9/23/12 Spoutwood Farm's "Mother Earth Harvest Festival"

  I had a big scare before I even got to leave for this one.  I woke
up Friday morning with a massive pain in my right hand.  Yes, it was
bad enough that I couldn't play or practice.  I nursed it and cursed
it as best I could all Friday and delayed my departure until late 
Saturday afternoon so that whatever it was, it had a chance to calm
down and get better.  I still don't really know why or how it happened.
My best guess is that I somehow crushed it against a corner of my 
headboard as I slept Thursday night.  At any rate, it felt a lot 
better on Saturday than it had on Friday.  As I departed, I stopped
in the drug store and got one of those wrist braces, and that seemed
to help a lot.  The drive up was completely pain free, and I didn't
even need any aspirin before bed.  So, anyway, I arrived without 
incident and pulled up to the camping hill where I got the campfire
going, made some hot dogs, and wound up in a pleasant/wacky game of
"Apples to Apples" with the parking crew.

  I started out wearing the brace on Sunday, just in case, as I would
be playing all day and worried whether strumming would re-injure me.
but...  It cramped my style.  Plus, I felt so much better.  I decided
to press on and nurse it at home on Monday if the problem recurred.
It hasn't so far.  I don't know what I did and I'm not sure why I'm
better (other than rest and immobilisation Friday and Saturday), but 
I played unencumbered the whole day, which is my joy at Spoutwood 
Farm gigs.

  Potential disaster _completely_ averted!

  So on to the gig itself:

  I had one short stage set on their small "Garden Stage", which went 
very well.  I played:

  The Enchanted Gypsy
  The Black Fox
  Three Jovial Huntsmen (aka "Bold Reynard")
  The Rattlin' Bog

  The rest of the day, I busked in some of my usual spots.  Lots of
banjo, which has been neglected a bit of late.

  The gig got to have a thoroughly new and unique moment for me: I 
got to have my very first affectionate encounter with a horse.  I 
don't have a great history with horses.  As a youth I had some access
to them and did little but fall off of them or have them step on my
feet.  Since then, I've been kind of leery of them and my attempts at
Equine friendship and reconciliation frustratingly involved me barely 
getting away with my fingers intact.  But all that changed yesterday 
when I was approached by a horse who either liked me or my music.  I 
was busking in my "End of the Day at Spoutwood" spot, sitting up 
against the fence of the horse pasture by the driveway leading out of 
the farm.  I can't remember what song I was playing, but one of the 
horses just up and decided to put it's head over the fence and start 
trying to nuzzle me.  It was obviously affectionate as it was very 
gentle and not at all nudgy.  So maybe there is hope for a 
reconciliation between me and the Equines!

  It was a lovely day.  I am so blessed that I got to fill it playing
so much of my favourite music in my favourite place/venue ever!