The Original Marching Bands

Part of the ritual of the Highland games is the massing of the bands.

At moment's like these, it is not difficult to understand why the bagpipes were considered weapons of war.



The piper in the blue and green kilt below is Tyrone. He is the Pipe Major for the Elliot Bay Pipe Band and he played at our wedding. It was at our wedding that my husband decided to start playing the bagpipes and two weeks later he was well on his way in that endeavor. Tyrone was one of his teachers.









Once the bands march in field, they announce the winners of the days competitions and retire the colors



then the bands turn around and march their way back off the field









It's a deafening, goosebumpy kind of experience.
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PNW Highland Games 2008

This weekend Mr. H, The Outlaw Baker (my little brother, Timmy), and I attended the PNW Highland Games. Mr. H was not competing this year so our presence at the games was entirely for the purpose of listening to some loud music









eating a lot of food (no haggis this year, we couldn't handle the 40 minute wait)



and then engaging in the most cherished of Scottish traditions






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Tartans and Pipers and Swords Oh My...

This weeked was the Pacific Northwast Highland Games at the fairgrounds in Enumclaw, Washington. We try to get up there every year, and each time we go we have a blast and get sunburned. This year we were especially careful about using sunblock, staying in the shade and my husband even bought me a hat, but we're just not used to 95+ degrees and we both managed to get crispy again this year. No worries though, we had so much fun, it was definitely worth it.

Lament of the Piper's Wife

Shortly after our wedding, my husband decided he wanted to learn how to play the bagpipes. He had a set of pipes he had once bought on a whim at a swap meet and then allowed to collect dust for years.

These pipes were old, made in Pakistan - which by most everybody's account means they are of poor quality. But all that didn't matter to Mr. H, he wasn't about to let anyone tell him his pipes were crap, he was going to learn to play them no matter what.

Teacher? We don't need no stinking teacher. This is Mr. Do-It-Yourself we're talking about here.

So he set about learning to play the pipes. He spent quite a bit of time online, researching bagpipes, discussing them in bagpipe forums exploring how-to manuals, and practicing. He spent endless hours on the practice chanter (thank heavens for the practice chanter, much less noisy than the pipes), and after several months of trying to go it alone, he met another bagpipe player in one of his classes at school.

Owen is a 19 year old from Alaska who has been playing the bagpipes for years. He offered to teach Aaron for $10 a lesson. You just can't beat that. From that point, Mr. H's improvement has been phenomenal.

Well until about a month ago. You see, all this time he has been using these pipes that really are garbage. His bag is full of holes. He spends most of his time online researching seasoning and other options for plugging the holes in his sieve of a bag. The bag is so leaky the seasoning leaks out, so he has a garbage bag and duct tape wrapped around it to keep from staining his clothes. His handle online is ghettopipes. It's a pretty good name for him.

The pipes have gotten so bad that at this point they no longer hold air at all, they are unplayable. At some point we're going to have to break down and get him a really good set, but at this point even a replacement bag is out of our price range.

I never thought I would say this, but the one thing I want more than anything right now is to be able to buy my husband a new set of pipes.