I don't know how it can possibly be October 4th today...or how two months have slipped by since my last writing. Every morning on my walk my mind recites exactly the things that I need to record when I get back to the house, but then I do get back to the house, and the phone starts to ring, and the emails start flashing, and the needs of the day push all of the brilliant thoughts I had right out of my mind...and life carries on.
There's been a lot happening since my last post. Harvest has come and gone...although it was a challenge with the continual rains that seemed to dog our progress. School is well underway for yet another year. And life on the farm is starting to make it's preparations for winter a priority.
I took this picture yesterday, as I was on a picture taking binge it seemed. We had our first frost here in the valley last Saturday, which is extremely late for us for a change, but with the frost, the colors of fall have come to life. And today we have been given another beautiful day to appreciate them. It's sunny and about 22degrees here, so plans have been made for one last get together at our little campsite down by the river. I for one, am really looking forward to sitting back for a few hours and just breathing it in.
So what's been happening...well August was a bit of a blur with trying to get all the farm work finished up in the short clips of good weather that we had. Summer never did afford us the warm weather that would have made it seem like it had actually been there,and all in all, it was just an odd one somehow.
September started out with the CCMAs in Winnipeg. When we got our delegate passes in January, we filled out the forms that we would volunteer a bit while they were in town. Somehow volunteering a bit turned into overseeing transportation for the weekend...and what was supposed to be a fairly simple assignment, it turned out instead to be 6 16-18hour days where the words...'CCMA Transportation Room...Lynda Speaking...." burned into my memory for about two weeks after it was all behind! By the end of the first day, I was a little ticked at what I'd fallen into, but as the weekend wore on, it turned out to be one of the coolest 4 days of my life. I had the opportunity to meet and work with not only my co-coordinator Brenda, but a whole team of remarkable people that gave 110% every single day to make the event successful. And although I missed a number of the conference sessions that I know I would have enjoyed (particularly all the songwriter's cafes), I had the opportunity to get to know some of the people behind the names that I've admired for years, and that was worth every minute of lost sleep. One of my favorite memories was of the time spent with Joan Besen, and her playing partner David Celia, who I had the honor of chauffeuring to a number of events. Having the opportunity to connect on a different level was so wonderful. I also had a chance to get to know the true lady that is Michelle Wright. Those are memories that a delegate pass just can't buy. And I think one of the coolest things for me was that although I took vacation time to participate in the event, and vacation it certainly was not....for those few days I couldn't have been further away from my everyday world....I was completely immersed in something so different that it really did end up being a vacation of sorts.
Last week we started up with the 2008-2009 Home Routes House Concert series, with a performance by Rick Fines of Peterborough, Ontario. Rick is an amazing Blues singer/songwriter/guitarist, and gave us all the gift of better understanding, and appreciating the history and the heritage that is Blues music. We were honored to host him in our home, and hope that our paths cross down the road again sometime. One of the gifts that Home Routes has given all of us as presenters is the opportunity to be exposed to styles and types of music that growing up in Rural Manitoba didn't. It something we really enjoy! Our next house concert is scheduled for Monday October 27th when we will be hosting Rose Cousins from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
In two weeks I'll be heading back out to BC to do the final voice tracks for a collection of new songs we've been working on over the summer months. Hopefully the cold I've been fighting will be long over with by that time, because if it isn't it'll take all the fun out of recording that's for sure! I'm not worried...my lucky star will make sure all is well come that weekend I'm sure!
I guess that about covers where things have been of late. One thing that I'm also really excited about is Neil Young coming to the Winnipeg MTS centre on October 16th. Seeing him perform live is another of the things that I'll be able to check off my life's to-do list, and I'm glad I'm finally going to have the opportunity.
Well that should be all...time to go pack the picnic basket I guess, and enjoy one of the few remaining summer like days of fall.
Till next time,
Lynda
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