We'd been putting it off, but finally broke down a month ago and borrowed a pedal extender. Since our piano is on carpet and has finicky pedals to begin with, it doesn't always work perfectly. Still, Calvin is so pleased with the rich sound he gets from it that he's taken to practicing several times throughout the day, which is quite enjoyable, actually.
Für Elise.
Piano lessons usually happen on Sundays in our house. We have our choice of days because the teacher is a resident. That goes for the disembodied hand as well.
piano Our trip is over and we're home sweet home. Just in time for a low grade heat wave. But here's the rest of our vacation.
After we left Niagara we headed inland to Kitchener where Jon gave a workshop to a group of piano teachers. We could have done without Kitchener. It was a little like walking into Twin Peaks. Or the Twilight Zone. Odd, odd, odd.
Calvin and I went to The Museum (really, that's its name) while Jon was lecturing, but their idea of a museum was pretty lame. Best part? Working the animatronic dinosaur parts.
We got the heck out of Kitchener as fast as we could and landed in peaceful Stratford for two days. What a totally different experience from Niagara and its neon flashing lights. In Stratford we took a pontoon boat tour, ate at the local restaurants, shopped in the quaint shoppes, and stayed in an inn above a tavern right on the main street, a block away from the theatre and the river.
Ye olde fashioned accommodations.
We ate breakfast at the local bakery across the street (chocolate croissants and fresh coffee). We talked to ducks, geese, and swans by the river. We played pianos street side. We relaxed and took it in, two days in a row.
Of course the real point of our stop there was to take in a show, and we saw Pirates of Penzance on Wednesday afternoon. It enchanted us to end. Calvin loved it. We played the CD all the way home the next day.
Following the musical we walked across the street to a small museum of the Festival's 60 years of existence. Two rooms of artifacts and we spent over an hour in them. Mockups of models from costumes and sets through the ages, and some of the actual pieces as well. The girls working the admission desk were the best part. They fell in love with Calvin and basically gave us a private tour. They even let us touch some of the carefully guarded pieces.
To break up the trip on the way home we stopped in Port Huron to visit the lighthouse, train depot, and lightship museums there. Thomas Edison I could do without, but the other two were pretty good stops.
Home again, home again, jiggity jig.
Coincidentally, today was recital day for Jon's students. It marks another year of practice and learning, the same way that yesterday's birthday marked another year passing. The two don't usually fall on the same weekend, but it worked out nicely this way since we had loved ones visiting from out of town for the latter. And aaaah, recital success. Calvin performed very well. On our way home we asked him what he thought, but I think he takes it all in stride. He was so busy reading that he just mumbled something like "oh, it was great."
There is a cold in the house. It is trying to ruin my best laid plans for staying healthy in January. We have big doings on the burner for January and can't afford to be sick. Still, there is a cold in the house, ignoring my restraining order, making me bust out the chicken soup, the early bed times, the extra fluids, the naps in the afternoons.
The good news is that this was the first day in weeks that we've been just home. We slept in a little, we did two weeks worth of laundry, we went the homemade route with the chicken soup. There was another section in math, the last of the thank-you notes to write, and we drove trains around the Lego city in our play room. There was Star Wars on the piano. I introduced Calvin to the Wii today with Wii Fit Plus, and we revisited our favorite British Doctor with a couple episodes of The Human Journey. We played a cooperative game of Set (and we might be getting the hang of it). There was art. A lot of art. And there was a lot of just plain enjoying each other.
