From the programme
On stage at The Hall for Cornwall
The live orchestra
What a brilliant evening that was! Thanks Sue, for your company and KJ and L, for the ticket for my birthday – a real treat.
Category Archives: Hall for Cornwall
Boat and Vivaldi by Candlelight
I could only stay for half tonight’s Inglehearts’ session as we were booked to see Vivaldi by Candlelight at The Hall for Cornwall. In the corridor at the school was another paper sculpture lantern – The Troon.
Troon boat
We thoroughly enjoyed the concert by The Locrian Ensemble.
The stage
From the programme
The Locrian Ensemble – photo by Nadia Hubbard
Truro, The Ballet and The Cathedral
What a splendid evening in Truro. First a wander, then dinner and the Birmingham Royal Ballet who were just wonderful, especially Frederick Ashton’s piece Momentum 11 set to Eric Satie’s Gymnopedies and then the Cathedral lit up against the dark sky.
Walsingham Place
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Truro Cathedral
Daffodils, Rooster and Choux Hearts
1 Â Â Yesterday, friends delivered a lovely bunch of Daffodils in the bud from my beautiful choir leader, Claire. Today they are open and very lovely. Thank you so much, Claire!
Claire’s daffodils
2 Â Last night we went to see Ballet Rambert performing one of our favourite ballets, Rooster, to the music of the Rolling Stones. It was brilliant as was the rest of the show.
Rooster poster
Details of the ballets
3 Â It being Valentine’s Day, we have had a special meal tonight, the dessert being Choux pastry Hearts filled with Vanilla cream and topped with a chocolate ganache. They went down well!
Choux heart
Happy Valentine’s Day to all my readers!
Bliss, Free Coffee and Laughter
1 Â Oh, bliss! I’ve been to the Osteopath whose magic hands have made walking and standing without pain possible again!
2 Â We went shopping in Truro before going to the theatre tonight. One of my favourite shops kindly had coffee and biscuits on the house for all shoppers on this cold, wet afternoon. Just look at the beautiful china cups and saucers with which they trust their customers!
Help yourself!
3 Â At The Hall for Cornwall, we saw Dr Phil Hammond who had his audience in stitches! If you get the chance to go to one of his shows, take it. You’ll come away all the better for the laughter! Click on the red link if you’d like to know more.
The Extra Mile, Red Docs and Ballet Boyz
1  I took a very large envelope to the Post Office today, sending some of the Christmas Clings that Marilyn  very kindly sent to me, to our Grandchildren.  I asked if they had a ‘Please do not bend’ label but they didn’t. The woman behind the counter suggested that I add a piece of card  to strengthen it all and so I said I would take it home, do that and come back tomorrow. ‘Just a minute,’ she said and disappeared into the back. She then spent the next 5 minutes or so undoing my package, fixing it up with a piece of card and resealing it!  What a star!
2 Â I am so excited! I now have my red Doc Martens! Some of you will know I have been eyeing these for some time and today, there were some new ones in, in red leather rather than the patent and so I have some at last. I wore them out of the shop which reminded me of being little when we always took our old shoes home in the box and wore our new shoes home with such pride!
My new red Doc Marten boots
3 Â Tonight we went to The Hall for Cornwall to see The Ballet Boyz, an all male modern dance group. THe first dance was incredibly lovely showing off the beautiful male bodies; the second dance full of stylised violence and suppressed aggression and quite exhilarating.
Birthday, ‘Gravy’ and Courtney Pine
1  Birthday breakfast for the lovely Mr S with our croissants kept warm in the beautiful Tree of Life bread-warmer.
Birthday breakfast
2 Â Thence to Truro for some bookshop browsing and dinner at ‘Gravy’ Â where we had the most delicious pre-theatre dinner. We hadn’t been there before but we’ll certainly go again. It is a very welcoming place with imaginative and well cooked food, ‘deliciously uncomplicated’ as they say themselves.
Mr S started with crab cakes with a watercress salad and I had meltingly soft gnocchi tossed with spinach, and chili oil, topped with tomato concasse and parmesan shavings – both starters beautifully presented and truly scrumptious.
Mr S then had Sea Bass served on oven roasted vegetables and new potatoes with a romesco sauce which he found very tasty.   I had the Supreme of Cornish chicken which was stuffed with wild mushrooms, onion and thyme, oven baked and served with dauphinoise potato, chantenay carrots and a red wine and shallot sauce. That, too, looked a picture and was delicious with every flavour discernible, truly a treat, which, since it was for a birthday, was most appropriate!  We had a very good bottle of Merlot with all this, were served beautifully in lovely surroundings and would highly recommend a vist to any of my readers who live in Cornwall!
Truro Cathedral
3  We followed dinner with an amazing concert – Courtney Pine on the saxophone and playing a new instrument he called a Ewi – and Electronic Wind Instrument which he had just been given by the makers on his tour of Japan and  with which he was experimenting. Its range was unbelievable and the sound amazing!  I have to confess that some of the wackier pieces didn’t appeal but overall it was a very enjoyable evening. Courtney Pine is such a genuine and warm individual who really appreciates his audience.
Courtney Pine amongst the audience
Story-teller, Cactus and Moscow City Ballet
1 Â The little story-teller figure is a Pueblo Indian character and is honour of my Dad whose novels are behind the little figure in the photo.
Pueblo story-teller and novels by David Wiseman
2 Â Â The ‘Christmas’ cactus in beautifully in flower already.
‘Christmas’ cactus
3 Â We’ve been to the Hall for Cornwall this evening to see the marvellous Moscow City Ballet performing Romeo and Juliet. It was brilliant!
Moscow City Ballet, Romeo and Juliet
Singing, Maypole Dancing and Simon Amstell
1 Â Just ten of The Ingleheart Singers and Claire went to sing at a special birthday party in a field this afternoon. We practised first in the Garden Centre at Lelant, and found ourselves with a very appreciative audience there and then at the party much appreciated again which was lovely.
The Inglehearts at the party
2 Â After the singing came the Maypole dancing which was just delightful.
Maypole Dancing
3  Just come back, chuckling all the way home,  from seeing the lovely Simon Amstell (he of Grandma’s House on BBC TV) at The Hall for Cornwall in Truro – made us laugh a lot – always a  good thing!
Elephants, Embroidery and ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!’
1 Â I love elephants! I’ve loved them since I was very little and today this beautiful story came in to my inbox and reminded me of our encounter with a herd of elephants after our Voluntouring in Mapoch, South Africa. The lovely Mr S spotted them from a long way away, we found them and watched them playing in the water for about 40 minutes. It was absolutely magical.
Elephants enjoying the water
Leaving the water
Teenage elephant, reluctant to leave his playing
Mother and Baby
2 Â This beautiful embroidery is one of three made for me by Grace, the sister of the teacher at the school in Mapoch, near Pretoria where we, with local builders, built a classroom.
Grace’s beautiful embroidery
Sisters under the skin, Grace, me and Sibongile and their babies
3 Â We’ve hardly stopped laughing all evening! We’ve been to see ‘Spamalot’ at The Hall for Cornwall. The place was packed and the whole audience loved the show.
