August would be our busiest time in ‘normal’ years but last summer was by no means normal although the Alkyona Quartet visit had not only delighted us with a house full of music but had stretched our abilities in the kitchen and we had managed ok.
We had been cowering at Brel too long waiting for life to come to us. We planned a visit to friends in the Haute Savoie, got in the car and drove across the middle of France. What a delight! We were thrilled to be setting out on an adventure in the car and so pleased to see again the wonderful French countryside spread out in front of us from the Puy de Dome to the Rhône Valley and beyond.
Staying high above Annecy the views of the mountains and down to the lake are spectacular and the area has some wonderful restaurants - we managed some special treats during our short stay including a meal served in the potager of one of the top chefs.
Pianist Joanna Goodale gave a concert on our return - her third year in a row. Joanna who lives not far from us is a great favourite with Brel audiences and this year played a programme of pieces by Schubert and Chopin contrasted with music from Armenia and Turkey.
We even managed to fit in a trip down to visit London neighbours who have a house in the Languedoc. Our MV friend organised some wine tastings and we came back with a quite a few cases. Such great wines are being grown in the wonderful sunshine which was still hot in September.
Slowly our confidence in travelling was growing and Peter headed off to Dublin for his annual golfing break - which didn’t take place in 2020 at all. The wives joined the golfers for a long weekend and a birthday celebration. Amazingly the sun shone for the party!
We certainly felt rejuvenated on our return and ready to prepare for our pocket opera group. The idea of a pocket opera had been quietly gestating for some months. A fellow ENOBF Trustee, bass Graeme Danby had heard about Music at Brel and thought it would be a perfect venue for staging a cut back opera - Handel’s Semele was what he had in mind. We had put off a decision for weeks as we waited for more young musicians to arrive but they couldn’t make it so a couple of performances of Semele sounded like just the thing to cheer up the neighbourhood music lovers.
Graeme put together a wonderful group of singers and a hugely talented musical director, pianist Stephanie Gurga. Full details of biographies and the programme of performances is included elsewhere on the website. It was as if a magic wand had been waved over Brel. The weather which had been teeter-tottering towards winter cheered up completely and the sun shone on the still heated pool to provide somewhere to relax in between the extremely busy schedule of rehearsals. In the kitchen we managed to produce enough food to maintain energy levels - lots of salads from the garden, chicken, lamb and confit duck from local suppliers and home smoked fish. After months of being quite careful about how much we were eating on our own, I got into pudding making with trifles, tray bakes, tarts, crumbles and some home-made ice creams. There weren’t many left-overs that week.
The team performed a recital of Songs of Travel on Thursday (with some lighter Flanders and Swann songs to finish) followed by two performances of Semele on Friday and Saturday. The email in box hummed with bookings and the weather stayed fair although days were already shorter. You could have heard a pin drop during the performances - the audience was so delighted and engrossed. We had interval drinks served in the house for the opera as it was too dark and too chilly for anything post performance.
There were about 80 people for each opera performance and we have never received so many thank yous. It was a classic win win win. Not only was it wonderful to have such high quality singing and piano playing at Brel and huge appreciation from the music starved audience but also it was great for the performers to be working together on a production …… something they had sorely missed during months of separation and lock down.
Thank you team for a super performance.
Feeling rejuvenated ourselves, we had a quick trip to the opera in Paris and a then a drive to London to celebrate Peter’s birthday with friends which meant that we abandoned the cats again! I like to tell myself that they are happy to see the back of us and can keep to their own schedule for a few days. They are fed every day and cuddled a lot when we’re not around - and always seem happy to see us again, but they do seem to take our comings and goings in their stride.
While we were away a new lawn was laid by the pool. Fantastic. We got a new tractor mower too - Kate is happy - we are not yet ready to go too wild as we have plenty of wild areas on the property.
I started these catch-up blogs talking about lethargy and not getting on with things and I am surprised at how much we have managed to do as the year has rolled on. Starting to blog again must also be a good sign! As I sit here I can see one of the to do lists for 2022 which we are already working through and, fingers crossed, we also expect our musical summer to be a busy one. Probably the most important New Year Resolution is to be much more positive. We have been restricted in many things and life is quiet in the countryside but we are so fortunate. For people on their own, people who are not in good health or for families who live in small apartments the pandemic has been so very difficult. The toll on mental health may never be quantifiable.
Once again, thank goodness for being in the middle of nature. There is something so inevitable and reassuring about the changes in the garden during the year. Even in the middle of winter there are signs of life as some plants carry on flowering and the very first shoots appear for the early spring flowers.
The sun sets on Rosa Opalia which continued well into December.
Bright red nasturtiums (Empress of India) continued into December too. Last year they lasted all winter but this year the hard frosts we’ve had already have killed them off.
And the gaillardia which seem to go on forever. We have them all over the place and while I love their bright cheerfulness, they tend to flop and fall all over the cutting garden so they’re being moved to a new area all of their own where they can seed and multiply and put on a wonderful show this coming summer.
We mustn’t forget the cats. They’ve grown their winter coats and are super fluffy.
Ori and Eli jump on to the kitchen table to talk to us and have their photos taken. 13 year old Artemis is a little more camera shy (and less able to leap on to the table!).