A Time for Catching Up: Easter Week

As it always happens, this is a very busy time of year for me. We have an annual show at the gallery that I usually try to put a piece or two into, it's Easter week and therefore choir-heavy, and the weather just feels so nice that I feel compelled to get the house in order and spend some time just sitting outside looking at the birds. Last year I learned the Faure Requiem by heart, decided not to enter the exhibition at the gallery, and flew off to my sister-in-law's wedding in London the day after the exhibition opened. This year has been equally busy and will, I'm sure, have many more surprises in store.


Palm Sunday morning

Our choir concert was Palm Sunday evening. It was a lot of work, but we had a great time with all the gospel and spiritual music, mixed with Easter songs. The men in the choir sang a fantastic acapella piece called "I Know I Been Changed." I snapped a photo of then during the warm up rehearsal.


Gospel Dudes, Choir Concert

Easter morning was filled with lilies, brass, handbells, singing...
 

Easter Morning with an Organist

...and animals! The announcement was made early in the day that there would be a petting zoo following the service, and it was all I could do to not leap up and yell "REALLY??!?" I was so excited I could barely stand it. And then, after church...
 

LOOK! This guy was just as excited as I was...

 ...ANIMALS!! Whoever thought up having a petting zoo with goats, chickens, rabbits, and a tiny baby pig at church is clearly a genius.


A plethora of chickens, rabbits and goats

 

Easter Chickens

James got way into the spirit of things and got right in the little pen. The only reason I didn't is that I was slightly worried about stepping in poo in my nice heels. James, obviously, wasn't as concerned.


James made a new friend

Easter lunch was at my parent's house, and rather than traditional lilies, my mom gave me a gorgeous bouquet of daffodils. They were beautiful, and made our kitchen table very cheery for several days.
 

Easter Daffodils from my Mummy

Not pictured are the seemingly endless pieces of music to learn, the delicious roast chicken my mom cooked, the even more delicious deviled eggs she made (of which I ate probably 3 people's share of), and the kind of weird bear- and rabbit-faced eggs I made with my Japanese hard-boiled egg molds. If you don't have some, you seriously should, because they are ridiculous and sometimes it just feels good to make something that looks ridiculous to eat.

Ringing, Dancing, Raining, Drawing

Wednesdays are my day off from everything. It's the one day a week I can sleep in, where I'm not committed to being elsewhere, and can just spend the entire day reading if I want. I can even go on day trips with the hubster, which we just don't do enough of. The rest of my week is taken up with work, choir and handbell practice.

Yes, handbells.

Here's a visual reference for you if you don't know what handbells are. The smaller the bell, the higher the sound. These, for example, are rather high, although not as high as you can go.

To play handbell music, you need a group of people. Each person plays certain notes in certain octaves, and the goal is to ring when you're supposed to and for the correct amount of time and make music. For someone who has to circle every note to play and write in the name of the note above, this is slightly terrifying when it comes to playing for an audience. (Reading music is not my forte...haha.) But, every Sunday for an hour, I slog through handbell practice with the hope of not losing concentration and therefore count of what measure we're playing.


Balloons & Dancers in the church hall

As a run-up to Valentine's Day, the church I belong to had a dance. Neither myself or James are terribly skilled dancers, but there were lessons promised by the friend who'd been organizing it, and besides, it was something different to do on a Friday night. Plus it was semi-dress-up, so people showed up in all manner of outfits, from '50s poodle skirts to 20s flappers to cowboys and '80s rockers.


Dress, Shoes, and Aqua Toes

We tried to learn to swing dance but failed when it came to actually finding the beat in real music. We did much better at line dancing. I ran out for the acapella Hokey Pokey that was sung loud and proud from the youngest to the oldest, and I think that's the only time I've ever danced the Hokey Pokey not on roller skates. 

Dishevelled Rainy Backyard

Back to my free day. It was delightfully cold and rainy today, and therefore the perfect day for starting an art project I've been mulling over for far too long. It feels really good to be working on something, and it will feel even better as I see the project taking shape. I won't say what it is just yet, but I will say that it's for the annual Tustin Art League "Scenes of Tustin" open exhibition hosted at Chemers Gallery. I've entered my photographs before, but never any other media, so we'll see.

Sneak Peek

And yes, in case you're wondering, that is a wind up robot pencil sharpener in the top right!