The Sunflower Singers - Second visit to Denman....
Well our second weekend of singing came on the 31 January 2014 – Christine Sheen was taking Part 2.
The weather was much better than last year no snow just rain and more rain with floods to watch out for. The fields along the roadside were well flooded we just hoped that with all the rain that was falling whilst we were travelling to Denman the roads would be OK for our return journey home.
We arrived at Denman just after 3pm – so off to find our rooms - 4 were in Holly lodge (last year we took over the whole lodge) and the rest of us in Maple. We unpacked and settled in. Soon time to go back to the main house for tea and cakes – very welcoming. It was lovely and cosy sitting by the big log fire in reception. 6 o’clock soon came round when the Welcome Meeting was held in the Livingston Room, next to reception - we were to have our lessons in there throughout the weekend.
8.15pm Down to business with Christine – we ran through some of the songs she would like us to do and the 3 songs she had sent us previously to have a look at and get the feel of.
Saturday arrived and we are up early for breakfast it was lovely to have it cooked and prepared for you even if it is was only 8 o’clock. Keen and eager we meet in the Livingston room for our warm ups – Christine put us through our paces – we were able to sing even the high notes. We practiced ‘Siya hambe’ which is a Swedish Church Mission song - very hard to get your tongue and teeth round the words but eventually we did and enjoyed singing it. Along with ‘Climb Every Mountain’, ‘The Skye Boat’ song and ‘Thank You for the Music’ another one that we had looked at before we went on the weekend. Christine treated us to 3 bottles of wine – one red – one white and one rose –as none of us were driving that day - it would be nice and relaxing not to mention the medicinal side in helping to lubricate the throat.
We hadn’t been singing long when we saw smoke billowing down past the big picture windows – it was a bit windy but there seemed to be a lot of smoke. We mentioned it to reception so they all went out and started looking up at the house. We were then informed that the chimney was on fire we were to stay in the room unless told otherwise – THE FIRE BRIGADE HAVE BEEN CALLED. We had to go over to the lecture hall for our coffee and lovely homemade biscuits – so we wondered if we would be able to get back in - but we did. We could hear the rumble of the fire – fortunately the Chimney was blocked our side so it could not come into the Livingston Room and there are double doors into it so we felt quite safe. I wonder what the firemen thought of our singing as Christine said if she had been at school she would have got nothing done. But why does everyone suddenly want to take pictures from their phone whoops didn’t mean to get the shoulder in! What a uniform can do!! Time for lunch – oh no the fireman came and had lunch as well – yes they did turn a shade of pink amongst so many women.
It was such a nice day we managed a walk round the grounds to stretch out legs and to watch Simon Snorkel check out the Chimney. Time to settle down for the afternoon session. ‘California Dreaming’,’ My Favourite Things’ along with’ Wimoweh’ - Christine then selected the songs we would perform for the concert that was to be held on Sunday morning. For those that remember they have stopped doing the entertainment on a Saturday evening. There was a Harpist group so the tutors put their heads together working out a programme for us both to help each other – a proper concert!! Wow!!
After Dinner we practised our show it was to be ‘Siya hambe’,’ Thank you for the Music’ then the’ Skye Boat song’.
Boy our voices were not happy on Sunday morning – the special throat sweets were passed around - was there any wine left!! As the morning went on the voices got stronger coffee helped – time to go to the big lecture hall to have a quick rehearsal with the harpists. That done it was 12 o’clock time for the concert. It went down really well they were all amazed how much we had learnt and how well we had all got on. A quick look round the other classrooms to see what the other classes had achieved – one jewellery class – one embroidery class along with the cookery class – their cakes were really good but the smell of the caramelized onions cooking got through to everyone’s eyes.
Just time for our last meal before we set off on our homeward journey. Another great weekend.
The weather was much better than last year no snow just rain and more rain with floods to watch out for. The fields along the roadside were well flooded we just hoped that with all the rain that was falling whilst we were travelling to Denman the roads would be OK for our return journey home.
We arrived at Denman just after 3pm – so off to find our rooms - 4 were in Holly lodge (last year we took over the whole lodge) and the rest of us in Maple. We unpacked and settled in. Soon time to go back to the main house for tea and cakes – very welcoming. It was lovely and cosy sitting by the big log fire in reception. 6 o’clock soon came round when the Welcome Meeting was held in the Livingston Room, next to reception - we were to have our lessons in there throughout the weekend.
8.15pm Down to business with Christine – we ran through some of the songs she would like us to do and the 3 songs she had sent us previously to have a look at and get the feel of.
Saturday arrived and we are up early for breakfast it was lovely to have it cooked and prepared for you even if it is was only 8 o’clock. Keen and eager we meet in the Livingston room for our warm ups – Christine put us through our paces – we were able to sing even the high notes. We practiced ‘Siya hambe’ which is a Swedish Church Mission song - very hard to get your tongue and teeth round the words but eventually we did and enjoyed singing it. Along with ‘Climb Every Mountain’, ‘The Skye Boat’ song and ‘Thank You for the Music’ another one that we had looked at before we went on the weekend. Christine treated us to 3 bottles of wine – one red – one white and one rose –as none of us were driving that day - it would be nice and relaxing not to mention the medicinal side in helping to lubricate the throat.
We hadn’t been singing long when we saw smoke billowing down past the big picture windows – it was a bit windy but there seemed to be a lot of smoke. We mentioned it to reception so they all went out and started looking up at the house. We were then informed that the chimney was on fire we were to stay in the room unless told otherwise – THE FIRE BRIGADE HAVE BEEN CALLED. We had to go over to the lecture hall for our coffee and lovely homemade biscuits – so we wondered if we would be able to get back in - but we did. We could hear the rumble of the fire – fortunately the Chimney was blocked our side so it could not come into the Livingston Room and there are double doors into it so we felt quite safe. I wonder what the firemen thought of our singing as Christine said if she had been at school she would have got nothing done. But why does everyone suddenly want to take pictures from their phone whoops didn’t mean to get the shoulder in! What a uniform can do!! Time for lunch – oh no the fireman came and had lunch as well – yes they did turn a shade of pink amongst so many women.
It was such a nice day we managed a walk round the grounds to stretch out legs and to watch Simon Snorkel check out the Chimney. Time to settle down for the afternoon session. ‘California Dreaming’,’ My Favourite Things’ along with’ Wimoweh’ - Christine then selected the songs we would perform for the concert that was to be held on Sunday morning. For those that remember they have stopped doing the entertainment on a Saturday evening. There was a Harpist group so the tutors put their heads together working out a programme for us both to help each other – a proper concert!! Wow!!
After Dinner we practised our show it was to be ‘Siya hambe’,’ Thank you for the Music’ then the’ Skye Boat song’.
Boy our voices were not happy on Sunday morning – the special throat sweets were passed around - was there any wine left!! As the morning went on the voices got stronger coffee helped – time to go to the big lecture hall to have a quick rehearsal with the harpists. That done it was 12 o’clock time for the concert. It went down really well they were all amazed how much we had learnt and how well we had all got on. A quick look round the other classrooms to see what the other classes had achieved – one jewellery class – one embroidery class along with the cookery class – their cakes were really good but the smell of the caramelized onions cooking got through to everyone’s eyes.
Just time for our last meal before we set off on our homeward journey. Another great weekend.