Festativities

The day dawned chilly, but dry - all boded well for a fine Five Rivers Fall Festival.

And so it proved to be.  Attendance was good, and everyone looked happy.  We had a nice steady flow of kids through the craft area all afternoon, where we made milk-jug birdfeeders, cardboard tube telescopes and newspaper-and-bottle-cap flowers.  There was less work for me this year than sometimes because I had so many  helpers - including a star volunteer, nine-year-old Exile #3. I'd signed her up for an hour, but she was having so much fun that she ended up staying a total of four, patiently explaining to children younger and much older than herself how to assemble flowers and turn them into fridge magnets.  A great teacher in the making, that one.  Bet she sleeps well tonight.

The same-aged Boy didn't make himself quite so useful, but also had fun all afternoon endlessly running the length and breadth of the festival area with a couple of his friends.  He should sleep well, too.

The Man was very impressed by a "hurricane in a box": a glass cabinet with strategic vents to let in the ambient cold air and a heated tray of water at the bottom, creating a continuous whirl of vapour. A miniature version of the recent "Irene", whose damaging effects are still impacting many people in our region, and which also downed numerous trees at Five Rivers.