Too daunting

Oh no, not again....
I've left it too long and now the backlog of things to tell you has been seeming far too scary to ever even attempt it...but...it's got to be done....
So here goes -
well, in brief - yes I went down to see the queen, and stood in the wrong place, curtseyed at the wrong time (and in the wrong way, apparently!) and called her the wrong thing, but apart from that it was a great experience!
Since my last post I've also been recording with Sting, doing my own gigs, leading a workshop day at the Yehudi Menuhin school in Surrey, spending some family time cooking sausages in a frying pan over the fire beside the river near our house and marking various things at the Folk & Trad music degree course at Newcastle Uni (and lots of other things too, but I just wanted to come on and do a quick catch-up post so that it didn't feel quite so daunting next time...!)
Oh - and today I've just come back from a rehearsal with Psappha down in Derbyshire for our performance of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' piece Kettletoft Inn, which we're playing at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney later this month. It is very strange for me to go and rehearse, from the written music, once, with people I've never played with before, and won't again until the day of the concert...but that's the way it works it seems, and I have to say that it was great to do it without a conductor and just work directly with the actual players (and of course classical musicians are amazing at reading and interpreting written music on extremely tight time schedules, and the Psappha players did seem particularly open minded, and didn't give me too much of a hard time about my unsuppressable inclination to play melodies my own way and not to bother too much about what's written down ('the dots')...which must have made their lives a bit more difficult) I look forward to playing it with them again.
It's been beautiful weather recently. Really, really wonderful, and long overdue.
It's made everyone that I know happier - I hope you've all been enjoying it too.
All for now,
kathryn x

Thanks

...for all the messages of support and congratulations following the announcement of me getting the Queen's Medal for Music - it was lovely to receive them all.
As you can imagine I was totally delighted (and a bit shocked!) to get the award, and had a lovely day at The Sage Gateshead receiving the certificate from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
I haven't got the actual medal yet - I have to go down to London and see the Queen for that, and so far the Queen and I have not managed to synchronise our diaries....!!!!?
All very surreal...
k x

Merry Christmas!

Hi all,
Just a quick one to wish you all a very happy festive season.
I've got all my shopping done, presents bought and cards sent.
Hooray!
Although I have to admit that my christmas cards were a bit of a disaster - I missed the posting date, then tried to write them all in a hurry, and wrote 'merry christmas and all the best for 2008' on the first 30...I thought briefly about opening them all and changing it, but decided just to send them as they were...some people might not even notice, and it'll probably give a few of my friends and family a laugh at my expense...
Anyway - there are loads of things I should be getting on with, but I'm getting into the festive spirit, and ignoring them all!
Went out last night to a couple of local hostelries, the Riverdale and the Hollybush. Good to meet some people who remembered my Granny & Granda Robson and who talked lovingly of them, and their time at Willow Bog Farm.
Better go now - I've got presents to wrap up!

Wishing you all the very best for 2009.
kathryn

Snowing

It's totally white here! It looks fantastic but I'm glad I don't have to drive anywhere today. I've got the rayburn on full blast, and the fire on in the living room and am quite enjoying the feeling of being safe, warm and somewhat removed from the rest of the world.
The dog went out for his walk this morning and came back with loads of little balls of ice festooning his ankles - looked very silly. Maybe I should get him some little dog boots?! (Okay - BIG dog boots!)
Playing in Sedbergh tomorrow, so I'm a bit worrried about driving there/back, but I'm going to try not to think about it until the morning, when hopefully the roads will be a bit clearer.
All for now,
k

New Hartley & Rothbury

Had a really nice night in New Hartley - I think Peter and I were more relaxed at this concert than any of the others. I'm not sure why - there was just a very friendly atmosphere.
Then last night was Rothbury. It was lovely for me to be back there, and to see many old friends and neighbours. I even got a little tearful when playing Rothbury Hills!
I've played on that stage at the Jubilee Hall many times, since I was about 10 years old entering the fiddle competitions at Rothbury Traditional Music Festival, and so has Peter (in fact he admitted to finding it hard not to keep smiling ingratiatingly at the area of the hall where the fiddle judge always used to sit!!)
The weather has turned extremely wintery and cold over the last few days, so the drive home was taken very slowly and carefully, going over the bleak moorland roads, where the headlights were picking out the beautiful (but worrying) glittering sparkle of frost and ice. Got home safely though, and had a couple of glasses of a rather nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to celebrate!
All for now,
k

Bellingham & Holy Island

Just in the middle of doing a few local gigs with Peter...Holy Island last night and Bellingham the night before. It's been great playing near to home...very near, in the case of Bellingham, where we got Dad up to sing for the encore (very unrehearsed, but seemed to go down well!) We were playing in the town hall which has just had a new heating system installed...and it's certainly working!! (Unlike St Mary's Church on Holy Island, where the heating had been on since 11am and it was still freezing!)
Thanks to John at the Riverdale Hotel for his hospitality after the concert - much appreciated.

And then it was on to play on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, which was a real privilege (despite the chill!) Although we had taken a PA system with us we decided to play acoustic, as it sounded so lovely in the church, and somehow it just felt right to play with just the natural sound in that beautiful setting. So we were a bit quieter than usual, but we had a lot of positive comments from the audience so I think it was the right decision. It actually felt really good just to stand there and play, just us, with no amplification; it's a long time since I've done a concert like that.
And we were playing just in front of the oldest wall of the oldest building on Lindisfarne...
It was quite special.
And tonight it's New Hartley Community Centre - now that should be a totally different experience!!
All for now,
kathryn

2 gigs

Just back from gigs in Alford and Ingleton.
A good time was had by all (well, all of us anyway, and hopefully the audiences too...)
At Alford we played in a rather unusual marquee type thing, all lined inside with billowing white fabric, which was draped so low that it was actually touching the top of my head when I was on stage...Peter and I had to be very careful with our violin bows in case we punctured it!
Lovely friendly audience, and then we wandered over the road to where we were staying (couldn't have been more handy) and discovered that the bar was open and there was a pool table. Fantastic!
Actually it wasn't that fantastic for me, as I didn't win a single game. Even Julian won at least one!
And then the boys (well, boys will be boys) decided to challenge each other to an arm wrestle, so I didn't do very well there either, even though they let me use both arms. Hmmm, sometimes I think it's time we had more girls in the band!
And then it was across to Ingleton. The weather was atrocious, but we beat the rainy day blues by travelling via Bradford and stopping there for lunch....curry of course. And it was superb. Although Peter ordered miles too much and we had enough left to take some home with us (which I just had for breakfast - yum!)
Enjoyed playing at Ingleton - again a lovely crowd, and also the sound on stage was really good, and made us enjoy the gig even more.
And then we drove home, feeling as if we'd been away much longer than 2 days and ready for a rest!