Birthdays!

A cow just ran by me! Close enough to pet but I thought that might not be wise.

I wasn't planning on starting this entry that way but you've just got to go with what happens.

Speaking of which, still no power but it is a lovely sunny day with some snow still on the mountains but not here which, with no heater and limited bulkari skills I'm quite happy about. Let the Chinook blow!

Poor Dawson is in a coma, Hypatia's, Spoons can't function at all, Johnny's at less than twenty per cent, my camera, whose name I can't remember, sorry, is sleeping and my phone has one bar of battery left. Sigh.

n.b. Dawson is my laptop, Hypatia is a kindle, Spoons an external hard drive and Johnny is an ipod. It's not the students dropping like flies just my poor electricals.

Today is the 21^st of February which means it's Eve's birthday in four days, Sarah Diamond's birthday today (Happy Birthday Sarah, eh!), the Takin Festival today and also the fifth King's birthday. I didn't sing happy birthday but there were cultural dances, songs, a march, a skit which I didn't understand a word of but loved, a tug of war match and, of course, speeches. I didn't understand those either and didn't quite enjoy them as much as the skit because they didn't feature students dressed up as takins. I did take photos but sadly Johnny's not a good photographer and I don't know how they'll come out. I'll try and get a photo of me dancing in the final 'farewell' dance where I had no clue what I was doing but joined in anyway. Thank you to the student behind me who said helpful things like 'Turn, madam.'

Believe it or not, this was one of the better photos.  I don't know what this dance signified but it took quite some time.

With the power off, I've also been enjoying the company of some students who are enjoying my bulkari and my ukulele. I just hope they don't break any strings or it'll be a long wait for another. I've also been punishing them by playing and singing some songs for them. (They asked!) Before Dawson slipped into his coma, I copied down some songs so they've heard 'The Skye Boat Song,' 'Loch Lomond,' that one about wild mountain heather and part of 'Flower of Scotland.' Why all Scottish songs? Because A) they're relatively easy and I'm not very good and B) they were all together on Dawson and were easy to copy down one after the other. I almost got 'South Australia' but the battery had other thoughts. I will try and learn more chords so I don't just have to play the same songs. Not that there's anything wrong with them. I was also watching a lot of 'Hamish Macbeth' before the power went so that and being freezing was probably making me nostalgic.

Strange question, can anyone tell me if you're allowed to have crows as pets? There are tons round here and while their song is not that pretty I love them. They aren't as cheeky as magpies but they seem quite sweet. You know, in a noisy, little, black velociraptory kind of way.

Hugs to All!