Great night last night at our place! As well as me and John, Sandra, Bob Bolton and Al and Barbara - the 6 mudcatters, there were a few others including Ricarda and Nick from Wayward, who came along armed with bagpipes and hurdy gurdy and were in full swing around midnight with "Horses Bransle" - we obviously have very easy-going neighbours! They probably decided long ago that we are all peculiar and just turn over in bed and let us get on with it :-)

There was some great song-swapping between Al and Barbara, and John. He sang them some of his songs and they sang a few shanties we didn't know - all good ones with choruses. In fact the singing was so good we had to tear ourselves away to get on with the food part of the evening! The weather was perfect too - a fine, only slightly cool evening. The tarp only flapped gently in the breeze from time to time - no heaving and hauling necessary.

Now for the National. The workshop I'm involved in with the Dengates is called "Folklore of Pioneers and Politics of Queensland" and according to the program grid on the website, is on Saturday at 11am in the Palladium. However, we had been sent a letter a couple of days before that, which said we were on Saturday at 2pm at the Village Stage, straight after Colleen Burke's workshop. In the program grid, there doesn't appear to be anything on there at that time, so we don't really know which information is more up to date. I must say the Palladium seems a little big for our workshop - I've always thought of it as a large concert venue. At least it looks like being Saturday, no matter which one you believe. I'll see if I can find out in the next couple of days.

I'll be camping with Black Joak Morris who will have a big tarp somewhere in the region of Building K and the Mallee. My tent and freda's are going down tomorrow and will mark a space for us when we get there on Thursday.

I'm getting all excited now, but I can't really focus on it until after tomorrow night. We still have the wonderful El Greko / Cloudstreet concert tomorrow to look forward to first! However I am starting to sort through the camping gear, which hasn't been used in months.

Jenny