Reasons to be Cheerful Back to School! #R2BC

Thanks to the wonderful Jo at Ojo's World for hosting in August and taking good care of everything. The hosting is back to me for September so its time to share my reasons to be cheerful:

1) Mintfest

This weekend was the Mintfest Street Theatre festival in Kendal. We enjoyed lots of fun over the Saturday and Sunday. There were oh so many reasons to smile:

2) Back to uni!

Twenty years after completing my MA I officially went back to university this week. It's both exciting and nerve-racking to be starting teacher training at my age but on a campus like Lancaster and at a lovely village school there are plenty of reasons to be happy:

3) Being lucky

I won a Facebook/Twitter draw this week from our local shopping centre. So now I possess a deluxe art set and I've been enjoying spending my voucher at Rymans on stuff for uni! Just goes to prove that these competitions are genuine.

Keeping this short and sweet as I am shattered after starting my course... Please join us and share your happiness and grab the badge if you would like it:

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#Mintfest2014 Sunday

After the fun of Saturday at Mintfest we headed back into town for a second batch of street theatre on the Sunday. First up we came across a flock of flying pigs at the Birdcage:

Then down at Abbott Hall park a young couple were dancing off on an adventure:

Saturday at #Mintfest 2014

It was just an ordinary Saturday lunch time in Kendal.... but on the streets strange things were going on:

As we walked down the road they got even stranger:

#CountryKids Mintfest 2013 - part 2 Sunday

Time to post about what we saw at the Sunday part of Mintfest having already blogged about the Saturday. It wasn't such a warm and sunny day and we were later setting off having had a car boot sale in the morning. However we still had an amazing day. First up we encountered a group of ladies sitting on sofas and armchairs knitting outside the library and my daughter just had to join in:

The group are trying to Knit the River Kent and were encouraging people to join in. My daughter would have stayed all day:

All good publicity for the new Kendal Wool Gathering in October and great to see all sorts of people having a go at knitting:

On wandering down the street we encountered A Fettle of Kitsch who did not approve of my children's day glo jackets!

It was a relief to come across these porta loos being cleaned by the brilliant Theater Pikante cleaning ladies from Germany:

We got marginally closer to the dance routine from Motionhouse, looked amazing so wish I'd seen it close up:

My son and I encountered the quite creep Busy Lizzy who freaked my boy out!

After this we saw a strange procession heading in a haphazard way to Elephant Yard so we just had to follow:

It turned out they were the Whalley Range All Stars mining for popcorn in an empty shop:

And they gave away free popcorn at the end! Then despite the weather a group of scantily clad Visitors strutting along Highgate:

Outside the town hall we were entertained by Ramshacklicious with their comedy music act: 

Down to Abbott Hall park for a quirky what is Contemporary dance routine by Emmie Coxey:

Then we saw our favourite act from Saturday Le Navet Bete:

After a quick play in the park we headed back to the Brewery for the evenings music. We just caught the end of Africa Entsha an a cappella group from Soweto:

The whole place was buzzing and it was hard to find a place to sit but luckily the steps made a good vantage point:

My son got a prime dancing spot for Delhi2Dublin from Canada who played a great mix of music from all over the world:

We missed the last track as we had to walk up to the castle to get into position for the firework finale. It was an amazing view across the town from the top:

There were plenty of pigs all ready to fly as part of the firework display:

It was all pretty spectacular when things finally got going:

The main display was from within the walls themselves and was very impressive indeed:

It was also very loud with the echo bouncing off the hills behind us!

Altogether a great way to end Mintfest:

Just a shame it took nearly an hour to walk home afterwards! Roll on Mintfest 2014.

#CountryKids at Mintfest 2013 - Part 1 Saturday

One of the fabulous things about living in Kendal is having such an array of festivals. This weekend was Mintfest which is fabulous for the whole family. We scooted and walked to the edge of the town centre and the children got themselves into the front row for the first act of the day:  

Because I forgot to plan ahead I had no idea what was going to happen but it turned out to be a very fun combination of art and dance specially designed for younger children from Commotion Dance:

The children were spell bound for the full performance! It was a bit surreal for grown ups but still enjoyable in the sunshine. Then we wandered down the street and came across Let's Circus:

We then noticed the next fixed spot act was about to start so we grabbed the provided seating mats for the Cabaret of Harry Stork:

He turned out to be a bonkers French man who did things like get the young girl above to try and catch invisible eggs falling from the sky! Further down the street we found a robot writing poetry in the street in sand:

Then a bunch of scouts and guides trying to find their way to the South of France:

Then we glimpsed some strange looking Austrian ladies ahead who partook in leek dancing:

On our return up the street we watched some intriguing contemporary dancers called Candoco in wrestling masks:

To show the festival is very inclusive we then saw a performance by Prism Arts with performers with varying learning disabilities. My son loved the light sabre battle at the end:

Next up we caught the end of a quick version of Wind in the Willows by Fried Gold Theatre:

We also just saw the tail end of an amazing looking acrobatic performance by Molly Orange:

This meant we were in prime position to see Gacko with his mix of music and story telling:

Of course my daughter managed to get picked to take part as sleeping Sunday:

When we reached our starting point we were just in time to see Le Navet Bete with their comedy act. I was balanced precariously leaning on a lamppost and my son was clinging to the library railings to get a view:

Some how big sister had managed to get in to the front row and was enjoying being close to the action when the performers took one of their frequent forays into the audience:

This meant she was in prime position to be picked as an assistant and possible catcher of this man in a unitard as he attempted to ride a unicycle:

Of course when his colleague accidentally knocked him flying with a ladder my daughter had been sent to a safe distance!

It was slightly more peaceful when my daughter chose to sit and listen to the Storyteller who was accompanied by a fiddle player that he pedalled around on his little cart:

It was slightly more surreal to bump into Swyron on his robo mobile:

We finished our day in the Brewery beer garden:

We managed to listen to 2 out of the 3 live bands starting with Panfire Steel Band who played a mix of music including a Madonna medley and Bohemian Rhapsody!

Next up were July Julay Y Son Bachateros from the Dominican Republic. They played lots of merengue and other latin rhythms. I was jealous of the fantastic dancing from the more mature members of the audience! Unfortunately we couldn't stay any longer as it was a long walk home...

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Good job we had time to come back the next day for more fun...