25th Annual Texas Scottish Festival

[Morris at Heathfield]

There probably aren't a whole lot of Highland games where you can join the 9th Texas Infantry and relive the 1860s.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Apart from the piping and the dancing, what I was looking forward to the most this year was David Gressett's class on Gaelic. I took a semester of Scottish Gaelic in junior college, so it wasn't totally new to me, but I did learn a few new things. The class was packed and lasted over an hour, but there was only enough time for a brief introduction to Gaelic phonology, a few greetings, and a smattering of grammar.

Among the people who attended the class, a man wearing a Macdonald tartan kilt and a Balmoral bonnet with two feathers and a red hackle decided to grace us with his presence.



At the end of class the teacher had us sing a traditional Gaelic folk song.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The sheaf toss, near the dance tent.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The Houston Highlanders practicing for the competition. I love the Caledonia tartan, so I was rooting for them to win. This is why I can never be a judge.



The Houston Highlanders performing their set in the Heritage Dance Tent.



The North Texas Caledonian Pipes & Drums performing their set.



The Bayou City Pipes and Drums decided to make a grand entrance onto the stage.



Performing their set on the stage.



And performing yet another set while exiting the stage.



They come to a halt, and the performance is over.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The judges are busy tallying the points. Will the Houston Highlanders' tartan affect Bob Richardson's decision?



Now they're conferring to determine the winner. At least, I assume that's what they're doing.



Congratulating each other after the awards are given. The results were:

3rd: Houston Highlanders
2nd: North Texas Caledonian Pipes & Drums
1st: Bayou City Pipes and Drums

The Houston Highlanders came in second place for drumming, however. If I overheard correctly, they also got high marks for their uniforms.

I asked one of the Houston Highlanders what tunes they performed. (Because the Caledonians performed one of the same tunes in their set, I mistakenly assumed they all performed the exact same set.) I wrote them down on a piece of paper—the same piece of paper I noted down the Breadalbane Fencibles tartan thread count on.

[Morris at Heathfield]

After the Gaelic class I noticed this woman lining up for whisky tasting. In particular I noticed the lovely tartan she was wearing. Later on I saw her standing in line near a brewery booth. Finally, when I saw her just walking along, I had to ask her if I could take her picture. I told her I had ancestors from Angus, but I didn't think to ask her why she was wearing the Angus tartan. (Although "because it's pretty" would suffice for me.)

[Morris at Heathfield]

Having splurged on lunch, dinner was a bit more stressful. There was an ATM on the grounds. I tried to withdraw $10, but was only allowed to withdraw in multiples of $20. Unfortunately, things were a bit tight, and $20 plus the service charge for using the ATM would have put me under. I gave up and spent the rest of my cash on what I could afford: a Scottish meat pie. I didn't have enough money left over for a lemonade, so I just dropped most of my remaining cash into the tip jar for the wee lassie minding the store.



I sat by a family at a crowded table. They were amused when they saw me take a picture of my dinner. I told them I like to take pictures of food that I haven't eaten before, which is true, but not strictly relevant in this case, as I have had the same dinner on a previous occasion.



And this is what it looks like inside. Mostly just ground beef, but also oatmeal.

[Spartan Tartan]

Now THIS is a picture thread!!! Absolutely wonderful. I feel like I was there. Thank you for taking the time to post and explain all those pictures. I really enjoyed reading this.