missing

It recently came to my attention via a kind email that I had not posted here in over a month! I would like to apologize, & say that I have been very much missing the yellow board lately. It’s funny how life sometimes gets in the way of the important things… 🙂

Still breathing & thinking of youse,

xo Em

PS For discussion, what are the thoughts of everyone about the end of the summer? Excitement at new beginnings? Melancholia at the prospect of decreased sunshine & serotonin? (in some hemispheres anyway *smirk @ really bad pun*) No opinion whatsoever? *sigh*

LOL no, that was a really *good* pun, did you mean to say that?!

Actually I hadn’t missed you at all, I never even realised you’d gone.

Only kidding 😉

Looking forward to the summer…

Actually I didn’t but when I proofread it in the preview screen, I laughed & decided to keep it. 🙂

I’ve heard about those cruel Sydney winters, time to shovel out & get some sun on those cadaverous complexions! Here’s a dumb question, how does the academic year work down there? Do you go back to school in September but have a winter vacation in June & July, or what?

I’m about a 3rd of the way thru my 13-week 2nd semester now. Our big holiday is over Christmas when it’s stinking hot. Having said that, some people have what they call Christmas in July, which is just plain weird. Basically Aussies are weird. You have to be, living in a country where there’s kangaroos hopping around. Anyway Em, gotta go. I have to catch myself a crocodile for tea.

They have their holiday in the middle of winter, emily, and then work all summer — except at Christmas when they all go surfing.

And our water goes down the plughole in a strange way.

Heya Emily. How’s that new flute of yours playin’?

I had the privilege of playing Em’s lovely flute when she dropped by the Plough about a month ago — it’s gorgeous. I wanted to trade her for mine, but she’s already too sentimentally attached to it I guess. What a great flute — it’s in mint condition — plays perfectly. Oh… and Em’s lovely too. 🙂

So they have their holiday during the Australian ‘winter,’ ie June & July…. I may have to check that out. I can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day than surfing! Hi Q, it’s going OK, though you could also ask Jack, I think he rather liked my flute as well, just don’t mention the word ‘ergonomic.’ 🙂 🙂 How are you? How’s the weather in Cape Town? I miss you guys.

Darn the crossposting! Yeah, I could spend some time quite happily in San Francisco, esp now the fog will be lifting…. Jack, I’ve been listening to the session I recorded & I just cannot get over that incredibly harp playing, was Luke his name? Just so wonderful…..

‘beautiful’ goes in there somewhere…..

We have our big holiday in your winter, i.e. our summer, so you should come to Australia in January. Bet you’d never thought of that Em! I also love San Fransisco. I only had a couple of weeks there and would have liked to explore a bit more. I’ll make sure to call at the Plough during my next visit. Don’t worry Jack, I’ll not bring my Britbox with me!

Good thing, Dow, your Brit-Box can’t hold it’s liquor.

Yes Em, Luke’s his name and he’s amazing alright. For anyone that’s wondering, he plays tunes on the harp with all the triplets etc. and up to speed. Thnk Micheal O’ Raghallaigh but imagine him hitting harp strings instead of buttons.

Hi Emily

First of September - a beautiful morning. Sunshine, dew, the robins begin to sing again about now after the bird-silence of summer.

Don’t think of this as a plunge into dreary old winter. This is a new adventure - an autumn and a winter you have never seen before. Hold tight for an exciting time.

Dave

Actually it would probably help if you people in foreign would call it autumn instead of fall.

Hi Guys! I’ve been away from the site too; cycling the Etape du Tour in France and then generally frittering away the summer holidays decorating, pretending to write a new course for next year, gardening and watching the wall to wall coverage of the Olympics. Wasn’t the 4x100m relay good?????!

I’m now back at college enrolling new students but the novelty has already worn off.

And now a message from our Sponsor:

If any of you are coming to the Return to Camden bash in October I’ll look forward to seeing you then. We, Siansa, are playing there twice.

well, i guess a lot of us took some time off during northern hemisphere summer. so did i, due to the birth of my son Alexander. but now, september, things are coming back to normal (read: i’m back to work). so i have a lot of catching up to do (reading former posts, checking the tunes section, …).
anyway, glad to be back …
maarten.

On the Chesapeake, Em, it means the last 2 good months of sailing (unless you go completely bonkers & frostbite-campaign your boat) )-:

On the plus side, it means a new 15/14 HD & a new set of workshops & tunes to learn (-:

Snarkhunter

The rowan berries are very plentiful, and about 3 weeks early, the robin has got quite a red breast and autumn has been in the air for a couple of weeks now.
School started back in mid August, so we are in a bit more of a routine.
It’s good to be back

What’s a rowan berry?

Over here, Spring’s sprung, grass is rizzlered etc. I went for a swim in the sea yesterday. Damn near froze my naughty bits off.

Hijack time:

Geoff- how did you do on the etape??what was your time??was the 17% at the end as bad as the pictures looked??? I thought about signing up but then looked at the route.

Fel

Geoff-one more question-looked at your Siansa site, who made the pipes your piper is playing???

rizzlered? (insert Dow’s raised eyebrow emoticon)

Anyway, hi Dave, & Geoff, & snark & Fel & other familiars, today there’s a noticeable nip in air, clear blue skies, I enjoy autumn, no doubt, but there always is an undertone of melancholy… Dar Williams wrote this song, & the last verse never fails to choke me up a little….

The summer ends and we wonder who we are
And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car
And today I passed the high school, the river, the maple tree
I passed the farms that made it
Through the last days of the century
And I knew that I was going to learn again
Again, in this less hazy light
I saw the fields beyond the fields
The fields beyond the fields
And the colors are much brighter now
It’s like they really want to tell the truth
We give our testimony to the end of the summer
It’s the end of the summer,
You can spin the light to gold

I like Dar Williams too 🙂

Nice to see you back here, Emily. It just hasn’t been the same without you.

Autumn in Vermont is very special with the mountains dressed in vivid reds, oranges and yellows. It is truly spectacular and I always look forward to it. But once all the leaves fall off the trees, it becomes rather melancholy in Northern New England. I personally find it difficult because I know I have to somehow survive 6+ months of frigid cold, snow, ice and my crazy mountain road! But thank goodness for the Music and my good friends here in Vermont. I don’t know what I’d do without them. And it’s also nice to have friends online 🙂

xx Joyce

Joyce, I had a cup of Vermont hot cocoa last night, thanks to you! We’d better start shopping for our costumes now, I always swear I’ll start early & then it’s the day before Halloween & it’s too late. 🙂

Oh my god, Halloween is going to be so much fun! Yes, we need to get our costumes in order. I can’t wait for that. I’m laughing to myself just thinking about it! 😉

I’ll bring more cocoa, Green Mountain coffee, and all that other good stuff!

Joyce 🙂

Q - A rowan berry is the berry that grows on the Rowan tree.

That clear?


Dave

*thwap*

… honestly.

For all y’all approaching winter, my secret hot chocolate recipe:

1 x splifflet (not so that you’d fall over or anything)

1 x hot chocolate made with the best "just add hot water" instant stuff you can find

add to hot chocolate:

1 x large scoop of vanilla icecream

1 x shot of whiskey (brandy, baileys, and tequila work too. vodka doesn’t)

The HC should be at perfect drinking temperature as soon as you’ve poured the hot water in and stirred up the ice cream. Coupla tokes and then dive in…

mmmm… bliss!

Caution: do not operate heavy machinery after a mug of this. Or even conversation, really.

&7)

(I’m still experimenting; that’s my new masked superhero smiley above)

What’s splifflet?

it’s a teeny weeny little joint. Nature’s homeopathic natural wossname.

WARNING: this website contains drug references, some violence, strong language, and adult themes.

How about a chocolate-that-makes-you-hot recipe:
1 x tumbler with 3 fingers worth chocolate vodka
3 x Ice cubes
Squeeze Orange slices to taste

Wait!…. Guinness is a type of hot chocolate too isn’t it? Hmmmm….ok well it looks like it anyways, but tastes better.

Hey wait a min Dow, I don’t recall ever seeing any violence here, unless of course you mean the godawful suggestions of what to do with the less-than-popular instruments, like bodhrans, banjos, accordions, and various other annoying noise makers.

ANNOYING NOISE MAKERS? I refuse that alligator!

C ;¬)