Christmas Cantata Choir Concert

How's that for an alliterative title? Another soggy and windy afternoon an the Isle of Wight, and my Mum happened to be in the Cantata Choir Christmas concert at Medina Theatre to which I had agreed to attend. Stupidly I hadn't bought a ticket, but they hadn't sold out. While waiting in the box office queue, a chap came in and asked if anyone was buying a single ticket as he had a spare. I said yes, but sadly had no cash on me so couldn't help. No body else was interested so he turned round, said 'Happy Christmas' and gave me the ticket! What a lovely man. I have no idea who he was.

The concert itself was reasonably well attended. The choir performed the following songs:

• Gaudete (Anon. 16th century)
• Shepherd's Cradle Song ( K. Leuner)
• A Winter's Night (C. McDowell)
• Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day (J. Gardner)
• The Little Road to Bethlehem (M. Head)
• The Colours of Christmas (J. Rutter)
• Jingle Bells (J. Pierpont)

I particularly enjoyed the first two and A Winter's Night, although all were lovely.  The choir were sometimes accompanied by a brass and percussion ensemble (two trumpets, a trombone, a French Horn and a Tuba), and/ or a piano. The ensemble also performed twice with a variety of Christmas arrangements.

The audience, as is traditional at this biannual concert, were expected to join in with some of the more well known carols such as Once in Royal David's City, and Good King Wenceslas. We were also encouraged to join in the descant parts if we knew them. So I did. My apologies to those around me as I am getting warbley in my middle age. Lovely way to spend a wet December afternoon.

Christmas Dinner

Well the weather really isn't right for rambling so I shall continue to waffle on about food. I attended my work's Christmas Dinner at The Bargeman's Rest, Newport on Friday last and had a jolly time. Pleasant company was accompanied by good food in sizeable portions.

 

I began with a Spinach and Ricotta  parcel and salad. I had expected the parcel to be of delicate pastry, and was surprised when it turned out to be rather chunky and pie-like. However, it tasted very nice, as did the salad. For my main course I was given a huge portion of stuffed, slow roasted pork loin with an arch of very crackly crackling, and roast potatoes. Vegetables provided separately were cauliflower cheese, carrots, sprouts, and boiled potatoes, and there was also cranberry sauce and gravy. Absolutely delicious all round, and the pork was cooked to perfection. Pudding had been pre-ordered, and was a gluten free chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce and squirty cream. This wasn't such an impressive course; the brownie was rather thin and large, rather than small, chunky and oozing chocolatey gooeyness, the sauce wasn't necessary (or at least so much of it), and the cream should have come in a jug. By that stage I was so stuffed from the first two courses that pudding didn't really matter!

 

The service was excellent all round, from bar staff to waiting staff and I would definitely eat there again.

Symphony Orchestra

Today has been very wet and windy, so not really hiking weather for lightweights like me. My Mum had a spare ticket to the first concert of the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra's new season, so I joined her. It was the first of their concerts that I had attended, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The orchestra has a sizeable string section, a reasonably sized brass section and enough woodwind and percussion to make a difference. There were three compositions on the programme tonight:

• Overture: Portsmouth Point (Walton)
• Violin Concerto No. 1 (Bruch)
• Symphony No.1 (Mahler)

The overture was jolly, with a nice introduction by the conductor, Jonathan Butcher, who explained the difference between rhythm and metre to the audience. The orchestra then demonstrated exceedingly clearly during the performance. A good start!

The violin concerto was magnificent; the soloist was Alexander Sitkovetsky, who came in all in black, shirt untucked, with wild hair, and gave a spellbinding performance ably accompanied by the orchestra. My occasional feeble scratchings on my fiddle were put very much to shame. Superb.

After the interval (Minghella ice cream was consumed, of course), we were treated to the Mahler symphony. This had four movements, all of which were well performed. I was entranced by the oboists, who kept pointing their oboes up in the air during the more exciting parts.

All in all, a lovely way to spend a miserable November evening, and I shall certainly go to more of their concerts in future.

Roman Lunch

We had a trip on the North Island again today, and stopped off for lunch at Fishbourne Roman Palace. We didn't view the remains of the palace as we'd been before - worth a visit if you haven't been though. I had the Roman Platter which consisted of two large slices of olive bread, a good dollop of hummous, plenty of black olives, lots of feta cheese and some salad. Delicious, and washed down with cups of tea from the generous 'pot of tea for one'. The teenager had a cheese and tomato panini which I was assured was also delicious.

 

The view from the café was pleasant, looking onto a turfed area, with a couple of hillocks, several oak trees, and a small pavilion. It looked as though some archaeology was happening on one of the hillocks. There was a horse in the distance and lots of trees just changing into their autumn colours. I think that we'll stop off there regularly!

Nammet

We've been eating out a bit recently. Earlier this week I took my Mum to Bluebell's Café at Briddlesford Lodge Farm for birthday lunch. This is usually very good, and today was no exception. I had a chicken and bacon club sandwich with salad, and Mum had a toasted gammon and cheese sandwich with salad. Both were made from 'doorstop' slices of granary bread and were scrumptious. The teenager had sausage and mash with gravy, which was also delicious, but such a large portion that even she was outfaced! After lunch we waddled across the farmyard to the farm shop and had a look round. Lots of delicious goodies for sale which were most tempting.

 

This evening I went to Ryde with a chum and we ended up eating at 'Ada Mediterranean Kitchen' in Union Street. Delicious! We had a selection of mezze, including pastry wrapped feta cheese, deep fried haloumi, falafel, lamb kofta, stuffed vine leaves, aubergine and other vegetables, and a sausage and tomato dish. We finished with coffee. Overall we were very satisfied, and the meal was good value for money, with excellent service. I shall go there again!

 

 

*nammet is an Isle of Wight word. I use it to mean any meal, but that may be a bit broad.

Concerts

I have been to a couple of concerts recently. The first was at Quarr Abbey, near Binstead, for a performance of Faure's Requiem and French Motets by Les Fauristes Chamber Choir, from London. The concert was to raise funds for the restoration of the Abbey organ, and was free with a collection at the end.

 

I have to say I wasn't overwhelmed. The soloist, Judith Charron, was jolly good, but the choir sounded out of tune in places which rather marred their performance. The organist, Hamish Dustagheer, was, however, excellent. The Abbey itself is austere but rather lovely and worth a visit if you are in the area.  

 

The second concert was by the Isle of Wight Cantata Choir, performing John Rutter's Magnificat and a selection of opera choruses. The venue was 'Aspire', Ryde, which is a former church now used as a community centre. It is in dire need of a lick of paint inside, but is a lovely venue none the less. I thoroughly enjoyed the Magnificat and thought the choir sang beautifully. In the second half they sang opera choruses by Bizet, Tchaikovsky, and Rossini, with solos by the talented Tressa Lambert. Tressa also performed a selection of solos by Flanders and Swan, and Gershwin among others. Finally, she performed the 'Flower Duet' with Rachel Tweddle, the choirs' conductor. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

 

Altar detail, Aspire.

Roof detail, Aspire.

 

Bouldner and Thorley

Nice walk today, with no planning. We parked at Bouldner carpark again (I love a free car park), followed the promenade to Yarmouth, walked through the town and then headed across the green to find the footpath by the River Yar. We followed the path along the side of the river for a while, past the Mill House and the turning to the End of the Line Café, then went through a gate to follow a path towards Mill Copse. We paused and picked blackberries.

Neither of us had been to Mill Copse before; it was a small woodland planted with a variety of trees including Californian Redwoods, and was very peaceful. We found wayfaring marks on the ground, presumably left by Scouts, and followed them through a gate, across a field and eventually to a road.

After a while we found a footpath on the right leading to the ruins of a small church and graveyard next to Thorley Manor. Lovely and unexpected. We turned back as it was a dead end, retraced our steps along the road, found the next footpath and followed it until we got to the Thorley Road. We followed that back to the main road to Yarmouth and found the car.

We foraged along the way and returned home with a full tub of blackberries and pockets full of conkers! A lovely autumnal walk.

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4178961.html

Distance: 4.4 miles

Footpaths: Y11a, Y16, Y1, Y4, Y5, Y6

Remains of St Swithun's Church