Steve
showed me a Peanuts comic strip the other day that mirrors my thoughts
perfectly. Lucy is complaining that there are too many people and time is
moving too quickly and she needs a BIGGER YEAR!
Well said, Lucy.
These
past two weeks have just been a blur of musical activities. District music festival was Friday and
Saturday, April 4th and 5th. Both days were long ones – leave from the
school at the crack of dawn and return late afternoon. Friday was the large ensemble festival. Chamber Orchestra – the auditioned group –
received all “ones” from the three judges and they got a “one” in
sight-reading.
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| Chamber Orchestra in the warm-up room |
Concert
Orchestra received all “twos” and a “two” in sight-reading. I am pleased with both results. Last year, I had such a small orchestra that
I could not split them by ability level and we got a “two”, mostly due to poor intonation
from my less skilled players. This year,
the hard-working, talented students were rewarded for their efforts. And, the non-auditioned players played well
enough to get a two rating.
 |
| Concert Orchestra waiting to board the bus back to Rock Bridge |
Saturday
was solo and small ensembles. My
students performed in two time clusters – one early in the morning and one
mid-afternoon. That left a huge gap of time in the middle that allowed me to
drive over to the Mexico Ward meetinghouse to watch the Saturday morning
session of General Conference. And,
thanks to the iPad, ear buds, and school WiFi, I was able to start the Saturday
afternoon session at the school and finish watching at the church. It was a great compromise since I could not stay
home to watch. Sunday, of course, we got
to watch every session at home. Sadie
and Trissy were in heaven having both their people with them ALL DAY.
In
addition to Districts, I have been involved in a collaborative concert
involving the Columbia Chorale and their children’s choir, some university and
community musicians, and several of my high school Chamber orchestra students
as well as students from Hickman and CIS.
We are performing John Rutter’s Mass
of the Children tonight at the Missouri Theater so the last two weeks have
involved several rehearsals. And, when I
am not practicing for Rutter, I am in the stake choir Easter Cantata rehearsals
which performs this coming Friday evening.
Thankfully,
no Prairie Strings weddings YET – but that
is coming headlong in a couple of weeks!
The
weather has finally turned warm and the flowers have just exploded in our
yard.
Steve has been busy applying weed
control and fertilizing products on the yard.
I have already sprayed the fruit trees once - well, twice actually because an unexpected
RAINSHOWER!!! occurred three hours after my first spray. We bought some roses bushes yesterday to
plant in our front bed and we are looking for more in different colors to
ultimately have about 10. They are the “knock
out” variety which means they bloom all season.
I just love to see all the new growth in spring – things that look
completely dead suddenly have little leaves popping out.
These
last photos are of the amaryllis that have just bloomed this week. These are supposed to be “Christmas amaryllis”…..
And, Steve and I were invited to a 60th
birthday celebration for a friend of mine from my CIS days. The party was at Pinnicles and I took a
picture of Steve to mark the event.
