Miscellany

Warning: this post will be insanely image-heavy. My apologies to anyone on dial-up.

Well! I've had one heck of a busy week, full of things to see and do and take part in. (It's also been a week that's seen me screaming around like a madwoman, trying to accomplish eight different things at once, but you can't have everything). To keep things interesting for everyone, I'm going to alternate between non-knitterly and knitterly things. If you're only here for the (fairly sporadic) knitting content, just keep scrolling till you see some yarn, okay?

Last weekend, I went out to the River Dreaming festival. This was a festival to celebrate Aboriginal culture (specifically that of the Wiradjuri people, whose land we are on), promote reconciliation, and bring the community together for a big celebration.

There were Didgeridoos- And market stalls-
And music. Lots and lots of music. This is my friend Sarina singing with her band...
...and a didgeridoo player.
When nighttime came, there was a massive performance featuring original live music (I was in the band for that), giant lanterns-

Sorry about the picture quality. It's very hard to photograph a giant luminous duck and an equally giant and luminous platypus while playing the keyboard.

-and traditional dancing and stories. It was a great day.

I finished the first Bellatrix sock-
I love it.

I escorted the kid's choir I conduct up to the Blue Mountains for a combined performance of Rutter's 'Mass of the Children'-

Only some of those kids are from the choir I conduct. As much as I love kids, I'd hate to deal with that many kids, all at once, on a weekly basis.

On the way there and back, I taught one of my students to knit.
She picked it up remarkably quickly, though I was occasionally called on to fix mistakes here and there. By the end of the car trip, she had this-

She's a pro.

There were a couple of other concerts this week (that I spectacularly failed to get photos of): school concerts (where they put the choirs on last and forced me to sit through an hour of recorder groups and (those words that strike terror into the hearts of all who hear them) 'beginner' string groups), and a fund raiser for the breast cancer society. Tonight, I'm playing the continuo part (read: keyboard with the harpsichord sound turned on) in Handel's Messiah. It's a glorious piece of music, but a bit of a marathon for both singers and orchestra.

Finally (and perhaps, most excitingly) my birthday yarn arrived.

Socks that Rock Mediumweight in:

24 Karat
Space Dust
And (my favourite) Fire on the Mountain.
Despite not signing up for the Southern Summer of Socks, it looks like I may well be having one.