A category to cover everything else that’s not covered by pipe bands, music and pipes, kilts & supplies.
It’s a dreary time of the year. Across the country, as February exhales it’s frosty breath and unleashes another blanket of snow, the thoughts of blue skies and summer breezes are fleeting and momentary. Victoria, the usually green BC capital is covered in a rare mantle of snow, while Vancouver deals with below freezing temperatures. …
Read more “Bagpiping in Vancouver and area on brief hiatus before St. Patrick’s Day”
The following story comes from the New Zealand Herald. You must hand it to the bands’ “musical director†(do they mean PM?) for his successful ingenuity. A 65-year-old Hastings man has convinced a judge that years of playing the bagpipes rendered him incapable of completing a roadside breath test. City of Hastings Pipe Band musical …
Read more “Bagpiper avoids police breath-test claiming ‘breathing technique’ issue”
The opening paragraph reads, “In the coming weeks, Inverness County Welcomes will embrace the family of four that fled Iraq for temporary asylum in Syria.†Read this article. It is a small reminder of the good that you find inside many people. It’s about those who reach out and take action to make this world …
Read more “Baghdad to bagpipes. A Cape Breton hug in the depths of winter”
I found this gem in a February 5 story in SanDiego.com. The article is written by Christian Hertzog about the local early music society. Hertzog may well have invented the most professorial maligning of the bagpipes ever written. “Listeners anticipating stentorian caterwauling from the bagpipes were surprised at how well behaved they could be, and …
Read more ““Stentorian caterwauling†– the best slander ever against the bagpipes”
One of the truly unique aspects of living on the West Coast is the ability to actually play the bagpipes outside for some events during the depths of winter. Now granted the weather isn’t perfect; this is not southern California, but for a Vancouver bagpiper who came from the east coast, it always amazes me …
Read more “Winter bagpiping in Vancouver, White Rock and Surrey”
December can be a dreary time of the year. The grey skies over Vancouver and the Lower Mainland of BC and the constant cool and damp weather are obviously not conducive to playing bagpipes outside. So, with Christmas approaching, our bands are gearing down for the mid-year break from practice and looking forward to a …
Read more “Preparing the bagpipes for a Vancouver Christmas and New Year”
On Remembrance Day, 2010, I will play my pipes, and remember the most influential veteran of World War II that I have ever known – my late father. Like many men from the small Nova Scotia community where I was born, he joined the Canadian military in the early stages of the war and served …
Read more “Bagpiping at Vancouver area Remembrance Day ceremonies; remembering my father.”
The vacation is over, the sun has set on another Nova Scotia summer pilgrimage.