Unexpectedly, it's been an amazing week here in this little town of Lavenham! And a lot of the excitement has to be attributed to the other Lavenham...the one in Suffolk, England, not the one here in Manitoba, Canada!
It all started with an email I received in early October, from Tony Hepworth, a gentleman in Lavenham, Suffolk, who was writing a book about his town there. He wanted to include a chapter on other Lavenhams of the world, and through the wonder of the world wide web, had found me through my website, that mentions where I'm from. I collected information for him from local area books that had been written about our small town's history, and took a few pictures for him of the town as it is now. He expanded his chapter on our Lavenham by a couple of pages, and sent the book off to the printers.
Tuesday, I got an email from him to say that the book was finished, and the copy he'd promised me was in the mail. He also mentioned that he'd been a guest on BBC Radio, promoting the book, and having had one choice of songs to play during the interview, chose a cut off my 'Reflections' CD! I shared that with a few friends who follow and encourage my musical dreams, and through that, one of them found the link so that we could all listen to the broad cast. For anyone that might be interested, go to
Tuesday, I got an email from him to say that the book was finished, and the copy he'd promised me was in the mail. He also mentioned that he'd been a guest on BBC Radio, promoting the book, and having had one choice of songs to play during the interview, chose a cut off my 'Reflections' CD! I shared that with a few friends who follow and encourage my musical dreams, and through that, one of them found the link so that we could all listen to the broad cast. For anyone that might be interested, go to
It will only be on the sight for another couple of days I think, but still...it was incredibly cool to hear one of my tunes on the BBC! Thankyou Tony for the plug, and all the kind words that went along with it! I am so looking forward to having the opportunity to learn more about the town that our own was named for!
Beyond that little bit of excitement, things have been pretty calm. Trying to get in the spirit of the season, but I'm finding it so hard to do this year. I can't wait for this funk to pass, but worry as to when it will. I think that Christmas, although meant to be a time of family and celebration, can also be a time of sad remembrance for those that are missing this year. Seems to be hitting me hard these days, and even dreams are filled with those no longer with us...it's like one can't escape. I think also it's being heightened with my son's health being so tentative right now...he's having struggles that are new to the struggles he's already living with, and it's tough trying to figure it out for a young man that can't share what's going on. I think if we can get things settled for him, some of my own challenges will ease.
Mixes of the songs for the new CD are starting to come in, and they are sounding good! However, I got a real eye opener the other day around just how painfully slow my lovely dial-up internet connection truly is! When a song comes to me to download, the tunes that are typically 39-50mb in the format my engineer forwards them to me in, it's taking me close to 10 hours per song to download...having always had dialup, I never really thought that much about it, it's just the way it is, and I plan on that when downloading. Last week, I was having trouble opening one song after the download, so I did it a second time...still couldn't open it. Happened, the next day I was going into a meeting in the city, and while at a friends house, she allowed me to download it there, to see if it was more successful. Well, I still wasn't able to open it BUT the darn song only took about 1 minute to download at her house!! Now I see how sucky dial-up really is! So, I've decided to give myself an early Christmas present, and have ordered satellite internet service to be installed...I just hope it works! Life in the country is so, so wonderful...but we do have these little drawbacks to contend with....internet service being one...lousy water pressure being another...but that's another story. Anyways, wish me luck...and maybe when I get up to speed on what's possible on the net now, who know's what I'll actually accomplish in a day!!!!
We got a lovely skiff of snow last night, so everything is looking so clean and pristine here today..it's also got the guys all fired up to be out on their snowmobiles! That's okay..it's made for a nice, quiet day for Shane and I to regroup by the fireplace, and get grounded again. Tonight, we're planning on putting up our Christmas tree....maybe that will help fire up the spirit of the season for me.
Well, stay warm....stay safe...till next time.
Lynda
