As we are about to start singing
On display
Just finished singing The Twelve Days of Christmas with audience participation
One of the beautiful horses
Lights across the Trehaddle Valley on zoom
No zoom
Category Archives: ShelterBox
ShelterBox Concert, Truro Cathedral and River Birds
Just home from singing with my choirs at the ShelterBox Christmas Concert. .I hope some of you managed to follow the livestream.
Truro Cathedral at the end of tonight’s concert
This morning before our rehearsal, I was watching a couple of Swans and then realised there was a Grey Heron nearby and a Curlew. I didn’t identify the smaller birds.
New Book, A Poem and A Reminder
I have just started reading the latest book from the ShelterBox Book Club which arrived on Saturday. The opening pages are drawing me right in and I’m looking forward to finding time to read.
I found this poem very moving and hope you do too.
Just a reminder about tomorrow’s Christmas Concert for ShelterBox that you can livestream if you’d like to. Here’s the link https://shelterbox.org/carolconcert/
Happiness Calendar, Knitting and Flowers
I have had the loveliest afternoon, first singing where we rehearsed for our part in Thursday evening for the ShelterBox Christmas concert in Truro Cathdral followed by a couple of hours with a delightful young friend who has asked for help as she learns to knit. 
She brought me a very pretty little bunch of flowers as a thank you.
The Christmas concert we were rehearsing for this afternoonwill be livestreamed around the world ,so if you would like to join us, you can register here.
Please do tell me if you register to watch. It would be lovely to know that some of you might be ‘with’ us.
Cake, Krowji and Earrings
I baked a cake for the Christmas Lights Switch-on market and put white stars and gold spray on to make it Christmassy.
My choir had our first Christmas gig this evening at the opening night of Krowji Christmas Open Studios in Redruth. We were collecting for our charities, Penhaligon’s Friends and ShelterBox. There is some wonderful work in the studios. If you are local, it’s a brilliant place to find presents and lovely cards.
I gave my new Christmas tree earrings an outing.
Crocheted earrings
Doves of Peace
I was back at singing this afternoon! Joy! A friend at choir brought in some `Christmas cards to sell, made by his partner and they are really beautiful. I thought you might like to see his words on the back too.
This is one of four lovely designs.
20% of each card sold will go to ShelterBox
Concert, Charities and A Badge
For the song we were singing, Sithi Malweni, when this photo was taken at the concert last night at the Eco Park, I had left the tenors and moved to the sopranos as I love their part and it’s not too high for me. 
We were collecting for our charities last night, ShelterBox, Penhaligon’s Friends and we raised an amazing £931! What a wonderfully generous audience and choir. We also collected items for the local food bank. These trollies are full of what we collected. 
Here are the flowers, card and special badge that we gave Claire. The stitching on the badge, ‘Lead in love’ is from one of our songs, “We Shall be Known” and is the way our wonderful leader, Claire, leads at all times.
Plume Moth and A Good Read
I saw my second Plume Moth today. They are remarkably delicate creatures.
I’ve just finished reading the latest book from the ShelterBox Book Club and loved it. It’s a story of love and tensions within a family, motherhood over generations and the abundance of Gujarati food shared at all the family gatherings. The writer draws you right into the family and their distress when they learn that their mother, the narrator, has a terminal diagnosis and examines their differing reactions as the months go by. The online discussions will be interesting and I really look forward to the Q&A with the author Amit Majmudar who, we are told, “is a diagnostic nuclear radiologist as well as a poet and author. ” As it says on the cover, this story is “heartbreakingly lovely.” 
Book Club and A Poem
Another hoolie, another day to read! I started ‘Black Butterflies’ by Priscilla Morris, yesterday and was unable to put it down until I finished it this afternoon. My, what a talent this young woman has. This is her first novel and it is stunning. It is set in Sarajevo in 1992 and is deeply moving. It’s a love letter to humanity, to the power of art, to family, to a Sarajevo under siege and to love itself. And, it is beautifully written. 
A friend sent me this poem, knowing how I appreciate the small things, the “lovely things” that are all around us if we can take the time to stop and to notice. .
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Camellia, Good Words and A Special Invitation
There being no choir today as it is half term, a good friend from the tenors came round for coffee and we spent a happy couple of hours ‘putting the world to rights’ – if only we could! P brought me some beautiful Camellia blooms from her garden.
The following quotation is one to be treasured and acted upon.
Our choir leader, Claire Ingleheart, has spent the afternoon at Buckingham Palace! Since both her choirs started raising money for Shelter Box in 2015, even despite the ‘covid years’, between the two choirs, we have raised £7,800 and as recognition of this, Claire was invited as one of the ShelterBox contingent to a reception being held by the King and Queen at the Palace for four Humanitarian charities. What an honour! We are looking forward to hearing all about it next week.
