Tattoo night

I forked out the £2 pounds for a ticket and wandered into the town last night to see the tattoo for the first time in years - this century perhaps. I can here it from my garret window, usually accompanied by the gentle, oan often not so gentle, sound of rain. Not last night though as the weather has been very kind and it was a lovely starlit night and just ever so slightly perishing.

It started off with a stunt bicycle team and was followed by the very hairy Saor Patrol, a drum and pipe outfit from a northerly direction.

The Yorkshire Volunteer Military band do that drumstick moustache thing you see from time to time.

Every year a tug of war team is hand picked from the audience to take on the local team - this year it was a very international affair with several Australians, a bloke from Bolton and a lady from New York as the anchor. It never wins. In the years that the competion has been running the local team which comprises of about 100 kids takes the glory.

No tattoo, of course, would be complete without pipe bands.

After this a lack of light was making it pointless taking pictures but there was plenty more. A bit of highland dancing, some Scottish country dancing, the Stewary wind band and all the bands playing together. All this topped off with some fireworks.

For a small refreshment afterwards, I popped into the Kirkcubright Bay Hotel where Life o Reilly, a folk band from somewhere not to local were putting on an evening of entertainment. Pipes in an enclosed space are not good for the ears - fortunately for most of the evening he played the tin whistle or guitar.

Duck racing.

It's duck racing time again in Kirkcudbright and today there a packed card with two races on it.

The big race of the day is the corporate event where the owners of the ducks get to take them away and give them some intense training but most seem to settle for a bit of a paint job or stick a few feathers or lace on the ducks.

You can bet on the corporate race. My pound (literally £1) went on No 2, Suducko.

But first the first race where you can buy a duck for £2.50. Keep you eyes peeled for number 517, that's mine.

They're under starters order...

And they're off....          (sorry about the focus, it was a long way away)

I can't quite make out who's making the early break away here.... come on 517!

The fields broken up a bit heading for the finishing line.... 517!!!!!!

517!!!!!!!!!

Collecting the winner.

Darn nabbit - some duck in the 300s won!

The crowd go wild(ish)

Suducko didn't win his/her race either.

Everything happening at once in Kirkcudbright

After two weeks wondering what to write about, it’s all happened at once, so here’s three blogs all at once. Yesterday was parade day here in Kirkcudbright and today was duck race day (which gets a blog all of it’s own) and vintage car rally day too. Tomorrow is tattoo day and I have my ticket for that bought – it’ll be the first time I’ve been for years so you’ll be hearing about that when it happens. This weekend pretty much marks the end of organised touristy type events and anyone passing through after this weekend will have to keep themselves entertained.

All this coupled with the start of the sculpture symposium (which I intend to bore you all silly with here) and to ice the cake Alec, our next door neighbour and local folky drummer, popped in to announce an impromptu session last night. So was a quick bag up of the guitar and mandolin and pile into Alec’s car with Dad and his fiddle and Mother (who acts as an emergency audience). Just to make it a bit cosier on the way to Ken Bridge (a wee pub in the middle of nowhere which seems to do very well for a wee pub in the middle of nowhere – may also have the best beer in the county) we picked up Martin and his guitar en route. Since I seem to have mentioned most of the company anyway, I should also say that Davey turned up, who has at least one mouth organ for every key you can think of, and Sean and his new banjo, which he’s had for about two years now – which shows how long since I’ve been to sessions regularly. No photos I’m afraid but a few very nice pints and some great tunes – all in all, one of the best little sessions I’ve had for a very long time.

Here’s some parade pictures

The local cornet and cornet's lass

The Stewarty wind band (which incidentally contains two of my nieces, who are not the greatest fans of tartan trousers)

The town pipe band

No parade or event in the area seems to be complete without an appearance from the Twynholm tractor club - at the other end of the motoring scale, Twynholm has also given the world David Coulthard to try and make up for this.

Here's we are a day later (that's today) at the vintage car rally. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a petrol head but if I scoop a big pile on the lottery, I might just be tempted to get one of these.

In the absence of a lottery win, this is more likely.

The local jazz quartet will turn out for any event at the drop of a hat.