Father's Day Song

Here is a little Kiwi singing "Dad I wanna be a camel."

My favorite violist

I was in Rochester a week ago for a viola congress.  Yes, I flew to the US and the travel time there and back was almost as long as the time I spent there!  I was incredibly impressed by the Eastman School of Music and the wonderful programs I heard there.  Some of the best violists from around the globe were preforming.  I heard Wolfram Christ (former principal of the Berlin Phil), Hartmut Rhode (one of the main teachers in Germany), Kathryn Lockwood (an Australian now in the Lark Quartet) and Roger Tapping (a Brit that was for many years in the Takacs Quartet) live for the first time.  They were amazing and memorable as well many others.  Too many to list here!   I was fortunate to see one of my favorite violists of all time, David Dalton.  This photo shows David and his beautiful wife, Donna.  Thanks David for all that you are.  You continue to amaze me.  Thanks for the strong imprint you have made upon my life.

Connecting the studios

 Today we had a breakfast for the NZSM viola studio in our home.  We made pancakes, bacon, homemade applesauce and herb tea en famille.  We then skyped the BYU viola studio in the US.  And we talked and played for each other for hours.  They chatted about culture, language, music program differences, sheep, even a tangent on cow tipping!  It was great fun.  Here are John and Frank playing the Vieuxtemps Sonata.  They were good sports to play with a piano that was tuned a half step low!

Here is Charlie playing the Capriccio for everyone.

 This is the whole NZ gang watching Kassia play Bach and Caryn perform "9 fingers" by Garth Knox

 Evelyn loved Aidan and thought she was a princess.  Aidan put up with it all with great kindness and a gentle heart.

 Frank and John.

 Megan's mane.

 Megan performing Bach's 5th Suite scordatura

Aidan playing her own composition.

We enjoyed making virtual friends and hope they can all meet each other in real life one day.

When the Antarctic winds blow

When the Antarctic winds blow, and it feels like there may be snow, it must be June in New Zealand.  I have also made a new shawl for keeping warn.  This one is in a possum/wool blend.

New hat for winter weather

I have made a new hat.  My NZ students call this a beanie.  We are in the dead of winter here and its freezing cold so I am keeping warm, Norwegian style.  For those of you that may love yarn, this is Knitsch fingering weight New Zealand wool from the Holland Road Yarn Company

Nits

I don't have any photos for this post, but I do have a good story.

Yesterday Evelyn brought home from school one of the letters that every parent dreads: Some of the children in your child's class have head lice . . .  Yikes!  Then this morning when I dropped Evelyn off, the cheeky little girl who had the lice came up to us and said, "So, did you notice I was gone yesterday?  Well, (hands on her hips) I had nits."

Devon Street

This is a video of driving to work on Devon Street.  Although all streets aren't this bad, this is an example of how crazy some of the streets are in Wellington.