Good day,
This ‘dodgy’ camera actually has quite a feature set to my surprise, you can change the exposure, white balance and jpeg picture quality (super fine, normal), wow, and also it records movies! Unfortunately I only have an 8mb SD card to play with which is good for about 10 pictures at a time, not so useful.. 🙁

Here are a couple shots I’ve taken with it, note that I had to bump the saturation up in Photoshop

Farm house I am staying at and the view over a valley opposite.

Last Monday evening there was a surprise phone call from ‘Isabel’, she apparently is my Grandfathers niece and thus is a distant relative of mine that I never knew I had. She phoned because she was in the area and was staying at the Putney Inn. She was part way through a trip to visit more of her friends and family and would only be around for that night only, hastily leaving the following morning.
I have never seen my father in such a hurry to change his clothes and clean himself up to be presentable. He usually has no sense of urgency and his personal appearance is a lower priority for him. None-the-less, that night we were out the door within 20 minutes and scooting off down the tree-lined dirt roads avoiding the pot holes and probably going faster than my fathers Nissan pick up truck can really cope with.
Meeting my cousin (once-removed?) Isabel was certainly an interesting experience, she was jolly and up-front, the type of person who will really tell you what she honestly thinks. She told me that she was the big mouth in the family and proceeded to prove this as she dished out the family dirt and secrets that were presumably meant to be kept inside the family. I liked Isabel, not just for being honest but she was easy to talk to and seemed ‘real’ if you know what I mean?
So before even our meal had been served I was versed in who the crazy ones were and those who have had nervous break-downs so far, I’m sure you get the picture..

She also invited me to her home in Buda, Texas which I will certainly be visiting probably in Spring when I start journeying out West. I’ve always wanted to visit Austin which is renowned for its music. Some of my favourite guitarists have come from there; Eric Johnson, Andy Timmons and Stevie Ray Vaughan to name a few. Must be something in the water over there.
We decided to get together again the following morning for breakfast and to see her off but left her at the Inn that evening because my father wanted to go to the ‘Drum Jam’ in Bellows Falls, although we invited Isabel, she declined and preferred to get an early night anyway.

The drum jam was fun, I had actually gone the previous week as well but forgot to mention it here, it’s held every week in the studio of a woodworker artist friend of my father, the work-tops are pushed aside and out come the drums, congas, bongos and sticks.
That night there were about 9 or so of us making a lot of racket. Someone would lead with a beat and then we’d all join in to add our own beats to interweave an ulterior tangle of rhythmic sound.
If I can I will see if I can get an audio recording of a session to give you a better idea, probably when my laptop arrives (still 3 weeks to go.. Hmmpf).
Oh ya, I met a girl called Maya at that Drum Jam, it was her first time there but we got talking a little at the end, turned out she does some radio broadcasting in Bellows Falls and always has local musicians coming in to play live over the airwaves, she asked if I could come in the following week and do something, I’m intrigued, but as to what I can ‘play’, I’m not sure yet, I’m more of a composer than a performer you see. Currently I only have my CD of music and an acoustic guitar with me, but there could be some possibilities though, wish Maya had been more specific about what would be suitable..
Anyways, if I am able to put together a performance then I will no doubt let you guys know.

Which also reminds me that, as some of you may already know.. I was interviewed by the BBC local radio just before I left England and flew over here. I now actually have a tape recording of the interview (which also contains small snippets of my music) however I don’t have any means of transferring that tape to a digital recording just yet.. Laptop, where art thou? I will ask around though, there may be something I can do in order to give a little preview of the tape..

On Tuesday we got up early at 7:40am and drove back to Putney Inn to have a yummy breakfast with my cousin Isabel, I have to commend the waiting staff at the Inn for it was some of the most courteous service I’ve ever come across, and the food wasn’t half bad either. My father and Isabel mostly did more catching up and chatted whilst I munched in relative peace save for battling an incredibly stubborn fly that was more than determined to have at our Maple Syrup pot if it wasn’t for my fork fencing skills.

After brekkies, Isabel decided to follow us back to the house I’m staying at so that she could have a look at the sculptures and my fathers work. She seemed impressed with the remote plushness of the ‘house in the woods’ and said there was nothing like it back home in Texas. Alas she didn’t stay for long as a storm started brewing and she needed to get to ‘The Big Moose’ before the weather grew nasty. I forgot to ask where ‘The Big Moose’ is but that is an easy job for Super Google, the search engine of super-hero proportions.

[EDIT] Appears to be a big lake! Very Cool

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We waved Isabel goodbye as she urged both my father and I one last time that we should come visit her soon. “I will, I will, bye-bye and safe travels� said I.

After Isabel, my father drove us the 40mins to Marlboro as the Vermont Arts Council were doing a presentation on a new grant scheme for local artists, supporting people undertaking creative endeavours for their communities in VT.
It was a slightly arduous affair because they mostly waffled about the wonderous complexities of their new online-based admissions process and walked you literally click by click on how to apply through their website. My father seemed dismayed by the whole thing however I promised I would help him through it before the deadline should he still be interested.
Aside from the VT arts council presentation, I got to pet a 3-legged black Labrador and take a hurried look around the new (smell-the-paint-fumes) Marlboro College Arts Center where the event was hosted. Fairly decent black and white photography adjourned the corridors and in the music department there was a whole row of tiny, interspliced practice rooms, inside which, each sported a gorgeous looking mini-grand piano that I ached to play. I also spotted a large looking instrument that resembled a lute being held captive in what appeared to be a teachers office. I didn’t dare go in for closer inspection. That was Tuesday 19th.