22nd March 2013 The Rainhall Centre, Barnoldswick

I am sat here surrounded by fumes ... Dave is stripping the doors in the sitting room! I have lit lavender incense sticks and opened every window but to no avail ... and we are cold again!!!!!! It is actually snowing outside but not settling. Since last post I have moved the turkeys to a new pen and played in front of a few hundred more people. The front row were moved to tears when I played the laments for Ruth and Jaques from the The Book of Caris. The night before I played I carried 7 turkeys to their new home - up-side-down by their legs. They are so huge that I had to hold my arm up high to stop them hitting the ground. Later we weighed one and it was 30 kgs! I am still adjusting strings on the new harp, Copernicus, and am waiting for my drill to charge up to drill out a couple of peg holes. Just a couple of millimetres will make all the difference! When you have over 122 strings it gets a bit cramped and accuracy to a split millimetre is very important. The other problem I have which is unavoidable is as you tune it (and take out the 27% stretch in the nylon string) you end up with too much wound on the peg and have to undo it pull the extra through, cut it off, and start again. THE BOOK OF CARIS is at The Rainhall Centre, Barnoldswick on 22nd March 2013. More details soon but a lovely story, fascinating history and beautiful music ...