Hillridge Farms

Hillridge Farms 

Youngsville, NC            October 17, 2009

Ok, so late start again. I love to sleep. What can I say. We left the house around lunch time. I decided before going to Youngsville, I would take a detour and go to Smithfield. I have been to the outlet stores but it has been years and I thought I could get a new pair of shoes for Tizi there. So detour taken. We looked at several of the shoe stores, and we just stayed with his favorites. It was actually the same price at the outlets as it was in the stores in Fayetteville. But Tizi had fun riding those little rides on the sidewalks that cost 50 cents. And we got a hotdog and ice cream at dairy queen. Time had flown by though, because by the time we left Smithfield, it was like 3:30 pm.

We got back on track and headed towards Youngsville, a small country town past Raleigh. I assumed it was going to be like an hour away from Smithfield. I was hoping the farm was going to be open til 8:00 pm or so. Wrong. It took two hours to get to Youngsville from Smithfield. Traffic through Raleigh was horrendous. We made it to Hillridge Farms at around 5:30 pm. The farm was going to close at 6:30 pm. Ugh. We got out of the car and I said, "Tizi, run and have fun really fast."

The cost to get into the farm was $10 per person and it was totally worth it. In that hour, Tizi ran through a cool children's maze. There were pony rides, but we didn't do that. There is a giant slide. Tizi and I were going to go down the slide, but when we got to the top, Tizi said, "Mom, I don't really want to do this." And I said, "Thank goddess."  I was scared to death. It was a big black tunnel that you slide down with no windows or light. I'm kind of a wimp. So we ran down to the bottom of the slide area. Then I saw a train. It was just about to take off when we got to it. We picked a seat right in front behind the driver. (I don't recommend that unless you like being high on diesel fuels.) The train was awesome. Of course, I was high on diesel fuels at the time. It could have all been an illusion. It did go around a large track twice. With this little train tour, there was old farm equipment to look at and pumpkin-like haystacks. Oh the time they must put into this event every October, that family has to be exhausted. So we had a great time on the train.

Then we ran through a big castle. I lost Tizi. Then he found me. Then we ran towards the hay ride. It was one of the last rides of the night. On the way to the hay ride was a little covered area filled with hay where children were jumping up and down and having a great time. Oh, there was live music there and karaoke. On the hay ride we road all over the farm and through some woods to end up in a pumpkin patch. There we were able to get out and pick one pumpkin each. I just let Tizi pick one, because I didn't really want to carry two pumpkins. Plus we had already gotten two pumpkins at home and Tizi was decorating another one at school. Tiziano looked at every single pumpkin there. Finally we got the very best pumpkin in the world. And we took off running back to the leaving hay ride. So we road through the woods again and all around the farm.

The family and friends of the farm were having a bon fire and they were getting ready to cook some food over it. I also saw a man with a big gas can over the fire. I was a little worried about that, but stayed in ducking position for the rest of the hayride. Hopefully, no one thought we were too strange. When we got done with the hayride, Tizi ran through a hay maze and then back through that colorful children's maze again.

On the way out of the farm, they have a little country store. We went in and got homemade blueberry preserves, homemade superman ice cream, and homemade fudge. It was so good. They also had little toys and things for children. I got Tiziano a small train, since that is one of his favorite things. When we got outside of the store, I rode Tizi around in a pumpkin wagon and I took some pictures in front of some Halloween decorations. I got quite a picture of all kinds of orbs around the area.


We left the farm and headed home. I think it was about 7:30 pm. Though we only got to spend a short time at the farm, it was totally worth it. I recommend it to everyone who has children. We did so much and there was still plenty more to do had we had more time. I will definitely be heading back to the farm next year. You should too.

Scottish Highland Games

Scottish Highland Games

Laurenburg, NC          October 3, 2009

Oh my GOSH!!! Is there one of these every week? Ok I want to live at one of these festivals. I have never seen so many men in kilts in my life. Parking was a little weird. This was the first year of the Scottish Highland Games in Scotland County, NC. People had to park in this big giant field. Well it looked like no cars had ever parked there before and there was 3-4’ grass all around, which was fine. It made me feel like I was on an episode of little house on the prairie. But there were also briars, a lot of them. I don’t recommend sandals.  Ouch. I still have a sticker thorn in one of my fingers from pulling them out of my feet. Tizi had never seen briars before so he thought it was Hell so far. Lol We walked across the street to the ticket booth. I picked up a program to the game events and paid for my and my son’s armbands.

My son and I walked in and to the right there was a stage with a cool Scottish/Celtic sounding band. It sounded like alternative rock. On the left was the food booths. There were fajitas and haggis (ewww) and hamburgers and hotdogs, and homemade danish and breads. We kept walking through the field past the stage and an older couple came to ask if they could see my program. I told them yes. I said the games are about to begin (Noon) and that we missed the opening ceremony. L  We woke up late for the festivities again.  She said, “You didn’t miss much.” So then I was disappointed. I thought hmmm, this isn’t going to be fun if the opening ceremony wasn’t beautiful and interesting like I assumed it would be. “They must be about to start the games, because there are a lot of really big men over there near the field,” they said.   I said, “Where are they? Because that’s what I came to see.” That statement took them by such surprise that they stared at me for a long pause and then they were doubled over laughing. Consequently, I met the couple again later and they asked if I got to see those big men. And I said, “Yes. And I got pictures!” They laughed again, cute couple.

So off we went in search of the games. They had not started yet. So we watched some bag pipers. I think there was a musician contest, but I’m not really sure. I missed that. There was a lot going on here all at the same time. It was very well planned out so that you could be kept busy the whole time. I walked up to a booth. I thought they were selling things. There were lots and lots of booths. When I got up to the table there was a sign in book and lots of historical artifacts and books. Then a man came up and asked, “Are you of the McCloud clan?” And I said something like, “Huh.” He explained to me that the booths were set up by clans. I said, “Oh, I’m not Scottish. I’m Irish and Norwegian.” He said he had a book that showed the meanings of old Irish surnames and he let me look mine up. Scahill means “Bright Flower” according to the book. Sounds magnificent to me.

We moved along away from the booths and the awkward explanations that I’m not really Scottish and my son is Mexican. The games had still not begun, but I noticed a lot of children with numbers on their backs. It looked like there were children’s games. I asked Tizi if he wanted to compete. And, being an Aries, of course he did. So I got him a number and lined him to up to compete in some big rock throwing contest. It was an excellent pitch, I must say. I’m not really sure if he won or anything because there were like a million more kids after him. And let’s face it, who wants to see other people’s kids anyways? Just kidding. They were all precious, but I opted for the big men, as the games were just beginning.

Tizi and I went to get some homemade ice cream and then found a place to have a seat on the grass and watch the big events. Well these men were abnormally huge. I mean 6’7” and muscular. They were lifting up what looked like telephone poles. And then they tossed them. I gathered that the pole had to fall forward and it was best that it touched a certain line or went over the line. Whoever flipped it farther won. It was fascinating, and I’m not just saying that because of the kilts and the heavy grunting…lol

So we ate the delicious ice cream and watched the games for a bit and then went to the facilities, port-o-potties. We walked by the children’s games again and they were doing a different game. So I signed Tizi up. It looked like a bleach bottle that had been duck taped all around to make it look like something else. It was tied to a rope and the kids are supposed to spin around and throw the thing. Whoever makes it go farthest wins. My son got a proud 5’7”! It was awesome.

Then we got thirsty. I really have to think about bringing bottled waters to these events from now on. The food booths were completely sold out of drinks, except for this one booth that had some authentic Scottish orange aid kind of sports drink. We were desperate. We had to drink it….Ugg. We still had those drinks when we got home that night. We went to the food places to get a snack. It was only about 2:30pm. The hamburgers and hotdogs were sold out. Oh no! We were forced to eat…gulp…Scottish food!!!!!  EEEEAAAKKKKKK!!!! Oh man, I don’t know what that was. It was something like a beef pot pie or something, but one sniff and a tiny nibble and it was up from our picnic, waving politely to the nice booth owners, and discretely tossing that stuff in the trash can when they weren’t looking. We went to the danish shop and got a strawberry shortcake. And the hotdog/hamburger place still had about 4 bags of chips. So we got two bags of Doritos and that was our lunch.

Apparently the festival arrangers did not plan for the number of people that actually came. By 1:00 pm they had run out of armbands. The (normal) food and drink was all gone by 2:00 pm. This would have been a great venue for a booth. I believe most all of the shops sold out of their wares again by about 2:00 pm.

We ate our strawberry shortcake under a shade tree and I let Tizi go play on a children’s train caboose that was by the tree. Then we took our bags of Doritos over to the concert area, and sat on the ground and watched. We saw Scottish dancers and listened to some violin.

Then got up and went over to see what was happening with the games. The boys were still going. Now they were tossing some giant weight straight up in the air, right above their heads crazily. Whoever’s weight went the highest won. And no one died from blunt force trauma. Again awesome!

Then we turned around and the children’s games were beginning again. This time it was something called a perimeter race. (By the way, the children’s games were totally free. I thought that was wonderful.) I thought they meant the perimeter of a little roped in area for the children’s games. But alas, I was incorrect. The perimeter race was all the way around the whole Scottish Highland Games, about ½ a mile. But I had already signed him up and he was raring to go. I was thinking, “Oh Gosh, Do I run with him? Or do I just sit here while he runs around in the middle of the woods with a bunch of strangers.” I was wearing sandals and had a bag full of Irish Soda Bread. (It’s really heavy bread in case you were wondering.) I opted to let him run by himself. There were about 25 other children from ages 4 - 6 who were running with him. He would be fine.

So I watched eagerly as he ran. Then, he started to dilly dally. I could see him through the people and the trees running the path. He wasn’t keeping up with the other children. He kept looking back and slowing down and stopping. I think he must have been looking for me to follow him. So I started to run through the middle of the Highland games fields trying to run parallel to the track. Maybe he would see me and see that he could keep going. I got to the entrance of the games, and kids ran by, and Tizi wasn’t with them. I started to freak out, looking all around for my son. I started to double back to see if he was by the train area. When I got to the train area, I looked across the field and there he was on the other side still on track. So I followed the track back around. I started to run after him. He stopped completely towards the end of the race. He didn’t see me at the end. So he started to freak out. I finally reached him as he just stood looking ahead. And when I got to him, I grabbed his hand and kept running, dragging him along and said, “Let’s go!” He didn’t know I was behind him. He was happily surprised. A little blond girl shouted to my son, "Come on number 177. You can do it!" Some of the other mom’s on the side lines were talking and they said things like, “You’re a better mom than I” and “I hope that bag is not heavy”. As we darted passed them, I shouted, “Yes, it’s heavy. It’s Irish Soda Bread.” They looked as if they understood. We got to the finish line. I think we were second to last. But it was grand! Tizi was so happy. We just ran to the side of the track onto the grass and plopped down on the ground. We sat feeling accomplished and drank our nasty Scottish orange soda.



On the way out we took some time to look at the historical houses and buildings on the property. It was like stepping into the past, maybe 1890. There was an old cotton gin and old plantation house and an old reverend’s house (tiny, tiny, tiny). It was all lovely and interesting. The festivities as a whole were wonderful. We had a great time and we will most definitely be going to next years games.

International Folk Festival

International Folk Festival
September 26th and 27th, Fayetteville, North Carolina

This is a two day event in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I was so glad I found parking right away, but I'm a pretty lucky person when it comes to parking. I couldn't see the festival from the main roads.  But I followed the sound of old Irish tunes, the Native American frocks, and the smell of deliciousness and I knew I was there. I believe the saying is, "Follow your nose." Tizi, my son, was happy to go to a festival so close to home. We still arrived at around 1:00pm. We are just not early risers on the weekend. We need to get better at that. So we arrived to the Irish music a-playin' and there were people a-stompin' and a-clappin' on the corner and so did Tizi. He loves that music, he may be Mexican-American but by-gholly, he's also Irish-American. Well we listened a little while and then got moving. 


Then we passed a sidewalk full of people just like us, smelling the delicious food. The first booth we saw had Mexican food, then Puerto Rican, Carribean, Italian, Greek, Costa Rican (icees), Tai, Chinese, and Japanese. Whatever kind of food your mouth was watering for, it was there. We settled for baklava and pizza. We past several shops with crafts and jewelry and blown glass from different areas around the world. We crossed over a bridge into a large grassy area. There was a stage to the left that had Greek children dancing. Then there was Tai dancing and sparring, then Hawiian, then Aztec. (Their outfits were really cool.) The stage to the right had a Puerto Rican band. There was more food all around from hotdogs to hamburgers and Domino's Pizza to, well I don't really know what kind of food that other stuff was, but it sure smelled good. Domino's gave away some free beach balls to all the children. 


The beach balls were the highlight of the event for me. I mean culture is cool and all, but fun is most important. My son started running around all over the place with a whole bunch of children. Children are so magical, no shyness at all. It was a cloudy day. It had rained earlier in the morning so the grass was wet and had mud under it. So the children ran and ran and fell and got mud all over themselves. Just made me remember how fun it used to be to be a kid running around in the rain without a care in the world. Then these teenagers came into the circle where the little ones were playing. Some teenage B-boys started to break dancing. They were doing the coolest moves and handstands. This was totally unrelated to the Internation Folk Festival, just kids having fun, but wow. That was the best part. So then we left.


I will go again next year since it is so close to home. It's mostly an event for the food. Really not a lot of kids activities unless you consider socializing an activity. It's definately a cultural event. But I think it may be a cool date idea for next year.

Central NC Pagan Pride Day

Central NC Pagan Pride Day
September 19th and 20th, 2009, Raleigh, North Carolina


It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot, around 90 degrees with a nice breeze. It was perfect. I got up early on that September 19th, but still had a late start. I just had some last minute decisions to make before traveling to Raleigh from Fayetteville that Saturday morning. So I got myself and my son ready and stopped by the store to get some light snacks for the trip on the way to the festival. This was the first two day Pagan Pride Day festival for central North Carolina. I have never been to any of the others, so this would be a new experience for me.


We arrived in Raleigh, the exact way my Google Maps directed us to the State Fair Grounds. I just had to find Gate 5. I past Gate 11 and stayed with the traffic. I saw lots of people. I thought, wow, this is the hugest festival I have ever seen for Pagans. I was so excited, but everyone was wearing red. I thought, “Oh my, I didn’t get the memo. Was I supposed to wear red?” But I just kept driving. Then I started to look at these red people and they all looked like frat boys and jocks and they carried flags with them. I thought, “Hmm. This can’t be right.” Then I realized I was going to the North Carolina State Arena or something. I don’t know; a place where they do sports or something. So I said well this must not be the right place and I kept driving and driving. After a while, I thought it best just to turn around and go into Gate 11. The State Fair Grounds cannot possibly be that big.


So I found a parking spot right in front. Ooh, I was so happy. I decided to just leave my canned food in the car until I find where I need to take it. My son, Tiziano, and I began walking around the flea market on our little adventure of finding the entrance to the Pagan Festival. I thought, well, this is cool, but it looks like a flea market, not a festival. And I kept thinking, where do we turn in our cans? And how do they know all these people are allowed to be in here and if they’ve turned in their cans? Well we walked…and we walked…I enjoyed the flea market very much. We went into the in-door flea market. It was very nice; still, just a flea market. I blame myself for being lost. I am very shy and do not like to ask for directions. But then Tizi was getting hungry, and I wanted to wait for the food at the festival to see if there was anything interesting to eat, but it was time for some kind of food for the little guy. I got him some mint chocolate chip ice cream. He loved it. I had a bite and it was quite delicious. And I asked the ice cream lady where the festival was. She pointed behind her and said, “It’s probably back that way.” So, we walked again in the general direction of the ice cream ladies finger.


Finally, we found the festival. I knew I was going the right way, because I started hearing what sounded like beautiful Celtic sounding music. It sounded like a spiritual meditation about halfway down the parking lot towards the festival. It was about 2 hours after we arrived in Raleigh, so it was around 3:00 pm when we entered. The man at the entrance was very nice. I told him I left my cans about 2 miles back and he let me decide how much money to give him for our entry fee. I donated $5.00 for entrance.


It was like I had just stepped into another world from the flea market surrounding I had left; a beautiful serene world, with ambiance and music to match. It really was a perfect location for the festival because there were large oak trees all about giving lots of shade. But there was also a large open field of grass for circles, seating, and children running. There is a path with waiting picnic tables through the center. Then there was a lovely large riverside deck with ducks surrounding. My son found the ducks most exciting, but he is only five. The bathrooms were a little less than desirable for a ½-Virgo, but it is outdoors and I was expecting port-o-johns, so I was still happily surprised that they had plumbing. We walked all around and then went back and played with the ducks.


The Greek Festival was catering the Pagan Festival, so there were an abundance of stuffed grape leaves (my favorite), cucumber dressing and salad stuffed pitas, and most importantly bottled drinks. The food and drink (hydration) are the most important and the most profitable parts of a festival, so I was a little surprised that there were no other food vendors, but I don’t eat much and I wasn’t staying for an extended amount of time, so Greek was good to me.


There was an abundance of shops. Honestly, I didn’t know there were so many pagan shops in North Carolina. You know we are stuck in our own little hole working, so we don’t often see what’s going on in the rest of the world. There were easily 30 – 40 shops and there was something for everyone. Some one was selling these musical instruments that looked like symbols, and they sounded like thunder. There were people selling staffs and handmade wands. There were clothes and jewelry. There was a little book store. There were candles and herbs and altar boxes. It was pretty awesome. There were also people there doing face painting and henna tattoos. My son got a henna lizard on his forearm. During his tattooing, he was so still and quiet and mesmerized looking at the dainty artist’s beautiful bosoms in her medieval bodice. It was cute. He’s definitely all boy. I think there was even drool.


There were also children’s activities and grown up sparing with real swords and armor. My son loved the sparing. But we had arrived late, so we missed the children’s activities. We are kind of fly-by-the-seat of our pants kind of people anyway. My son made friends with some children in the grass. The rolled down the hill and ran around in circles. It was precious. The people there were all unique and refreshing. There were people dressed in belly dancing outfits and people dressed in witchy Halloween outfits and people just dressed like a day in the park.


I left around 5:30 pm. I didn’t have a program of events, so I didn’t know they were going to do a nighttime circle at 6:00 pm or I would have stayed. The planners were kind enough to allow me to use some of their pictures for my newsletter.


All-in-all, despite the fact that I got lost in the flea market, if you are new age, pagan, or spiritual, you would have enjoyed this event. There were children’s activities, art, music, food, fun, dancing, jewelry, cute single guys and girls, and a drum circle. Who doesn’t LOVE a good drum circle? And if you love flea markets, you have to take a daytrip down to the State Fair Grounds because, we saw a dog show. And we passed the Greek festival and we saw a tailgate party thing. At the same time, there was also a train show, not to mention all the great deals you find at flea markets. So thumbs up for this festival and thumbs up for the State Fair Grounds in Raleigh, NC. I’m definitely going to go back next year.

Introduction to the Dream Traveler

My name is Melanie Banks, melanie@dinahsdreams.net, I am the second child of Dinah at Dinah's Dreams (www.dinahsdreams.com). Years ago, in 1990 when my grandmother Nancy (Gramma) owned the shop, it was called Visions. Some of you know my older sister Amy. Both of us worked since the shop's conception. We have a brother, Jacob. He makes wands and woodcrafts. I have worked in the shop since I was around 11 years old and now I run the Web Site.

Several generations in both my mother's and father's side of the family believed in magic, astrology, and psychic energy. I remember Mom and Gramma used to do astrology charts by hand. By hand, it took three times to get my chart right, because it is so complex. I was born on a cusp. That means I was born between signs. I have to read both Virgo and Libra horoscopes, and it's still isn't quite right. There really isn't a horoscope for us weirdos. I was born on Mabon (September 22nd) at 2:22 pm to be exact. Can you guess my lucky number?

Gramma taught metaphysical classes since 1968 up north. While owning she shop, when I was a teenager, she taught for several years, and I attended all her classes. But she and Mom taught me lots before the classes started. It was just fun to go to these classes with other interesting people. Some of the other shop owners in town also attended those classes when they were younger and before they owned shops. I like to think my grandmother helped them open their mind a little to more things which lead them to opening shops. Who knows, I feel we have touched a lot of people in positive ways and helped to spread the movement of acceptance.

At the time we opened our shop in North Carolina, Dion Warwick and Ms. Cleo hadn't begun their psychic communities, so there was little tolerance to psychic readings or even having your palm read. We were taboo. There were some very trying and crying times in the beginning for us and our shop. (Some reading this can probably relate. It's hard to be different.) People would come and yell at us and say very hurtful things that were traumatizing, especially for a child working in the shop, knowing that we were doing nothing wrong. We were evicted from two flea markets in town because psychic readings were considered unacceptable; first Raeford Road Flea Market and then the Bragg Blvd Flea Market, so we had to be very careful about what we sold. Finally, we found our home at the US Flea Mall. As a preteen and teen, because of all the anger towards us, I put a wall up and became very defensive, wore all black and died my hair to match for years. I constantly thought I had to defend myself and my beliefs. After all the telephone/television psychics began making it "ok" to have psychic readings, the previous flea markets have since allowed shops like ours to exist. So when the Bragg Blvd Flea Market began accepting people like us, we were able to convert my father's shop from an antique store to one like ours.

The Fenix House has grown and changed and it has its' own unique brand of products that offer something a little different than our shop, but still similar in nature. And now, with all the acceptance going on, there is an abundance of metaphysical, new age, pagan, wiccan, psychic (whatever you want to call them) shops all over the place. There is something for everyone and each place is a little different. There is some pretty cool stuff and people out there. It's awesome and the variety is endless, which is why I want to start this series of articles.

When I attend events or places that people like us would like to visit, I'm going to write about them. In my next article I will talk about Pagan Pride Day in Central NC. Did anyone else attend? Write me! Write me! Write me! ( I was conjuring up some email, teehee) and tell me how you liked it. Personally, I thought it was awesome!

Seriously, I love hearing from like minded people. Write me just to say "Hey", if you want. (Melanie@dinahsdreams.net) If you have an event you want me to attend, let me know. Invite me. I will write about it. Oh! Oh!...if you attended an event or a fun place around here, tell me, write an article about it. You can be "The Dream Traveler" too. Or suggest I go and take my son, if you don't want to write an article!

Oh, by the way, I only attend family friendly things. I am molding a young mind. He goes where I go. No nudity for me please. But if you attended something with nudity, and you want to tell people about it, that's cool. Write me. I may do an article on it...maybe. :-)

More to come later from the Dream Traveler. (lol)