A special Saturday

Some of you already know that for the last term (Since September 09) I have belonged to a choir called Body of Sound. (Choir consists of about 40 women)

Several times a year, the choir are invited to spend a weekend at the house of one of its members. Lesley and her husband live way out in the countryside, quite high up, in a converted/beautifully restored barn and cottage.

Last Saturday was my first visit up there. The group were quite worried that the snow would cancel the weekend, but luckily it had melted just enough to make the trip possible.

Douglas gave me a lift up there (so he could have the car and go shopping etc). I was a bit nervous at first.. although I've been with the choir for a term, they are a very close knit group and it is taking me a while to feel part of that group.

The house/barn was beautiful. I was one of the first to arrive, so I settled down by the log fire, and was joined by Lesleys fathers little dog, Tyler, who enjoyed some attention and the fire.

Bit by bit more women appeared. The dog wasnt phased at all by so many people turning up, and happily wandered round collecting new smells and getting lots of attention.

When everyone had arrived (I think about 20 of us were there) we sat in the barn and each shared a photo we had brought with us. There were some lovely photos and some fascinating stories told!

Everyone had brought something for either lunch or tea, so once lunch items had been set out, we ate. There were several types of soup, home baked bread, a few types of cheese, salads and dips on offer - not to mention the cakes and chocolates which I did my best to aviod!

After lunch, we used some art and craft materials brought by people to create bits to go in a "garden". The things we created had to in some way embody what we felt about the choir, so we all set to work, glueing, chopping and creating. Being a choir, as we worked various songs just popped out of conversations, and we all just began to sing. It was lovely!

After we had talked about, and admired the garden we made, we got down to some work

discussing the choir, giving our leader Helen some feedback on the year and saying what we would like to do in the future. Helen works very hard, finding songs, organising copies of words and teaching us. Although she enjoys doing this, she is self employed, and part of our "subs" for being in the choir go to pay her wages. Its good for her to get feedback from those who she works for!

Even the little dog got decorated!


Douglas picked me up after another marvellous meal at 9pm.. I had a really lovely day and feel very much part of the group now :-)