Sleightholm Folk Art

    This weekend we jaunted off to the Oklahoma Scottish Festival, on a morning that was so perfectly Scottish, it was practically plaid. It had been rainy for a couple of days before and so things were damp and green, and the sky was cloudy and there was a bit of a chill. Combine that with the sound of bagpipes ringing through the air and kilts everywhere you turned, well, I could have sworn we’d left Oklahoma and headed to Scotland!

   Audrey enjoyed a pony ride and watching the highland dancers who performed in one of the tents. I could tell she really liked watching the girls– and boys– dancing. I think dance is her passion in life, and it’s fun watching her get excited about it.

    I had stopped to pawn over some tea cups and mugs (I did get one! It has a beautiful thistle pattern on it!) when this group of musicians formed right in the walk way and gave a performance. I loved getting a closer look at all their accessories— who knew knives in the sock was so stylish! And was impressed to see a girl rockin’ the bag pipes!

   We saw a lot of cute dogs at the festival too– lots of Shelties, even a Corgi, but the star of the games was obviously the Irish Wolfhound. I haven’t seen a lot of these dogs in person before— they are huge– but look at the photo above and try to count how many you can find!

   One woman was nice enough to let Audrey and I come up and pet her dog and tell us a little about him. The dog stood face-to-face with Audrey while on all fours. I’ve read they can stand 7 feet tall on their hind legs, and I believe it! They are beautiful and were so calm and gentle. The one we visited with gave Audrey a sniff or two and then laid down at her feet.

  Of course it’s not the Scottish Festival— or Scottish Games as they are also called– without, well the games. There was a lot of tough stuff going on in the center of things, this was a contest of throwing a large rock! We also saw them bringing in the large logs of wood that the men toss. Just watching all this made my back hurt 😉

   It was a fun morning to get out as a family though, and the weather was perfect. It made me a little jealous that we don’t seem to have a drop of Scottish blood in us (We kept the fact that “Sleightholm” is northern English under wraps, lol) because there was a ton of great information on Scottish family names, clans, tartans and plaids. If you’re of Scottish descent, I highly recommend you attend a Scottish Games! 

   Have a good weekend,
~H