A small number of Scandi music enthusiasts, including several nyckelharpa fiends, managed to fit in a weekend of music with Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer at the end of October in Halsway Manor.
The people at Halsway had done a fantastic job to make sure that everything was set up in accordance with government diktat – we were even temperature scanned every morning. Hand sanitiser everywhere . I was stinking of the stuff by the time I got home.
We had workshops (and a session) in the hall, which was divided into 2m squares, and we had the windows open most of the time so it was pretty chilly. It was so great to be able to play music with real people again though. Vicki and Jonny have done a great video of the session:
Vicki has some fancy software to use with her all-round camera – you can just about see me in my cosy new Lopi jumper (thanks Anne!) in the far corner.
It was too far to drive straight home on the Sunday evening, so I stayed in Upton on Severn at the Swan. Again, everything was done to the Covid regimen and I was very comfortable. I really hope the owners, and those of all the other delightful hostelries across the UK, manage to survive the terrible rules being inflicted on them.
The motorway service stations were pretty empty – though they usually had a one way system to keep people apart:
Still, I managed to have an enjoyable musical weekend in spite of the restrictions.