April 13th, Cotherstone

And so the 2 weeks are up, and tomorrow I move on… talk about event density… we have sorted the contents of Fern House , the potting shed is bursting at the seams; Diana and I did our gig at the Village Hall; and I am the proud owner of a brand new Fylde mandola – what a beauty… quite the star of the show, even if I don’t really know what I’m doing yet… plus the day I went over to Penrith to pick it up I asked Roger Bucknall and his wife where I could go hiking around there and they recommended Aira Force, off Ullswater – fabulous ravine with a series of falls – a lovely day all ‘round – happy birthday to me…

the village hall concert was a great success – we had a good crowd, about 50 or so, any more would have been tricky with the purely acoustic set-up, so it’s just as well there was a coach trip to darlington that evening to see ‘Grease” at the Civic Theatre! It was mostly friends but some strangers, a good mix; we raised a bunch of money for the Hall and one and all had a really good time. Might try for an annual event… btw, the backdrop in the photos is a fabulous mural of the Balder viaduct, just up the river, that used to adorn the sitting room wall of the house next door to Saltoun (where lovely neighbours Jeff and Carol now live). It was painted by Maxwell Fry, a noted architect and old friend of the family from the Tehran days, who many years ago came to stay the weekend with my folks (along with his wife Jane Drew, also architect and generally mad-wonderful person) and they ended up buying and moving into the house next door! quite a flamboyant addition to the village and source of much gossip… after they died and the house was sold, the mural was rescued and put into the village hall – a wonderful memorial to Max and Jane and the perfect backdrop for an intimate “living room” concert…

The downside of the week has been that I did something seriously wicked to one of my knees moving heavy furniture on Friday and I am a total gimp at the moment – not ideal for traveling, but oh well… poc a poc… don’t want to think about leaving sam again, but I’ll be back, and sooner than I think, possibly, depending on the state of dear aunt Liz… diana went up to scotland this morning to face her old home – what a pair of yo-yos we are… god speed…