October, 2022.

Going into October was dreadful with Hurricane Ian destroying Florida and further north. It will take years to rebuild so many areas.  Chapel Hill and most of the area around the middle of North Carolina were spared. Getting back to normality at home was not easy - leaving England, getting back to both schools, making up lessons that had been missed. Not many students understood why I went away for a week. The younger ones of course, didn't know about the Queen of England. I wrote a separate blog of the Queen's Funeral, if anyone not on the list of the blog and wants to read it, email me and I will give you the address.  

I was glad to have been in good shape for the 12 hours of walking at night and other times around London.  Our hike leader Rodney, knows most of the trails in Chapel Hill, Durham and further away, so we have plenty of trails to keep walking. At this time of the year, the trails in Fall show striking colors all through the woods. In the spring we look for the flowering Laurels.  Here are some gorgeous Fall trees in our community. 

                                   Waking up to see the woods and colors from my bedroom windows 

We have a quiet Hallowe'en in our community, as we have few young children, but one family likes to decorate, especially in the autumn and Christmas. 

As well as the leaves, the highlight of the month was a visit from Kate who was on a break from her college at Auburn University in Alabama. We had a delicious lunch together at the Chapel Hill Country Club - catching up on Kate's life at school and news about my quick trip to England for the funeral events of Queen Elizabeth.

Certainly getting into college fun!

Wherever I am, I am thankful to have music in my life. After 2 years of very little playing, our Chapel Hill Philharmonia were able to perform a Children's Concert, and it was the best we had for some time. 

Our string ensemble, the Solterra Quartet, (named from the community where the second violinist lives) after a hiatus over the summer and start of school, finally got together this week to work on Tchaikovsky's first String Quartet. There are fistfuls of fingering in some of the movements.  Let's hope we can get plenty of our calendar pages open for rehearsals!

I ended the last of the month with my 3rd Booster shot. Hardly had any soreness or anything else.  I had planned to have the flu shot at the same time as well, but it was a very busy orchestra rehearsal that evening, so I delayed it until next week. The final 3rd shot will be tetanus. It is given by the pharmacists at any time, so I'll see how the flu shot shows up before adding the tetanus. 

Only 2 more months to a new year, what a year it has been. 

All the best,

Jane.