Singing, cakes, family and flowers

I'm a bit exhausted, though have had a lazy few hours today and am mostly recovered. On Saturday, our choir (the one of which I'm chair) had its Come and Sing of the Mozart Requiem. This is when we invite the general public who want to ... well, come and sing... to pay £15, for which they get hire of a score and refreshments. We rehearse for two and a half hours, have coffee, tea and cake etc, and then perform it. All the profits go to our chosen charity, which this year was Edinburgh Direct Aid International, an all-volunteer charity which sends aid to victims of war and famine, sets up schools for children whose schools have been destroyed by war, and so on. 

We had... not sure, but I think probably 160-170 people come along. Maybe more? My main part was on the few days before and on the day, to provide paper cups, plates, milk, sugar, stirrers etc, plus enough cakes and other goodies (much of which was contributed by the choir members) for a somewhat unknown number of singers. We'd sold 150 tickets, but then more people turned up on the day. 

Mr L and I (well, largely he) set everything out in the hall - tables, chairs, tablecloths, jugs etc - not to say the food, in the morning. 

I had brought quite a lot more extra food than I thought would be necessary  - some baked by me, some bought, some gluten-free - but was slightly alarmed to see the first of the hungry hordes (I mean, not that hungry, surely - it was only 4.30) pile their plates with goodies. I had visions of there being nothing left for the last in the queue! However, in a loaves-and-fishes sort of way, it seemed to work out all right, and people were very enthusiastic about the catering. Once the hour's tea break was over there was literally nothing left on the tables except empty plates!

Anyway, it all went very well but we were quite tired by the end of it.

Daughter 2 was home (without her little one) for a flying visit , which was lovely. She had a school reunion at lunch on Saturday. Her main school friends arrived at our house at 9 am and had a nice chat before Mr L ran them up to the school. It seemed no time since they were all at our house for sleepovers, and there they were, all grown up (45-ish, impossibly) but all just the same. 

Later in the afternoon, she and Mr L were very helpful with the smooth running of the catering - filling up coffee pots and so on, and with the tidying up while we were performing. And then we had a lovely evening with her. 

On Sunday we had lunch at Swanston, with both daughters and Daughter 1's family, and then climbed the hill for a bit. 

It's not far from the city at all, but so peaceful. 

Here are Daughter 1 and her little ones. Not so little!

Today I had coffee with a friend in Saughton Park. 

It's approaching its full glory.

Which is pretty glorious. 

It's allium time. 

It's also allium time in my garden, 

and peony time. 

Different alliums. 

And lots of other flowers. 

And it's Minimalisation Monday. This week: a stoneware teapot stand which I used to use, but no longer do, and a vase that, many years ago, my mum liked at an antique fair and I bought for her birthday. I quite like it too and kept it for sentimental reasons, but... something has to go, and this week, these are on their way to a charity shop. 

 

Flowers, music and cakes

It's been a busy few weeks... well, months... well, years... but anyway, we carved out a day last week to visit Dawyck Botanic Gardens. We've been there in snowdrop season and in autumn colours season, but have never managed to go at rhododendron and azalea time before. It was sensational. 

They don't photograph well, but there were drifts of bluebells everywhere. 

The flowers were just perfect. 

This is the house whose garden it used to be. Rather nice!

And the mecanopsis!

So beautiful. 

It's otherwise been all about the music recently. I've had two concerts, with my two choirs, a fortnight apart, in the same church. One featured Benjamin Britten, not my favourite though he has his moments, but the second, last Saturday, was all Mozart - the Requiem plus some shorter pieces. Just sublime. 

Now - concentrate - the first choir - the one I'm chair of - is also doing Mozart's Requiem, this Saturday, but as a Come and Sing for charity. People buy tickets and are lent a score and are fed tea, coffee and cakes. This takes a lot of organising (about 150 tickets sold so far) and of course I'm doing a lot of it. I'm rather looking forward to its being over.

So my poor garden is somewhat neglected, and the quilt for Mr L hasn't been touched for quite a few weeks. I need to get my life back!

 

Parks

It's all about the flowers at this time of year. We went to our beloved Botanics and admired the many rhododendrons. 

Oh, the pinkness. 

I also really like this, which is apparently a hacquetia epipactis variegata. I don't remember seeing it before but I thought it was pretty. I'm not normally a fan of green flowers, but these are definitely as much yellow as green, and so bright against the brown earth.

We all have muscari, and they're frankly a bit of a pest, but they're also a lovely splash of blue after a grey winter. 

Lots of hellebores, which are not huge fans of my garden, though I have a lovely one in a pot that's lasted several years. 

 

The open greenhouse is full of colourful alpines. 

Then this morning we found we'd had some overnight snow! But it didn't last. 

I went down to Saughton Park to meet a friend for coffee. This bed is really just heather and pieris, but they make a nice bright splash,

as do these polyanthus. It does the eyes and the soul good to see colour at this time of year - an annual miracle. 

 

Flowers

It's all about flowers at the moment. 

I can't bear to listen to the news in any detail. 

Why on earth are people (well, it's men, isn't it? - a few, horrible ones) still behaving in this uncivilised way, when we are so clever about so much?

Anyway, the garden blooms on, regardless. 

These poppies self-seed and I love them. 

Along the river, things are also in full bloom. This is cow parsley or something of the sort. 

Wild geraniums.

Elder flowers

and wild roses. 

And in Saughton Park, a shortish walk from where we live, the herbaceous beds are at their best.

 

We're lucky to live so near. 

More poppies. So delicious.

Heuchera in the foreground. 

And I can't remember what this white fluffy thing is in the foreground, but the pink flowers are peonies. The white-flowered plant is a member of the cabbage family, I think? It's very pretty, anyway. 

So that's life at the moment: doing the garden, making a quilt, going for walks in gardens and nature, socialising with friends - very peaceful. If only the whole world could enjoy the gentle things of life. 

 

Hope

I'm very busy with stuff for the choir of which I'm chair - we have a concert, a come-and-sing and a social to arrange, and I'm not that good at thinking of three complicated events at the same time. However, I'm doing it as best I can. Time will tell if it's enough... .

Meanwhile, it's been lovely springlike weather - though frankly we need the rain - and we took a walk down to the local park. It's not quite in its spring glory, but it's still lovely to stroll round. By next week there will be lots of these alliums waving in the breeze. 

There's some pleasing topiary -  

not up to the King's standard, but still rather jolly. 

A bird!

And quite a lot of colour. 

It's a historic place, but then I suppose everywhere is, really. It's just not all mentioned in King David's Charter of 1128. 

The world news is very depressing, but then there are flowers, such as this little bunch from the garden. And, this holiday weekend, a lovely visit from the UnBloggables, who had a nice time ice skating and going to the Minecraft movie with the Edinburgh Two on Saturday, and visiting the Edinburgh Two at home and then going to an adventure playground with friends on Sunday. We visited Saughton Park, but the playpark bit, this morning. And now they're away and I'm making choir arrangements. 

So we just have to keep singing, keep gardening (haven't had time to get back to the quilt yet) and hope that someone, somewhere out there, will see sense.