Oh Relief, I'm off to LEAF!

Apologies for the Seussian post titles I've come up with lately, I'm so creative. More apologies for bad alliteration and heavy use of italics. I love the italic feature.

Scott & Emerson left for LEAF festival (Lake Eden Arts Festival) in Black Mountain, NC on Monday, May 7. I haven't seen my husband in three days, will be four when we get there. I'm aware that's not a vast expanse of time, but Scott and I are not good apart. We like being together. We're a real happily married couple, we're not faking. Now that's established, let's move on.
Scott has been teaching music workshops to kids ages K-6 all week and will perform at LEAF tomorrow night. Emerson, the boy in the hat, has hung out at the festival sight in the mornings and helped as needed while Scott taught. Last night Em spent the night with a new friend.

Spencer, who has promised to finish mowing the lawn before we leave (with a push mower--we're still old school at the Perry farm), will discreetly and overtly take notes on my driving habits on our way to join Scott and Emerson tomorrow before the performance. We'll then have LEAF festival weekend together, not to mention Mother's Day spent with my three guys.

Our client will spend the weekend with respite back-up worker and blogger extraordinaire, Colleen Redman, to whom we'll owe a debt of gratitude and greenbacks. Thank you, Colleen.

Golden 5th CD for Scott

Are you familiar with the term 'golden' birthday? I had never heard this term until we moved to Minnesota when I was in high school. It only happens during your first 28 to 31 years--this should give you a clue--as you celebrate the birthday age of your actual birth date. I was born on the 25th, so my golden birthday was when I turned 25.

My husband released his golden 5th CD on May 5 with a party at the Floyd Country Store. Just like you've heard stories that the best and most solid marriages often experience a slight 'snafu' during the wedding ceremony (ours did--Scott's mom lit our unity candle then quickly blew it out and my mom walked between us on her way back from lighting her candle--captured on video 18 years ago), CD release parties work the same way.

After a lengthy sound check and getting the mics to match the corresponding number on the sound board, guess what? No sound--right when Scott was ready to kick off the evening to the awaiting public. It was a full house--not quite like on Jamboree night, but close. Tom Ohmsen (owner of Flat 5 Studios in Salem) was present and saved the day. Thank you, Tom. He's used to multi-channel sound boards and fancy systems, he tweaked this and that, and took the levels to the max. He made it work so Scott and his crew of musicians could 'get by' and the evening began.

After a couple of frayed nerves (mine more than Scott's), it was a raging success. You missed a special evening if I didn't see you in attendance. Many people think they've heard Scott's repertoire a time or three before. You haven't heard what he played last night. He played new solo material off his new CD 8 Miles to Perryville as well as playing with two new groups that he now fronts. The first, Front Porch Swing (I love the word play, every time I say the name it makes me happy), features Bill Adams (dobro) and Bob Thomas (upright bass). They play country swing and old time rag, including songs like "Dream a Little Dream of Me." It turns out that my husband, the blues guy, can croon. The second group, New Dominion Ramblers, features Tom Ohmsen (mandolin) and Dylan Locke (upright bass) and they play an assortment of jazz and other good stuff. Scott is truly enjoying stretching himself and learning new material.

I may not be 100% accurate with the band genre, but I know what I like and my listening ears, dancing feet, swayin' hips and the rest of me had a heckuva time Saturday night.

Thank you to all the people who came out to support Scott. Thanks also to Amy Adams for videotaping the performances.

[Pictures were taken but haven't yet been uploaded. Soon!]

Oh Swell, Time for Morels!

A couple days ago, Emerson and I took a stroll down to the pond to check out spring peepers and see how many newts he could collect, a very boy thing to do. On our way, a morel mushroom caught my eye.

We had just entered the woods, there were two mushrooms a few feet from the walking & driving path. Walking over to the mushroom to examine it closer, I stepped on another morel by accident. I told Emerson,"Don't move!" We looked around to see that we were in the middle of a mushroom patch.

Later, after we had confirmed with a mycology site and local mushroom expert, Karl Holliday (who was a tad miffed that he was second choice to the internet), that the morels were indeed morels, we picked and dried them. Ours look just like the morels in the photo above. Included the funny photo below after I found it searching through Creative Commons images.