15th Anniversary with many Surprises

My work place belongs to a Mall that used to be a yeast factory. 15 years ago it was remodelled to house a supermarket, a garden centre, offices and the mall with shops and a concert hall on the ground floor with more offices above.

On Friday the tenants of the shops and offices were invited for a buffett and drinks followed by a Jazz concert. As I had spent 2 days unpacking hundreds of wine cases I only took the food and didn't go to the concert. We all got a mug to remember this day.

 

On Saturday it was also the 15th anniversary of the wine store and the 10th anniversary of a toy shop with hand made dolls in the Mall. So we had special offers for our customers as well as wine makers offering tasting their wines. I had the honour to let our customers try high quality fruit brandies and German Whisky which still is a novelty.

The toy shop had a raffle for a good cause and I sent my husband to draw some lots. He won a huge fuchsia and an USB stick! Later I went there as well and won a sport's bag and a cuddly toy! It felt like Xmas! They also had sweet rolls in the shape of Turtles for sale. I had one for lunch - and got two more for free before the event ended.

During the afternoon a woman came to me and offered two tickets for the theater for free! She couldn't go and didn't want the seats to be empty. It has been ages I've been to the theatre for a play and I feel very grateful for this present!

The wine maker from the Pfalz gave me a bottle of very special wine - late collected grapes, especially selected. I'll keep it for a special occasion.

To entertain the visitors in the Mall 4 female sagophone players walked the mall playing in front of the shops with great skill. Some artists also showed their stunts. Time really flew by!

Unfortunately there should have been many more visitors - but those who came had a great time. So had I!

Exciting weekend with "lots of strings attached"

Last Friday I spent most of the day inside a cloister. No, not for religious reasons, but to visit a medieval market and listen to Dunkelschoen. Plenty of medieval fans had created a huge camp outside the cloister walls.

Inside were many stalls, selling food and drink, craft works, clothes and home made foods, like jam and juice. There were many things to do for children. I had my own stall to sell goodies for Dunkelschoen. I also got the Dunkelschoen harp to practise.

It was nice to enjoy the spring day outside and meet friends I had not seen for a long time. The evening was very cold and I was glad to have enough layers of clothes to put on. Still - it was very romantic!

After a night at a hotel I travelled home to my harp and took it to the culture mill again, where we played the songs we had practised at the harp spring as well as a walz. There was also a group of guitar students, some small bands and a group with African drums.

Video of the Vogelbers Walz

Harp Spring in Burghausen (Bavaria)

Brian Boru was a very famous king of Irland way back in the first century. He died in April 1014 and for this 1000th anniversary a group of harp players organised a festival last year. There 60 harps played together the famous march of Brian Boru. I was fascinated, but couldn't go as it was just too far to travel at short notice.

Luckily it was so fantastic, that it was the first Harp Spring - to be followed by many more, hopefully.

This year my harp and I travelled all the way by night train to arrive in time for harp lessons on Thursday. Luckily I had 2 hours of spare time to visit the longest Castle of the world first.

At 1 pm we were all welcomed at the Mautner Castle, used as night school usually. There are enough large rooms for groups of harps and players.

I belonged to the group for music of Turlough O'Carolan and learned very much about the basics of music beside new songs.

Two songs of my group learning Irish tunes 

In the evening was a concert of our teachers and some talented students.

 

Friday was filled with more lessons and the rehersal for the Brian Boru Event where we all would play together the march, as last year, and another song, composed especially for the Harp Spring.

In the evening was a concert for Harp & Guitar in a church in town. It was very interesting.

Saturday was the big day! After final lessons in the morning, the harps were packed and were taken to the place beside a church. Just when the first harps arrived, it started to rain! What should we do? The organisers of the event decided to stay on the save side for the harps and we all moved to the city hall, easy to reach. All the harps fitted in - but not all visitors of the event. When we were finally ready to play, the sun was shining brightly outside.

We played each song just once and then decided to play outside after all. The harps gave us a good exercise getting carried around!

In the evening was another concert in a different church. Capella Antiqua of Burghausen played Early Music and they were followed by Arianna Savall with her band.

Video of Capella Antiqua

Video of Ariann Savall

At the end of it I was so full of music, I couldn't take in any more!

On Sunday all harp courses gave a concert to show the others what we had learned. Of course I have no photo of myself on stage, but took some of the others.

German Folk music, waking memories of my childhood

Second steps on the harp 

Beginners' Course - they learned so much! 

There were two hours left until I had to catch my train home, so I went for another walk around the lake and up to the castle for one more time. 

It was such a full and wonderful weekend!

The wind of Change at Easter Time

When our daughters were small we spent several weeks before Easter to decorate the house and garden with selfmade little crafts. For about 20 years I collected decorated blown out eggs to put at branches.

This year we are celebrating Easter for the first time without our children. As I was on holiday and very busy afterwards I didn't get out any decorations myself, but enjoy the wonderful decorations in our village.

On Easter Sunday my harp and I are invited to play at the Free Church in town. For the first time I will play this song in public - an Irish song for Easter.

Listen:Video Both sides the Tweed