Ukulele Music Festival

This past Saturday I went to a Swallow Hill Music sponsored festival in honor of Denver Urban Gardens, at Ruby Hill Park in Denver. I had never been there before, but it is a pretty place with lots of hills and grass.

One of the main events at the festival was a mass ukulele lesson. The organizers were trying to break a record of 851 people playing together, but unfortunately, it didn't happen. It was fun anyway!

I already knew them, and I think the majority of the people there did, too, but we were taught the C, F, and G chords, and then we were able to play and sing King of the Road.

The guy in the red shirt led the lesson. His name is Ukulele Loki.



It was fun. People are so happy and friendly when they have a ukulele in their hands. Ukulele Loki often said, "there's nothing stressful about playing the ukulele," and I think he's right.

Before the lesson a Denver band called Mono Verde played. They refer to their style of music as Latin Reggae, which may seem a little strange, but it is fun to listen to. Here they are:



Also playing a set of music was a guy out of Chicago named Justin Roberts. He does kids music, and by the way people were participating and singing along, he must be pretty popular. It was funny to watch some of the parents who were into it way more than their kids.



I really liked his song about Willy the Whale who Walked on the Water to Weno, Nevada.

The festival ended with concerts by Lucy Kaplansky and Patty Larkin. They each did a set of their own, and then they sang some duets together.



In this picture, Patty is on the left and Lucy the right. They are fantastic and really make me wish I was a professional folk singer/songwriter/guitar player, etc.

Good times!

Welcome, Fall!

TO AUTUMN ~ John Keats

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Pizza Puffs!

Confession: I LOVE pizza.

Sometimes I feel like I should have outgrown this by now and moved on to more sophisticated foods, but I haven't and probably never will. I'm hardly think I'm alone though.

Anyway, a couple months ago I cut out a pizza puff recipe from one of Rachel Ray's magazines and finally got around to trying it tonight.

It was super easy to make, and the results were super delicious. Here's the recipe and a photo.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup whole milk (I used skim because that's what I had.)
4 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
4 oz pepperoni, cut into small cubes (I used slices and just quartered them)
pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan.

Whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.

Stir the batter and fill the muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20-25 minutes.

Serve with warmed pizza sauce for dipping.



While these were baking, and boy did they smell yummy, I was thinking of all the other ways you could make them. Basically any pizza topping chopped fine could be added to the batter.

They probably make a better appetizer than whole meal, but I didn't have any problem eating them for my supper.

Try them. You'll like.

Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival

A few years ago when I was working as a nanny, I got pretty good (so I sometimes thought) at at drawing with sidewalk chalk. My drawings were mostly limited to bugs and flowers, but I had fun messing around with shading and outlining and things like that.

Yesterday there was a sidewalk chalk art festival at the community college near my house. There, I saw how the pros did things. It was pretty amazing.

It's hard to tell from my pictures, but most of the sidewalk art was probably at least three feet across, maybe more. Most of the artists had been working on their pictures all day, putting in around eight or even more hours into their pictures. For their sake, I'm really glad it didn't rain.

Here are some of my favorites.












The last one of the Norman Rockwell picture was probably the most impressive, even though it was far from finished. Some of the shading and detail in that one was amazing.

So, the next time I have a wide expanse of sidewalk at my disposal, I'm going to get me some chalk and see if I can improve on my past attempts. It's doubtful that I will be any better, but it might will be fun to try.