Rehearsal 30th May, and the Loweswater Concert

The week started with a wonderful evening singing to the members of the 77 Club in Loweswater (our second visit). What a magical setting! What a wonderful evening! The accoustics in the old school hall were terrific, the audience were appreciative of our programme, and the glorious weather was just the icing on the cake. The camp followers sat outside chewing the cud and maybe talking about disappearing to the Kirkstile; I'm pleased to report that they didn't. The sound of our singing must have filtered out through the open windows, so they stayed. Afterwards, we were treated to drinks and cheese and mingled outside, enjoying the views towards Crummock, and the warm evening, or stayed inside, listening to the calling out of the raffle prize-winners, for those who'd splashed out on tickets. Tonight, an excellent rehearsal, with very detailed work on three of the items to be in our summer concert. Faure's Ave Maria, The Girl from Ipanema and The Long and Winding Road. Half term next week. See y'all on 13th June. By the way, there's an extra rehearsal scheduled for 11th July, after our summer concert. Christmas carols this early??? And Sheila Harwood has kindly offered to host our summer party at her home in Crosby on the following Wednesday, 18th.

23 May

Been in South Africa since my last post... made tonight's rehearsal a bit scary, as we have a concert tomorrow night. Will have to squeeze a bit of time into tomorrow's busy schedule to learn 'The Long and Winding Road' (OK, all you 60's buffs, you know it. But not the alto part of this particular arrangement..)

In the meantime, here's a picture of my very first sighting of a kingfisher. Not one we have here in the UK, but thrilling nonetheless!!

Rehearsal 2nd May

Last week's rehearsal (25th April) began with a photo session. It's a long time since we had a formal photo session, and Audrey Evans organised a photographer from the U3A to do the honours. He was very thorough, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results! I'm afraid I can't report on the following rehearsal, as I was at the 'no-voice' stage of a cold, so hot-footed it back home for a toddy as soon as the session was over. Made it to this week's rehearsal, albeit a little late, and dressed in Georgian Fair gear; came straight from a dress rehearsal for the Street Theatre. I missed the work on Guantanamera and The Girl from Ipanema, but caught the end of work on Faure's Ave Maria, which are part of the summer concert programme. Then we went through all of the programme for this Sunday's Georgian Fair concert at All Saints Church. We're opening the event at 2 pm; the grand finale is the Papcastle Phil, playing the specially commissioned arrangement of - well, it's hard to describe, but the title is '1812 in Cockermouth', so there could be some references to Tchaikovsky, and we've been promised special effects... can't wait!!