A night out in Minchinhampton

A quick turnaround last night, since Mark was involved in this year's Minchinhampton Community Sing, performing a piece written by the Stuart Singers accompanist, Barrie Cooper, entitled Fishermen of Galilee.

In spite of the threatening weather, the church was full and the singers in fine voice. The cantata is fantastic - Barrie is such a talented composer and I hope that this "one-off" performance won't be the end of it for surely there are more community choirs who would enjoy the work.

After only four rehearsals, I think the performance was remarkable.  Have a listen and see what you think.

Oh, and Mark's solo was the best bit, of course ;-)

Art

Most miserable day of the year?  In Gods Own County?  No way... 

We're here at the colourful and art-filled  Devonshire Fell  hotel once again, with a view of the ~River Wharfe and the fells which is simply breathtaking.  But it is January, it's raining/sleeting/snowing and a day indoors was called for.

So, this morning we headed for Salts Mill, depicted here in part of David Hockney's painting, a print of which hangs in our bathroom here in Burnsall.  But the real thing is hanging there in the Mill, together with many of his drawings, paintings, sketches, photographs and photo montages and we spent a happy morning mooching around this fantastic place.

This afternoon, we headed over to Dean Clough, hoping (expecting?) something similar in the mill there, but finding just one exhibition captured our interest.

Jake Attree's Marks on a White Ground drew us into the gallery immediately.  Heavily textured in a subdued and restrained palette, these large paintings rewarded the viewer in so many ways.  Close up, the deep textures and rich oil colours intrigued but stand further away and the whole effect was rather more impressionistic in feel.  We especially loved the York Minster series and would happily have snaffled one of them home with us...

By the time we left Halifax, the rain was turning to snow and we chose to head back to our comfortable bolt hole in Burnsall, from where I write, snug and warm and just about ready for an aperitif!

Here and there

London yesterday, Birmingham today, Ross on Wye tomorrow!

 In Birmingham, we creatures of habit were thrown off kilter when for the first time ever, our usual car park was full.  We followed signs to an alternative, not so very far away and enjoyed a different walk along the canal.

We loved the Old Turn junction - a choice between Wolverhampton (3 locks), Fazeley (18 locks) or Worcester (58 locks) and felt that this information could well prove the deciding factor in choosing which route to take.

This restored stretch of the canal is delightful with plenty to see.  Today was no exception, for as we turned around, the Saville Cut was approaching, perhaps having navigated all 58 locks en route from Worcester?

The reflections on the water were fantastic.

We could have watched the comings and goings all afternoon, but instead, we headed into Symphony Hall to hear a concert of Brahms and Schubert.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to sort out one or two knitting challenges with a master of her craft in an amazing place.  I think someone else is planning to join us as well.  What fun!

Interesting week

A couple of days in Birmingham, where the benign weather made exploring the city on foot a pleasure.  We always enjoy being here and particularly like the area around the Gas Street Basin. 

 

We heard a great concert in Symphony Hall including a stunning performance of Vaughan-Williams 5th Symphony.  We'd gone to the fascinating pre-concert talk and identified a few points to listen out for  - see if you too can "hear the sun come out" in the clip Mark's uploaded.  Gorgeous!  But for the second concert in a row, some poor member of the audience sitting nearby fell ill and needed help during the most tranquil moment of the piece.  It's not an easy task to manage this situation but somehow the SH staff cope with the minimum of fuss.

The following night, we were at an awards dinner at the National Motorcycle Museum where one generous sponsor had arranged a fantastic firework display to celebrate Guy Fawkes.  We oohed and aaahed with the best and enjoyed a fun evening with great entertainment.  The thing is, we've been to this venue several times now and have yet to see a motorcycle of any kind!

I finished the week in Gloucester with a couple of meetings.  Yesterday afternoon, however, I'd booked a place with my County Council colleagues on a photography course.  Absolutely fascinating!  Like most people, I've never been taught to take a photograph but have simply picked it up as I went along.  But Leigh Preston's workshop was so useful and hopefully I'll be able to put his advice to good use.  I've been trying hard to take more thoughfully composed photographs recently, doing my best to resist the temptation to take hundreds of pictures in the hope that one will be ok.  My self-imposed rule to post only unedited photographs on my 365 blog has given me good reason to take time to think and compose and the workshop emphasised how far I've come but also how much more there is to learn.

 

We focused (!) on taking photographs of people and I hope my colleague Jane, who sat opposite me and proved an excellent model* won't mind my posting this thoughtful portrait of her here.  I took Leigh's suggestion of transforming it into black and white once I got home - the only tweak made, since I resisted Jane's request to do a bit of wrinkle removal! 

*excellent model until I tried to use the "smile detect" feature on my camera - her sudden seriousness meant that it would not work!

Update on Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 2:54PM by Gill Thomas

Whilst testing the links in the post above, I had difficulty getting the link to a clip of Vaughan Williams 5th Symphony to play and only after a bit of detective work did we discover that a recent update of Windows knocked out some file associations.  If it doesn't play for you, then perhaps you need to go into your Control Panel and reset a few - in this particular instance, assign a program to play your .mp3 and .m3u files easily.

How can this be late October?

I could hardly believe the weather this morning as I drove through the Cotswolds to meet a friend at Compton Verney  I've been meaning to go there for some time and can't believe what a treat I've been missing.

Imagine a wonderful gallery in this beautiful setting, with immaculately presented artworks, helpful, knowledgeable and friendly custodians who welcomed us personally as we entered each room.  Add to that a great cafe with home cooked, locally sourced food served by delightful staff and I'm sure that, like me, you'll wonder how it could have taken me so long to get there.

And I haven't even mentioned the art!