More music making

A taxi arrived at eight thirty this morning to take Rachel for an early hairdo appointment with Chris over in his Rumney salon. It was foggy, and too early for me to be awake enough to drive in commuter traffic. 

I went for a walk in the fog mid-morning and was delighted to see at least three families of pied wagtails in different locations around Llandaff Fields. They seem to like foraging for insects on tarmac'd surfaces, flying to and from the grass, whether for refuge or seeking food. It's good to see the population maintained over such an odd winter - so  much rain and wind, cold spells but never frosty for long. And now, a cold  damp day of fog.

Rachel returned from her appointment with Chris looking lovely after he'd worked his hairdressing magic on her. We started working on an arrangement of 'Happy Birthday' to record for my sister June's 90th this Saturday with Rachel on Grandpa's 'cello, me on guitar and all three of us singing together. Then Marc and Fran arrived for lunch, followed by a music making session. Marc tried out both my guitars and the violin made by Clare's grandfather. She's decided she wants to resume learning the fiddle as well as the flute and sought Marc's advice about getting started again. That was the reason for the lunch date. It was a lovely coincidence that Rachel was here with us. Marc was a session musician on the album Rachel recorded 25 years ago. Just for pleasure, they played together and recorded a video of a song she wrote some time ago.  Marc played Clare's violin and Rachel played my Tatay guitar. I just videoed them playing on Rachel's iPhone and now it's posted on her YouTube channel.

After Fran and Mark took their leave of us, we walked in the park for an hour, then Rachel checked in for tomorrow's flight and I printed her boarding pass. We recorded ourselves singing and playing 'Happy Birthday', adding a second 'cello track to give it a richer sound. It was an experiment and a useful learning experience with Audacity editing, worth the effort, even if it did take extra time. Rachel played Grandpa's 'cello fondly, duetting with Clare on flute while I was finishing the birthday MP3. She has an early bus in the morning, so it's early to bed for us again tonight.