"Finding YOUR own personal ancestors"

Philosophical musings, as well as the practicalities of building a family tree, your DNA tribe(s), and ethnicity tests.

I sort of volunteered myself to do a talk on a subject of great interest to me at the 'Mabon at Thornborough' pagan camp. 2017; partly to encourage myself to bring together various aspects of Family History research I have been working on over the last few years into a lecture I could give elsewhere too. Also, most pagans conduct various rituals or ceremonies in respect of 'The Ancestors' but these are all very general and non-specific to the individual taking part, and this is partly because most of us know very little about our family history beyond our grandparents (including myself before I started this research). However, unlike any previous generations, thanks to the internet, it is now possible to easily get hold of so much information that was previously only available to the most dedicated of genealogists; and now with the addition of DNA genealogy to the arsenal, we have a very powerful tool that can be used in conjunction to open up a number of new ancestral quests to us all.

Now a little philosophical musing.

Our lives are each the briefest of twinkles compared with the whole history of life on Earth, let alone compared with the vastness of universal time; but each of us is a result millions, no billions of chance happenings ever since the first lifeform on Earth developed the ability to reproduce itself, or maybe I should say, create a new spark of life in another lifeform, as each individual spark will die sooner or later. And virtually all lifeforms ever since have had to rely on the death of others in order to survive as long as they do or did. And every second of every day, each lifeform affects others, directly or indirectly, along with the various natural processes of the planet and the universe. Each of these second by second actions affects everything else to a lesser or greater extent, including which new generations that get born, or not. For example. If my paternal grandmother's first husband hadn't been killed in World War I, she wouldn't have gone on to marry my grandfather, and therefore my father wouldn't have existed, etc., etc.. "Ah! But what if your grandparents had just had an affair, or something like that?" I hear a little voice say. Well yes, they could of, but my father wouldn't of been conceived at the very same time and even if he had the domestic scene he would of been brought up in would have been different, and he may never have me my mother, or, or or ..... There may have been a very similar person, who did much the same things, but not exactly the same.

So you see we are all the result of a series of accidents. And, keeping things closer to our human ancestors, and despite prudish American genealogists trying to hide the fact, we are all the result of millions of people having sexual intercourse! Whether voluntarily or otherwise. Yes! Even YOUR parents! (It's amazing how so many young people hate the thought that their parents have had a sex life! LOL!).

Right! Lets get down to some more serious work.

There are a host of reason why people conduct family history research and/or take a DNA test. Some just seem to want to try and find some link to royalty, however tenuously (we all are to a greater or lesser extent, depending on how far back you go, but not everyone can prove it. I have found a tenuous link back to a bastard son of Henry II). Others just want to know their ethnicity, but there are many pitfalls with the DNA services I will discuss further on. Many people are desperate to find a parent, or grandparent, or any family at all! (Not that my Mother seems to have been too bothered by it, as an adult anyway, but she was illegitimate, and a huge hole in my family tree was as to who her father was). And then, a lot of us are just nosy, and the 'Skeletons' in the family closet are the juiciest joys of doing the research. And there are just so many family histories that are lost and forgotten, and just being able to rediscover any part of the life any of our ancestors led is a bonus. But at the end of the day, I suppose a lot of it, for nearly all of us, is trying to answer the big questions. "Who am I? How did I get here?"

Now that leads us onto the main aspects of research that can be split into three general groups. There is the paper work side of building a family tree, and there is the ethnicity stuff, that can be split basically in to "What race am I?" and "What tribe/region do I come from/belong to?" I have split the ethnicity stuff into two, because what the DNA test sites are selling you doesn't really give people the answer they really want, which is the tribe region bit.

In fact the advertising can be rather misleading. The ad for AncestryDNA where the bloke says he thought he was half British, half Afro-Caribbean, but I now know I am a Viking is wrong. He is still half British, half Afro-Caribbean, but, probably his British half has a large chunk of Scandinavian ethnicity. This is all part of the confusion of what is race and what is your ethnic group, let alone your 'tribe/region'. Don't forget that we are all descended from the same humans in sub-Saharan Africa, and all of us with predominately 'super'-Saharan(?) ancestors are descended from about 500 people that came north/east of the Sahara, in times when the desert was much smaller (although the Chinese claim they might be descended from a different sub-species, but they are mixed with our sub-species anyway). But also, since then we have had thousands of years of movements and interbreeding of a myriad of different ethnic, tribal and historic groups. Again, whether voluntarily, or otherwise.

Now! As an archaeologist by training, I had chronology and stratigraphy beaten into me, but most people just don't have the same understanding about time scales and cultural progression; so for example a couple of anecdotes that illustrate this. I was once partaking in an English Civil War event in Durham city, when a member of the general public asked me "Was Hadrian's Wall built by then?" And there was a great line in one of the more recent series of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" where Jimmy Nail's character finds out that his son is gay. "Var's nither bin iny poofs in arh famli, an we kan trace arh famli reet bach ta the Sicond Wald Warr!"  And it is true of most of the general public that they can't really understand the past beyond about 100 years ago. Beyond that it is all just 'the past'!

But what people want from their 'ethnicity tests' is really to prove their perceived ethnicity, or more the tribe or region they belong to. They just want to know, for example, that they are a born and bred Yorkshire man, whether they are black, white, yellow, or whatever! Or that they are a true Geordie. Or if racist, perhaps(?), that they are 'pure White', or 'pure Black', for example. Racists are abhorred at the thought they may have some Gypsy, or Jewish, or whatever ancestry in their genetic make-up. Although I doubt many true racists are likely to do a DNA test, as they would hate finding out that they aren't 'pure', and where they have done a test for a TV programme, etc. they tend to threaten to sue over the results!

So what is it that you get from the DNA testing companies regarding your ethnicity?

You have to remember that most of the testing companies are based in America, where the testing has been going on for some time, and the results are aimed at what your average American wants to know about their ethnicity, and most of the databases are based upon the research that has been carried out to give those average Americans the answers they want. Obviously, most average Americans, like us here in the UK, are like us, they don't know or understand much about their history from beyond a hundred years ago. And many of them can be of very mixed race, with races/ethnicity from throughout the world. So for example, a lot of Afro-Americans want to know which part of West Africa their Black ancestors were taken from, So on AncestryDNA you see they have several West African ethnic groups, because that is where the research has been paid for, whereas the rest of Africa is more of a great ethnic lump. And a lot of money and research has been put into identifying the genetic profiles of particular European Jewish groups, as not surprisingly, a lot of Americans have Yiddish ancestry. Many white Americans want to find they are 'Irish', so on AncestryDNA you find that is one of their categories; although when you look at the map in detail you will find that this group should really be called 'Western British Isles', as it includes the Cornish, Welsh, and Scots-Irish, etc.. 

But then you find that the collected data that the ethnicities are based upon can be suspect. Often the DNA donors only had to prove that all 4 of their grandparents were from that place. Just think of all the movements there have been over the last couple of hundred years in particular! So perhaps we should rely more and more upon DNA collected from historic bodies? But then again, we face some of the same questions as to what their ethnicity was, and the movement of peoples were that led to their burial there, etc., etc.. And some of the few archaic bodies that have been tested successfully have little to do with the peoples living in the same area now. For example on one of the forums I am on someone had been comparing their DNA test results against some archaic ones and thought that they had some Hungarian genes because they got a match to a 3,000 year old skeleton from what is NOW Hungary, The ethnic group that 'we' call the Hungarians, the Magyar, were not in that area until 2,000 years after the burial of the skeleton that the DNA material has been collected from.

In fact, all the ethnicity results, of all the main companies, must be not be taken too literally. And actually, if you examine the results in detail you will see that it is all based upon an average of various averages of various possible amounts for each ethnic group. In detail you may see that say 25% 'Irish' might in reality be anywhere between 5% and 45%, and with the minor groups it may be in reality anywhere between 0% and 5%. That is why they call them 'Ethnicity Estimates'.

Saying that, overall, they do give a good overall picture of your ethnicity, but in very broad strokes, and they shouldn't be taken too literally, or seriously. A bit of historical fun!

Mind you, we are back to people getting confused between the tribe/region they want to belong to, and what is in fact your very distant ethnicity.  What people want is not actually what they get. This is because ethnic groups based upon where modern scientist think people with those genetic identifiers lived approximately 500 to 10,000 years ago, is way beyond any possibility of tracing any historic paper tree link, which is what most of us really want. Again we are back to the difference between your ethnicity and your tribe/region.

For example, most of my 'ethnicity' is what AncestryDNA calls 'British' but is actually more 'Anglo-Saxon', with a big chunk of 'Irish' which is actually 'Cornish', with smaller amounts of various mostly Western European groups, that could represent a bit of 'Roman', 'Viking' 'Iberian', etc. or any of the invading and trading groups that have left their 'genetic' markers in the British Isles. But also there are small amounts of 'Eastern European' and 'West Asian', both about 5%. Now all or any of these small percentages could be just noise in the data, and unreal, and the 'Eastern European' is not Yiddish, and the 'West Asian' isn't Jewish, Turkic, or Romany (if I had had any 'South Asian' I would just assume that it was a bit of Gypsy in one of the family closets). I wouldn't have been upset at getting any of those, or any other 'ethnicity' in my DNA. For one you had no choice! LOL! And I would just have been fascinated as to where they had got into my family tree! But it turns out that most of us in North West Europe have a bit of 'Western Asian' and 'Eastern European', and from what I have read it seems to be just as fascinating as to where it came from. The 'Western Asian' is basically a residue of the first farmer that left Anatolia and moved into the Balkans some 8,000 years or so ago??? Who then proceeded to shag their way across Europe, interbreeding with the local populations as they went, and gradually getting ethnically 'watered down' as their 'cultures' spread voluntarily or otherwise. And the 'Eastern European' genes are again an ethnic residue, this time from the Bronze Age 'Ayrian' tribes that left the Black Sea region and shagged there way westwards across Europe, and got ethnically 'watered down' as they spread their 'cultures', again, voluntarily or otherwise.

But all of this is way back before most of us can comprehend or actually trace to any individual ancestor. Although, apparently, all us western Europeans have a bit of Charlemagne in us, and much of the world population has a bit of Genghis Khan, and most of the ginger Scots-Irish are descended from one Irish King that put it about a lot!

It is not answering the question most of us really want to know. What is my tribe/region?

AncestryDNA have actually introduced a new aspect to their DNA test results recently that at last answers the question in a way most people can understand and want. They call it your 'Genetic Communities', where your ancestors probably lived in the past few hundred years. It is based upon where various known ancestors of many to those you have a match to were born. In my case, not surprisingly, my genetic community is South West England. I knew that form my paper tree research, but if you were adopted, or didn't know your personal recent family history, it could be very useful, and you might also discover you had a chunk of Scottish relations, for example. This finally answers the question of what is your tribe/region, where you belong, ancestrally; although this is not necessarily your living 'tribe', as in the social group you actually live in.

I will have to leave the paper tree stuff for another occasion, as there is far than enough here for the moment. And there is lots on which are the best companies to do your paper and DNA research with, and the pluses and minuses of them, and how you can combine them to get the most from them. Something for you to look forward to!

New Copperclay Pendants

An experiment

This will be a more normal posting for me, as it relfects my jewellery work that I do.

So far I still haven't figured out how to add the links to my jewellery pages, but I am sure I will soon. But for the moment more of this sort of thing can be seen on my Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/SteveTheGreenManJewellery/

A while ago I bought some copperclay to conduct some experiments with, which all failed, and I had been meaning to get round to trying out some of my normal pendants in the copper, rather than the normal bronzeclay.

Well here are the results. the Triple Moon, Green Man, Leafy-Awen and Bear Head, are all smaller copies of my the normal once (another experiment).

However, copperclay is far harder to fire correctly, and as I had had to drop the temperature down from what the instructions had said initially for the bronze and silver clays, I had to make a guess as to what temperature to fire these copper pieces at. At first when I started giving them a bash, after I took them out of the kiln, they seemed alright, and then the non-leafy Awen broke; so they hadn't 'sintered' properly (the particles of copper hadn't welded together enough). So I did a bodge-up job of a repair to the Awen (as you can see), and refired the lot again at a higher temperature, and it sorted them out!

Then I found the copperclay pieces need a lot more polishing work to get the effects I wanted than the bronzeclay pendants. So if I do any copperclay work in the future they will have to cost more.

The Old Adventure Continues; - Cathars and Cows.

Roquefixade to Montségur.

For now, this is the final part of this reminiscence of this adventure form 30 years ago (July 1987), as I finish the final leg of my eastern Pyrenean ramble from Foix to the famous Cathar castle of Montségur. There is plenty of fact and fiction available on the Cathars and their connections to the castle at Montsegur; and to learn more about why I was on this holiday and how I got this far, you need to read the two previous blogs.

So after my rough sleepless night in the ruins of Roquefixade castle, I set out early on the last part of my walk to Montségur, which was in theory a much easier hike than the day before, as it was on more level ground down in the valley. It was fine until I hit a large wood and got lost! Yes! I got lost in the woods! LOL!

I had a good map showing all the details I needed, but the problem was that there were many more trails on the ground than were shown on the map! And the 'Chemin des Cathars' was not clearly marked. So before long I had no idea where I was, and unlike the day before, when the walking had been much fresher on the high ridge, now I was down in a warm and humid forest, buzzing with insects of a less pleasant kind than the butterflies I had taken such delight in previously.

But I wasn't upset, or worried, after all this was a large wood, and therefore it had an edge! So that's what I did, I kept going until I hit an edge, and headed along that edge roughly in the right direction until I was able to identify where I was on the map. I hadn't got far off my overall route, and I was soon back on that.And then I saw it! 

My first glimpse of the Chateau!

And after that, despite the country getting rougher, and less level, I was soon in the village of Montségur and got myself booked into a hotel where I could leave my backpack, and then, with less to carry, it was time to take the long ascent to the castle.

But the weather of the day before had returned, and my first climb up to the castle was heavily shrouded in cloud.  So my pictures of this jaunt are a bit disappointing.

And what I didn't know at the time, was that most of the fortifications we see today are from well after the time of the famous siege and massacre!

And here's a treat for those of you who know me.

Yes! That was me 30 years ago, and my physical peak (mostly due to the regular folk ceilidhs I used to attend). But the funny thing was that I thought of myself as being fat. Whereas now I know I am fat, but don't like to admit just 'how' fat I am! LOL!

So, anyway, I soon headed back down to the village, where I discovered a couple of points of interest. One was the sight of the old public wash house, which looked like it might still get used!

And the other was the sight of the cows bringing themselves into town at milking time. Mmm???? Is that one of those Cabriolet cows that can roll its top down when the sun shines? Or is that a Charolais car?

That evening, I had a meal in the hotel restaurant, and had one of those moment that remind me of what I now know to be dyslexia/word-blindness. as I was looking at the menu I knew what the word 'agneau' was, but I had a complete block on comprehending what it 'was'! The more I got fixated on the word, the more I couldn't un-fixate on it, as such. The restaurant seemed to be full of locals, none of who seemed to speak English, and none could help. They then wheeled out a c.10 year old boy from the back, who had obviously been learning some English at school, but he couldn't figure out what the problem was. Then someone called out " Baaaaaaa!!" And we all laughed as I realised it was lamb, of course! LOL! Which I then proceeded to enjoy gobbling up with great enjoyment!

And then an early night!

The next day when I got up the weather was far far better, and as you will see, my second trip up to the castle was much more pleasant.

But it also meant I could actually see how steep the climb was too! LOL!

But the view from the top was well worth it. But the cloud was only just clear of the summit.  

and this was the view back down to the village. Take note of the twisty road.

I really enjoyed my exploration of the castle and the mountain top, and had a pleasant surprise. My first ever Swallowtail butterfly. (I still have never seen any in the UK, and later saw some in another part of the south of France, and in Hungary).

And finally while I was at top, I got someone to take my photo, to prove I had been there (it had been a criticism from people looking at my holiday photos of the summer before in Italy and France).

Yes! There I was. Indiana Cousins. Just about to become a world famous archaeologist (NOT).

And finally (again!), a couple more paragraphs on this trip.

Remember the twisty road back down to the village? Well while I was up the mountain, I got talking to this bloke and his family who was an Anglophile. Loved anything English, including his beloved Range Rover, which he gave me a lift in back down that twisty road to the village. It was a terrifying, but thankfully short, journey, as he insisted in keep turning to talk to me in the back as he drove down the hill with all those twists and hairpin bends!

After another night in Montségur (I think), I set off back towards Foix the next day, and was given a lift by some gypsies in the back of one of those wonderful old 'washboard' like Citroen vans. You know, the van version of the 2CV. This was a real thrill for me, as I had fairly recently got a 2CV myself, in advance of my becoming a student in the Autumn.

I then went on to Lourdes, and up into the hills to attend a village hall folk dance by the folk group I mentioned in part one of this story. I spent a day or two with them, and visited Bagnères-de-Bigorre and Bagnères-de-Luchon, and finally to Pau, before getting the train back home.

And all the time on this trip one character kept popping up. The local hero Gaston Fébus, 14thC Count of Foix.

The Old Adventure Continues; - 'As I walked out one not so sunny Summer's day'.

Foix to Roquefixade.

(Please refer to the previous blog I posted for the background to this holiday).

So it was July 1987, the day after the festival in Foix (in the Eastern French Pyrenees) when I set out to achieve my next ambition of this 'Bucket List' holiday, by setting off to spend a couple of days walking in the foothills of the Pyrenees, taking in some stunning landscapes, wonderful flora and fauna, and some interesting history. To do this I would be following part of the 'Chemin des Cathares', or as I now see it named as 'Le Chemin des Bonshommes' (1).

I found the path down by the main road at the bottom of the valley in Foix, and then had a very very steep climb up 100s of feet, and a fairly overgrown path, but it gave me marvellous view over the small historic centre of the city.

Soon after I took this photo, I managed to loose the path, and found myself in this farm yard (I think it was this one?).

In the yard was an old woman, in my terrible and limited french I asked "Ou est les Chemin les Cathares?" She gabbled-away a completely incomprehensible reply. Which was difficult to do to me, as I have always been better reading 'Johnny Foreigner' languages that understanding their spoken 'bar-bar-berings' (not the Classical illusion to this bit of tongue in cheek English racism! LOL!). I repeated my question a few times and she conditioned to jabber. Then she realised not only that I didn't understand her, but that also I wasn't German (it seems that it was mostly Germans that did this walk if foreign, and not many Englishmen had been seen here). So she then started talking to me in French! Yes! French! She had been talking in  local Languedoc patois! How marvellous! The language of the Troubadours! I love Medieval songs, but that didn't help me understand it when I heard it spoken! LOL!

Anyway! I was soon at the top of the climb and things became far easier as the path followed the ridge eastwards; sometimes in luxurious beech woodland, and other times out on flora rich downland. Just like where I had been training for my walk in the Chilterns, only much bigger, and in theory hotter and drier!

But as you can see, despite being in the middle of July, and so far south from home, the weather wasn't exactly a heatwave (fortunately, as it turned out for such a pasty Englishman like me). But as you can see the views were still beautiful, and that more atmospheric for the cloud. This is a good example of the lovely grass downland between the woods. Not only was it cramped with wildflowers, and ant hills (the hummocks), but there was a riot of butterflies too; many of which I had hardly seen, some I had only ever seen in books, and some I didn't know at all. There were some that looked like little day flying bats when I first saw them; black with white stripes, which turned out to be White Admirals (despite being more black than white! LOL!). And then there was this one; -

My one and only sighting of a Camberwell Beauty!

My walk continued along more such wonderful landscapes. It was such a delight to be there for me, with my love of countryside and history.

And as you can see, occasionally the path came close to the scarp edge of the ridge; giving vast panoramic vistas of the lands below.

I always love a mysterious path through woodland; but also as still an horticulturist at the time, I found it interesting how the understory of these beech woods was mostly of what is a rare plant in English woodland. That was Box! But here, the foresters were ripping it out as a weed!

The trail then led down into the valley, heading towards my target for the day (although I had no real idea what I would find there, or where I would sleep, etc.). Yes! I think this was Roquefixade in the near distance. And as I approached I was greeted with this sight; -

Oooooo! Looks a bit, errrr... mmm... steep?

And as it didn't look and less steep as I got nearer.

Now I can't quite remember which route I took to the top, but I met a local boy scout who showed me the way, and I know it involved a scramble up a steep grassy slope. And it was at this point that the little boy exclaimed a warning to me "Regarde le Viper!" Before leaving home, I had been warned by a number of people to watch out for Adders in the Pyrenees. In fact I was supposed to have an anti-venom kit, just in case. But I didn't of course. And here I was facing one of the monster! Well hardly a monster, as it was only a baby one, and I wouldn't have seen it if the boy hadn't said anything (actually, earlier in the day I think I saw the biggest Grass snake I had ever seen?). But this danger turned into a bit of a damp squib!

But once I was up the top it was well worth the climb. Here is a view below of the village of Roqufixade, one of the numerous 14thC 'Bastides' of the region; i.e. a fortified village!

I had been introduced to this form of village on my trip to Gascony the year before, but there they had mostly been round. This one was more like a Roman fort (I wonder if that was intentional?). Oh! and I shoulld say that the castle has 12thC origins, did have connections to the Cathare heresy, but apparently most of the surviving masonry dates from the 14thC to 17thC, when it was finally knocked down. And it was marvellous (again)! For me, as the romantic natural historian, a wonderful overgrown, untended, un-managed, un-touresty ruin! (well it was then. I don't know about now?).

And then the weather began worsen, with lowering, glowering cloud, as a terrific thunderstorm began!

So much for the balmy sunny days and hot Summer nights I was expecting! (It seems that just the other side of the mountains, on the Spanish side, there was virtually a desert, but here the Atlantic storms were pushed up and along the mountains, almost as far as the Mediterranean!

I managed to find shelter in the ruins of the castle guardhouse. And had a very uncomfortable wet night (but romantic and comfort rarely go together, as I found out many years later when I actually got to live in a castle).

Here's a picture of me I managed to get using the timer on the camera.

Yes! That's me.30 years ago! And looking rather damp.

Not surprisingly, I didn't get much sleep, and was up and about very early, and was awarded with the sight of clouds rolling down the valley below me, and distant views to the high Pyrenean still snow-capped peaks (which don't seem to show in these pictures now).

I soon left my overnight eyrie and descended to the valley below, and set off on the second leg of this journey, to the famous Cathare castle of Montsegur. (the subject of my next blog).

But one final look back at Roquefixade. And as you can see, it was also the last picture on that roll of film too! LOL!


(1) http://www.tourisme-occitanie.com/sur-les-traces-des-cathares-le-chemin-des-bonshommes/foix/tabid/2275/offreid/aa3b4c79-9ac0-410d-9c4c-8cc8798a3bb0/itineraire.aspx

An Old Adventure

Its not often you can say exactly where you were and what you were doing on an exact day, years and years ago, but I know where and what I was doing today 30 years ago. It was Bastille Day, and I was in the small Pyrenean city of Foix; except there they were celebrating their local hero, Gaston Fébus, 14thC Count of Foix.

I was on one of the biggest adventures of my life (well it was for me). At the time I had just turned 27. The previous summer I had had a similar adventure by going abroad proper for the first time, using an Interrail train ticket I visited a friend in Gascony and went on to visit Rome and back to the south of France. This trip was building on my experiences of the year before and had a number of things I wanted to achieve at a major change point in my life. 

I had had my heart broken, and was doing a bit of a restart. I had been a landscape designer working for a council, but was about to go to Durham University to study archaeology as a mature student. Of course I was expecting that I was about to start a brilliant career in archaeology. I had also seen a TV dramatisation of Laurie Lee's book 'As I walked out one midsummer morning', about his adventures on foot in 1930s Spain. I fancied doing something similar, but going through a Francophile phase I wanted to do it in France, but liked the idea of being close to Spain. I had also been reading 'The Holy Blood & the Holy Grail', a very trendy book of the time, and I wanted my walk to include at least some of the places covered in the book. I was also a regular attendee of folk music events at the time, and particularly liked to dance at ceilidhs. And I found that there was the perfect combination of all these wants I could do in the eastern Pyrenees! (How I found this out in the days before the internet I don't know now! Probably the library LOL!). There was a Festival Folklorique et Traditionale every July in Foix! And from there I could spend a couple of days walking to Montsegur (another story to come).

So anyway! Today. 30 years ago. I was attending the festival in Foix, along with just about the whole population of the city! 100s of them seem to be involved with the main parade, and the rest were watching.

You will notice that I had no trouble seeing the parade, as I was so much taller than the majority of the locals. And you can see the parade was led by the iconic Pyrenean Mountain Dogs. I am sure there was a man in a bear suit too, as not surprisingly, even if they could of found one, this other local icon probably would of been not too popular if real! In fact the only Pyrenean Bears and the also iconic (again) Izzard (Mountain Goat) I saw were all stuffed ones in various hotels, restaurants, etc. and museums. And they all had a nasty snarl on them like they were all fierce and about to attack (even Izzard kids).

Oh! And 1st look at the local folk group 'Eths Autes' that I had already been talking to.

The parade continued with lots of locals of all ages.

More Pryenean Mountain Dogs.

More parading (and this is only a selection of the photos I took you will be glad to know).

And then 'Eths Autes' came around again! The musician here is playing an interesting local variant on the 'pip and tabor' familiar to those who know their Cotswold Morris. Not sure what you called the stringed box that he hit like a drum with his stick, while playing the tune on the tabor pipe, but I saw a number of them being played, whole bands of them sometimes, and several times I saw them in museums too.

And near the end of the parade we had a bit of excitement. A horse pulling a cart bolted!

By luck I caught the drama of the moment! The crowd opposite me parted, but driver soon got control again, and no one was hurt, but as you can see the people to the left of the picture that thought they might get hurt ran in panic, but those to the right obviously felt safe and (like me) stand by watching with curiosity.

LAter that day there was a out door civic feast for many (not me) to be followed by a bal (a ceilidh!), which I was keen to participate in. The meal was supposed to finish at 9pm. And me being the typical northern European turned up for the dance at that time. It was midnight before the dance started! It always takes me some time to get used to the laid back nature of the south.  LOL!