1. This is the photo that inspired the above title because I can easily imagine it as a captioned postcard from FloydFest. It’s of my sister Tricia, her husband Dan, and sons Matthew and Patrick who came from Massachusetts for the festival this year. We had just finished visiting the hospitality tent after a golf cart tour of the 80-acre festival site, compliments of my husband Joe, who heads up the on-site parking.

2. What other festival has biodegradable vegetable based cups and utensils, freshly juiced carrot juice, a toaster for making peanut butter and jelly toast for your kids, and soft freeze vanilla sherbet over pineapple cake for dessert available in the VIP tent? After lunch we chilled out and soaked up the ambiance in this hospitality lounge, complete with a green grass carpet.

3. Besides knowing the science of palmistry, Joanne is a wise woman at interpreting the lines and features of the hand and presenting what she sees in a balanced and helpful way. I seek her out whenever I have someone visiting from out of town who wants a reading and here she was right at the festival for Tricia’s first (of which she was very impressed with).

4. On our way to the Global Village to check out the hammock village for day lounging and star gazing at night, I snapped this picture of a line of campers waiting for a shower. We live five minutes from the festival site off the Blue Ridge Parkway, so I’ve never had to test a FloydFest shower out.

5. Here’s Trish and Patrick hooping to The New Familiars in the Dance Tent (video HERE). Trish was convinced that she couldn’t do the hula hoop so she made it seem harder than it really is. The hoops are weighted and easier to use than the ones we grew up using in the late 50’s when the craze first became popular.

6. We caught William Walter & Company on the Streamline Hill Holler Stage. Video clip HERE. Watch for the Tony the Tiger appearance.

7. I had been admiring the paper parasols when I spotted this girl standing next to Asa Pickford’s new fountain sculpture, which I was also admiring. Asa went to Blue Mountain School (Floyd’s parent run cooperative) with my son Josh years ago.

8. Old Floyd friends reunite at Floydfest each year. This is Gaia Yard, the source of the parasols! Gaia, who is part of the Woodsong Community, works the Renaissance Faires with the rest of her family (as does Joanne) and has a FloydFest booth. Here she’s braiding a girl’s hair.

9. New faces also turn up at the festival. This one is of a llama from “Lost World” Farm. I asked the owner if they also had dinosaurs on his farm. No, but he also he did bring a camel. I tried to get a picture of it, but it didn’t come out very well, so I’ll try again tomorrow. Say Lovely! (Cest la vie).   More photos HERE.    ~ Colleen Redman