My laptop came back from the fix-it shop yesterday. 38 viruses had been removed. so much for Macs being virus-free. I’d been without it for just over a week so maybe you can imagine my frustration!
I went to Halifax to find a quilting store and called in at the Piece Hall for tea – just in time to sit in the courtyard and watch Nature’s amazing display. Then I was ready to begin my quilt project.
I always used to make a quilt at important junctures in my life. I’ve been wanting to work on a Doors quilt for a few years so now I’ve begun. It has even more significance for me because of all the doors that are current opening for me after my big move. It’s also particularly appropriate since my apartment was a former sewing room above the owner’s dwelling.
A red admiral butterfly feasting on the late blooming ivy by the Rochdale Canal
My first evening out to the city – in this instance Leeds. It was a balmy evening and the centre of Leeds was filled with people, dressed up to the nines, eating and drinking at outdoor tables. The concert, by the BBC Philharmonic was in the historic Town Hall whose centre piece is an amazing organ, floodlit in neon blue, though it wasn’t in use for this particular concert. This is the building where the finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition are held. I was able to sit in my favorite vantage point – behind the orchestra. The conductor was Finnish and he produced a masterful Sibelius 5. The concerto was Grieg’s piano concerto performed by a Norwegian.
A fancy schmancy dinner at a Burnley Spa with new-found friends
Yesterday’s 9 mile hike started and ended at my apartment. I’m still in awe that i can walk to these places from my living room. This hike was steep in places, made slippery by fallen leaves, but it brought into focus the lives of those people who climbed up and down these steps in the dark going to and from work in the mills on the rivers. The stone steps have been worn away by their clogs. This mill is Jumble Hole (honestly, that was its name!)
When I looked through the window this morning everything looked fuzzy. I realised that the windows were covered in condensation, something I’d forgotten existed after living with double glazing for the last 12 years! The thermometer outside registered a chilly 42F as I set off for the station to catch the train to Manchester. On the canal the boats were spewing smoke from their furnaces, but I have to admit that it looked very 
picturesque. The new Stoller Hall, the recital hall at Chetham’s School of Music is directly across the road from Victoria station. The hall was filled with far more students than members of the public. Some of the students couldn’t have been more than 8 years old so it was asking a lot of them to sit still for the hour’s recital and then a two hour masterclass but they seemed very used to this sort of thing. I remember one of my classmates at Bolton School, a vocalist called Freda Farnworth, leaving when she was about 13 to go to Chetham’s. Sir Humphrey Chetham (10 July 1580 – 1653) was an English 
Rachmaninov before launching into Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard the original piano version of this work. I’m far more familiar with Ravel’s orchestrated version and Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s version. (Keith Emerson, by the way, was a native of Todmorden where I’d spent the previous morning at the market). Simon’s performance was magical! He made sounds on the piano that I’d never heard before – amazing! In the masterclass that followed four students from year 12 and 13 performed Russian pieces as part of this festival marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian revolution. The final student , Elias Ackerley, played Rachmaninov’s Sonata #2 – unbelievable. Within an hour of the final note I was sitting in the White Lion in Hebden Bridge where I bumped into Nicola and friends for the first time since I took residence.
Recent Comments