Three Exciting Things in Daylesford

Charlie Parr House Concert: www.myspace.com/charlieparrduluth

In celebration of the excitement that is to come as we kick back and
strum, Tasma House and Gardens is hosting a house concert on January
24, 2010, for Charlie Parr during his tour of Australia.



Sleepover Coffee House: sleepovercoffeehouse.eventbrite.com

There's a new and mighty-fine brew at the Sleepover Coffee House
opening up in Daylesford, Victoria. Participants will bask in
friendly, affordable, small town, luxury at Tasma House and Gardens.
Overnight guests of the Sleepover Coffee House will enjoy dinner,
breakfast, and a community cafe experience that includes casual music
making with local performing artists.


Table Hill Music Camps: tablehillmusiccamps.blogspot.com

Table Hill Music Camps begin in 2010! Making music is going to be
easy....whether folks want to take their first try at making music or
simply want to play music a new way....instrument and vocal workshops
can make that happen! Offering weekend and week-long workshops, Table
Hill Music Camps is opening its cute-little-bungalow doors in
Daylesford, by offering mountain dulcimer and strumstick workshops for
adults.

Three Exciting Things in Daylesford

Charlie Parr House Concert: www.myspace.com/charlieparrduluth

In celebration of the excitement that is to come as we kick back and
strum, Tasma House and Gardens is hosting a house concert on January
24, 2010, for Charlie Parr during his tour of Australia.


Sleepover Coffee House: sleepovercoffeehouse.eventbrite.com

There's a new and mighty-fine brew at the Sleepover Coffee House
opening up in Daylesford, Victoria. Participants will bask in
friendly, affordable, small town, luxury at Tasma House and Gardens.
Overnight guests of the Sleepover Coffee House will enjoy dinner,
breakfast, and a community cafe experience that includes casual music
making with local performing artists.


Table Hill Music Camps: tablehillmusiccamps.blogspot.com

Table Hill Music Camps begin in 2010! Making music is going to be
easy....whether folks want to take their first try at making music or
simply want to play music a new way....instrument and vocal workshops
can make that happen! Offering weekend and week-long workshops, Table
Hill Music Camps is opening its cute-little-bungalow doors in
Daylesford, by offering mountain dulcimer and strumstick workshops for
adults.

Key West Dulcimer Fest -- One of the Things on My Wish List

I would sooooooooooo love to be at the world's first dulcimer festival!  Looks like it is going to be amazing!

Table Hill Music Camps in Daylesford, Victoria

I've been adding info, pictures, and links to the Table Hill Music Camps blog......and there are dulcimers everywhere here at Dulcimer Central in Daylesford!  It's beautiful!

Please read about what's up down-under by clicking this link to Table Hill Music Camps!

Adrian's Artwork @ Table Hill Music Camps in Daylesford, Victoria

Here are a few pictures I took of the guitar Adrian is using to turn into a sign for Table Hill Music Camps at Tasma House and Gardens in Daylesford, Victoria, Australia.  Cool.

Table Hill Music Camps in Daylesford, Victoria

Today I am uploading pictures to facebook, EverythingDulcimer.com, and the MemphisWoman.Ning.com site while Adrian creates signs for Table Hill Music Camps.  We hope to open strumstick and dulcimer camps VERY SOON at Tasma House and Gardens in Daylesford, Victoria, Australia.

It sure does feel good to be moving forward.

Back in the U.S. for Christmas

I am looking forward to seeing my daughter and the rest of my family during the holidays!  I have been in Australia and/or New Zealand since sometime in April.....living on a VERY limited budget......and have been able to find a reasonable airfare to take me back to Memphis for a week in December.  The airfares are so unpredictable!  I'm happy to have found this particular airfare that gives me a round-trip for less than $1,600!

I am absolutely NOT looking forward to going through the customs routines and responsibilities during the holidays, though.  I understand and appreciate MOST of the processes during security checks.....but the whole ordeal feels like quite an ordeal, usually.

It would be fantastic to bring friends and/or family back to Australia with me.......Not that I want to subject anyone to the customs/security processes that I dislike.....but because, I confess.....I think misery does love company.....and, I have a feeling that if I were not going through the security processes alone as I enter and exit Australia, I would not feel so downtrodden as I travel.

Adrian and I have been preparing his beautiful place in Daylesford, Tasma House and Gardens (which I like to call "Dulcimer Central"), for visitors -- whether musical or not -- and it would be awesome to help my friends enjoy this visit with me.  I reckon that should be the focus of my energy....getting someone to come with me....maybe several somebodies!

There are 12 cardboard mountain dulcimers and several strumsticks ordered and, hopefully, on their way to Daylesford as I write.....perhaps I should be bringing that many folks back with me to join me in strummin' up down under?!  I know that would make my travels more fun. I'll put that on my "wish list."

Back in the U.S. for Christmas

I am looking forward to seeing my daughter and the rest of my family during the holidays!  I have been in Australia and/or New Zealand since sometime in April.....living on a VERY limited budget......and have been able to find a reasonable airfare to take me back to Memphis for a week in December.  The airfares are so unpredictable!  I'm happy to have found this particular airfare that gives me a round-trip for less than $1,600!

I am absolutely NOT looking forward to going through the customs routines and responsibilities during the holidays, though.  I understand and appreciate MOST of the processes during security checks.....but the whole ordeal feels like quite an ordeal, usually.

It would be fantastic to bring friends and/or family back to Australia with me.......Not that I want to subject anyone to the customs/security processes that I dislike.....but because, I confess.....I think misery does love company.....and, I have a feeling that if I were not going through the security processes alone as I enter and exit Australia, I would not feel so downtrodden as I travel.

Adrian and I have been preparing his beautiful place in Daylesford, Tasma House and Gardens (which I like to call "Dulcimer Central"), for visitors -- whether musical or not -- and it would be awesome to help my friends enjoy this visit with me.  I reckon that should be the focus of my energy....getting someone to come with me....maybe several somebodies!

There are 12 cardboard mountain dulcimers and several strumsticks ordered and, hopefully, on their way to Daylesford as I write.....perhaps I should be bringing that many folks back with me to join me in strummin' up down under?!  I know that would make my travels more fun. I'll put that on my "wish list."

Google Docs!

I'm learning about Google Docs.  Haven't needed to know this info before, but now I don't have any word processing software and might find it useful.

Testing a link to my first trial of Google doc-making.

Click here to see my first Google doc.

McSpadden Mountain Dulcimer for Sale in Memphis, Tennessee

I'm selling my McSpadden Mountain Dulcimer, because I am VERY short on cash. I'm in Australia, but the dulcimer is in Memphis. Thanks to my friend, Cindy Miller, I have these lovely pictures to show what the dulcimer looks like. I would love for someone to enjoy playing this instrument!

It's a wonderful dulci.....with a great sound....and has been much loved! Money is money, though.....and I have to let this dulci go.

McSpadden Mountain Dulcimer for Sale in Memphis, Tennessee

I'm selling my McSpadden Mountain Dulcimer, because I am VERY short on cash. I'm in Australia, but the dulcimer is in Memphis. Thanks to my friend, Cindy Miller, I have these lovely pictures to show what the dulcimer looks like. I would love for someone to enjoy playing this instrument! It's a wonderful dulci.....with a great sound....and has been much loved! Money is money, though.....and I have to let this dulci go.

Steiglitz, Victoria, Australia

I played music and spent the night in a town called Steiglitz.....about an hour's drive from Daylesford.  I was told that Steiglitz is an old gold rush, ghost town, and now has about ten families living in its city limits.  My friends and I camped in the hay shed across from the Scotts Hotel, after we spent Saturday evening playing music on the veranda.


Sheep were grazing in the grass behind the hay shed while music was being made in the shade late in the day.  It was a beautiful thing to be a part of.....seeing the day-before-prep, sign making, scurrying about, etc, of the festival's organizers....whilst providing music that was good enough to keep the leader/organizer organizing close enough to hear the improv music of the dulcimer, guitar, folk harp, and bowed saw.  Fun! The landscape of Australia always captures my heart, as does the people I am meeting along my musical way.

Steiglitz, Victoria, Australia

I played music and spent the night in a town called Steiglitz.....about an hour's drive from Daylesford.  I was told that Steiglitz is an old gold rush, ghost town, and now has about ten families living in its city limits.  My friends and I camped in the hay shed across from the Scotts Hotel, after we spent Saturday evening playing music on the veranda.

Sheep were grazing in the grass behind the hay shed while music was being made in the shade late in the day.  It was a beautiful thing to be a part of.....seeing the day-before-prep, sign making, scurrying about, etc, of the festival's organizers....whilst providing music that was good enough to keep the leader/organizer organizing close enough to hear the improv music of the dulcimer, guitar, folk harp, and bowed saw.  Fun! The landscape of Australia always captures my heart, as does the people I am meeting along my musical way.

Playing the Dulcimer at Tasma House

 

This is what I saw when I sat down to play.

Radio Springs Hotel, Lyonville, Victoria, Australia -- Amazing Place

Adrian and I were playing our dulcimers recently at the Radio Springs Hotel near Daylesford, in Lyonville, Victoria, when a couple of amateur photographers asked us to allow them to take pictures.  We agreed and let the photographers direct us on where to sit.  Derrick Lee took this picture and a few others and said he would mail copies to Adrian.  I think it's pretty cool that Adrian actually received a couple of photos in the mail!  The original picture is not digital.....and I am 10,000 miles away from my trusty scanner.....so I took a picture of this picture to share the talent of Derrick Lee and to say thank you, publicly.  There's a photo exhibition going on nearby.  

Derrick Lee stopped at the Radio Springs Hotel during his time involved with the Ballarat International Foto Biennalle; and after listening and watching us play music in the hotel lobby, he asked for permission to set us up for a photograph.  So, this picture is mostly real....with a little bit of staged-effect.  Adrian and I had been playing music inside the hotel, and we were asked to move to the bench outside.....so we sat down outside on the porch bench, where instructed, and started playing music again while the cameras clicked away in the natural lighting, and the pictures were taken without camera flashes.

Adrian is playing a Simerman dulcimer, and I am playing a "jocimer" that was built by my friend Bob Magowan in Memphis, Tennessee.  In 2007 Adrian bought the jocimer in Memphis and returned to Australia with it.  This picture reminds me of many ways I have been blessed in the last few years.  Here I am in Australia, blogging about playing a Memphis-made jocimer -- a "one-off" instrument made by a fine luthier and friend of mine -- at a delightful place, called the Radio Springs Hotel, which is owned by kind and generous Australians who are my newly found friends.  I am amazed.

Radio Springs Hotel, Lyonville, Victoria, Australia -- Amazing Place

Adrian and I were playing our dulcimers recently at the Radio Springs Hotel near Daylesford, in Lyonville, Victoria, when a couple of amateur photographers asked us to allow them to take pictures.  We agreed and let the photographers direct us on where to sit.  Derrick Lee took this picture and a few others and said he would mail copies to Adrian.  I think it's pretty cool that Adrian actually received a couple of photos in the mail!  The original picture is not digital.....and I am 10,000 miles away from my trusty scanner.....so I took a picture of this picture to share the talent of Derrick Lee and to say thank you, publicly.  There's a photo exhibition going on nearby.  Derrick Lee stopped at the Radio Springs Hotel during his time involved with the Ballarat International Foto Biennalle; and after listening and watching us play music in the hotel lobby, he asked for permission to set us up for a photograph.  So, this picture is mostly real....with a little bit of staged-effect.  Adrian and I had been playing music inside the hotel, and we were asked to move to the bench outside.....so we sat down outside on the porch bench, where instructed, and started playing music again while the cameras clicked away in the natural lighting, and the pictures were taken without camera flashes.

Adrian is playing a Simerman dulcimer, and I am playing a "jocimer" that was built by my friend Bob Magowan in Memphis, Tennessee.  In 2007 Adrian bought the jocimer in Memphis and returned to Australia with it.  This picture reminds me of many ways I have been blessed in the last few years.  Here I am in Australia, blogging about playing a Memphis-made jocimer -- a "one-off" instrument made by a fine luthier and friend of mine -- at a delightful place, called the Radio Springs Hotel, which is owned by kind and generous Australians who are my newly found friends.  I am amazed.

Dulcimer Central is Looking Up!

I'm excited about this picture!  Today Adrian hung these dulcimers in the room I like to call "Dulcimer Central" at Tasma House and Gardens.  Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Kookaburra at Tasma House & Gardens in Daylesford, Vic

It has taken a LONG time to get this critter captured with my camera while visiting Daylesford......but, I was finally successful!

Tasma House and GardensThe Best Kept Secret in Daylesford

This week I've been helping Adrian Kosky with his blogs about Tasma House and Gardens.  As I tweak pages and look through the window above this desk, I see amazing beauty!  Here's a simple sample:

Blogged Up

For the past few years, I have been learning how to use blogs.  I have tried several different approaches to blogging. I'm new to "Blogger," and I am still learning.


Unfortunately, I have not learned much about how to use RSS.  So, I keep linking all my blogs to each other.  Today I'm using "Blogger" to blog about my collection of blogs.