November is proving to be a hectic month for me. First, the concerts... in the 'about me' section of this website, I mentioned I used to be a professional flautist, but this is a long time ago. Imagine Florence Nightingale enjoying one of my concerts and that will give you some idea of the timescales involved.
I still have my flute and although I never practice any more I can't quite bring myself to part with it. I work at a children's hospice for my day job, and around this time of year our chaplain sometimes sidles over to me and ever so politely asks me if I'd like to be involved in their 'Light Up A Life' service.
We are very VERY lucky to have several music therapists on our care team - it says a great deal about the hospice that they are forward thinking enough to have both musicians and artists on the team, and it reflects the holistic nature of care that the hospice provides. The musicians are also very, VERY good at improvising, I am not. Last year I arranged parts for two flutes and a saxophonist and I'm still not sure what happened but I did something wrong with the transposition for the sax and the poor lady kept doggedly trying to come in, in completely the wrong key. My bad...
They STILL asked me back. So this year I'm playing in a number of hastily arranged numbers which we have TRIED OUT, having learnt from our experience, and they work! So, shameless plug, should you wish to go, the Light Up A Life service is at St Mary's Church in Boston Spa, near Wetherby, on 5th of December, at 7.00pm.
When I was a professional musician, and at the zenith of my career which included some freelancing with London orchestras, one of my colleagues archly suggested that I was probably going to end my career playing 'Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam' on street corners for spare change. This tells you something about how supportive professional flautists are in general; And I have come perilously close to fulfilling that prophecy because every year our Chaplain asks me to play 'Little Donkey' (Tune A Day, Book 1) and every year, I politely refuse.
In preparation for this august event, which is paradoxically happening in December, I boiled my flute. Not recommended unless you really know what you're doing, but it's one way of getting the tarnish off the tube and I'm not going to tell you how to do it in case you have a go and then sue me. However, this is the result...
Not bad considering this flute is 30 years old and has never been repadded. Also incredibly risky thing to do, as I had to take all the mechanism off the tube to clean it, and flutes can go out of adjustment very easily.
As I'd got it out of its box, my partner, who plays professionally for a living, tentatively asked me if I would be interested in playing in a concert he's got coming up. He's a member of the York String Quartet and they are planning a concert in a village church nearby. They've decided to do String Trios and I am on the posters as the GUEST ARTIST. From 'Little Donkey' to 'Guest Artist' in two paragraphs! We're playing a Mozart Flute Quartet and the Entr'acte from Carmen by Bizet, and they're playing some much more competently executed pieces by Dohnanyi, Saint Saens and Schumann. It's taking place at St Peter's Church, Thorner, LS14 3ED on Sunday 3rd of December at 3.00pm. Tickets are £5 (free glass of wine, AFTER the concert...) proceeds towards the church. Should you wish to go.
You should - the church has a fantastic acoustic - most churches are really boomy and over-resonant, but this one is quite small and the acoustic is brilliant. Just enough to add natural reverb. And I can't speak for myself but I have heard them practicing and some of the other pieces are JUST LOVELY.
Mozart unfortunately requires me to do some serious practice because in spite of the fact that it sounds easy and a lot of people know the tunes, it is very difficult to play well, and in spite of my self-deprecating comments previously, I am trying to do this thing properly. So most evenings at the moment have an element of dragging myself into a music room at the end of a long day at work and trying to get back in shape.
And other things - November is the season for New Year Calendars. I've got into the habit of producing one of these over the last 4 years, and this year, I've had two to do (you can find websites where you upload your pictures into their template and they send you the finished thing. You can even add special dates to the calendar like your birthday, but I always thought that was a bit obvious really so I haven't done it).
My partner's dad, a Kiwi, is seriously into fishing and I thought it might be a nice idea to do him a special calendar, with a general fishing theme. So I had to trawl through (forgive the pun) photographs from several years and try to find pictures of boats, not just boats but fishing boats, and eventually, I did manage to do it. So we have some fishing scenes from the port of Porto, a few from Amble-By-The-Sea, one from Loch Pooltiel in Skye, and as a bit of a surprise, one of his own fishing boat, with his two sons getting into it. (If any relly's from NZ are reading this, please don't let on, we haven't sent it yet)
The second calendar is more of my usual fare, which, because I can't afford to go anywhere because of the expensive Gear Acquisition Syndrome I have been afflicted with over the last year.... consists of various pictures of Leeds and Environs, with a broadly seasonal feel. For some reason every year I have a hell of a job putting together March and April, and I've always got loads of photos for August, but there you go.
So without further ado, some calendar shots (as ever, clicking on any of these pictures will bring up the full size version). Several of these have quite a lot of work behind them - some are layered photographs with different focus points, to get the foreground and background in focus (the daffodils, autumn on the lake, the acorns, and the shot with red berries), a few layered with different exposures to get the sky and the land both in balance (the meadow and the cornfield), one involves multiple exposures of the same two swans (quite tricky to balance because as they flew past, they flew into the sunlight so as light flooded the camera the background contrast changed) and in the last shot of the snow scene, there were some TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES as my dogs came barrelling out of nowhere into the picture and knocked over the two kiddies in it so I had to do some pretty quick apologising...
And following on from this, a few of the pictures from the fishing boat calendar...
That's it from me this evening, I'd like to say I'm going back to practicing but it is 9.30pm and there is a Vodka and Coke with my name on it waiting downstairs. Have a lovely evening!