A day in Aldeburgh

Hello!!

Last weekend, CBC and I had no particular plans and we suddenly realised that the Aldeburgh festival was on!  In its 76th year, this music festival in the Suffolk seaside town was founded by great British composer, Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears (pronounced Peers).  CBC and I have been to various events for this over the years. He introduced me to it fairly early in our relationship as he was a Hess student when he was young- these students spend time in Aldeburgh stewarding for it and get to stay with local families.

We decided to try and get tickets for the Sunday events.

The timing was perfect as I had JUST started my final Year 4 music unit of the year on Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra 3 days earlier so I was very much in the mood to go to Aldeburgh!

We left home around 8.45am to drive to Suffolk and arrived just in time for the 10.30am Festival service at St Peter's and St Paul's church 

The service received a sermon from the Rt Rev’d Joanne Grenfell, Bishop of Stepneyand the  Britten Pears Chamber Choir was singing, conducted by James Davyand with Francesca Massey organ.  The service was lovely with music by composer of the festival,  Helen Grime: her Missa Brevis and a piece by Daniel Kidane: Christus factus est.  CBC's old colleague and friend L was singing in the choir as she had moved to Suffolk and it was lovely to see her.

I loved the beautiful Benjamin Britten memorial window by John Piper.  Britten had developed a new type of opera which he gave the name 'parables for church performance.  Three of these were named Curlew River, The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal son and all of these are evoked in some way in this beautiful window. 

 After the service we headed to Aldeburgh high street for a spot of lunch.  I queued in the epic fish and chip shop queue whilst CBC went to find some coffee and have a mooch around.

After 30mins, I reached the front of the queue and bought CBC a portion of chips (he'd acquired a toastie) and for myself, a Child-sized portion of Fish and chips plus a small battered sausage. 

I met CBC on the beach to eat.

The fish and chips, cooked in Beef dripping, was delicious and my portion was just the right size!

I went dressed for the seaside:

I bought this gingham sailor top in Primark last month. I never shop in there now but I saw this on Instagram and knew a 100% cotton sailor top in Gingham was something I had to see!

The skirt is from Fatface via a charity shop plus my Seasalt sandals from Depop a good 6 years ago or so.

The sea changed colour in the space of 2 minutes when the sun came out:

We enjoyed our lunch and witnessed a fly-by theft from a Seagull who stole a child's battered sausage.  It also tried to steal mine- I suddenly noticed it hovering inches from my hand.

As CBC ate his Tiramisu cake, I had a paddle! It was refreshing but the sloping shingle was hard to stand upright on as I tried to hold my skirt!

We had to hotfoot it back to the car, parked past the church (via a charity shop where CBC bought an old print of a lovely John Singer Sargeant painting) and drove to Snape Maltings for our next musical performance.   This was held in the Britten studio at 2pm.  We crept in late in the complete dark, accidentally bumping into our friend L who was a steward for it!

The concert was a performance by Fu and Betts-Dean: The programme was entitled Solitude with Schubert Lotte Betts-Dean,  mezzo-soprano and George Xiaoyuan Fu on  piano.  It began with a film called Solitude With Schubert (first screening) by Matilda Hay filmmaker. The pieces were Schubert: Einsamkeit, D.620 (17’) Schubert: Schwanengesang, D.957 (selection) (15’) Schubert: Piano Sonata No.21 in B flat, D.960 (40’).  It was wonderful!!! The programme explored how grief mingles with consolation, combined with a film exploring the loss of a loved one. 

After this, we headed out for a walk to Snape Warren across the beautiful boardwalks.

After a glorious walk, we headed into the maltings for a light dinner.

I changed into my evening concert outfit of this Monsoon cotton dress, bought from a charity shop in Hexham.

Funnily enough, I saw my friend from Gamelan who was there to watch the same concert as us by coincidence.  Last time I came to watch an Aldeburgh concert, I saw ANOTHER Gamelan friend!

Amusingly, when we entered the Maltings hall, it turned out out of 1000 seats, we had ended up seated next to each other by total coincidence!!

the concert was entitled Nocturne and Folk, performed by the Knussen Chamber Orchestra.

The solists were  Claire Booth, soprano  and Allan Clayton, tenor.  Ryan Wigglesworth was the the conductor.  The programme was Britten: Suite on English Folk Tunes, ‘A time there was ...’, Op.90 , Helen Grime: Folk (Britten Pears Arts co-commission),  Britten: Nocturne, Op.60, and Beethoven: Symphony No.8 in F, Op.9. I adore Britten's music and I loved the two pieces we heard, both new to me.  The piece by Helen Grimes, a major new commission with soloist Claire Booth, was really intriguing with some very evocative lyrics and musical crafting.

We'd had a fantastic day and it just remained to drive back to  Essex. I helped CBC mark some test papers as he drove (I read the answers and told me if they were right or not!) 

I very much recommend a day in Aldeburgh and a visit to the Maltings, ideally a concert!

xx

Style imitating Art October: grey and peaches...

Hello there,

I hope you have had a lovely day. Mine has been surprisingly successful and enjoyable. Doing my annual Tudor minstrelling round the school with year 4 and now 3 classes.  I cause havoc but the kids adore it and the surprise was, the naughtiest class behaved really well doing it!

Then in Singing Assembly, I taught them my new Christmas song which they picked up super quickly and seemed to enjoy.

Subsequently, Year 3 recorders- not so enjoyable. Lots of children being dozy.

Finally, choir after school and they learnt their two solo songs beautifully. Hurrah for that!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the last two rounds of Style Imitating Art. In case you are unaware of the premise of this, one of the 3 curators, Salazar, Jen and Erin pick a piece of work which any participant can intrepret as an outfit. I do enjoy this challenge. You often have to think outside the box if you don't have anything suitable in your wardrobe.

Jen chose this Vogue front cover from the past with its beautiful illustration and muted colours.
I had something different planned and then I spotted this Monsoon dress which I had charity-shopped in Maldon at the start of September for £2 and suddenly realised how apt it was with its charcoal grey and its embroidered peachy flowers which reminded me of the feathers above.  I added my soft grey ruffled cardigan from Oasis which has little feathery-like flower details (not seen!) and my DIY-embroidered cat flats with Whitby-Jet necklace to finish. I was rather pleased by the overall effect. Click on Jen's name above to see how everyone else interpreted it including Jen's brilliant dress version!

 The previous challenge before that was hosted by Salazar and she chose the following painting which I can't help but notice had very similar colours except for the mustardy/tan jacket/top she is wearing.

Jean-Etiénne Liotard’s “The Chocolate Girl”

I knew which items I wanted to use but after wearing it for a day, it looked very creased and not a great photo- still I hope you can see where I went with it.

I picked out the colour of the hat with this White Stuff blouse (which I have since culled since I am not that fond of it) with my nan's ceramic-beaded necklace to pick out the teacup detail. These ancient Oasis trousers took the grey of her skirt and I tried to sort of make a hint at the blouse with these boots. 

I do urge you to come and join in the next one.  The next host is Erin at www.looplooks.net and she will post it on Monday with the details of how to get your photo to her. I'd love to see more people join in such a creative challenge!!! We even had a man in the form of the lovely Mike who has become a great regular!

Who's inspired? Who's going to join in??

xx

Don't blink!

Saturday started all so well.  There I was, dressed in my best TARDIS blue with star jewellery and red accents ready for our American themed first half of the concert.  When all of a sudden...

 CBC started gasping and spluttering and pointing to his eyes, shaking his head and then covering his eyes.

 I assumed me wanted me to cover my eyes.

 "No..." he whispered hoarsely with a shaky finger pointing behind me.

 "It's getting closer!!!!" he cried and I turned and recoiled in utter horror.

 "Am I going to die?" I asked with a manic smile on my face.  Don't blink CBC, don't blink!

 And then in a flash of light...

 SHE VANISHED.

THE ANGELS HAVE THE BLOG.

If you wish to see me again, you must link to TARDIS Tuesday with Maricel, the last survivor.
Also linking up to Patti at Visible Monday, who is also sporting TARDIS blue and Catherine at Not dressed as lamb with my statement ruby slippers for 'I will wear what I like!'!!x


xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

SIA- The Green Cage (bonus post!)

I was so uninspired with today's BEDM brief that I thought I'd add in a second post. This is a quick Style Imitating Art challenge I joined in with this week.
The inspiration piece was The Green Cage by Richard E Miller, chosen by Salazar at 14 shades of grey.


Such a pretty piece. I loved the brushstrokes and the beautiful feminity of the subject plus the delightful hues.

As is often the case with Style imitating Art, I tend to go for the central colours, particularly if there is a human subject.


Taking the corally pink of her shawl and the blue of her frock, I combined two charity shop items- Broderie Anglaise shirt dress from Next and a blue petal patterned silk skirt from Monsoon.  It was time to bring out the flower crown/wreath for those roses in the background. This one was my first flower crown from Monsoon Kids a long time ago!  Avoided the usual smiling at the camera to try and reflect the demure nature of the subject.

I'm tending my flowers.  I've been ridiculously excited over my crops. Really wanting to grow vegetables this year.  Have a look so far...hope I actually get to eat some of this and it doesn't a) get decimated by slugs/snails b) die of lack of watering because I am away,



Tomato plants are fairly small. Haven't grown much since they went outside.


Radishes are blossoming. As I went out earlier, the stalks started to turn red!


Oh sad little lettuces.  Not really doing much!



Onions were seedlings from Waitrose. Not done much so far.
Pak Choi were seedlings from Waitrose. Not done much so far and wretched slugs have discovered them! Go away pests!


Carrots probably won't grow - I was a bit rough with the root bulb.


Raspberries have grown a bit


Strawberries have had flowers and are growing. Slugs get lost!


Seedling lettuces from Waitrose have been chomped by the evil woodpigeons and/or snails.


Is that rocket starting to sprout? I hope so!


LOOOK Swiss Chard is finally emerging!!!!


Land cress planted by Mum but has grown a lot in the week since she came round.


Mum also planted runner beans in a pot but they've grown about 15cm in a week!!!!


French beans germinated by me!

Hurrah!

XX

Proud



And it's when I see these photos that I realise I rock up to school in creased item most days.  Peter pan collar checked shirt- Topshop via Charity shop, skirt- Monsoon, boots - Primark, amethyst earrings and pendant- presents, cardie- F&F



Tonight was my borough's Recorder Festival.  I took a group of 15 children there last year for the first time.  It's something I took part in myself every year for 11 years of my young life (7-18).  It's been quite hard getting them together this year: the year 4's were particularly flaky (or their parents were) but to my joy, all 18 children arrived on time.  They played really well, including our solo which they danced a Tudor dance to before playing a 3-part harmony version of Branle des Sabots.  I really do love my borough for things like this- they offer excitement, focus and an outlet for what I do. It's a great incentive and I am blessed to teach in my borough which has such a good name for music.  My recorder group started off this year with around 38 children and there are currently about 25 children in it, so I have lost some but still a good core.  My best recorder player in Year 6 (woe is me- she is leaving!) has a younger sister who joined the group at the start of the year but decided to 'quit' (urgh, can't stand the way they use that term!) which I thought was a GREAT shame because she has potential (she plays the piano and is my percussion player in orchestra) but I asked her to play the tambour drum for our solo so she came along (and ended up playing percussion parts for other pieces).  I gave her my spare recorder to play, seen as she was sitting there and yipppeeee, I have persuaded her to come back to the club after half-term holiday!  You have no idea how happy I am (and her Mum who is very musical!).  One other funny event of the evening was, I had to take a stream of children to visit the toilet and I was waiting outside for them and one of the Mums came. She sent her twin boys into the loo together and appararently, they like to go to the loo together, one on either side of the bowl, so she told me! I found this hilarious! Apparently, one pees on the other one sometimes! Still really funny!!!!

The day was also proud for me because one of my recorder classes (year 3) who have been learning the recorder, very well all year, gave a performance to Nursery and reception (3-5 years old).  They played 7 recorder pieces and sang and danced 2 songs.  They did absolutely magnificently and were so hyped about it.  Definitely something I want to repeat with other year groups! The other year 3 class is performing the same pieces to Year 1 and the afternoon nursery lot tomorrow afternoon so I look with alacrity towards this! (this is definitely part of my 52 weeks of happy!)

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue

I mentioned my friend's wedding.  It was held at Lympne castle (pronounced Lim) in Kent.  We had a gorgeous morning walking along the beach in Hythe, Kent in the sunshine! After my friend's wedding, we stayed at the Mercure Imperial hotel and spa.

(photo from the Mercure website mentioned above)

It was a gorgeous hotel which I was gutted not to be able to use the swimming pool as I didn't bring my cossie!

WHY oh WHY did I not check that there was a swimming pool????

Boo hiss to last minute disorganised packing! It was right by the sea too. I shared a twin room with my pal C whose husband, who is vision-impaired and has a guide dog, who was not able to come last minute because of a bereavement. She had reserved a disabled access room and of course, she didn't think to change it. It was a huge room with really good access for anyone with a wheelchair etc so I'd recommend it if you ever went there!  We ate a hardy breakfast after waking up horrendously late!

We had a glorious walk along the Promenade chatting and then a friend drove us home via Folkestone where we had a cup of tea near the harbour and laughed at the seagulls!!!





The wedding at Lympne the day before was really beautiful.  For the first time in my life, I cried at a wedding- it's crazy!!! As L came up the aisle, I felt tears welling up and then as the vicar said, "Let us pray!" to my horror, tears started coming out!!  The service was lovely and proper.  We sang as a small choir at the front.  She looked so beautiful in a lovely Medieval looking dress with loads of beautiful lace and embroidered details.  Her daughter and the other 5 bridesmaids looked resplendent in sage green dresses!



The meal was delicious though freeeeeeeezing cold setting of a marquee.  Luckily we headed into Lympne castle for the evening dancing! The speeches were really short and simple but heartfelt. A good way to keep the speeches!


I went to the hairdresser in the morning to get a haircut and somehow was convinced by the hairdresser (not my favourite one) to let her do something different to my hair in terms of style as I "always have it the same"- I thought it looked a bit of a mess.  It looked better later on when it had dropped a bit and I could brush it!
(dress and fascinator Monsoon, shoes- Marc Jacobs (not the real one, some local one), cardie-H&M.)



She had thought of so many details.  Each table had a literary theme (she's an English Lit graduate)- our table was Elizabeth Barratt Browning and we had her poem, "How many ways do I love thee" as a table centre with the flowers.

The wedding favours were little retro tins filled with sweeties. Again, great fun!

Another great fun thing was the photo booth which she'd hired.  You could dress up in silly hats and glasses and have an instant photo to stick into a scrapbook for her.  Here's me and a friend enjoying the glasses!  I was totally taken with these red ones! Lots of us had fun with them!



One thing that kids and adults alike enjoyed was the sweetie stall!  There were paper bags and lots of sweets to choose!  The kid whose hand I captured here was highly amused when I said, "Can you just reach your hand in for a photo please?"

Later on, there was a hot buffet of hot dogs, chips and a "Cheese" cake!!!!

All in all, it was a gorgeous affair and I am so happy for her finally to have married him!  It's been a difficult journey for them!  It was also good to steal some wedding ideas!    Today, we have been doing wedding invitation type activities!!!

How's you anyway!?
xx