Warming up

On a glorious afternoon, our choir 8+1 warms up in the courtyard behind the gallery in Benmore Gardens. There are concerts on some weekend dates - the next one is on a Friday - in the gallery, and the theory is that people wander in, combining listening to music with a visit to the gardens. In fact, what happened today was that a full house turned up, sat down firmly in the seats laid out at one end of the gallery, and stayed put for the whole 35 minutes of the concert. There were even people who couldn't find a seat in the upper part of the room but remained, out of sight but able to hear, in the other end of the space.

In the photo, we have come out of the hall where people are already assembled in order to warm up our voices, so we're making apparently silly noises in the sun while uncommitted visitors wander in the gardens which are over the wall to the right of the picture.

We sang a variety of songs ranging from "Here comes the sun" and a lovely Gaelic piece to a selection from "Mamma Mia", and people clapped and left unexpectedly lavish donations in the basket provided. A good afternoon.