One Thing Leads to Another

Bluebonnet, the official tartan of the State of Texas


With the help of a family at church, Emma finally convinced me to take her to Scottish Country Dancing lessons through the Houston chapter of the Royal Scottish Country Dancing Society. Learning that the lessons last only six weeks helped, but I knew I was doomed when I learned that the lessons culminate with a ball. The guys all wear kilts and the girls ball gowns. Emma believes that she was endowed by her Creator with a fundamental right to attend balls, and I have never attempted to dissuade her from this idea.

We shopped for the ball gown on Wednesday and found and purchased one for $5 at the first thrift store. Then we stopped at a consignment store and found the perfect jewelry set to wear with the dress. This launched a huge interest in costume jewelry, and Emma drove us directly to the library where she found a book on the subject. Now we are hunting hair adornments and the perfect updo hairstyle.

At last Monday's dance lesson, we learned that the class will do a dance demonstration for the Martyn Farm Fall Festival at Armand Bayou Nature Center next month. Amazingly, Emma signed up in August with Bay Area Weavers and Spinners to do a spinning demonstration there that same day. As I mentioned before, she will be taking a weaving class with Scottish master weaver and singer Norman Kennedy in February. Curious how things work out, is it not?

Since Emma's interests seem to be converging in Scotland, I visited the Heather and Thistle website to see what they had to offer. The first thing I noticed was that the pages are bordered with a tartan, and they change it monthly. How fun! One of the ones I saw is the official Texas tartan, the Bluebonnet. I found the best picture of it at the Scotland Forever website. They sell ties, scarves, shawls, and kilts in this tartan, as well as yardage.