An absolutely great session today, with a lovely mix of instruments. When I stopped playing to listen it sounded great
Edinburgh Scandi Session
Plant life returns to Greenbank
Apart from Steff’s sparkly Christmas tree plant, we haven’t had any plant life in the house for ages. I decided that I would like – at the very least – to start growing spider plants again. I used to have a lot of them, because I found them fairly unkillable and they propagate by producing babies very easily. A few days ago I ordered one from Waitrose (I couldn’t find them in local shops) and it’s arrived. A magnificent specimen with lots of babies already, so we’ll soon have a few more.
Also posted to:Cornwall 2018
We moved on from Devon to Cornwall, where we stayed in Mevagissey. We saw the Eden Project, which was really great, and had a nice trip over to Perranporth so that I could get in the sea in the sunshine.
Eden Project
We were in Devon and Cornwall after Halsway, and somewhere I have wanted to visit for a long time is the Eden Project. In particular I wanted to see the biomes – two large climate controlled zones made from geodesic dome sections, built in an old clay pit.
Also posted to:Devon 2018
After Halsway we has a few days in Devon and Cornwall. In Devon we stayed at the Duke of York in Iddesleigh, a lovely little village quite a long way from most places.
Also posted to:Halsway 2018
Early September means the annual Halsway nyckelharpa meeting. This year Marwyn attended as a non-participant (i.e. groupie!) and enjoyed the concert and sessions (and catching up with her Swedish). I enjoyed the workshops and wished I could have been at all of them – the guest musicians were Josefina Paulson and Torbjörn Näsbom, with Vicki Swan also teaching some fascinating stuff (as well as organising the whole thing).
One feature was the increased number of gammelharpor (old style instruments) and their relations – not from the original period, but built recently (including my kontrabasharpa). The photo of Vicki’s Moraharpa (I thought it was Scott’s – they come from the same maker!) is one of several (along with measurements) I took – now I wonder what a future project could possibly be?
Also posted to:Boda Bar evening session
I enjoyed a great session in the Boda Bar this evening hosted by Alice Thorsell. Lots of great tunes (pretty international, though lots of Swedish and Scottish) and good to see other session friends there. I will be back! For a change, I took the fiddle – nice to give it some exercise, and I played a few Swedish tunes on it that previously I have only played on the nyckelharpa. G minor is very good for my fingering 🙂 No photos, sorry.
Edinburgh Scandi Session – new venue
A new venue for the Edinburgh Scandi Session today – the Boda Bar, just a block away from the Victoria where we have been so far. I missed last month’s as we were in Canada so it was great to be back. Lots of tunes played (a record number!), with quite a few new ones – details will be on the Scandi Session website soonish. Here are some blurry photos – I still haven’t got sorted with setting the right camera parameters for low light with the little camera. Sorry.
   
  
No harpacam photos this time, though the nyckelharpa had a great time.
Also posted to:Blazin’ Fiddles 20th anniversary concert
We rarely get to Edinburgh festival or fringe events – but found out this year after returning from France that Blazin’ Fiddles are finishing off their 20th anniversary celebrations with a series of concerts, two in the Queen’s Hall – so we went along. It really was a fantastic concert, they were truly on form, and also had Karen Matheson singing a few sets. We were surprised to find only a couple of people there we knew – there are usually lots on well-kent Edinburgh fiddle people at these gigs!
Also posted to:France – Haute-Savoie 2018
We had only visited Haute-Savoie briefly before. It was certainly warm this year, even in Belgium on the journey out!
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