John Coltrane, a revolutionary jazz saxophonist wrote a ballad for his wife. His version last  5 mins and has a long improvisation in it.  I have not learnt how to improvise around the chord changes so here is my version of  the start  and the end.

Here is a link to my current party piece.  Moonglow from Jazzing About by Pam Wedgewood..

Here is a link to my latest recording,  It is a madrigal written for lute in 1604 by Thomas Greaves who was a musician in the employ of Sir Henry Pierrepoint who was the MP for Nottingham.

I am not very happy with the tone I accheived in this but the main object was to learn to play in time with he backing track.

What is beauty but a Breath 

Whilst clearing out my office recently, to make it suitable for Dot to sleep in, I came accross a pait of ear rings (see picture)

Anyone want to claim them?

D & J

Douglas and I had a great three days in Naseby (look on Google Maps) at the South Island Orienteering Champs.

It came as a bit of a shock to us. The difficulty was several steps up from what we'ld been doing. We were out of our depth a bit, but had great fun and learned loads.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday last being assessed for BCU 4* leader award, It was taxing physically and mentally, but I passed. This is a British award with the emphasis on leadership, it is aimed at making sure people have sufficient personal skills and leadership skills to lead sea kayaking in sea state 4, i.e. 15 - 20 knots wind, waves of 1.5 metres & 2 knots of current.

The last two weekends have been spent for Douglas and me at the Cardrona valley.

The first was a cross country ski race called the Merino Muster. It is also part of the World Loppet series, so there were quite a few international athletes involved.

Douglas had entered the shortest race - 7km as part of the school team. School teams consist of three and the time of the three is added together. The best total time wins the school event. Indivuals are also racing in the individual race too.

Douglas's two team mates were exchange students from Italy and Denmark.

Here is a link to my latest recording:

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Then if you decide you want to hear some really good ones have a look at this forum thread.

Andrew, I could not figure out how to use the atom/scald thing on it pull out menu ,  I have not read the instructions and it is late at night.

Being self employed definitely has it's bonuses

Had a good day in the hills today.

Around 6pm last night, I got a txt from David Hamilton (local GP) asking if I wanted to climb Barrier Knob with him today.

I nearly said no, as I haven't actually got much work done this week, but with Nicky's help made the decision to go anyway.
The forcast was good (the only day this week), David had the day off, the avalanche forcasting was good (ie low risk), pluto was aligned with goofy, and I had nothing that had to be done today.