Hi gang.

Mudlark and I looked a bit at her father's music notebooks, and played around with his dulcimer, and her kids played cooperative fiddle with me (I fret, they bow). We went boldly by night to the tarantula's lair, but all we found was a not-scary toad. Next day she took me to the Cowgirl Museum then left me to do my St. Patrick's busking, where I met a rodeo clown.

I'm taking the scenic road from Fort Worth to Dallas, the one that goes through North Carolina. Yesterday I went to Birmingham, which has almost no pedestrian traffic downtown. Busked anyway, and several people in cars waved me over to give me a tip. Drive-through busking, the wave of the future.

This morning I arrived at Dani's place. I had lunch at her lovely restaurant and played for a bit in front of it. Then we went to her friend's house for an Equinox party, with several concurrent sessions going on. I'm really impressed by the number of traddy musicians - especially fiddlers - in the local circles. One of Dani's daughters is studying the recorder and we spent some time playing duets and rounds. Now the dog is trying to prevent me from typing by pushing on my elbow. That's another benefit to visiting Mudcatters that I forgot to mention in my last post: most of them have pets that I can play with. That's something missing from my regular life in Toronto, never mind the road.

Love, Marion (Hillsborough, North Carolina)

Oh yes.. and it seems that Willie-O has taken over my best busking spot in my absence. Curse his evil genius! But I take some consolation in the fact that, while he's freezing his fingers in Perth, I'm enjoying my 22nd straight day of warm sunny weather...