September, 2022

This September will be in two sections - my regular monthly blog, and a special blog to commemorate the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth 11. There will most likely more photos/items to add for both blogs, there's so much!

At the beginning of the month Zoe was getting ready to start High School this year, wow! The family went home early from the beach to get settled in, so we didn't have their anniversary dinner just before Labor Day, as we often had. 😞

For me, too, I was getting in stride for teaching private cello lessons and classes, both at Trinity and the Chapel Hill School of Music Arts. 

Thursday, September 8th, the announcement was sent out that Queen Elizabeth  had passed away in her Balmoral home. It wasn't a great surprise as she had declined a lot since her husband, Prince Philip, passed away. It didn't take long for me to decide that I wanted to go to London and pay my respects. 70 years ago, when I was living in Porthleven in Cornwall with my mother, and getting very excited to see the coronation of the Queen, and all children were being given a special mug, a gold-like miniature coach and a block of chocolate. Unfortunately when jumping with a friend, I fell off the couch and bit my tongue. I had to go to hospital and was given penicillin, which I am allergic to, so that was an extra 3 days of missing the excitement of the coronation and I didn't get the goodies. 

Several decades later when I, as a music student in London, walked with my landlady, a cellist in the Sadler's Opera orchestra, to pay our respects to Winston Churchill where in Westminster Hall, his coffin, lay in state for 3 days.  It was a moving walk with many people who had come to pay him homage. Later his coffin was taken to St. Paul's Cathedral for the funeral service. That's where we were somewhere in the crowd. In a BBC poll in 2002, Winston Churchill was voted the Greatest Briton.  

                       The Procession of Winston Churchill's coffin  towards St. Paul's Cathedral, 1965

Monday, September 12, 2022.  I took the American Airlines night flight from RDU to Heathrow, together with my 7/8 cello. It did well with its wooden case during the whole flight. More of that later. I had 3 additional seats available, so was able to stretch out and take a nap. Not tremendously comfort, but good to keep the legs up. All went well, the food was reasonable and we landed on time at 8am. 

Tuesday, September 13,  Morning arrival.  After getting a SIM card for my phone, I went to get on a coach to go to Salisbury, but since my last arrival at Heathrow, the coaches to Salisbury did not go there any longer. Instead, now to get to Salisbury it's a short ride on a Heathrow coach to Woking, then taking a train to Salisbury.  It was easy to get a train ticket (although I did leave my credit card at the ticket counter, but a very kind man came running over to my platform to tell me it where it was). I had just enough time to pick it up and back to get to the other platform again as my train was coming in!) Love those trains!              

Cousin Meryl and Nia met me at the train in Salisbury, so good to see them. It just seemed yesterday since I was last with them. Before we went to their home, I had one errand to do.

Choristors from the Salisbury Cathedral Choir School with my sweet 7/8 cello.                                          May it have another 60 years of love and  gentle sounds.

I had brought my 7/8 cello back to England again, for the Salisbury Choir School. I had chosen that school, as the choristers are between 9 and 13, so it is a good size for them. Most of the choristors play other instruments apart from their singing, and several of them play the cello.  The Music Director was very happy to have it, as well as some of the children I met. It cannot be sold. If the cello is not needed, it can be passed on to another suitable school. It was a sad decision for me - I have so many memories of music with it during the 60 years I had it. In 1962, my cello teacher at Dartington, Michael Evans of the Dartington String Quartet, asked around to local cello teachers, and one came up with the  perfect cello for me. I hope to hear the Salisbury children playing it in quartets or solos whenever I am in Salisbury.  I'll borrow it again if I get to play with the Salisbury Symphony! 

  

 

While driving through rainy Salisbury roads, this is where G. Handel performed his "Messiah" for the first time in the loft above the portal at an entrance to the Salisbury Cathedral.  

The two days spent catching up with Meryl and Nia's news, having lunches in pubs, driving around the New Forest, watching the ponies and newborns.  I was so happy to be back there again! Meryl has recovered well from her hip op.  Dad Simon is very busy during the week, so I didn't get to see him. Nia, now having graduated from Uni, is doing all sorts of music opportunities. Brother Rhys was hardly around, as he works a full day nearby. 

 

Not long after I left them to go to London, Meryl and Nia went up to Scotland for a few days. 

                    (Meryl and Simon lived in Scotland for two years when they were first married).                             

   

                                                                   Edinburgh Royal Mile

                                                                                    The Royal Yacht Britannia, now the "The Fingal" 

                                                

Living the right way!

                                                               The Queen's drawing room

                                                                  Formal dining

                                                                          The Queen's bedroom 

                                               Edinburgh Castle, getting ready for the Tattoo

Nia is definitely going up in the music world! She's on Spotify, YouTube and many more, so check them all! Here is the CD that I can play in the car. 

September 15. It was a lovely visit seeing the family, short but so glad to had the opportunity to catch up. Meryl kindly took me to Ringwood where I took the coach to the London Victoria coach station, then walked to the Victoria train station to Beckenham Junction where Louise was waiting for me. It was a warm sunny day, her garden is outstanding! All in a small London garden!

Banana pods

We spent the rest of the evening watching the TV reports of the Royal Family. 

September 16th. Louise chose to do the walk at night, starting at 10:00pm, and it was fabulous. We started at Southwark Park in south-east London, walking around 12-13 miles all the way to Westminster, to see the Ly-in-Style at Westminster Palace where the Queen's coffin was placed. I had never seen London in the middle of the night, let alone walking! Lights all over the Thames River, bridges, St.Paul's Cathedral, The Tower of London, the London Eye, Westminster Parliament, Big Ben. 

The Queen's Funeral will be in a separate blog, as soon as I can get it done. 

September 21st. Returning to the USA was very straightforward, although the 4:55 am train to Victoria was very early, (what a friend Louise is, driving me to the station), but there were quite a number of passengers, presumably on the way to work. A 15-minute walk to the Coach Station, to catch the 30 minute bus to Heathrow and get checked in. I only had carry-on luggage which made it easy. We boarded at 10am, plenty of free seats, I had 4 on my  section. For a while I watched two movies "Downton Abbey" and partly "The Duke" about a man who stole a painting of a Duke, worth mucho. I fell asleep during that one, needing my nap. Then we were at RDU, no luggage to get, just get home! The cats went ballistic. They had been in the house the whole time except Tiger, who got out the night before, when someone went out to the patio. He cries often, and was shrieking when I showed up. He must have cried a lot as he had a very dark sound in his throat. I could hear Ollie meowing too, something quite new. It's good flying from East to West, having the extra 5 hours. 

September 22. Back to teaching - Trinity's Middle School's Resource class of all violins, and individual CHSMA cello students in the afternoon. Orchestra rehearsal on Thursday was not good, as I hadn't practised, and it's a tricky program coming up.                                                                                                                     

September 23. The next day I had an excruciating pain in a back molar. I went to the UNC Dentist Urgent Clinic, and after x-rays, the choice was either to get it fixed for a couple of thousand $ or the extraction. I opted to have the extraction. I couldn't have it done immediately on Monday as I was teaching that afternoon, but I went on Tuesday, a day with no teaching, and plenty of sleep time. I had a good snooze while waiting for the dentist, (the nurse gave me a warm blanket, as it's always way too cold for me) so I hardly felt the shots or the pull of the tooth. Piece of cake! My kind neighbors, Dorothy who took me to the Dental School, and Susan, who also looks after the cats, came to pick me up, and I went to bed. I felt quite comfortable on Wednesday and teaching went well. The stitches are going away slowly.  I didn't need to deal with this, having just got back from England. It came from out of the blue, but it was quickly taken care of. 

So it's been an extraordinary month, never thought that it would to be more than back to school!              September 30. The worst hurricane ever in the US, hit Florida, and along the East Coast. Fortunately Chapel Hill seems to have bypast our development,  having only had some power-out for a short time.

 Love from Jane