! More about them next time!

Random bird pic- an Australian Hobby ("little falcon" carefully watching the park parking lot