A day of Gifts

It's been a lovely, sunny autumn day here, so in the afternoon we got a bit of gardening done.


In the midst of a bit of weeding, I gasped when I saw this




I only planted the bush in June, and thought it would do well to produce fruit next year! But the weather has been unseasonably warm, so nature has given us this most wonderful bonus bounty.

And then I moved to the other side of the garden, and discovered another stash!




I've already made my green tomato chutney, so I'm leaving these on a plate at the window for a few days, hoping they'll ripen enough to eat. And if not, another little pot or two of chutney won't go to loss!

And tonight we were at the opera. And this was another gift. The Sunday Times has been offering some free tickets to a live HD cinema screening of performances from The Metropolitan Opera.



Tonight's performance was Mussorgsky's Boris Gudnov. A marathon 4 and a half hour performance, which included two intervals: it was brilliant! There were also some lovely behind-the-scenes interviews during the intervals


Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain"was the first music I played on my first night in band, so I'll always have a special place in my heart for him.


So, at this late hour, as I'm about to head to bed, I give thanks for a bountiful, beautiful day.

Music and gifts

Sorry that I haven't posted much recently. My back has been sore, and I've had to limit my time at the computer. I decided that commenting was a higher priority than posting.

But here are a few snippets from the last week or so..

Hubby and I were supposed to go to a Christy Moore concert in January- the tickets were a birthday present. But on that afternoon, we had a very heavy snowfall, buses were not running, and, very reluctantly, we decided not to go. I was very disappointed.

But, being the darling that he is, Hubby was on the lookout, and got tickets to a Christy gig last week. And the icing on the cake? It was a fundraiser for Haiti. It was a real privilege to be there- great music from Christy and Declan Sinnott- I almost felt guilty when John O'Shea of Goal thanked the audience for helping. That's Christy on the far right, singing his heart out, for Haiti. What a guy!

Then a friend invited me to this concert

on Saturday night- wonderful! Most of the music was well-known, but there was one newly-composed piece that I didn't like at all. When it finished, I was just about to lean over to my friend and say "that was just weird" when the composer was called on stage- from the seat right in front of me! Thank goodness that, for once, I didn't put my foot in it!

Friends came over for lunch on Sunday, and one of them brought these lovely flowers. I see from google that adding a tiny bit of bleach to the water helps them to last; I hope it works.

So it was a week of many blessings, and I'm thankful for that.

Hope you're all having a lovely week- it's stopped snowing now, and everywhere looks more spring-like.

Tonight at midnight, younger daughter gets back from her school trip (Spain) and tomorrow night my brother and family arrive for 5 days! Busy times ahead!!