harps and concerts

We had a enquiry today for Fiona Katie to play at a charity event.

Fiona Katie has played at a lot of Charity events to name a few she has played for

The blind

The Deaf

The MS Society

Epilepsy society to name but a few

A good friend of mine Dennis called this afternoon Dennis is a Freemason and has asked that Fiona Katie play for a Garden party in June / July

Work is still coming in for Fiona Katie which is always a good sign in these uncertain economic times

Blog by Dave Widdop

zimmers, harps, donkeys and sheep

Hi dave here
Well I did not sleep much last night terrible pain in leg and toes are black.
Hospital offered a Zimmer frame to help me get into wheelchair .
Physio cracked a joke about Fiona Katie attaching strings to it and renaming it CripAL which caused me to smile I must say even though it was in bad taste.

flossy, harps,concerts, and stuff.

Have had another look at Deval the harp this afternoon and since I am now stuck in the house have spent the afternoon looking at designs for many different harps and have discussed some of the ideas with Fiona Katie as we are both working on these together.

Had a eventful day with the Vet coming to look at Flossy , she is to have shoes fitted shortly and the Vet feels she may have to be sedated.

This afternoon I had to go back to the hospital to have my leg manipulated into place before a more permanent cast was fitted. Physio was concerned about the weakness in my right hand side and as it is my left leg that is broken a wheelchair is going to be delivered tomorrow morning all being well.

It seems we are not able to be as freem with our speech on here as we would like .

This is a shame as when I set this blog up it was meant to be able to tell a little bit about harps and our lives in general.

Some it seems take exception to this. Such a shame

Next concert is is Grimsby all being well.

I will be sorting out further concerts in the next few weeks in Yorkshire shortly

I will post the details here

Above photo is Fiona Katie dressed to perform at a wedding

Dave Widdop

The new harp Daval

Finally after months of hard work and delays I have managed to make a start on finishing the harp Daval.
As I write this I am in between coats of laqher, in order to give the harp added strength it is necessary to apply this 15 seperate times and each time the harop is to be given 5 coats with a fiteen minute interval in between. by the time it is finished this means the harp will have received 75 seperate coats of laquer this seems a lot but the coats are applied so thinly so to prevent sagging.

I have had to revert to spraying the harp in the barn for two reasons after days of hardwork installing the wood burning stove in the stables I lit it and it failed the woodburner is beyond repair and damaged further than initially thought rendering it useless and I nearley burned down the stables in the process dropping everything to get the Donkey out then going back in to throw a bucket of water over the rayburn .
Tomorrows job is to remove the rayburn from the building and to put it in the scrap pile!!!!

Now desperately seeking another wood burning stove that will not be in such a bad state
The idea is to warm the stables through for when flossy the donkey has her foal..

OK back to spraying

Lambing, Donkeys, Harps and chimneys

Woke early this morning by the Donkey ,

Miserable weather outside and decided that I had best get on with the chimney stack for the wood burning stove in the stables.

Flossy is doing very well now her back has become very straight and she is extremely intelligent today she picked up her feed bucket and pushed it through the gate to me !!! she does also carry her water bucket by its handle to the back of the stables when it is placed down in front of her.

Flossy is a bit nippy what I mean by this is that if you have something in your hand she tries to get it off you I have decided only to give her food in her bucket from now on as friends on the Donkey Forum told me to do this to avoid her nipping (Donkey bites do hurt)

Due to Flossy coming to the farm unexpectantly I have used more hay than I originally calculated on for the sheep so I have a good friend who has a farm who is going to come to some arrangement with me for 20 bales of hay which should see me through.

The snow which has fallen has not helped at all went through another 3 bales today only have enough to last till the weekend .

Lambing should be starting the 2nd week in March which is not that far away and will carry on till mid April.

Finally managed to replace the table saw which is located in the workshop I got sold one last Year by a Family Member no less and it turned out the Motor on it was defunct not only that when I tried to get a replacement motor I found out this part was obsolete and even if it had been available it would have cost more than a new saw.

Thank goodness for ebay

New harps

Had a great day today I went to see my mom gave her a new coat I had bought for her and then went off to the paint shop to buy supplies to complete Daval.
Had to strip the varnish off Daval ready for 15 coats of laquer which will be sprayed tomorrow.
Davav the harp will then be left to dry for 3 days before having the next set of decals and laquer sprayed over the top.

At this stage we will be drilling the harp ready for stringing and then the final part will be the electronics .
It is my intention to have Daval ready for stringing by the end of next week
Then the real work start as 128 strings have to be fit into place and months of tuning will begine at this stage Daval could explode under the huge strain and a years work will simply become firewood.

I am hoping that it all works
D

Farewell to my friend Duncan (By Dave)

It wasnt as if he appeared unwell but my best friend Duncan had suffered from diabetis for many years.

A few years ago he stubbed his toe at the bottom of the stairs something that many of us do but for a diabetic this was pretty serious and a few months later he was in hospital with blood poisoning. I remember going and seeing him and thinking oh my goodness . That though was 7 Years ago now and I had long since forgotten about it.

Duncan went to the foot clinic just 3 weeks ago a routine visit just to have his feet looked at. The Nurse was a bit concerned and decided a few days in hospital resting might help with the aid of antibiotics. That was on the Thursday on the Monday things went bad and Duncan was transfeered from one hospital to another . I got a text telling me he was not good and decided to go see him the next day.

The following morning I got a call from Duncans daughter the type of call no one ever wants to get my friend of 15 years had died .

And so last Friday we went to the funeral and Fiona Katie played somewhere over the rainbow whilst I acted as one of the pall bearers and carried my friends coffin into the crematorium.

A very harrowing and painful day . I must admit I cried as I watched Duncans 97 year old Father say farewell to his son.

Duncan was more of a Father to me than ever my own Father was and I will mourn for him forever a true friend, Father, Son, Brother. Duncan was many things to many people but to me he was my best friend..

Picture

From left to right My younger brother Tony, Me (Dave) in the Middle, Duncan right

Update on flossy

Flossy continues toget a bit better each day and is developing into a good friend .
I have been working in the stables in the adjoining room to flossy today and have been in and out with bits of harps and equipment for the workshop.
Flossy has decided very quickly that if she starts making her sqeauly attempts at a donkey noise that she gets a carrot but I have decided not to give her toom many as I do not want to give her stomach ache/.
Tomorrows job is to call down and see our good friend Mark who owns Airevalley wood shavings in Keighley he has helped me out no end and my good friend Julie Rhodes from Rhodes Hardware came up to see flossy with a huge sack of feed for flossy
It does seem that everyone is taking a bit of interest in flossy and she is getting spoilt .
I have in all my years never seen a animal so mistreated and to say she has been treated in this she still has trust in mankind . I am suprised that she does not bite anything that moves..

Well it is time for bed and I am up early in the morning as I will be working on Fiona Katies latest website which is www.harpistforweddings.com
Still some finishing touches to go on but I think I have managed to get the music page just right

Davex

Flossy

This is flossy our rescued Donkey

The top picture shows the cruelty that was inflicted to Flossy before we got her.

Flossy is now doing better than she was but has a long way to go yet

She is due to foal in May and we are trying to get her built up whilst taking extra care with her foot.

Flossy has laminitis in her front foot which is why she is wearing gaffer tape on her foot which is holding a instep in place to help her walk.

Flossy (our new donkey)

Yes ...! only you, I hear you say. I was due on stage in 4 hours time and Dave said we must just go and see this donkey for sale in Colne. I could tell he was serious as the old horsebox was hitched up behind his car already. It was pouring with rain, the wind was horrible and there she was perched precariously on a very thin slippery, sloping path made from concrete paving stones. Huge bare patches of skin showing through her rain drenched coat, deep cuts on her knees and heavy with foal ...

Of course Dave bought her!!! (After serious haggling!) She bravely limped into our horsebox and back at the farm we bedded her down into a dry stable with hay and pony nuts and a bucket of water (neither of us remembered seeing one when we picked her up).

The good news is Dave rescued her just in time. The vets aren't too worried and have bandaged one of her feet. Dave is shampooing her coat every day and she has antibiotics and wormers in her food. Things are looking very positive. She is an absolute love - very talkative and the difference in her is noticeable already. She obviously feels at home and is rolling happily and trotted to the stable door for a carrot this morning!

And in case you were wondering ... we had a cracker of a concert and you could hear a pin drop when I played the 'ghost' tune (with permission, of course) ...

Next performance at the Wuthering Heights, also with Eddie Lawler on Tuesday, 29th March

next concert this Saturday in Clayton - pls see next blog down!

I cannot believe it's been nearly a week since I last wrote. I have two new websites - the thanks and inspiration for the names go to Duncan - a great friend of Dave's and who shall be sadly missed. I shall check first that they are actually up and running without hitches before I give you the names! The original website www.tripleharps.com was set up by my daughter's friend, Adam, whilst still at school in AS level year. In those days we never thought things would get so big and I never thought I would be spelling it out over the phone umpteen times a day!

I am at present making a huge map on the kitchen table. The harps have been moved out of the way for the moment! We are on a quest to find out as much history and folklore about harps as we can - in particular in connection with the Romans as they brought so many new ideas into the country - music included! I have discovered many links with locations anyway and I am enjoying myself creating this map with a whole new outlook!

Well, at present rate of progress I will not write again before the concert so I hope to see you all in Clayton on Saturday - 8 pm - there is a bar ... Music and tales from hills ...