Big Beasts

Yesterday evening after a visit to my osteopath I was feeling pretty good, and enjoying the "cool of the evening" so decided to take a quick walk around my local park, before dinner.

While I was there I bumped into some old friends, it was nice to see them again.   This park has been part of my life as long as I can remember, where ever I have lived it has always been near by, and is the place where I go when I am seeking solace.   It may also be responsible in some small way for my choice of career, it was through this place that I found out about Joseph Paxton, my gardening hero.

 My old friends

Flame Away

Yesterday morning Croydon band played as the Olympic torch went by, well more accurately we played before and after the torch went by. The procession is not that impressive, but it is very noisy, I think there were three vehicles from major sponsors all balling out their wares, bizarrely enough followed by a breakdown truck with a dead car on the back then quite a lull before a couple of lone runners, then some cyclists, and another lull before the flame itself arrived.

We were next to a "Kissing" point, nothing romantic this is where the flame gets passed from one custodian to the next. This did at least mean that the "circus" stayed in town for a little longer. I have heard of other locations where spectators complained that you "could blink and miss it" In all we played for over an hour and included in the programme the John Williams Fanfare and Theme from the LA games. This is a really tricky piece to play and the band hadn't even seen it till last Monday so I was very pleased at how well we managed it.

As we had been playing the morning we decided not to have a rehearsal in the evening which meant I had the opportunity to go and rehearse with the All Saints Concert Band.   I love conducting, it is the most musically challenging thing I have done for years, but nothing quite beats playing!

torch song

Tomorrow the Croydon Band plays in Thornton Heath as the Olympic torch goes past.   I am not sure that I can work up much enthusiasm for the whole Olympic thing never mind the torch relay, but it is a chance for us to be out and playing in the community.

Maybe tomorrow I will get a bit fired up and excited, if I am I will let you know, in the mean time enjoy this alternative use for Baritons

Concert

Did I mention that I was playing a concert last night? Although I did have one or two problems relating to concentration I think it went pretty well. It was very nice of the conductor to come up and congratulate me afterwards, altough I may have had the biggest toy I was a very small part of a quite a big band, all of us working for a good performance.

We played a very entertaining programme, but one that was technically very difficult as well, this meant that the band and the audience were all on the edge of their seats with excitement for much of the time. Most of the second half was taken up with an arrangement of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana all 16 movements of it, in many ways this was one of the hardest peaces we have yet performed, a few years ago we looked at it and decided that we were only capable of playing a couple of the movements, now we have performed the whole thing to a high standard at the main Fairfield Concert hall.

The biggest toy

This is also an occasion when the ladies in the band like to dress up in their glam rags, well most of them anyway. Many variations on the theme of the Little Black Dress were in evidence along with some quite cute shoes. This generaly adds to the fun of teh occassion, but I did try to concentrate on playing the music.. Of course there are always one or two who just won't play the glam game, my friend S in one of them, just wearing plain black trousers and a shirt blouse, she did go as far as to buy some "Girly" shoes specially for the occasion.

That is quite an old photo if me, dating back a couple of years to my more hirsute days, the beard is now just a memory, but I thin I may grow my hair a bit longer again.......

Cut and Run

There are some really good things about my work, for one I can normally see what I have done, and most gardens look better when I leave than when I arrive, and that makes people happy. I started with a new customer today, pretty much all I did was cut her grass. However this made a big difference to the overall look of the garden and she was very happy to start getting her garden back.

Before I got started

It doesn't sound too much but the whole thing had to be strimmed before I could even think about getting a mower on to it. As we had more rain earlier in the morning the whole thing was pretty wet, in places sodden. As I started cutting with the strimmer a fine spray of water came off the grass, making a mist all around me. I was working with the strimmer for about two hours, and that was interspersed with raking up the cut grass. Only after I had strimmed the lawn, and raked up all the cuttings could I get my mower on. even then with the blade at it's highest setting it still clogged up, however after going over it twice I think it looks quite respectable, but I am exhausted, and my right forearm is almost in spasm..

The Supervisor

For a large part of the morning I was supervised by a large black cat, not sure he was impressed by the noise and the destruction of cover, still he stayed around to make sure I did the job properly.
There is a lot more work to do in this garden, but it is more a process than a makeover, I will be there for a few hours every couple of weeks from now on. After this start I should have it looking reasonable after a few visits, and next year it will be a real garden again.

Finished

That's about it on the work front today, but this evening I will be playing a big concert at the Fairfield Hall with the Croydon Symphonic Band.    Assuming that I manage to get any work done during the day I shall be making a quick change into my concert kit before getting over to the concert hall for a final run through before the performance.   Then on Thursday evening we have a meeting with my daughters teachers, all about A levels, she's only just half way through GCSEs and we have to start thinking about A levels and sixth form already. Like it says on the right I am many things, Gardener, Husband, Father, Musician.......

Concert on Wednesday

I have actually done a bit of playing for a change!   After my last couple of performances with the Crystal Palace Progress band, on Saturday they asked me to play with the main band at a function in Coulsdon.   Although the weather wasn't all that it was fun to play some music that was within my sight reading capability but still made me concentrate.   One or two peaces were actually quite interesting and it made a change from waving a stick around!

On Wednesday though it is back to some serious stuff, the Croydon Symphonic Band playing at the Fairfield Hall.   We will be playing a good selection of challenging (mostly) contemporary original wind band music, stuff which will keep the band on the edge of their chairs if not the audience!  And I'm playing Tuba.   A couple of weeks ago we had a change round of the heavy brass, now we have a new member, which has allowed me back where I belong.   I love playing trombone, but it's not like the real thing.

Writing this I realised that I never reported our (CSB) success at the National Festival, as it was so long ago now I will just say that we were the only Community Band to receive a gold award at the finals, of course it is a festival not a competition, but just to mention all the other community bands got Silver or Bronze awards and we got a Gold, it's not a competition so I can't say we won, but we got a Gold!