going bananas

I have just seen an advert for turkeys for Christmas - free range apparently (the legal definition).  Our turkeys are driving us bonkers at the moment.  They are very free range and fly amazingly well.  We were woken by the dogs barking.  On shining a torch out the window we could just make out sillouettes of the birds balancing on the ridge tiles of the old stable. It was snowing gently, there was fresh, untouched straw inside their shed but these daft birds insisted on balancing precariously on a steep slippy roof.  As the dogs were going mad wondering what was going on above their heads we decided to throw my old shoes to scare them off.  I got dressed and armed with a stick tried to herd them back to their shed. They chose the tiniest saplings to roost on, the trees bending almost to the ground with the weight of these birds - anything but their warm, cosy shed.  I gave up.  Next morning it was clear from the muck left behind that they had spent the night on the greenhouse roof.   They have a .lovely life though, at the moment they feast on windfall apples and walnuts.  Dodge,the donkey's favourite is ... bananas!  He eats up the whole lot, skin as well.  My website is being updated at the moment so sorry for any glitches.  Next concert with Eddie Lawler on 23rd November, 7pm.  Tickets £8 from us 01535 642581or on the door - in aid of the roof at venue - Oxen hope Community Centre-

sam hain

For the first time ever we lit our bonfire last night - the festival of Sam Main.  (The computer now insists on spelling it with a 'm' instead of a 'h' ... grrrrr.  Anyway we got a beautiful evening.  This morning on checking the hens, they were surrounded by burnt out rockets stuck in the ground.  Eggs as normal though so no worries.  We are in the middle of recording at the moment.  So far we have picked up every noise imagine able ... but no 'clean' recording yet.  We will keep trying as once we have a proven method there will be no stopping us!  Dave composes ever more amazing melodies to go with his books - and we are only 2 books into a trilogy.  TheBook of Caris is at Oxen hope Community Centre on 23rd November and The Book of Anon is at Poppies Cafe in Settle on 6th December.

whispering voices

The rain is coming down the walls ... on the inside! Just in a couple of places! We are renovating fast so this is just a tiny blip. For the first time in years the windows are painted a d the heating works, so much so that the harps are playing up (whoops, didn't mean that pun). When the temperature drops strings break. As I have over 30 harps this means quite a flurry of work at this time of year. I love Autumn and found literally hundreds of beautiful large red and white spotty toadstools hiding in the woods just behind a wall next to a busy footpath. I have never seen anything like it before in such quantity. Last night I tried to finish off the latest CD to go with Dave's new book. I took the memory card up to Dave to listen with him. At the beginning of one track, running over the start of the music, was a whispery woman-s voice. It was difficult to hear but seemed to say she wanted me to wait until she sat down as she was tired... incredible! This is the third time we have recorded something.

tablets

Long time no blog! I intend to rectify this and to help Dave has brought me a tablet.it is proving to be a huge learning curve but I am adiment to master it... near us is a big farm shop with messages on blackboards outside. This week they are selling a Christmas cake in a bag - everything you need - just mix and stir! It reminded me that at boarding school we all waited in turn to stir the Christmas cake. The mixture was in a huge bowl which the wooden spoon didn,t reach the top of.The cook was brilliant - a ddescendant of captain cook,s - she was tiny, but madefantastic bread aand muffins. Concerts coming up are. Oxen hope community centre23rd nNovember and poppies cafe in settle on 6th December.

Rhubarb

There is sadly no more rhubarb growing on the farm - the winters are just too cold, no this rhubarb is the newly-named nanny goat. Jack has named 3 goats: Adam, Eve and .. rhubarb! I caught up with an old acquaintance at Hebden Bridge festival last Sunday. the Spurting Man certainly has an unusual act. I had never seen his show in the daytime before - slightly scaled down but still funny. Aislbie's revels was based on the 1765 opening of Vauxhall Gardens in London. It was huge. I believe there were lions in cages, poets, plays and musicians, including a tripleharper. London's society flocked to see all sorts of weird and wonderful things! Ours was held in the Water Gardens of Studley Royal a few years ago. Every performer dressed in Georgian dress and my daughter and I made our costumes and played harp in the grounds. We had to watch our backs as two 'angels' painted gold in nappies with plastic bows and arrows would creep up and shoot their arrows at us! The Grand finale was Handel's Fireworks. Over 300 performers would parade around the longest lake with flaming torches in the dark, As the final firework sounded and the music faded we extinguished the torches in a massive 'Mexican' wave into the water. The water was alive with fish swimming as fast as they could to the other side to get away from the flames. The Spurting Man was a favourite at the revels. Poor Jack went to school on Monday morning full of it, desperate to tell his 8 yr old friends ... trying to explain this act is difficult to say the least and his baffled friends commented 'rubbish'. We quickly printed the photos off and Jack returned to school with 'evidence' the following day!

Wheeldale Moor

On Saturday I had my picnic lunch (rather late in the afternoon) sat on a track by the roadside overlooking wheeldale Moor. My companions were 2 ventriloquist dolls made by Dave and myself. One is of the Kaffa Djinn (a genie from Dave's book) and the other was noneother than Jaques, leader of the Ninth Legion, who built the road on the hillside in the distance we were facing. My destination was Botton to give a concert in the evening as part of the Festival. (I loved Botton, by the way!) The last time I had been close to here was when I was 11 or 12. At boarding school Saturday afternoons were thankfully very laid back. The morning was taken up with Games and Latin lessons. We filed past the pantry door after lessons had finished and collected a small paper bag containing a white bread cake with a thin layer of margarine and either peanut butter or marmite (both of which I absolutely hate). Occasionally we had a dried out small slab of orange cheese and we always had an apple or an orange. If we wanted a drink we had to fill any water container we could get hold of and in those days that wasn't easy. I actually had a goatskin flask which my Dad had brought back from Switzerland for me! We were then supposed to file out in a neat crocodile for our Saturday walk. Some Nuns were more vigilent than others but most were just too overweight to start tramping up and down the hills near Whitby. This meant FREEDOM if you were clever enough to slip away un-noticed and also clever enough to be back by tea-time. I was an expert and managed to get as far away as Danby Castle once. Accompanied by a friend who lived nearby we knocked on the door of the farmhouse nextdoor and asked for the key. A smiley lady duly obliged and we unlocked the door up a flight of stone steps and played 'princesses' in the great hall. From memory there was a long oak table and benches each side and a large oak chair at one end. There were also tapestries on the walls. I have just been asked to do a wedding there.

Bookings flying in ...

Hi again - I keep saying I want to get back to it and then it all goes wrong!! I discovered a pile of Christmas presents the other day - this is good news - (yes, really). My music room has been host to 3 room's worth of furniture for about 6 months and I am getting it cleared at last. The next big job is to hang the Caris pictures back up. For those of you who have never seen them they were penned by Dennis Oates, a friend of ours, who used to run The Golden Hind, fish and chip shop with his wife, Betty, on Sun Street, Haworth for years. He pencils the drawings on A5 scraps of paper, whatever he can find, and they are so detailed that they can be blown up to A1 and they still hold amazing clarity. We had a full set printed off from The Book of Caris to hang on our walls. There is Caris, The Angel, Jaques, the main character, Governor General of Britannia in 170's AD, his wife, Ruth, his daughter, Germanilla and his father-in-law, Anon. The pictures are to be relocated and I cannot wait to see them again. This means I have to re-locate the pictures from the room they are to be hanged in .... arghhhhhhh! It goes on and on!!! Anyway I have some concerts coming up so here they are: Saturday 18th May at Poppys, Settle - 7.30 pm, Saturday 25th May at Botton School for new location Ryedale Folk Festival and I am also booked at The Square Chapel on 29th September this year again. All will be on the fascinating story of Jaques and the music is incredible - written by my husband, Dave, and based on styles and actual snippets of music from 2,000 years ago, starting in Aethiopia and moving across to Celtic Britannia. see you there! :)