Hi folks, I hope you’re well.
I’ve emerged from my May fiddle camps in one piece, wrapping them up with basking in the sun and swimming in the loch. Lismore is so beautiful at this time of year and an ideal location for the camps. Pictures below courtesy of Susan Adamson.
Musically, the group was a great mix of players and we worked through many old and new tunes – all of which are on my Tunes hub. We covered technical and musical challenges like tone, bowing, rhythm, style, and often folk wanted to know more about ornamentation and how to make the tune feel authentic and unique to that player. It was a rich tapestry of music and fiddle. Thank you to all the fiddlers who came and I hope to see you again next year.
I wanted to prepare healthy and tasty food for the retreats. A great help was the book ‘The Quick Roasting Tin’ by Rukmini Iyer (which Dave gifted me me last Christmas), which has a fantastic selection of recipes. Lismore cafe made us the best ice cream, my sister had lots of tenderstem broccoli in her garden, and I learnt how to make sourdough bread. All in all, we ate very well. A success all round!
I’ve also signed up for the 100 Days Project Scotland challenge which challenges people to to do something creative daily and starts on 1st June. In preparation for the show Living Stone in 2024, I’m going to draw the stone every day and try to remember to post some of them on social media.
More on the 2024 show and my Autumn tour – Mairi Campbell: Meet Me at the Threshold – to follow in upcoming newsletters.
Mairi x