Musical Treat!

I set off early this morning to walk to Saltaire to meet with my recorder tutor and her other two 'mature' students at the Early Music Shop.  It was a smashing walk.  I passed very few folks and made a point of listening and looking as I went.  A heron flew just overhead with the biggest twig and there were lots of birds tweeting in the hedgerows alongside the lane to the ford.  The hedgerows were covered in celandines and wood anemones, really pretty.

Once on the canal towpath I realised I was going to arrive far too early so slowed to blip the locks here at Dowley Gap, adjusting in preparation for a narrowboat coming through.  I imagine you would have to be quite chilled out to live on a narrowboat because you aren't going anywhere very fast.  Beyond these locks, heading west, is another set of locks and then the five rise.

Once in Saltaire I had to negotiate with a security guard to allow me to duck under the tape and get to the Early Music Shop as they were preparing to film again for the next series of Gentleman Jack.  It's quite some undertaking.  As I reached the shop, I stepped aside for an articulated lorry pulling the 'star trailer'.

Then it was on to the enjoyable business of the meeting, for we three students to try several wooden recorders with a view to upgrading from our plastic ones.  I was a bit nervous playing in front of folks I don't know, but we soon all got down to it.  Covid unsurprisingly complicated the process as our tutor had been down a couple of weeks ago to set several aside in 'quarantine'.  We had to ensure we didn't play one which had been played by someone else.  Long story short, after a tuneful (!) hour or so, I came away with a secondhand Moeck in  rosewood which I really liked the sound of.

I was very hungry after such an early start, so I stopped off to get a pasty and a cuppa to enjoy on the walk home, another four miles.  There was something of a crowd outside the college buildings and I realised that there were several actors in period costume hanging out.  They must do a lot of that when filming, I think.  I didn't have the confidence to point my camera at them, plus they were the other side of a whole load of red and white tape, so I walked on.

Back at Dowley Gap I bumped in to an orienteering friend out for a walk and we had a bit of a catch up, then I was on my way again.

After a sit down in the sunshine at home, I pottered a bit in the garden before attempting to make another veggie dish for dinner.  This time it was a tagine and the most successful of the ones I've tried so far, rich in flavours but far too much quinoa!  I didn't dare cutting down the amounts as it was just for me, so I will be eating it up for a few days!