Shigeru Kawai Piano Launch

 Armidale's New England Conservatorium of Music has just upagraded its piano. They bought it from the Japanese company Shigeru Kawai and we were advised that their pianos are now regarded as among the world's best.

Here's the instrument in question:

To celebrate its arrival, the Conservatorium planned a concert in their domain and it turned out to be among the most stupendous I've attended there. The entire program consisted of piano works and, remarkably, all performers were based in Armidale. Even two of the 5 performers must have been around 18 years of age - either last year of high school or starting tertiary education. Armidale has a huge array of musical talent. The concert lasted 2 hours.

The opening work was Mendelssohn's stupendous 17 Variations Serieuses Op 54 played by Sheila Guymer. Then came two Danzas Argentinas composed by Alberto Ginastera ... of whom I know nothing. This was beautifully played by young Will Mackson. Both performers received raptuous applause. Here's Sheila.

And here's young Will who performed marvellously.

Next came Nigan from Baal Shem (B. 27, #2) in which joung Emily played the violin accompanied by Robert Manley.

Then the piano teacher, Robert Manley, performed three glorious works by Brahms (1) and Greig (2). 

After this, Sheila resumed her role at the piano while Robert, believe it or not, switched to a 'cello to perform Faure's Elegie Op 24. Again, the performances were top-class.

An intermission now occurred to hand out awards to young performers, after which we saw something I've never seen in public. Kasey Cochrane joined Robert at the piano to play a glorious duet - Lutoslawski's famous Variations on a Theme by Paganini. Again, it was a great performance and the musicians won enormous applause. 

Lastly, the audience was enthralled by an amazing work by Eduard Holst called Shooting Stars Galop. And they sure did gallop!! More amazing still was the fact that there old piano joined the new one and each had two pianists - see above. So we had a sort of piano quartet with 8 hands on the 2 keyboards. Again, the audience was overwhelmed by a brilliant musical they were unlikely to ever see again. The applause at the end was long and resounding, signing off on a great day enjoyed by a large and enthusiastic audience. Lucky Armidale! 

Alas, I forgot to take a picture of this 8 hands event. Maybe I was so enthralled by the music that I forgot to take it. Anyway, here's all 4 piano performer taking their final bow. The applause was monumental.

What a day! Dot and I were enthralled. Come and live here if you like this kind of event.

AS

Blooming Summer

 We're moving here into late summer but, after a lot of cool and wet weather, we're enjoying day-long sunshine and warm temperatures. Today, for example, the forecast is for temperature to reach 30 C (86 F) even though we're 1100 m above sea level. We've a garden with masses of flowers and I've just done a quick walk around it with my camera photographing many of the flowers in tubs, flower beds, and even trees. Here they are:

I'm not really up with the names of the various plants, but Dot has told me that the ones in the mext picture are naked ladies!! I can't quite see the connection, but I'll leave it up to you to work this issue out!

I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did taking them. Thanks to Dot's great efforts we've got heaps of flowers for us to enjoy.

AS

Monthly Concert Last Sunday in Month

 Armidale has a fantastic number of high quality musical concerts and I increasingly focus on a monthly event held at 12.30 pm on the last Sunday of each month. It's located at the Uniting Church and entry is by donation. Two days ago, the concert featured music for flute, violin, viola and cello (sometimes confusingly called a flute quartet!) performed by excellent young musicians. They were James McKay, Eliza Scott, Robert van Gend and Charlotte Low. The repertoire ranged from the 18th to 21st centuries. It  included a well known work by Mozart and more obscure, but nevertheless lovely pieces.

Here are the musicians.

And, as you can see, the church was fairly full with an enthused audience.

AS

Lamb and Potato Festival

Many small towns across rural Australia organise festivals to bring in tourists and their money to boost local income but also provide an opportunity for local citizens to come together socially. One such town is Guyra located c. 35 km north of Armidale. It's known for its altitude which is c. 1330 m (4364 feet) above sea level. The town's population is only about 1947 but the extensive surrounding countryside might add another 1,000.

Every January - the warmest time of year - the town stages its Lamb and Potato Festival which lasts maybe 10 to 12 days. Dot and I frequently visit the event yearly to sample local farm produce and see other interesting events. If you'd like to find out more about the place and its event see respectively:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyra,_New_South_Wales and

https://guyralambpotatofestival.com/ 

The day we chose to go was quite warm and sunny, which was lovely given the wet weather we experienced for much 2022. Even at 1330 m, the temperature at lunch-time must have been close to 27 C (about 80F). Not bad, eh?

These pictures reveal some of what we saw. Here's a guy selling belts. I bought two.

Many other stalls were selling clothing, food and farm equipment like this one.

Here's the cafe where we bought lunch. Mine was an excellent - very tasty lamburger.

In the middle of the fair, which extended alongside the New England Highway was a permanent memorial to the local farm economy - a statue of a sheep.

As is usual in such events, there was a tent that served as a stage for a guy singing 'country music'.

Another  great feature was a train ride. The track shown here experienced its last long-distance service maybe 30 years ago. And the track is now scheduled to be turned into a mountain-bike trail. However, the locals have developed their own service - for the festival only. Here are the 'station', two pictures of the 'passenger train'. It was vary popular with local families and kids.

All up, it's an interesting and entertaining experience.

AS

A family Christmas?

 We've jsut hosted Rebecca, Max and Rob for Christmas and the subsequent end of 2022. It was great fun and time for reflecttion. Bec celebrated her 40th birthday, a major milestone in one's life.

Here she is ... all smiles.

And here's the birthday cake puchased from a local supermarket! Christmas is a busy time and it seemed easier to buy a cake froma supermarket shelf. Anyway, it was a good purchase and we implanted 4 candles rather than the usual 40. There wasn't enough room for all that number. Nor could we compensate with 10 cm tall candles - each cm representing 10 years.

Anyway, the birthday celebrations wen down well. Our visitors took quite a few interesting trips. For example Bec drove one morning to Point Lookout to watch the sun rise over the east coast of Australia.

Since sunrise was about 5.40 am and it takes maybe 50 minutes to get to Point Lookout, she must have left home here at about 4.40 am in pitch darkness. We didn't hear her go!

Another trip took us to see Aboriginal pock paintings at Mount Yarrowyck maybe 30 km west of Armidale. It's a great intersting walk from the car-park at the heritage site to see the works of art. Here's three pictures of this event, starting with a glimpse of Mount Yarrowyck, a sacred Aboriginal site.

There's a steep walk up to the cave containing the Aboriginal art-works.

And here's Rebecca taking a picture of the art-work which is apparently several centuries old and pre-dates European settlement.

By the way, some Aboriginal art-works in Western Australia or the Northern Territory have been dated as far back as c. 40,000 years old!!

AS

 Just before Christmas, UNE put on a party for staff and their families and even town residents. I cannot recall a similar event in the past, but it went quite well and attracted a large crowd of people of all ages. I took a lot of photos which you can see below and together they give a good feel for the event. It started at around 6 pm and I undestand that it may have lasted as much as 3 hours. I, myself, could only hang around for about an hour, but during that time I met up with quite a few people I know engaged in interesting discussions.

After I parked my car the first thing I saw was a heap of kangaroos. I didn't know they'd been invited .. but they kept themsleves distant from the main event.

The event was held in the gardens of Booloominbah, a large and imposing house that was formerly the home of a wealthy farming family. This building is now UNE's administrative HQ - donated way backin time by the family concerned. This shows the entry point to the event.

Here's a seat reserved for a Subordinate Clause, but he didn't turn up as fas as I could see.

The grounds were home to many stalls selling food or various handicrafts, or alternatively providing various kinds of display.

This next picture shows the imposing Booloominbah homestead.

At the southern end o fthe lawn I found a screen that was set up to display films as the evening progressed and lights dimmed. 

Various food providers drove their vans into the garden area to sell ethinc meals. This photo shows the Ezidi 'restaurant' from which I purchased my meal. Armidale is home to maybe 600 Ezidi's who fled northern Iraq when attacked by Islamic State! Their menu is shown below.

Here's another view of the event looking eastwards.

Some university departments took the opportunity to show-off some of their work like researching the behaviours of snakes or other creatures - see the next two pictures I took.

We had a musical accompaniment from a guy standing in front of Booloominbah. This went down well also.

And here's a view southwards over Armidale in the valley below. In following picture, we're looking northwards from the same spot.

I pointed out Santa's empty sleigh at the start, but towards the end of my stay I found it occupied! Do you recognise Santa's deputy for that evening? Yes! It's me. Alas, I had no reindeer to take me anywhere. I wondered where Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixen were being housed. 

Anyway it was a fun visit and I congratulate UNE on its good work.

AS