Summertime in the Catskill Mountains

Hello friends!

This past week was spent with family and friends at the annual Catskills Irish Arts week. My dad taught the fiddle Monday through Friday and all of us kids took classes. The day would go something like this: wake up around 8 or 9, eat breakfast, practice music/ play cards/go pogo stick jumping, then run off to morning classes. Come home for a quick lunch, run back to classes, come home and finally have some free time till dinner.

Then there were late night music sessions which happened every night. (basically in the Catskills you don't get a lot of sleep) A session is an old Irish music tradition where everyone brings their instrument to a pub or a house or even the outdoors, and gathers to play tunes together. If you don't know a tune, you listen and hopefully record it to learn for next time. Or just enjoy the music. Anyway, there were loads of sessions every night. I only went to two of them because, well, I'm a bit of a sleepy head and I couldn't stay up later than 12 AM without a lot of difficulty. I forgot to mention that the sessions start at 10 PM and go till 12 AM or later. Besides late night sessions, there were concerts every evening for everyone to listen and enjoy, as well as ceili dances.

On Saturday the big festival happens. It's a day of concerts with different well-known musicians (the same ones who were teaching classes throughout the week), dancers and singers. There are also vendors with Celtic artwork, musical instruments and food. It's always a fun way to finish the week.

How has your summer been so far? 

---