West Coast of Clare

I had a wee post ready to go today - about being overwhelmed and out of focus and stuff ... I posted it and then thought, you know I'm only putting that up to put something up ...  and I hate putting a whine into writing ... It somehow makes it too real ... so to cheer myself up I thought I'd post a few pics from our wee trip down South last week.

The view from our room at Croc an Oir

Our first stop was in Tipperary - our friends John and Monika have a self catering farm house and rooms for people to rent  - it's called Croc an Oir which means (I think) the Hill of Gold. .... and it has a gorgeous wee music room /theatre as well.  

All our concerts for the last few weeks were for the older part of our community and at this gig, I think the average age was about 85 and we had the best of craic .... They sang with every song and we all had a cup of tea together afterwards.


Then it was on to County Clare - on the West Coast.   Clare's a beautiful part of the country and steeped in traditional music and for once it wasn't teeming with rain.
Tom was messing about with my iPhone and took this panoramic view of the horseshoe beach there.

The horseshoe beach at Kilkee

and my less adventurous pic of the same place 

Our view from the stage in Kilkee

The venue in Kilkee is in a library and part of the place has been converted into a 2 tier theatre with precisely 103 seats!  It was quite interesting because the audience here were much younger and it gave a totally different feel to the evening - still very enjoyable for us, but the very elderly have no qualms about talking back to you on stage whereas a younger audience, regular seniors as opposed to senior seniors, are more reserved and it becomes more of a theatre show.

And like a proper theatre it has real dressing rooms .... I love playing in theatres ... the lights around the mirrors in the dressing rooms make me feel like I'm in a black and white movie!

Our last stop was also in Co. Clare, in the County town of Ennis ....There's a huge Arts Centre there call Glór - and all the big bands play there - I really thought we'd never be in it so it was real treat to be there.   Our audience came in from a few centres out of the town and sang with everything we did and bought loads of CDs afterwards ... We were well pleased with the day.

Some of the audience in Glor!!!
Getting ready for a pageant of some sort 

I've been changing my focus over the past few weeks - away from everyone else's music and onto my own ..... something that I've learned out of the A to Z challenge ....I was flailing around a bit between students and choir and sessions and trying to write, and organise tours and events and recordings .... But my head's clearing a wee bit now - it's left me with a stinking cold (snuffle, snuffle) but a sense that we'll cope with everything that needs doing.  And I can finally remember the words of my own songs :)

So we have one more concert left of Just A Song At Twilight - that's next Thursday afternoon in Dublin - then we're off to Germany for 6 concerts at the start of June.   But before that I have choir starting back tonight, and one of my students has her A level practical tomorrow and I'm playing piano for that .... so that's enough to think about for today...

Focus on the details ... one thing at a time.

How do you cope with the various strands of your life?   I know many of you have jobs and families and still produce amazing art and books and projects .... Any tips?