Loch Tay meet up

[Graham_S]

Perhaps take them all...

I'm going to need a bigger rucksack

 

[match]

Just a quick weather heads-up - Friday and most of Saturday are looking alright, but Saturday night/Sunday morning there's a lot of rain and wind forecast:

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/dundee

So bring extra waterproofs, and tie your tarps well

 

[Treeclipper]

If I'm fit enough to drive, I'll come up with my family on Sunday for a look see, where will things be happening over at the Crannog or on the camp site?

Tree

edit, wish I'd had this op sooner, then I could have came for at least 2 days

 

[Gailainne]

Match

The forecast I checked, netweather is forecasting rain from friday straight thu till the tuesday, some very heavy rain saturday.

Gear should get a good test

Stephen

 

[Graham_S]

it's only one night of heavy rain, I'm still looking forward to the weekend.

 

[Gailainne]

Agreed Graham, but forewarned is forearmed..or something .

Everyone at the office thinks I'm mad, even more so when they found out what the weather was gonna be like, I've been walking a round with a smile on my face all day.

Packing in a bit, do you want me to bring my stones btw ?

Stephen

 

[Graham_S]

if you have the room, chuck them in.
don't think I'll need them but you never know.

 

[Chainsaw]

everyone has a forecast, I always pick the best one! BBC and Yahoo say;

Fri Sat Sun Mon
Foggy Light Rain Light Rain Light Rain
10 9 6 7
7 3 3 3

Friday Saturday Sunday Monday
cloudy light rain light showers light showers
max 9 max 11 max 6 max 8
min 9 min -2 min 0 min -1

As me old gran nicholl used to say, the "sun always shines on the righteous"

ohoh better take an extra tarp then

Cheers,

Alan

s0rry that didn't format quite right

 

[shona]

Mary, looks like I can make it after all, but not til Saturday afternoon.

Here's a pic of the kids at the last Crannog event, kitted out in period gear courtesy of Toddy - and loving it !

 

[Doc]

So how was it, folks?

 

[Grooveski]

It was great! Way too many people with the luxury of monday off for my liking, dragging myself away last night wasn't easy.

Patrick had a snazzy parachute living area with raised firebowl, an excellent setup that had more than a few folk rethinking their idea of being comfortable in the woods. It provided a social centre and gave a dry space for demonstrations on saturday evening when things got wet.
I overindulged on the demon Jura on friday night and missed most the next morning. Silly but entertaining at the time.

On saturday there were repairs at the crannog going on, debarking the log, fleshing skins and an assortment of other activities. Later Fionna gave lessons on basketry and showed some of her incredible work, most of which were based on period reconstructions and each container had a story.

Sunday morning saw Nick giving us a presentation on log boat construction and the archeological finds throughout Scotland then after a barter table frenzy a lot of us headed back over to the crannog where we chucked some arrows, busted up some rock, Eric had his leatherwork area and Match was quickly drafted into the crannog team in the firelighting area. For a while we had the privilage of sitting round the fire in the crannog soaking in the environment and catching up with what we had been up to since we last met up.

As always there was more than one person could catch so others will no doubt expand on what was going on. I don't have a camera at the moment or I'd have gone snap-happy but others did so pics should be forthcoming when they get back.

To finish the weekend I had the nearest of near-misses coming home. I had no idea my wee car could change lanes so quickly and now have a new appreciation of power steering.

 

[gregorach]

Yep, a grand time was had by all, I believe.

Some strange and unexpected events for me: getting asked to provide an "expert" opinion on some 2,800 year-old toolmarks by a real archaeologist eek, and explaining the principles of pressure flaking to an American visitor to the Crannog centre having only just had them explained to me (Thanks Josh!) an hour before. I dunno why people keep assuming I have some sort of expertise... Surely I can't look that competent?

I suppose being served spelt bread, soup and spit-roast lamb by a respected underwater archaeologist dressed in completely authentic Iron Age garb should've been weird, but somehow it seemed perfectly natural...

The only disappointments of the weekend were the weather (too windy for canoeing on Saturday) and missing Fionna's basketry workshop. Ach well, there's always next time...

I'll see what sort of photos I've got in a bit.

 

[gregorach]

OK, here's a few not-very-good photos...

JohnC, PatrickM and one of the boys under the parachute:


Barrie (one of the underwater archaeological team) serving up food at the Crannog centre. Note the clay ovens and spit-roast lamb (and Dr Nick Dixon of The Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology lurking in the background ):


The logs for making boats out of (each 12-15 metres long and a good 1.5m in diameter).As you can see, not a great deal of progress made in one wet Saturday:


Grooveski demonstrating some knapping:


I did take a few more, but none of them came out very well...

 

[Chainsaw]

I've got a fair few photos, no idea how they turned out but I'll edit them and fire them up onto flickr for all and post the edited highlights here when I get a mo'

I had a great time! It was good to put faces to names and I hadn't seen the crannog centre before so that was pretty good too. Flint knapping was amazing, I stood there for ages. My first time at a meet but I'll definitely go to another, no question. I seemed to miss a few things as well but probably because I'm a bit backward at coming forward.

Cheers,

Alan

 

[PatrickM]

A few photographs from the weekend

Stuart and myself with din-dins

Stuart and Vince skinning the Roe

Well done lads, were there piranhas in the Loch

Russ, Stephen, Scott and Stuart on the beam

 

[stuart f]

And there had better not be any jokes about the Marigolds in that last photo cos i know where you all live

Oh i did a little bit of foraging driving down from the meet,imagine my suprise when i found not one but two full bin liners of fleece siting in the of the road at about ten miles apart from each other,me thinks somebody needs to work on their vehicle packing craft :11doh:

I had a great time. Thanks must be said to Patrick for the Roe and the knowledge pass on,Barrie for letting us use the site,and to Mary for getting the whole thing organized,cheers guys.

Its was great to catch up with people i hav'nt seen for a wee while and to new faces,cheers for the crack around the fire most enjoyable indeed.

I won't mention about the rain we had last two nights,lets just say it was wet,and thats an understatement.

 

[Chainsaw]

Hi All,

Fired a whack of photos up here.

Some random shots

A personal lowlight

Duly stomped on, dowsed in alcohol, incinerated, then buried at sea (well, flushed!)

Cheers,

Alan

 

[JohnC]

Back earlier today, and had a great time..lovely site, would be even nicer without the rain,

as we gathered round Patrick's firebowl/parachute..

with the deer seen in earlier posts hanging above

Or sitting in a pot...

And Graham_S settling down to some serious work....

While others wrestled with the logs outside.

The next day was at the crannog... I borrowed Grooveski's canoe and Scott & I paddled to the crannog

We were lucky enough to have a fire going inside this place, which transformed it....

Many thanks to Mary fro organising it, and Barrie for letting us stay there... and everyone who was there, a tremendous few days..

 

[Robby]

And Graham_S settling down to some serious work....

I didn't notice he was ambidexterous the last time I met him at the Crannog.

 

[Nagual]

Looks like a good time was had by all.............



So whens then next one? lol