Culture Night

Just home from a most amazing night.

The orchestra I play with, who rehearse just once a month (as opposed to Band, which is twice a week!), were invited to play in Castletown House for Culture Night.

Culture Night is a fairly new phenomenon in Dublin, where lots of places open their doors/ hold events free of charge. Buildings that are normally closed to the public open up for the evening too. There is always a great buzz around the city, and the country too, as the popularity of it has spread nationwide now.
Below is a picture of the beautifully restored Hunting Room, where we played.

We played in Castletown last year too. This year was even more special for me! We had been working on Beethoven's 7th symphony for much of last year. It is very challenging, even for great players. The 2nd movement featured in The King's Speech. We played it at our summer concert in June, in a church in Co. Kildare.
But this time, the 1st Horn guy was unavailable, so I was on my own, which to me is terrifying.
 However, I decided to "feel the fear and do it anyway", got down to some serious practice over the past 2 weeks, and did it!

Castletown is a most beautiful place; the grounds are amazing, and it's just 30 minutes drive from my house!

 I went straight from work, so had about 20 minutes to walk around and take these pictures.

 Isn't it beautiful?

Lest you think it's all meadows, peace and quiet, there is a small airport nearby, so planes are overhead if you care to take notice!

I am so thrilled to have played a very difficult piece of music, and solo Horn! All the work was certainly worth it, and has given me a  new-found confidence.
On a high!!! And once again, I reflect on and express gratitude for, this marvellous musical journey that I am on. It has already taken me to places I would only have ever dreamed of, and I have made fantastic friendships along the way.
There is no destination here, it's all about the journey. A good philosophy for life!

Don't know where to start, but here goes..

It ironic that I hadn't time all summer to write a post, barely had time to comment, and now that school's back, and band's back, found time! So much to catch up on, better make a start.

Hubby and I had a lovely Italian holiday in June. We had a Silver Wedding anniversary, and coincidentally our flight was that day, and even better, there was a performance of Aida in the Arena in Verona. Yippee! Got a train from Milan to Verona.

It was very little extra to go 1st class, so we did, and free Prosecco was included! yay for Italian trains!

What better annniversary food than pizza. Delicious!
This is where our luck ran out.

As we began to eat our food, the rain began, and did not stop all night.









There was water running down the street, like a little stream.

There was great debate as to whether the opera would begin, and we got all the detail: if it doesn't start, you get a refund, but sometimes it starts, stops a few minutes later, maybe restarts, and so on. In this case, no refund!
We made our way over to the Arena, which was full of excitement, people wondering if it would start.

We waited half an hour, but the rain showed no sign of letting up, so we went back to our hotel.
Next morning, the sun was shining again. The opera had not started. Wise decision to go home!
To be continued....
I'm not sure what Blogger is doing to my pics, will try to rectify this tomorrow!

Read Only

Life has been a whirlwind, and my blogging has really suffered. I've been a terrible blogger recently, posts only whirling round in my head, never making it to the keyboard!

(this picture is of a glass of Cava!)

I'm still enjoying reading your blogs, and commenting when I can.

Hoping to be back with some posts soon. In the meantime, I hope you're all enjoying this amazing summer.
Last one like this I remember, it was the summer before my (now 17 y/o!) son was born, and my 2 little girls, then 2 and 3 y/o, spent every day in the back garden, swinging, sliding, paddling. Most days, we'd have some friends over, and what a blissful time we had. Endless days of blue skies and summer fun!

These days, they barely go outside the back door, the garden is mostly used by me, and I enjoy pottering, clipping, watering.

See you all soon, I hope!

Sunshine and holidays! At last!

We've had some lovely days here in the last couple of weeks.

When I see a beautiful sky, the words of W B Yeats always come into my head "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, enwrought with gold and silver light". I thought of cropping the wires etc out of this one, but decided that they give it reality.

 I thought the shadows on these buildings looked eerie, though I love this stretch of Stephen's Green.

 And this was eerie; there was hardly anyone around, at only 9pm!

"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams".
School's out since Friday! I thought it would never come- the last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy, but some more dreams have come true too. More on that in the next post.

A Race, and Rose Petal Butterfly Buns

It's been a busy couple of weeks here.

2 weeks ago, daughter was  stewarding at a rowing race, so Hubby and I went along for a look.

We didn't get to see her, but we did see some cool boats.
They're bigger than I thought up close

We had a "Country Fair" in school last week, organised by a group who are following a vocational programme of horticulture, woodwork, cookery and I.T. They had lots of games, a mobile farm, a falconry display and some cake competitions (for staff!).

Initially I thought I would make something for the Novelty Cakes section, but then I knew I wouldn't have time, so I entered the Taste section with plain old butterfly buns. For filling, I used my Rose Petal Jam, and cream. The recipe is a very easy, all-in-one method that I have used countless times over the years when baking for school cake sales.

Well, guess what? They WON!!!!! First prize!
( I know it's all about taking part, but I love to win! Others clearly do too, because the competition was huge...chocolate cakes, cheesecakes, pavlovas, profiteroles....)

We're now just 4 weeks away from summer holidays, and I can't wait!
The sun finally made a decent appearance this weekend, and I did loads of gardening...of course I'm exhausted and stiff now!

Concert Hall

It was everything I ever thought it would be, and so much more...
I took this picture as I went in; so amused at going in the stage door!!

We had an hour of rehearsal and sound checks, then a break before the concert started. We were opening the second half of the concert, so were free to do as we pleased until a little before that. We went for a bite to eat, then a fellow Horn player and myself got "usher" seats at the back for the first half. It was so good, and we sang so much that I almost forgot we would soon be playing! All of the songs were Golden Oldies (Abba, Elvis, Diana Ross, and songs like New York New York). We sang, danced, applauded.

                      (at the end of rehearsal, just to prove to myself that it really did happen!)
And then, before I knew it, we were doing our tuning out back! I really had to contain my excitement and boy could I feel the adrenaline rush. I have been backstage in that hall several times as a band helper when my kids were playing, and each time I've wished I could also be playing on that stage.

I don't have the words to describe how it felt to walk onto the stage. It was amazing!
Bright lights, and seeing a packed concert hall, eagerly anticipating our music is very powerful. Knowing that my entire family were in the audience, and several friends too, meant so much to me. I wasn't nervous, just wanted to give a good performance.

                                            (Hubby was nearly thrown out for taking this!)
We got a great reception! The pieces we played were all well-known, including Riverdance, The Sunday Game(that's an Irish one!), Radetsky March.
Then the orchestra and choir joined us on stage for a grand finale of Hey Jude. I swear, I thought I would burst with emotion!
 It's such a beautiful venue to play in, and to have a lively, appreciative audience was amazing. I will never forget this night; dreams really do come true sometimes!

What a week!

Rollercoaster would best describe it.

I was in Limerick at the weekend with the band, at the National Band Championships.
And still reeling from the shock: I won a prize for my playing! I was so shocked, in fact, that I didn't realise they were talking about me (they announce the winning "section", but I was the only person in that section). I just sat there waiting for someone else to collect the trophy....yes, a Trophy! First time I've ever won anything like that!

We had a night of partying, as the band won a total of 4 prizes! They really know how to party, young and old. We had so much fun! Danced and laughed the night away!

On Sunday, I got news of the death of a friend. Cathy had been ill for 5 years, with a cruel illness called MSA. It's a form of Parkinsons. She was 50 in February. She was a most beautiful, vibrant, fun-loving, kind lady, with gorgeous Irish red hair. I am so sad that we will never laugh together again.

Tomorrow night, the band is playing in the National Concert Hall.
When I began playing French Horn 7 years ago (really? how did that time go so quickly!), I put my dream up in the sky, with the stars. The dream was to one day play in our National Concert Hall.

I am so excited!
Will be back with photos, I promise! The photos in this post were taken 2 weeks ago with my iphone during a walk in the park. Even though it was cold, the flowers decided to push through with spring. The weather was better in the last couple of days, just hope it lasts.