Settling down

Life is settling down after the huge challenge (musically and timewise!) of playing in the Band Championships.
Of course, no sooner is one event over, than another sidles up to take its place, and we are very busy in school with an open day coming up.

I did manage to get a lovely long walk in at the weekend, and this tree brightened my spirits! Wouldn't mind that car either! And the blue sky is, of course, a delight!I love when people plant flowers on the grass verge outside their house. Must try to do that next spring! Pretty!


This road very close by has these beautiful cherry blossom trees lining both sides, and it is just gorgeous for these few weeks, like driving under a canopy of blossoms, so I was thrilled to snap a few shots with my phone. It was hard to get one without a car blocking a bitof the view.
I was playing around with the Cameraawsome app, and got this stormy effect from CleanX, though a rain shower was just beginning as I took the photo. I like how the phone lines make it even more fierce looking! The sweeping clouds are not an edit item though, they really were there and they opened just as I reached home again.

Have a lovely week everyone!

Championships!

What a weekend! It was fantastic!

Thank you all so much for your supportive comments, and you were right, I had nothing to worry about. The playing went very well I played a lot more than I expected to be able to, and I was very happy with that. I had a terrible sleep on Thursday night, very anxious and worried about the whole thing, and when I went on stage (leading in the French Horns!! Thrill for me as 4th Horn!) , all my nerves had been worked through! I enjoyed the experience more than I ever thought possible; the only thought in my head was "this is something new and wonderful, so enjoy the moment" and I did!

But moreso, I got to know the people in the band a lot better, and we had so much fun! It was a great bonding weekend, and I think we'll be laughing and reminiscing for many a long time to come.
I brought a camera but never got a chance to take it out of the bag (good sign!), so these 2 photos are from my iPhone with the CameraAwesome app. The first is through the window of the B&B where I stayed (look at that blue sky! it was raining by the time I got back to Dublin), and the 2nd is Early Morning on the streets of Cork, as I walked back to the train station.

Oh, I almost forgot to say...we got 1st place in our section, and also our Tubas got best section cup too! So, a great weekend all round!

Happy Easter! with egg platter

I hope everyone who celebrates it is having a lovely Easter, lots of eggs etc!
I'm one week into Easter holidays and it's just bliss! Had lunch with friends, went to visit my sister, and caught up with her, my brother, niece and a few friends over a lovely dinner.
And today we met Hubby's sister for lunch. It's their first Easter without their Mum, and we thought it would be nice to get together. We had a lovely meal, in "The Purple Onion", half-way between us, so not too long a journey for anyone.
2nd Daughter came with us, which was fun. The Purple Onion is close to my home town, so I gave Daughter a guided tour of my childhood home town; she was not very interested!

Last night, I made a couple of Easter treats for Eldest (vegan) Daughter.

These truffles are so easy, and quite healthy too! You just match the weight of chocolate with a little less in mls of this oat cream. I used 30g chocolate to about 20ml cream, which made a few truffles to go around the egg, pictured above.
Heat the cream, break the chocolate into little pieces and add into the cream, mix& refridgerate for half an hour.
Then make into little balls - I used a melon baller I've had from about 25 years ago when melon balls in Creme de Menthe was a fashionable starter. Does anyone remember this starter?Then you roll the chocolate truffle balls in the coating of your choice- icing sugar, cocoa powder, chopped nuts. Easy! Delicious!

Finished platter:I'm practising a lot now for next weekend's Band Championships, trying to improve my play and reach a stage where I'm playing most of the part. I was supposed to have someone else playing the part with me, but now I'm on my own on 4th horn, agh! at one point I'm the only horn playing, so I have to get that bit right.
I have planned to upload an audio or video of the music from The Sound of Music, in the next few days. Just need a few minutes to get it in the right format!