We had such a blast at Winfield!
The weather was amazing, coolish cloudy days for the most part, but on Sunday we got the promised rain -- one minute during breakfast, just a few drops, nothing measurable.
It was the usual good times, listening to music at Stage 2 and 3 mostly; cooking in camp with our Manhattan camp mates (who live a block away and we almost never see except for Winfield!) and walking all over after dark, making new friends and gawking at the inventive/crazy campsites. This year we discovered The Couch, which provided a nice interlude between the West Campground and the rocky hill up to Pecan Grove, it gave us a relaxing vantage of Stage 2, awfully refreshing. We met old friends and new at the couch and rested our dogs as well.
I went down early in the week, on Tuesday, and snagged our group a spot in the north camping area, way down east - farthest from the stages - where it's quiet at night and there is grass and space between camps. Families (who value sleeping at night) seek out this area; it's a lovely part of the county fairgrounds, but shhh...don't you go telling anyone. I spent a relaxing day by myself on Weds, exploring Salina by bike, reading and knitting - a sweet little vacation before the music began. Our camp began to fill up the next night, Weds, and it was great having friends arrive.
Old friends and new joined us to share a meal or jam at our camp. I wish we had more musicians, but David and Al provided us some nice tunes as did our neighbors from Colorado,a group called Fireweed. The younger members of our group, George and Nissa, well they were armed with swords and roaming the camp. When not eating bacon they were whacking off the windows of our trailer and generally terrorizing the camp - day and night. Hope they learn to play their ukes over the winter.
A highlight - Peter's group, Sunflower Colonels, played on Stage 5! Like WOW! I was proud to witness this --- from the very front row. None other than the Wilders opened for them! It was awesome. Check out the pics of our weekend -
http://picasaweb.google.com/salsamama1950/Winfield2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-F_O_X0bTs3QE&feat=directlink
Back in M, washing clothes, packing up the camping gear, things are a mess around here. Friday it's down to Salina for the Prairie Festival. It will be great to see Sally, who works down there AND Evan is coming from Vermont for the PF again this year. I pick him up in KC tomorrow. We'll have lunch with Peter. It'll be great fun.
Been canning raspberry jam tonight - glad to hear the jars pinging. Hope they all seal. What to do with all the rest of the habaneros - I can only put one or two in each batch of jam, and there are scads of them to deal with. Ideas?
Later gators - hope to hear from you all one of these days.
