CAPS LOCK

I'M GOING TO WINTER FOLK CAMP
I'M GOING TO WINTER FOLK CAMP


I was trying to think about the last time I was so excited to go to camp... there were the joycamp years- I went as techie support, running the sound system for the jr youth program and creating a "year book" of sorts for them... oh dear, that was fun... but not "stare at the clock every two minutes" type excitement....
That hasn't happened since the MCCR years.

(side note: is anyone listening to CBC2 morning this morning? Tom is hanging hard to the Newf accent this morning... it's KILLING me.)

I think I'm going to have to do some digging in the old MCCR picture files... whew, I've just been hit by some memories.

Anyway, I'm forever in debt to the amazing Eve Goldberg for this opportunity. I've wanted to go to this even for the past 4 years, but every time I'd start saving for it- something would come along that needed the money... eeeeeek!

Shutting down the social media for the weekend...

The "other" Lovelies

At Amber and Shawn's wedding a week ago, I had the pleasure of singing with two sweet girlies.

There's something really wonderful about being included in your friends' special day.. and it's the first time I've sung at a wedding where the music playing the bride down the aisle has gotten applause! Click for the video...

(thanks to Roshan for the video!)

(I'd blame the camera angle for my twelve hundred chins... but that would be a lie)

haha. I love how when she gets in place at the front we start to rush the song... it just seemed like such a long time!

lazy days

I've been reading Jonathan Byrd's travel blog the past couple of weeks.

If you haven't had the opportunity to, I recommend it. The link is to one of his entries at the end of the most recent trip. Chosen at random. I've cried through a number of the entries.. because that's who I am.

The guy can write. (not just music, though I don't know how often I sing his praises for that gift too)

Anyway, the other day he posted his entry about heading to the Folk Alliance conference. It's like OCFF, but bigger if you can picture that. Non-stop music. Beauty. Creativity.

OCFF this year was one of those special weekends. An escape.

I'm just about ready for another escape.

Monday morning I received my e-version of his travel-log. It's fantastic.

yes please

I've got a soft spot for the grump.

I posted this video and told Erin that I was in love with Al- but that he lived too far away.

The following happened:

E: Clearly he should move to tend chickens and play Ukulele with you. The fool. :) (L likes this)

L: lol. I'll tell him that.

E: Please do :)

L: just sent him the tweet.

only, I upped it to "marry me" (E likes this)

E: and make babies

L: that's it. this conversation is going in the blog. (E likes this)

quiet listening.

one of those sounds that I just really like....

what about you

Two nights in a row of Uke time.

my fingers, sore from the use.

"Margarita Ville" is on the radio... it was one of the pieces we shopped last night at the Corktown Jam... "shopping a piece" or running a bit of a workshop on a song, breaking it down into chunks and working thru the fiddly bits. I love that about the Corktown jam.
By the end of the "shop" we had the strummers and the pickers, new ideas for fingering, and a few new chords under our belts.

It's a pretty simple song when you break it down, but I think it was the thing I was most excited about this week... well, that and the alternate fingering for a D7 to a G for a quick transition to E7... and a fun run for Blood Sweat and Tears' "Spinning Wheel".


I need to upload some newer videos. Tonight at the pub The Writer said he'd come across my youtube channel... He had nice things to say- but mostly I was embarrassed because they're so old and pretty rough.
I actually had been watching one earlier today, and spent a large portion of the afternoon trying to figure out how to pick thru the song (my early version was just strummed)... I've nearly got it... I just want to replace one note... but I'm not sure with what... it's a D being played, but when I pick it out the strings are A D Gb A (which are correct) I just don't like the sound of the two A's being picked... I like the sound of the D going to the Eb and back (I'm actually picking the strings in a 23412342 pattern) but it clashes against the melody when I actually sing it... I'll just have to use that D Eb D Gb A for something else.

oh.
that got a little more techie than I intended.

maybe for that chord I could just play D Gb A Gb D Gb A D? I'll give it a try in the morning.

pout

My dog has this amazing gift of being able to make me feel terrible.
I'm abandoning her.
I'm starving her.
She's freezing.
She's boiling to death.
I'm starving her.
I'm not paying enough attention.
I'm smothering her.
I'm starving her.
Honestly, she acts like I've never fed her in her life.

Today I left the house to head out for an oil change for my car (so.so.so.so.so.so overdue.) I left a little early as I had to stop at a friend's place to let her dog out... Miss Jelly pouted, I'd only JUST gotten home from work long enough to feed her and let her out. But I knew I'd be back in an hour to play with her..... 6 hours later I got home.
Turns out I needed a new muffler.
Home just long enough to let her out and grab a few Ukuleles before running to NUkeO.
Home from NUkeO (and it's obligations) and off to work again.
Poor dog.
so hard done by. *



(I promise to stop blogging about my dog so much)

*Portrait of a cold pooch in the car on the way home from the cottage

train time!

yup.
packed up, headed out the door to OCFF!
www.ocff.ca
4 days and nights of music and conferencing- with festival organizers and those who want to play at our festivals.

sweeeeeeet.
packing two Ukuleles... I've heard rumor there's a little Uke get-together tonight that Hal's running!


who are we kidding? I'll just sing along.
*grin*

You don't get it.

So, most of my peers (in the day to day) just tolerate my day to day oddities.
When I came to work glowing and blubbering excitedly about hanging out with one of my uke heros- they patiently waited till I got the stories out of my system before mocking me. (isn't that nice of them?)
I'm not sure how they're going to take all the details of my epic journey to Napanee for the scarecrow festival...

I remind them daily that I'm hired for my entertainment purposes and not my gardening skills.

ha.
Last week one of my coworkers replied "just don't let the clients know".

Miss Jelly is glad I'm back - now I can serenade her with her favourite song. (played here by lovely Rachel)

smooth... and spicey.

I'm back to playing puzzle pirates.
yup.

I'm that awesome.

Some big things happened today... firstly, it was sweet Leonard's birthday.

Even my daily poetry book made note of it. Which, mostly just made me smile.

(It was also Yodling Ronnie's birthday. They're the same age)

Secondly, Salsa day.

Not the dance, the day of chopping.

Sure, they look pretty... but when you multiply a recipe by 4... that's a hell of a lot of peppers. and tomatoes. and onions. and garlic. I wasn't there for the full day of chopping- too many other commitments, but my back is happy the day is over. In all, 30 jars of salsa- 7 of them 1L jars, the rest 500ml.... Also cooked up a triple batch of chili sauce, and a quadrupled batch of Salsa Verde, and a pile of ketchup and regular old tomato sauce.

whew!

Also today- a visit to the dentist who confirmed what I suspected- I damaged my top teeth in the time I was waiting for my night guard... I took up clenching my teeth/grinding in the night over the summer. The stress level is back down- but now my body is in the habit of clenching/grinding. I'll be wearing that super sexy night guard for awhile.

And finally, a night of NUkeO. We're looking at making the jam happen earlier in the day- due to so many conflicts with people's schedules. We had someone show up tonight that I didn't think would show- a lovely woman from GTI. She'd never played before, but teaches piano and has a great ear for music. I don' think we scared her off. I was so thankful for the leveling factor of the jam. The way that it didn't matter where people had come from, all that mattered was that they were there and that they were giving it a try.

so beautiful.

dream dream dream

Sleep has finally come back to me.
I've now had two nights in a row where I haven't budged after laying my head down. Two nights of my old friend, vivid dreams. A whole adventure in another world. A whole lifetime. Dreams amaze me.
Last night I was back to my traveling ways- I'd been having a series of dreams earlier this year where I would get on a plane and end up in all sorts of places. Most of the dreams dealt with the frustrations of traveling- lost luggage, delays, missed connections. Frustrations yes, but... I know when I'm dreaming, so I'm along for the ride- or I'm directing the show, so I love every piece of it.
I can't get over how my brain creates detail. Fills in colour, texture, sound and even smells.
Last night's dream had me flying from Togo to home, via West Jet.... with Pontouff in a carry-cage... 'Touff turned into Jellybean by the time we landed, but... whatever. It was a bad flight, at one point we dropped, and the tail dropped faster till we were pointed upwards, but still dropping... the weather was terrible, the pilots did a great job, but eventually we landed in St.Kitts... or some Caribbean place. But suddenly we were in a pontoon plane- and we'd landed in the water, and had to jump from dock to dock to get to land- the island didn't have phone service, and we had to figure out how to contact our families. We were given vouchers for a hotel in an underground mall.. The dream went on forever. I met other travellers, we explored the underground mall (it had a giant fun house in it), Jelly and a security bull dog got in a fight (big surprise) but they turned into rabbits when I broke up the fight (of course). If I were to write out everything that happened... and the detail that went with it- it would be so long.. so much longer than this ramble.

Anyway. I'm happy the dream world is back. It was a long summer without them.

re: the title.
*I'm still grinning*
James Hill showed up at a party I was at this weekend. At some point a bit of a Uke jam broke out in the living room. I sat in.
Now, mostly I just hugged my uke. I was a little intimidated, though, not by James, the guy is really humble, really encouraging. There was some pretty crazy talent in the room. I'm very blessed. Like... really blessed. Sometimes (and not just that night) I look around the room, see what's happening, and feel like my heart is going to jump out of me from the joy. It's a good life.
I sang harmonies instead of playing. yup. sang harmonies to James' tunes and the others' tunes.
It's a good life.



(click photo for a lovely little piece by James)

Uker Night

Hi friends,

Days are marching along, how about you kick back and relax with us this coming Tuesday (3rd Tuesday of the month) to strum and sing?

We've a number of people on our mailing list who aren't able to join us each month (or ever, due to distance!) I'm going to try to remember to start posting copies of the songs we've been messing around with on the facebook group so you can find them. (Northumberland Ukulele Orchestra

If you're new to the mailing list and haven't been able to come check us out, or are feeling a little nervous, don't fret pet! Pick up your uke and come learn along with us! Our biggest goal with this group is to make music accessible and FUN. Any skill level is welcome, we'll team up with you to help you along in the sticky parts.

How we run the night: We aim to start at 7pm, but if you're hungry, or just too excited to wait for 7, come early and eat dinner with us. Dinner happens downstairs in the pub, Uking happens upstairs in the front room. We have a song book of sorts, and we go around the circle, either teaching a new song, sharing a song we've been learning, or picking a song from the song book.

Coming events:

Cobourg's busker fest Saturday June 12. Our own Ruth W can be found Uking in the streets

July (date- and rain date- to be announced) Ukey-Q ... A BBQ and campfire with our Ukes (no Ukes will be burned).

August- we'll finally cave in and play downstairs (open mic style and a few from our song book together) in front of non-Ukers... maybe we'll make some converts.

So that's it for now, if you've got a song to share, please bring some extra copies with you next week.see Uke soon!

LMB

HACK.gah.

the plague of phlegm has settled into my lungs.

thank you swine flu.

I sound a lot worse than I feel.

Saturday, we jump back into festival mode (already?... no. still.) with an all day debrief.... you know, before we start planning for next September. (I've got 1/3 of my workshops figured out already for the sustainable living village, and a few leads on ideas for the wellness village).

Ukes and Toques is ready to roll out this sunday, see you at the parade?

AND 10 sleeps till I get the keys to my house.

awesome.

more fuzz

all but 2 back nails are now trimmed. no casualties.

In other news....
NUke-O had an extra gathering tonight, getting ready for the big "Toques and Ukes" event. (We're in the 'Burg's chirstmas parade!)
A really fun night tonight... I love that some other people have stepped up to lead this... it's such a funny group of people... with more than 50 years between our oldest and youngest members. You never know what direction things are going to go in.

Plans are in the works for "the hobbit house concert series".... first guest to be announced soon!

chilly bike ride...

I'm just sitting at the kitchen table, Ohana in my lap- trying to pluck out Christmas tunes, when the phone rings....

it's George.

lovely George.

of the George's Guitars.

and he says....

my Banjolele is nearly fixed!!

so, I hop on my bike and race down the frozen street to give her a little try....

she looks so pretty!!!

he's just going to dress up some of the wonky frets, and she should be ready to play by next week!

Pavlov's Uke

Just before lunch break a coworker entered into the office, looked at me, then jumped...

"But? isn't it lunch time?"

I was just about as confused as she looked.

then she said... "I was sure it was lunch time, I heard a Ukulele in the back room a few minutes ago"

awesome.

for two more reasons

ok. so the lure of my lovely notebook is still keeping me from blogging. soon the pages will run out. Like in the next week. And I'll have only two remaining excuses for not writing.

1. I'm not working the night-sleep shift. Night sleep shifts are perfect for emailing yourself your thoughts.. then posting them.

2. My life is filled with awesome right now.

yes. there's a theme in these pictures. I'm ok with it. you should be too.

Swimming in Lakes

Tonight I'm headed North to spend some time with lovely people, listening to some lovely music. And I've been listening to the CDs so I can play the part of a good audience member, and hum along in the catchy parts, and smile big when I hear the opening notes of a favourite tune.

Yesterday I got sent this fantastic little email from a man who's part of NUkeO (our Uke Jam group) He'd been trying to figure out the chords the night before for "Skinamarink", and he'd found them, and sent them my way... then at the bottom of the page, a huge picture of the two of us, grinning like fools at the Uke Jam. The email made me smile so big, my coworker took one look at me and said... "that's your Ukulele smile, I can always tell".



this picture makes me laugh too much. One, because Jim asked if he bunny ears behind his head... before the picture was taken. And two, because my fingers look so long. It's because the Uke is so tiny... but when I first saw the pic, I immediately thought of my sister, who has these long graceful fingers- I've always been jealous of them... it's like when you hold those tiny tiny cans of pop they serve on some airlines... they make you feel like a giant.


Today a friend of mine is meeting some members of his birth family... I'm really excited (and nervous) for him. I can't imagine... really can't even begin to imagine, the pile and mix of emotions all of them must be feeling right now... praying for them today.

UAS

it's a common syndrome in a particular population of people... not they themselves are particular...
not that I'm particular.

ok, let's try this again.

there's a group of people that are more apt to be afflicted with UAS than the general population.
there.

I've got it.
Several people I know have it.

There's even a support group dedicated to it.
Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome.

I MAY have bought my 3rd Ukulele.

-side note:: quote of the week from a few weeks ago "Ukuleles are too trendy" ~MegSheff

count down

if I get off the computer, I'll have just 3 sleeps left at the night job till I start my LOA.
And just two day shifts there too. (because the night job is a night AND day job)

I took my last night off as a vacation day....

guess who's going to the UkeJam?????