A Britcellist's World

 February 1st - Back to school. Fortunately while on the flight home during the two and a half hours in the completely full plane, I did not succumb to all the  coughing and sneezing.                  A lovely homecoming to have these beautiful birthday flowers from Elisa, Dan and Zoe.  February 3rd. I was glad to know that Maggie had decided to go to Kenya on safari with Aaron which had been arranged before the death of Steve. Giving them a chance to spend some time together in a different environment, was a nurturing time for them both. Maggie being so glad that Aaron could have the opportunity to see a totally different way of life, and Aaron to understand how Maggie feels in Africa. Here are some of the photos Aaron took, outstanding. Here are just a few. I will make a separate album for his photos if he is willing to let me have them.     February 5th.  A good way to start the day with my weekly walkin...

 Jan. 1, 2022. After a lovely Christmas visit, Dan, Elisa and Zoe drove up through the night to home in New Jersey. They like it that way, as the traffic is less hectic, especially around Washington DC. That way 2 passengers at a time can sleep, switching over when  needed. The house was very quiet, but there was plenty to do for the coming semester.  Jan. 7th. Kate's last school play. Here she is as the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.  I was busy at the school too, as the Strings teacher and her four children were catching colds from each other (no, not Covid thankfully). The Middle school 5-week strings class was fun to work with, we hope they will want to play in the school orchestra next year. Jan 15th was a unbelievable day for us all - the sudden death of Maggie's husband, Steven, in the downtown area where they lived not far away. Nothing could be done for him.  The rest of the month was a blur, just going along the daily workday.  I flew up to ...

January 3rd, 2022. Very behind on my blog. Reason ? Had a lovely Christmas with the family from New Jersey and Chapel Hill, a lot to do with not enough time!  December 1. A great start to the festivities - a delicious luncheon in a beautiful house which was given to the University of North Carolina. Fancy events are held there, my string quartet often played for special dinners, and the Trinity School Grandparents are invited every year. My grandchildren, Kate, 17 and a senior and James 16, a sophomore are at Trinity, and at the beginning of school in August, I was asked to substitute to teach strings for a teacher who was out on maternity leave. I enjoyed it very much and even when she returned, I am still part-time there. I enjoy bumping into Kate and James at times.  December 2nd was a sad day, the last orchestra rehearsal for the semester.  We were not able to perform our concert on the 5th due to the virus. We start up again on January 13th (hopefully).  Decembe...

November has been a bit of a whirlwind. For me, it's worth to get the vaccinations, booster, flu and tetanus shots. I feel more confident. Sadly though, after 20+years, my doctor is retiring, he's even younger than I am. I know it's been a very hard couple of years for medics. Here is a photo I'm going to give to him as a remind of how well he has taken care of me so I could be with the grandchildren from birth to 17,18  and 13 year-olds.       My musical life is certainly becoming happier these days. Lots more music opportunities coming up. St. Matthews, the lovely, very English Episcopalian church, was established in Hillsborough, NC in 1752, in the county of Orange. Following the Episcopalian love of music in services, I have been asked to book several services for the upcoming season. One, last week a memorial service for a lady who had been baptized in the the church 80 years ago! We were a string quartet, playing the prelude and during the service. The fam...

October 1st. A definite rush into the new month with a first performance at Solterra, a cohousing community on the Chapel Hill/Durham line.  We had been rehearsing there regularly, and it made a very comfortable location for our performance on Sunday, October 3rd. The program was Haydn's String Quartet in C major, op.33, n.3.  From Glazanov's Five Novelettes, we played two - Interludium in modo antico and Alla spagnola, ending with  Gershwin's Lullaby. We had a good audience, mostly from the community, some local friends. All masked, including us. October 4. The weekly five classes for strings at Trinity continued throughout the month, and all the classes did very well. I was sorry to say goodbye to them at the end of the month, as Bettina returned to teaching after her maternity leave. There was some talk about me returning as there are large classes. I haven't seen a contract though! October 8. A special treat. Brent Wissick, cello and viola da gamba professor at UNC,...

 Wow, this month has been on a roller coaster and gone by so quickly! That's why the blog is late this month. With all the business, I have not been able to add photos. I think there has been some changeover, and must have missed it. I have lovely photos on my iPhone, but can't get them onto the computer. The folders stopped at the end of August.  I'll send them out when I (or James?) can sort it out.  Starting with September 1st,  after my two classes at Trinity (7:30am and 12:20pm), I picked Maggie up from RDU where she had flown from Milwaukee. From there we drove down to Atlantic Beach.  So exciting that she was able to join us for a few days at the beach. Dan and Elisa had rented a 3-level town house, so we each had space and bathrooms!  We got up the next day early enough to walk along the beach as the sun rose.  Spectacular!                      Elisa planned to cook fish, so we went early t...

 August 2 started with a surprise - an invitation to take over the Strings Program at Trinity School while their teacher is on maternity leave. Bettina, the strings teacher and I go back a long way, as a 7 year-old or so, she was a fine violinist in the Piedmont Youth Orchestra which I conducted for many years. I spent several meetings to learn how the school system works, and find I am woefully behind on all this technology. I'm a string teacher, not an experienced technician doing everything online on a Mac computer. I teach the Lower School, the Middle School and then the Upper School.  During that week, I also was making my video,  #15 Pirates of the Caribbean to send to the Covid Cello Project (now called Global Cello Project- as there are so many people from all over the world). I didn't dress up as a pirate's fancy mol, but I had borrowed a lovely shirt and hoop earring from Jennifer, and a cute Bolivian hat borrowed from Patricia, my Chilean neighbor.  T...