A concert in Wells Cathedral

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Hassler, Jacquet de Mantua, Morales, Pepylling Wynde, Peter Leech, Renaissance, Sheppard, Spem in Alium, Striggio, Tallis, Tallis Voices, Wells, Wells Cathedral, Wells Museum

Last Friday I sang with a large group of musical friends from near and far, calling themselves Tallis Voices, in a rather special concert in Wells Cathedral. It was to celebrate ten years of having done so, just once a year, usually on just a day and a half of rehearsals.  This time we had two whole days to rehearse, a real luxury. The main work was Tallis’s wonderful 40-part ‘Spem in Alium’, to which were added works by Striggio, Morales, Hassler, Jacquet de Mantua, and Sheppard, all renaissance masterpieces.

We met mainly in Wells Museum’s meeting room, but we spent a few hours in the Cathedral itself, and I managed to dash around and take a few photos before, and even during that time.

It was a grey afternoon as I firstly wandered around outside.

Vicars’ Close

North door

Here are some general views inside.

From the west end

The famous ‘scissors’ were added a century or so after construction to stop the tower falling in.

From behind the altar

The organ and half the choir stalls

Sorry about the musicians’ clobber

The famous steps, leading up to…

… the Chapter House

Some details.

A clock in the north transept even more splendid than the one outside

Singer’s eye view

This half of the choir sang the Morales in the south transept.  My half sang the Jaquet de Mantua in the north transept.

Our conductor, Peter Leech, showing us something on his score of the 40-part Tallis piece.

The instrumentalists, Pepylling Wynde,  played in some of the works, and performed on their own as well.

The sun came out at the end of the afternoon.

No pictures of the concert for obvious reasons. Thank you Chris, Sue, and Peter for a thoroughly enjoyable two days.

Return to Aigas 8

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Aigas, Arctic skua, eider, Gairloch, Golden eagle, greenfinch, grey wagtail, Loch Ewe, Meadow pipit, oblong-leaved sundew, primrose, red deer, red-breasted merganser, roe deer, Round-leaved sundew, sea eagle, sedge warbler, Slavonian grebe, Strathconon

The two final days at Aigas in one post.  Accounting for Thursday will very be short. We drove over to the West Coast of Scotland, to the Loch Ewe and Gairloch areas, returning by way of Loch Maree.  Here are a couple of views we saw on the way there, and a very short video.

From these it can be seen that the weather was not exactly ideal, and I have already indicated that I was not well-equipped with bad weather gear.   Having had our lunch we walked along the seashore for a while, in a howling gale, hoping to see sea eagles.

The sea and the grass show how windy it was, and I chickened out again, being absolutely frozen, and made my way back to the bus.

It was quite a time before my colleagues returned and I hoped they were having luck with the eagles.  They weren’t, but they did see a ‘bonxie’, an Arctic skua, which was a plus.

On the way back to Aigas, we had two unexpected sightings at the same place.  The stop was for reasons of nature other than wildlife, and we weren’t expecting to see anything special, but to our surprise we saw there a large group of eider duck, and a red-breasted merganser, swimming on the sea.

This is only part of the group of eider

Red-breasted merganser

And it was a treat to see a greenfinch, that increasing rarity in our gardens because of a rapidly spreading disease.

Friday was our last day, and was spent along Strathconon.  A pleasant morning:

Roe deer

Meadow pipit

Meadow pipit with insect

Red deer

An after-lunch stroll:

Round-leaved sundew. Each trap is no more than a centimetre across

Primroses -in June!

There are both round-leaved and oblong-leaved sundew here

Grey wagtail

The very same making photos easier

But the best was yet to come.   I wasn’t able to get pictures of an osprey perched in a tree, because sadly someone had not understood the instruction to keep within the outline of the bus when we got out, so it was spooked and flew off.  But I had been able 30 minutes earlier to get a few pictures of – at last – two golden eagles!  Sadly, in terms of wildlife the fact that we saw two of them flying around was not a good thing, because it meant there were no chicks on the nest to be looked after by one parent. But it was a thrill for us.

View from a bridge…

… which was really a hydro-electric barrage

The afternoon’s sightings were completed much nearer our base by some Slavonian grebes and a sedge warbler.

Sedge warbler

 

A last drive back to Aigas through the Highlands

Up very early on the Saturday morning for the 8.55 flight from Inverness to Bristol.  What will be the next photographic experience I post here?  At present I have no idea!

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Tags

Aigas, Aigas Wildcat Project, Magnus House, Wasp nest

Wednesday was a completely different sort of day.  Firstly, we got up incredibly early to leave for Kessock Bridge where we hoped to see otters.  This is what we saw, in my case from the relative comfort of the bus:

Canada geese

No otters.  We felt we had earned the breakfast we returned to.

For the rest of the morning we listened to a couple of talks, on the wildcat project, and moths, each fascinating.  The braver souls  – it was still raining, though not as hard – went out into the grounds to indulge in a bit of pond-dipping.  I’m afraid I chickened out, being very ill-equipped for bad weather.

The afternoon was free to spend exploring where we were living for the week rather more than we’d been able to hitherto.  (Some joined a small group going a very long way, for a very small chance of seeing a ring ouzel or two.  Sadly they had as much luck as we had had in the morning over otters.)

I did indeed spend a lot of time outside exploring Aigas – it had stopped raining by now, and here is a selection of the pictures I took then and at other times during the week, both indoors and outdoors.

My room

That’s the entrance to an old ice house seen though one window

My lodge

Ruth showing us where we’re going that day

First meal

The sitting room

The dining room, shortly to be laid out for a buffet lunch

A hundred-year-old wasp’s nest

Our hostess is a very talented lady

The library and overflow dining room

The gallery above the dining hall

The sitting room

The Magnus House

From the Tower Hide

No chance of seeing the wild cats!

As well as feeding us splendidly, Lady Lister-Kaye is entirely responsible for the garden

It had started raining again before I was safely back in the house.