Regular Tuesday with Irene does Bluegrass Camp

Today started our week of Bluegrass Camp. Some loyal followers of this blog might be thinking, "Falcom...bluegrass camp? He never seemed the type." You see, it started in March, after Marina watched her cousin Evan play the violin and she decided she wanted to start playing the violin. I decided I did not want to commit to buying her an instrument and paying $25 a half hour for Suzuki lessons when she can be so wishy washy. And still so little! Instead of denying her something that might be part of her life legacy ("but my mother would never let me do it!"), I decided to sign her up for a week of camp where she could learn the fiddle from the most talented bluegrass musicians I've seen in Alaska.

This troop is talented and they are young and cute. In fact, they are so talented we listened to their album all last summer. They are so talented I needed Falcom to also spend some time getting music lessons from them. I like bluegrass. I don't know if I love bluegrass like a fanatic, but I like bluegrass. For me, I think that this bluegrass camp is similar to making your kids take Hula while you live in Hawaii. If IZ was here teaching the Uke guess who would be taking Uke lessons? That is right, we would.

So, off we went this morning to Bluegrass Camp and guess what? Everyone loved it and they even checked out the instruments to bring home and they did a little jam for Mema. Very Cool.

While the kids were getting schooled in Alaskana I went over for a little 'Regular Tuesday with Irene' action where I began schooling Maya in the art of coffee clatch.

Doesn't she look like a natural?

Sharon was there without her kids (can you imagine how we are turning a page in our mothering years) and between her and Irene it was a lively conversation.
It was so great to hang with my gals again. They were hilarious.Next week we might try doing it at MY HOUSE. Yikee! Pressure is on.
That evening Marina ran in from the Chicken Coop screaming. "Porcupine!" She was quite sure that it would attack her. I assured her otherwise and forced her to come back out so that we could check it out. Sure enough the poor creature was way more afraid of us than we should be of it. The poor clumsy thing was trying to get away from us and then it gracefully ran up a tree. We never knew that porcupines could run up a tree. It ran up the tree more gracefully than it could walk across the ground. I have a feeling that this little guy is now a hundred miles from this house after the ambush he received.