The muddy hordes have dispersed. For now only the slow moving stragglers weave an uncertain path home, and the debris of battle litters the ground and walls where just a while ago the muddied hordes had passed...... coloured hand-prints on white walls, mud stains on the road, bits and pieces of discarded costumes litter the road waiting silently in the hopes that the band will pass back and they will be picked up again. An eerie silence hangs over the city, a brief and temporary respite soon to be reversed with a vengeance. For the moment all roads lead to parked cars if they can be found, and the promise of a short lie-down in bed beckons tauntingly. It won't be long before the hordes, all cleansed and dressed in the their Carnival finery, retake the roads in the final assault, an act of ultimate bacchanal. The tired groups in both the pics above and below float in the boundary layer, a place of transition, the carnival purgatory, still dirty and muddied but in clean and quiet surroundings......the sounds of J'ouvert still echo in their ears although the music has been turned off.......beer and rum have given way to Coke. Soon, they too will be cleansed of the ceremonial muds (not in the pool Jennifer hopes) and prepare for the trek back to the road where the cleanliness, beauty, and creativity of their costumes would mis-lead all but the most experienced in to believing that what comes next has got to be more decent that what went before.....HaHa!!.... Yeah!...decent?

In the picture above, from left to right that's my (Barbara's) cousin, Chris Cooke-Yarborough (from Florida), Mark Haskell (visiting from Alberta), me (Barbara), and Gillian Ross (Haskell).

Thanks for both of the lovely pics go out to Barbara Gillen (Davenport) who seems herself to have had a good time.

In the pic below from left - Unidentified person in fancy costume playing in the Canines and Associates presentation of Party Doggies, cute little girl thinking "mud pile here I come", Man, Woman, Jim Craig, Sara Beadon, Glen Beadon, another Party Doggie enjoys a hug, Kerine Craig, .