Summer has come and gone, and Fall too, almost, and they were good. After my season-closing solo concert in Invermere, B.C., in June, we spent about 3 weeks in the Rockies. A favorite place was a super B&B in the East Kootnays at Crawford Bay, called Wedgwood Manor It’s a gem!

When we got home I wrote music for a lovely lullaby a friend in Invermere had written for her grand-children, and then I immersed myself in writing a solo percussion piece commissioned by Winnipeg’s rising star, Ben Reimer. Like much of my music, it was inspired by my experiences in the mountains, over the years. I called it Just Add Water and I delivered it to Ben in late August. I’m really looking forward to him premiering it in Brandon early in the new year.

I had a home concert with 25 or 30 invited guests on August 31st. It was great fun, one of the highlights being performances by Ana Riera - french horn, and her Mother, Carol Vaughan - piano, from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  On September 18th I did a noon-hour performance for Brandon University, in Lorne Watson Hall.  It was there that I premiered my theatrical work, Aunt Kate, a very deceptively poignant account of my pre-teen years when I spent several summers with my aunt Kate in her tiny cabin in Banff. She was very unpretentious, a free spirit and loved nature and animals - and me! I always like to have a chat with audiences after a performance - especially with students - and in this case they asked some good questions about the pieces I’d played.

    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            




On the way home from Banff we took  a 'shortcut'  via  Deadwood, South Dakota, to pay our respects to Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, who are buried there.  You might remember that a coupleof years ago Bev Johnston and I performed a work a called Calamity Jane, by Quenten and Joyce Doolittle, of Calgary, so it was of special interest to us to see the Black Hills, and the narrow gulch the town sits in.  Most touristy attractions were closed for the season in October, but the cemetry was open for foot traffic, and Bill's monument was irresistible!  We chose secondary roads across Northern Montana and Wyoming, and the scenery was spectacular.  The roads were excellent, and traffic was very light.



After that 1,000 mile shortcut we came more or less straight home and we are now  dealing with all the email, etc., etc. that awaited us, and right now I'm continuing work on the piece I began at the Leighton Artist Colony in Banff.  I'm also starting to put together a program of my music for a concert next May at the Heliconian Hall in Toronto, that will include a work-in-progress of the new piece, and other shorter pieces.  I'm also preparing the program I'm curating for a GroundSwell concert, here, next April.  The amazing Winnipeg saxophone and piano duo, Allen Harrington and Laura Loewen will be featured, and Canadian composers Allan Bell and Sid Robinovitch are both writing pieces for clarinet and piano that clarinetist Pat Daniels and I will premiere.



The weather has been absolutely wonderful this autumn, including when we were in Banff and in Wyoming and South Dakota.  But this morning we awoke to this!   

However,on the news this morning we heard that there's a raging blizzard in the Black Hills, with 3 feet of snow, so there's always something to be thankkful for!