Bury Bach Choir concert Saturday 18th May

Well. I know where all the cool kids will be on Saturday 18th May. The Bury Bach Choir will be singing Verdi's Requiem in the Bury St Edmunds Cathedral, as part of this year's small-but-perfectly-formed Bury Festival.

We last sang the Requiem about 5 years ago - it was one of the first Big Choral Works that I'd ever taken part in, and it was unforgettable.

Tickets are available for £23 and £16 (reserved), and £13 and £10 (unreserved)  and are available from the Apex box office or on 01284 758000.

See you there!

This weekend: Bach Choir sings Elgar

Ok, English people. We are singing the very English (and very awesome) Dream of Gerontius, by the very English (and very awesome) Edward Elgar this weekend at the Bury St Edmunds cathedral. And my Mom is coming all the way from New York to see us. So you should come, too.

Details at the Bach Choir website. Short version: Saturday 9th April, 7:30pm, St Edmundsbury Cathedral. £23 / £18 / £12. BE THERE!

Look what I can do when I turn my camera to manual mode! ::Happy dance::

OMG, yarn!

Pav and her husband (Mr. Pav?) came to visit! All the way from Australia to Stowmarket (well, Bury St Edmunds, really).

I think this picture sums up the whole weekend rather well. Pav, with a Guinness, knitting in a pub. My Aspalls cyder in the foreground. Sigh. The impression we got from our assembled hangers-on (husbands, mostly), was that we were either talking about knitting, wool, or books, or were about to start. What? There are other things to talk about? Nah!

I picked them up in Stowmarket on Saturday, in the early afternoon. We went to Bury, grabbed some lunch, and then went for a walk in the Abbey Gardens. The boys decided to go investigate the pub situation, so Pav and I went to Wibbling Wools and wibbled for a while. And then went to the pub. And then stayed at the pub for dinner. And then I came home and hung out with the husband and read some more of Mockingjay (which was great), and went to sleep.

Then on Sunday, Team Pav and I went to Aldeburgh, "to the beach." Now, Team Pav live in Australia, near a beach with sand and sun and blue water. We had sun, but it was rocks & blue-ish-brown water all the way. And it was FREEZING! We saw the sun for the first time in days and days and days, though, which was great. I felt like a little mole, squinting at the light, trying to soak up as much vitamin D as possible while not freezing to death.

After the reaction from Pav when I mentioned that there was a Real Live Actual Historical Castle (aka Framlingham Castle) on the way home, we had to stop and see it. We didn't walk around on top of the walls, but we went on an extremely muddy circumnavigation of the keep. Squelch. Eew!

And then, because she's awesome, she brought me some hand-spun (by her own fair hands) skeins, to knit with. I think I might do a smallish cowl, or possibly a headband. There is a skein of alpaca, a skein of silk, and a skein with the two mixed together. The two with alpaca were dyed with tea. LOVE.

Pav & Mr. Pav are now continuing their circumnavigation of the globe - next stop, New York! (Jealous, since I had to go back to work today, which is markedly less fun than globetrotting or going on Adventures in Suffolk.) Have fun, guys!

Afternoon in Bury

We had an extremely successful afternoon in Bury yesterday. The original plan had been to go to Cambridge for the afternoon, but the thought of sitting in a hot train (or driving) for an hour each way was too much for me.

I tried on one dress in Debenhams on a whim - I have a wedding to go to in October in Maine (could be 65 and sunny, could be snowing!), and I needed a dress. Somehow, the last one on the rack was not only 50% off, but my size, exactly what I was looking for, and fit like it was made for me. SWEET! It's strapless, hazy-gray with silvery embroidery on it. It's a little below knee-length in the front with a mini-train in the back. I've scoured the Debenhams website and there's nothing. Oh well. Hopefully the weather won't be such that I have to accessorise with snow boots and mittens.

I bought some bobbins at the "open on Sunday because I had to come in and do paperwork and figured I may as well sell a few things while I'm here" sewing shop, along with a zipper. I also picked up the June issue of British Patchwork and Quilting and was spectacularly disappointed. Maybe I'm a flickr snob (I know I'm a grammar snob), but the pictures were dark and grainy, the writing was typo-riddled, and the featured projects were...um...interesting. It did make me want to visit the Seattle Quilt Company the next time I'm in Aberdeen. No, the Seattle Quilt Company is not in Seattle, it's in Scotland. Ahem. In any event, lesson learned.

After we got home, we walked down to Blockbuster to rent a movie - we ended up with Up In The Air. John thought it was cringe-worthy, predictable, and depressing. I enjoyed it but agree with him about the depressing part. It was definitely entertaining, though, although we both thought the "comedy" pitch on the box was rather misleading. Anyway, not a bad movie.

A Bury Nice Afternoon

I'm obsessed with Ravelry. Not only can I see all the fab things that everyone else is knitting, I get instant feedback on the stuff I'm knitting. Suddenly, knitting has gone from a solitary endeavour to a team sport. WOOT.

So, I've finished the fleece nugget scarf, I am about to start in on another one as a Christmas present, I'm working on a new sweater, and I've just bought some wool to make fingerless mittens. Because, really, what I need are fingerless mittens.

The wool is Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran and I love the color. It's going to look great with my light brown coat.

While I was having the wool photo-shoot this morning, I decided that my Kate & Doris mug needed a little love. There it is, filled with coffee. MmmmSundaymornings.

Yesterday, John and I went to Bury in the late afternoon, to go for a walk in the Abbey Gardens. The winter light on the trees was really pretty - I hate the really short afternoons but I love the flat light for taking pictures. After sufficient photography, I spent far more time and money than I should have in Wibbling Wools (I think I may just set up a tent in the corner of the shop and live there - nobody would notice me).

Then, we went out to an early dinner at Chez Gerard (which was really tasty), and braved the screaming teenagers to see New Moon. I, embarrassingly, really enjoyed the movie. John...well...um...yeah. Not so much.

The best camera...

...is the one you have with you. Apparently I'm not alone in the fact that my Casio camera's battery has given up the ghost. I inadvertently let it run down, and it now refuses to charge. Thankfully, Amazon has a zillion in stock (although I'm going to stay far away from the Casio brand one).

We were in the Abbey Gardens just before dusk, so my iPhone had the luxury of taking this picture.

Tonight in Bury: Faure Requiem

Right, you lot. There are still some seats left for tonight's performance of the Faure Requiem by the Bury Bach Choir. The concert's at 7:30 in the Cathedral, and tickets will be available on the door.

The choir is good (and bigger than it has been in a few years), the orchestra will be fab, and the soloists are always extremely good. Our conductor, Philip Reed, works at English National Opera, and seems to be able to convince ENO soloists that what they REALLY want to do on a cold weekend in November is troop up to Bury St Edmunds and sing in a concert. Fine with me!

We'll also be performing Handel's Messiah (which, believe it or not, I've never sung before) on the 20th of December in St Mary's Church. It will definitely sell out, so get your tickets now! The details of the concert are here.

Murder most foul

We have a huge quantity of slugs in our garden. Apparently, the UK is the 'slug capitol of the world,' since the mild climate and high rainfall are great for them. Fabulous.

Last year, they ate about 2/3 of my tomatoes - I had to go out every night to harvest the few tomatoes that they hadn't eaten. This year, I got started early and have used some slug repellent powders that sit on top of the soil. They don't seem to be particularly effective - I found two slugs this morning sitting in the powder, happily munching on my zucchini plant. The little buggers have completely obliterated the eggplant plant - the poor thing looks more like a doily on a stem. This picture was taken yesterday. The eggplant (far left) was worse today. Sad. The rings around the plants are the (entirely useless) slug powder.


We are now in take-no-prisoners mode: J & I had a slug-murdering fest after dinner, and we've just ordered some 'Nemaslug.' It's apparently some kind of small wormy thing that kills the slugs and is completely non-toxic to humans/pets/birds/etc. I just hope we can stave them off until it arrives. I normally feel horrible killing 'critters,' but they are horrible nasty slimy things that can eat twice their body weight in one day. And that's my dinner they're eating. In case they do eat it all, here's what it looks like now:


I had my first lesson in raising the bell at practice on Friday night - it had been in the works for a while. I don't know if it's that I'm further along or what, but it seems like it's easier than lowering the bell - there's less rope flapping about everywhere if you don't do it exactly right. I'm getting better at lowering, too - the rope-flapping is being kept to a dull roar.

Then, yesterday, I spent the morning in Bury. I got there pretty early, so I stopped at Starbucks and got an iced coffee. I took it down to the Abbey Gardens to walk around and read my book, and stopped at the aviary to watch all the birds. Because it was still only about 8:30 (on a Saturday morning!), it was pretty much just me and the gardeners, but the birds had been up for hours and were v. busy. There were lots of nests with teeny beaks peeking over the top, and there was much chirping.

After the gardens, I went to Marks & Spencers and Next and bought some new trousers, a skirt, and some tops. All in neutral colors and all things that I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of. I was surprised - the other times I've gone to both stores I haven't found anything but I was fairly laden down yesterday. I had intended to get some clothes from Boden (with my 20% off coupon), but not only were most of the things I wanted sold out, my total for 2 pairs of pants, a skirt, and a shirt (with the 20% off) was £178. WAY too much.

After all my hard work relaxing and shopping (and because it was a warm afternoon and we needed to return a movie), we stopped at the Stowmarket wine shop on the way back from walking into town and had a glass of wine.

Very civilized. And while we were there, we picked up a flyer for Stowmarket's newest restaurant, an Italian/pizza restaurant tucked down by the river. We're going to try it out this week and I'll post a full review. We're psyched - except for Radhuni, there isn't really much to eat in Stowmarket that's not pub food or lunch/cafe/takeout places. Corrections to the previous statement gladly accepted in the comments!