Ohio Scottish Arts School Day 5 Afternoon

Every afternoon the pipers and drummers converge upon Tappan Square in the center of Oberlin...

... and try to scare away all of the white squirrels.
It doesn't work though...

... for the white squirrels love the bagpipes
almost as much as they love harps and nuts.

Later, the harpers make their pilgrimage
to the Giant Weeping Beech Tree.

We sit beneath the trellis formed by the flowing branches
and sing songs--
new songs and old songs,
songs that help us remember past years,
songs that affirm just how lucky we are to be here,
songs that connect to those things very deep inside us
that we may not even have a name for...

and often, the tears flow.

This year Kurt joined us. He is a fiddler
who has attended OSAS for several years.

Charlie led us in singing "Happy Are We All Together".
We fell in love with this song when he taught it to us last year.

We improvised verses to "Here's a Health to the Company" which we learned from Corrina Hewat a few years ago.

Seumas led us in  singing "Bheir mi o".
We learned this song from him last year, and we love it!

This year, Sarah made up a song called "Sing Anyway" which is destined to be sung again next year.

In this place we celebrate one of the most special traditions
of the harpers (and now a fiddler) at OSAS.