The importance of 'O'

I had to play 4 hymns and one of them was entitled Bread of Heaven - this was a message on facebook. I checked my 6 different hymn books and eventually found it. It had 2 tunes - one by Bach. It was a beautiful 'moody' tune so I learnt it. Having not much time and no-one to ask I decided I had better learn the alternative tune as well. When I arrived at the church there was no-one about - except the coffin - so I knew I was in the right place. Five minutes later the church wardens were puzzled when I asked them which tune was usually sung to Bread of Heaven. Eventually they asked 'you don't mean O Bread of Heaven do you?'. Mystery solved ...! I borrowed the organists's hymn book and sight-read the tune. Today's job was to dust off all the harps. There are a few harps in the barn and they were cleaner than the ones in the house! A few weeks ago the ceiling fell in, then the plasters, then the sanding ... the dust was horrendous. I took off the worst with the vacuum but getting between the strings took time and ... turkey feathers! I have noticed as well that they have good anti-stat properties. The flautists in Ireland used to clean their ebony flutes with feathers as they had natural oils. Well, we are nearly back on track in the house - just a few painting and gluing jobs to do. The ceiling knocked the cornices off a couple of antique cupboards so I boiled up some proper rabbit glue which stank but is apparantly what was used in the old days. We'll see!

Snow stops everything

Well since I last wrote the snow arrived and the Rainhall Concert had to be cancelled. I managed to take Copernicus out to the local pub at the weekend to put it through its paces. Dave woke up at 3 am the other morning so decided to email a few venues - whether they were impressed by the timing or just by Dave's words we don't know but it did the trick and we have a few more venues booked for later in the year. The snow appeared normal at first, we normally get a lot of it and have a car that will convert to 4-wheel drive if we need it, but this time we were caught out. We set off to take Dave's son Jack back to his Mum's house and set off up the drive at twilight. About half way up we noticed this white wall and could just see the top 2' of the streetlight stuck out the top. It never occurred to us until we got close that it was snow - we thought a white wagon had parked across the top of the drive. The drift was the size of a bungalow. We reversed back down the drive, which was already over a foot deep in places and Dave went for the tractor. He tried to smash his way through the side but it stopped the tractor in its tracks. Plan 'B' was to go up through the field and smash through the tiny snowdrift across the gate to the road (only about 4' high and 3' wide). It took two attempts and an hour later we set off up the field. We still had to run at it so I stood in the road incase someone was coming. We still have 2' drifts and the huge drift at the top which had to be dug out with the JCB is now about 3' high. Dave is busy writing his new book - I am very lucky to get fantastic bedtime stories! I cannot wait until it is finished - well actually I just want the story to go on forever but then that would be the next book ... already in the planning ... and just wait until you hear the music from ancient Persia. More soon ...