Wedding in Killargue, Nth Co Leitrim today. Such an odd day weather wise. It was cold in the church, and when I cam out afterwards it was raining fairly persistently with grey skies, but the temperature was 19.5 celcius. pretty warm. I was in a lather dismantling and packing my gear, but had to wear a coat and hat for the rain. So contradictory. So Ireland. The wedding program was lovely, I just love 'You'll never walk alone', its so charged with emotion. Also sang ' You say it best when you say nothing at all'. I never liked it much when Ronan Keating was singing it, but I love singing it. Bride came up the aisle to 'Songbird' which was very atmospheric. However, I might have to rethink that Eva Cassidy version, as there is a guitar solo after chorus 1, which breaks the momentum somewhat. I set up on the gallery today as there is a fine spacious gallery in Killargue church, and the sound is always better from the gallery. But I lived to regret that decision. The gallery is laid out with steps panning down, but this meant I couldnt' place my organ beside my harp, so had to move the microphone between the two during the ceremony. Also a pity, as there was good room downstairs at the front of the church. There are alwasy advantages and disadvantages to either position.
At last. I've spent every spare hour this last three days trying to complete the final page of my website, 'Suggestions for the Civil Ceremony', and I'm very satisfied with this revised layout. I wanted something different to what was delivered by the web company, and had to find out how to re-work it myself. I dont know much about webpage building, so it was done by trial and error, which is a v.slow method, but I learned a bit. Although I need to correct the formatting on the Catholic and Protestant Ceremony pages, they will have to wait until next weekend, when I might get a few hours to spend at it. And then my next ambition is to learn how to include databases on my site, for extended lists and archived blogs and stuff.
Took part in an event for Heritage Week last night at the Solas Gallery Ballinamore. Its a small venue above the Flower shop in Ballinamore, and its quite a special place. The wooden floors, and the bare walls, always displaying fabulous exibitions. Lovely resonance. Then the crowd are really special as well. Always such good vibes from the people who come here. I played a harp selection, and one song and they were a most appreciative audience. An early music group called 'Nuada' (see www.nuada.net) were also playing, and I really enjoyed this.
New website today. starting a new blog. Am delighted to have my new design website up at last. I started this process last April, today I've uploaded the new files. There will be a few teething problems, and I really have hours of work to finish the pages, but I'm delighted , and consider it an achievement, even though I didn't actually build it this time. I gave the work to webdesign company 'artizan' as I just couldn't get my head around doing a modern design. I dont know how to build graphics and am only a beginner with modern CSS. And I'm delighted with the design. I got a bit stressed out as the work progressed but was happy with the overall look from day 1. But I have to finish pages, and make the links to the music, and fix up my availability. Also, would love to change the look of this page, to give it a pattern down the sides, and to allow my visitors (you!) to make entries, shared or private. Will work on that over coming weeks. Honestly, its almost as good as when I got the new harp, last year.
