I've been thinking about this charity event, where the ladies wear their wedding gowns. I would be fine, as I made my own dress in a slightly magnolia shade of cream, so would be unique; but how would it feel to arrive at the ball and find someone else in an identical dress? Worse still, looking better in theirs than you do in yours?

The thought came to me remembering three ex work colleagues of mine, who all got married last summer. A fourth colleague attended all the weddings and came back with photos to show us - and two of the girls were in identical gowns. One was tall and thin; the other shorter and more curvacious. As it happened, both looked absolutely lovely (although I slightly prefered the style on the shapelier girl) but what a coincidence! I don't know if the one who married after attended the first wedding and saw her dress on the other girl, or if so, what she thought...

In a similar vein, I was privileged to go with my beautiful daughter-in-law to order her gown for their church wedding next year. She put on her favourite dress, which she ultimately ordered and came out into the showroom to see it in the huge mirrors and let us see it. She looked truly stunning, even though it was held by clips to make it fit better and she'd done nothing special to her hair.

A very dumpy girl at the next mirror along, whose first try on definitely made her bum look big, took one look and said "I'm going to try that one next" as if the gown could make her tall and svelte like Kris. If she did go for it, I know who'll look better on the day out of those two!

I went to get my hair done today, ready for both the start of the new school year on Monday, and in good time for my forthcoming interview on TV.

On the 15th September, there is to be a Wedding Dress Ball in York. It's to raise money for the Neuroblastoma Society . A mother of a child victim of neuroblastoma called Helen Mercer was thinking of ways to raise money for the organisation which helps families whose children suffer from this rare form of cancer. Recalling a conversation with a friend about what a shame it is we spend so much thought and money on our wedding gowns, only to wear them just once, she came up with the idea of a charity ball where the ladies were invited to wear their wedding dresses again.

The first Wedding Dress Ball was a huge success, and now there are regular annual events in Sandown Park, as well as York. The BBC magazine programme Inside Out is covering the York event this year, and I've been asked on the show to comment on the historic background to wedding gown fashion in the 20th century and today.

The bad news is I've also been asked to appear in my own wedding dress. Regular readers will know I do wear my dress briefly every year on my anniversary, but to be honest, over 30 years after the event, the style is very old fashioned, and the wrinkley face above it looks incongruous in a bridal outfit!

But I had the hair done anyway. Luckily, it looks great; when I had it done before the summer holidays I was a bit disappointed with it, especially as I was off to meet my son's inlaws for the first time and wanted to look my best. But I obviously tried too hard - I also waxed my legs for the first time, and ended up with not beautiful smooth legs, but an unsightly rash. And my new shoes gave me blisters... So much for pretention.

Anyway, I'll let you know how I get on in due course.

I have discovered a new hobby. A while back I was corresponding with a distant cousin about William Locking Creasey and his family. I sent the cousin (whose name, I very much regret to say, escapes me) a couple of pictures and cuttings about William's son, who was killed in the First World War. She sent back to me a digital scrapbook page about the young man, Walter Henry Creasey, incorporating the photos, biographical detail and an American flag background.
I was very impressed and have now bought myself some digital scrapbook software for myself, and have been busy collaging more illustrated pages for my family tree.
Unfortunately, I can't show you the results. although I'm quite pleased with them, as I can't upload their file type, but if you click here you should see my page for my Grandma, Elsie Pennell.

Thursday. I've had a lot of spam on my blog this morning. Very opportunely, it was placed on the very posting where I was showing the lovely scrapbooked page by Susan Reynolds - so now I can acknowledge her properly - unless it was she, in a fit of dudgeon, who sent the spam as a punishment for forgetting her name!! I'm sure it wasn't, so thanks Susan!

Whilst in Michigan, I attended a training course for early years teachers (I'm nothing if not dedicated!) called Growing Readers, by Kathy Collins.
It was very interesting, not least because we are moving away from some of her ideas in England now - she goes for what we used to call the "headlights" approach of using all methods to learn how to read (such as I secretly approve of myself) while we are going for "synthetic phonics", using a primarily phonic approach.
Anyway, the most valuable point I came away with is some amunition to use on parents who pester us to teach our nursery children to recite the alphabet and write their names; it's a quotation from a piece of research by American educationalist Carline Beers:
"Coming to school knowing your alphabet and able to write your name is a predictor of 1st grade success. Children being frequently and consistently read to before coming to school predicts 11 grade success."
I love it!

Whilst on holiday in Michigan this summer, I added to the list of countries I have seen but not been! Here is my photo of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, taken from the Detroit waterfront (with Ed, Kathy and Paul in the foreground) in the USA.
I have also viewed Turkey and the Lebanon at close quarters from Syria; and Saudi Arabia from Egypt.
I suppose I could add countries I have transitted through; namely Bulgaria, Barbados and Singapore.
I would like to add Greenland - I've only flown over it, but the sun was shining brightly and the air was so limpid, we could see the glaciers and their terminal morrains quite clearly.
All in all, I've nearly been to almost as many countries as I've actually visited!

In our well established tradition, we went to Breakfast With Shakespeare. It was Carry On Up the Avon, a mixture of that film genre, Lost and reality TV. It had the usual mix of Shakespearean characters and hilariously out of context quotations, but this year's offering lacked the usual musical content, and although we laughed out loud with the rest of the audience, we felt it suffered accordingly.

We were even more disappointed by the same company in Cinderella. Previous C productions of Grimm's Fairy Tales have been full of bite and excitingly staged - the wolves in Red Riding Hood were werewolves last year - but this play was non-acting for children at its tamest, with scenery that never changed from the chair in the story corner, and no Fairy Godmother. This got my wooden spoon of the week.

We then went next door for an interactive art installation, rather than a performance, with 6 Women in Front of a White Wall. The installation explores the human ned for touch and kindness and consisted of the aforementioned 6 women, dressed in pink and made up to disguise their individuality, but of a wide age range, who stood in front of the audience mutely supplicating someone to approach and touch them. Their supplication became ever more desperate until a stooge set us off by leading the way, then it was a case of reacting to the touch of the audience members who ventured to have a go. Interesting and moving - Ed didn't like it.

With an hour to spare, we popped into Edinburgh's excellent library, to see the exhibition Tea and Tigers, Stories of the Scotland and South Asia. With recordings of first hand stories backed up by artefacts and pictures, this was a very worthwhile stop, especially as it was free.

Our final show was a last minute booking of Rose Gets Shot - a Philip Marlowe style murder mystery in a monochrome setting with clever staging that was moved around on casters to both suggest narrow streets and disguise quick changes of scene. There was a satisfying twist at the end, and we still don't quite know why!

Up earlyish to get to Aurora Nova. Another celebrity spotted en route - I popped into a nearby grocer's to pick up a few plums (we eat well in Edinburgh, but not quite enough fruit...) and exchanged "Good morning"s with a chap coming out. "That was Les Dennis" the shopkeepertold me. Well, fancy that.

We went to see Woyzeck, by the Sadari Movement Laboratory of Korea. .A fascinating piece, using only chairs as props. I felt the injection of stylised humour detracted from the underlying pathos of the plot - the end was so upbeat the audience didn't realise it was over and the cast were taking their bows, but we enjoyed the slick cleverness of the staging and movement.

On the way out, we were flyered about another show: "if you like physical theatre, you'll enjoy this! It's on next, just round the corner." We had the time - we went. It was Savage Love, at the Hill St Theatre, with four young actors playing the inner and outer personas of a couple in love. Showing how our outer behaviour often belies our inner feelings, it was a little gem of a piece. I hope they got more in their audience for some shows than the 5 we were part of.

More physical theatre in The Mothers Bones, a single hander by Kath Burlinson miming the cycle of life of Woman - grandmother, mother, daughter, granddaughter. Ed didn't like this much, but I did - being a woman!

We both enjoyed Rash, Jenni Wolfson's account, with some slides, of her time as a UN observer in Rwanda and other places. She brought the horrors up close, but with wit and insight into her own motivation and experience of it, including her love affair with a Senegalese colleague.

Next a more traditional play - Night Time, with Kananu Kirimi rivetting as Chris, a woman alone in the night with three men and a secret. It got mixed reviews and another mixed response from us - Ed agreed with the critics who thought it took too long; I thought it unfolded at the right pace and ended well.

Our second Korean event of the day came next - also in the open air venue of the college quad, but luckily the weather was dry, if not over warm. We were soon warmed by the infectious enthusiasm and energy of the group - six women and a man, playing exciting percussion, flute and singing. Although the young man was the most flamboyant, he was ably supported by the girl singer, who had a surprisingly raucous voice in a contralto key - I was expecting high pitched asian warbling - who delivered singalong cheerful tunes alongside powerful ballads. Just what was needed on a chilly evening and we, and the rest of the large audience, responded by joining in with singing, clapping and bopping along as requested, ending up with a mass conga line to the exit, where we were applauded out by the band.

The night finished with Skolka, the story of three Muscovite girls offering themselves as mail-order brides to the West, and why. There are no surprises in their stories, but it's well presented and wittily acted, and we enjoyed it. I particularly liked the way the men were represented by articles of clothing, some still on their hangers.

Every year we come across a young theatre group with a new slant on Shakespeare that we thoroughly enjoy. This year it was the Year Out Drama Company's version of The Two Noble Kinsmen. I only recognised the story from Chaucer's Knight's Tale; I don't think it's part of the main canon of Shakespeare - however, it was a great performance, with extremely clever use of physical theatre - members of the cast uniting to become the forest, etc. I was especially taken with the Games scene, where a length of blue chiffon became a swimming pool, a river, a tug of war rope, hurdles and the finishing tape in the space of a few seconds.

Then followed a trip to the Edinburgh Museum to see Picasso - Fired With Passion, an exhibition documenting Picasso's time in the South of France, his new passion for pottery, his continuing passion for creativity, and his passion for the two last important women in his life. The pots were good to see, though I'd have liked more of them and perhaps less biographical detail, although all was very interesting. One of my favourite artists.

Another museum, only recently opened on the ground floor of the HBOS bank headquarters, with displays on the history of money and banking in Scotland and Edinburgh, and more. Actually quite fascinating; well worth popping in on a wet day, which is what we did!

Back to Aurora Nova, this time for another puppet show, though rather different from the Sock Theatre. This was The Battle of Stalingrad by the Tbilisi Marionnette State Theatre of Georgia. This was one of Ed's favourites. I liked it too, but found it difficult to focus on the small bright stage in the dark and kept seeing double. The puppets were brilliant and the story haunting. With narration in Russian, with simultaneous translation, it reminded me a little of those fairy stories from Europe that used to be on TV when I was a child. It was very Russian, with everyone coming to a tragic end, even, especially in fact, the little horse Alyosha. I might have cried if it hadn't been so clearly flagged from the start..

Another musical interlude next, back at St. Cecelia's Hall, where Ann Bond gave us Pride and Practice, tunes from the 18th century French court (Pride) and Bach's (Practice) pieces written for his son, played on the beautiful 1755 Baillon harpsichord. We both liked the Bach best.

Pure dance next. I liked it; Ed didn't much. Called Timeless, the three pieces celebrated different times of life, beginning with a duet by 50 year old choreographer Matthew Hawkins and the 79 year old dancer Diana Payne-Myers; followed by a homoerotic duet by two Canadian dancers in their prime; and finishing with two adolescent brothers (Tom and Jake Cassani) exploring growing up. Ed wanted more music, more plot and less of the gay element in his dance.

We saw The Bacchae - not the main festival version, which got mixed reviews, but Black and White Rainbow Theatre's version, set in 1930's America. We aren't familiar with the story, and felt there was a back plot we should have known first, but we thought the production was stylish and slick, with some excellent moments.

This had been a wet day from morning. We had dinner, hoping that we would emerge to a clear evening, as our last show of the day was Macbeth, Who is That Bloodied Man? by Polish company Biuro Podrozy, in the open air. Unfortunately it was pelting down harder than ever as we huddled around the Old College Quad. Our umbrella turned into a mere rain filter and we had to peer from under its dripping, round other people's umbrellas, to glimpse the soggy scene.

It was a great shame as this production, rather loosely based on Macbeth, relied heavily on special effects, particularly pyrotechnics. We knew all would not be well when the witches appeared on their stilts and failed to light any of the supposed to be blazing torches around the stage. There were a few good moments, as when the witches kept reviving after being shot, but all in all it was a washout. We sploshed home.

Time was when Shakespeare for Breakfast was one of the few morning selections at the Fringe. But now you can start in the morning every day if you wish.

We usually wish, so set off to the Traverse in good time to view this year's Dazzle jewellery exhibition at the Traverse theatre before our first show at 11am. Some quite nice pieces - I liked Georgia Wiseman's mixing of gold and silver, and metal and pearls - but the innovative stuff looked mostly unwearable, so we weren't tempted.

We had gone to see David Greig's Damascus, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It was one of my Fringe Favourites; Ed wasn't quite so impressed. The characters were well written and portrayed, especially Paul Higgins' character Paul, trying to sell a politically correct, in tune with modern Britain, multicultural ESL course "Middleton Road" to the representative of the Education minister in Damascus. We instantly recognised Zakaria, perfectly played by Khalid Laith to represent a typical working class boy in the hotel industry, with no money and no future, but full of aspirations and sure that if he could only emigrate to the West, he would make his fortune (and get laid).
The misunderstandings, attempts to gain understanding and a twist at the end serve to make this a play well worth seeing.

To Aurora Nova to see the latest production of one of our favourites from previous years, the Song of the Goat company's Lacrimosa. Billed as physical theatre, but just as much song, it was a heart wrenching exploration of the pogroms in Arras in 1485, following a plague outbreak. Haunting singing based on Mozart's requiem and swirling dance made this performance a thing of great beauty. We loved it.

We gave mixed reviews to our next event - the Andy Warhol exhibition. In our recent visit to Toledo, Ohio (not blogged about yet - watch this space) We had seen another such exhibition, where I had ben somewhat converted, mainly due to the things Warhol said about his work, as well as the series of pictures about Jackie Kennedy Onassis, amongst others. Ed had missed that room, as he doesn't care for Warhol.
So to Edinburgh and the new exhibition at the National Gallery. I liked some of it. I was interested to see just how a different colour changes the character of a portrait, and particularly liked later portraits where Warhol's blocks of colour crossed the lines of the features in different ways, not just "colouring them in". We met Norma in there and she agreed - she also liked his early drawings. Ed remained unimpressed.

St. Cecilia's Hall was the venue for our next show, a performance by the Edinburgh Renaissance Band, with dancing by Edinburgh Early Dancers and Polyhymnia. The music ranged from the Early 15th to early 17th centuries, and the dancers wore 15th century inspired costumes in the first half and 16th century in the second. The musicians had vaguely medieval shirts with appropriately muted coloured tunics or gowns, and discreet black 21st century trousers and shoes! The performance was excellent, although it took a while to regain the momentum after a splendid entrance, and I was slightly bothered by the elderly nature of the dancers - no reason why they shouldn't be, of course, just that in the medieval courts the music came from the dancers would have been, like today, the younger folk, watched by the grannies!

The gown of the lady in green on the right was wonderful - she had an overdress of green velvet for the first dance. The lady in the pink curtains didn't have such a successful outfit, I felt.

Our first ever visit to Leith next, to the Black Tent at Ocean Terminal, to see Fuerzabruta! This was a spectacle, relying for effect on surprise, loud music, large moving scenography on ground, walls and ceiling, lots of energy and a thick steamy, sometimes wet, atmosphere. It succeeded admirably! We were open-mouthed with amazement from the first moment, and as the novelty wore off, we were carried along with the carnival atmosphere they orchestrated in the crowd. I wouldn't need to go again, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Tip - stand in the middle, not at the edge, and wear comfy shoes and old clothes - I got splashed with fake blood and others got paper dust over them!

Postscript to the day. We came back from Leith on the No.22 bus, as advised by Norma, and who should be also on it but Paul Merton, who had just been to Fuerzabruta! too. Knowing we all recognised him, he chatted amiably about the show, the novelty of being on a bus, and his show at the castle the following night. Nice bloke.

Returned from our annual jaunt to Edinburgh. We stayed as usual with Norma in her wonderful tenement flat overlooking the Meadows, and enjoyed catching up on news and opinions over late night glasses of wine after our separate adventures at the Edinburgh International Festival (Norma) and the Fringe Festival (us).

We decided that although we had seen some very good stuff and had enjoyed it all (or mostly all, in Ed's case!) there was no outstanding piece that we would recall above all others this year.

We got off to an excellent start with the second performance we have seen by NIE theatre - "The End of Everything Ever" documenting the childhood of jewish Agata in prewar Berlin, and her evacuation to England. Full of music, and comedy underpinned by the knowledge of the horrors actually going on, like the "Let's pretend someone comes and we all hide in the wardrobe Game". Laughter through tears - as Dolly Parton says in Steel Magnolias, one of my favourite emotions!

Seven Fingers of the Hand are a group of 5 ex members of Cirque du Soleil, whose show, Traces, was another good one. To all intents and purposes just a bunch of kids hanging out in a shabby apartment, but their acrobatic dancing, piano playing and soundtrack turns it into a mesmerising performance. Heloise curled up with a book in an armchair - under the armchair, on the armchair, around the armchair - was one of my favourite bits, but the tumbling through hoops was impressive too.

Physical drama with music has been something of a theme of our festival this year, and we followed Traces with Into the Hoods by Zoonation. A hiphop version of inner city fairy tales, featuring a tower block whose inhabitants were Li'l Red; Spindarella; Prince; Rap on Zel; Wolf, and in the basement, Jaxx - all visited by a modern day Hansel and Gretel on a mission to get home safely. Full of energy and wit, using song lyrics instead of a script. Great fun and it all ended happily ever after, more or less!

Our first day finished with this quirky little performance which got 5 stars on youtube for short vieo clips, but probably deserves a bit less stretched over the hour, live. If you can call a puppet show live. We were reminded of Morcambe and Wise, and nearly reminded of those two young men who used to dress up as elderly ladies and sing humorously (only we couldn't recall the names so the memory obviously didn't quite surface). It was very silly and it made us laugh quite a lot...

Coming from the East coast, I'm used to sand dunes, but not to sand cliffs! We went for a long weekend to the "U.P." as natives of Michigan call their Upper Peninsular and had a great day out at the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Shoreline.
The scenery was lovely, with panoramas stretching from the huge lakes that look more like seas, over the massive coastal dunes inland to smaller lakes and secondary grassy dunes, as far as the eye could see. The biggest coastal dune was this 450' drop down to Lake Michigan. As you can possibly just glimpse, some people braved the almost vertical walk down (or should I say the prospect of the later exhausting struggle back up?) to get to the beach at the bottom.

The guys briefly considered giving it a whirl, daring each other to be the first to set off down ...

but the majority opinion was against!

We contented ourselves with strolling along the boardwalks to the various lookout points, before tackling a lesser (recommended for tourists who don't want to incur heart attacks) sand dune that confirmed us in our sensible decision, as we nearly caused the skin on our soles to peel off in the baking sand. We ended the day in Lake Michigan via an almost flat access point near Glen Arbor.

Whilst on holiday in Detroit, we went to visit the stately homes of Edsel and Eleanor Ford, and Eleanor's great social rival, Matilda Dodge Wilson. Both built in the 1920's, the Ford home at Grosse Pointe was mock Cotswolds style;

whereas the Wilson residence at Meadow Brook was mock Tudor:

Dearborn had by far the more picturesque setting, surrounded by gorgeous, carefully planned flower gardens, shrubberies and arboreta, with a "natural" swimming pool merging into a lagoon, which flowed out to Lake St Claire, offering beautiful vistas in all directions.
I was asked by a guide in the play house what I thought of it and replied in a similar way to a house guide I once spoke to at Polesden Lacy, who hadn't liked the artificiality of how it had been furnished by buying in antique features from elsewhere.
I felt the same about Dearborn; the interiors were grandiose and stately, but I felt that in being plundered from elsewhere, and fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle, it didn't quite have the probable style and proportion of the originals. The ceilings were all a bit low, with no space between archways and ceilings, and the rooms seemed not quite to flow. Impressive, but not pleasing.
On the other hand, with equal amounts of money, Matilda Dodge Wilson had taken her inspiration from her prolonged European honeymoon (accompanied by her architect) but had then returned to Detroit and commissioned similar features from local craftsmen and artists, with the result that the "medieval" carved fireplace featured a Mr Punch-like court jester in one corner, and Charlie Chaplin in the other, and the carved frieze around Mr Wilson's study featured scenes from his own life and career, with some very humorous touches.
I wouldn't say that either style of furnishing suited my own ideas of comfortable decor; but I liked the Meadowbrook honesty much better.

Our holiday was very watery! Paul and Kathy's garden backs on to Watkins Lake, with a lovely view and we not only walked around it a couple of times, but took their pontoon boat on the water for a trip to admire some of the fancy homes along the lake shore and to swim off the sandbar.
The sandbar is a much used Michigan feature - even lakes with no beach have a shallow sandy bit somewhere, and on a sunny weekend the locals all head to it, anchor their boats and hang out together in the shallow water, swimming, wading, drinking and generally socialising. All very civilised.
As well as Watkins Lake, we ventured into Torch Lake, when we went to visit the very hospitable Jim and Tracy, and their daughter Juliet and husband Jeff, who have a lovely Victorian weekend home in Alden. As we were a party of 12 altogether, we took two boats - Rick and Jim sailed the more intrepid on the yacht, whilst Jeff and Juliet took us seasick souls on the speedboat. The result you see - I got drenched in the spray en-route! I didn't get seasick, however, and was prepared to get right in when we arrived at the sandbar.
There were hundreds of craft on Torch sandbar, including a Burger Barge. We had a lovely time wading, then hanging out on the yacht, chatting and snacking in the sunshine.
We also swam in Lake Michigan itself another day - a much colder proposition than the smaller lakes - Kris wore her double skin wetsuit, but the rest of us were just brave! I have to say our swims were also briefer than hers! We looked for Petosky stones on the beach, but only found them in the gift store.
Ed rounded off his watery visits with a dip in Bruno's diving pool with Paul, as Rick prepared them for a dive in Monroe Quarry. Kathy and I passed on this treat - we like our dives tropical and coral fringed - but reckoned we saw as many fish in the clear water as the men did, sitting at the edge.

Here I am back after our trip to Michigan to see Richard and meet his inlaws. We had a great time - more details later, but here's a picture of the whole family at Bubba's in Traverse City.

Left-right: Paul; Rick, Liz; Stacey; Kristin; Kathy; Kyle and Ed.

Paul and Kathy are Kris's parents; Kyle is her only brother and he's the same age as Rick and is married to Stacey.

We were about to eat - I had a Michigan salad, which includes blue cheese and cherries. Michigan is famous for cherries, and as they are one of Ed's favourite foods, featured heavily throughout the holiday, in all forms!