Ladies who lunch, light hearted banter, art and an unexpected harp recital….

Sometimes an ordinary day turns into an exceptionally wonderful day…its a rare and wonderful phenomenon.  When they happen I wonder if they are by luck or by state of mind.  Probably a bit of both.  I do know for sure that those days I’m in a bad mood, more negative things happen.  However, this Friday, just gone…that would be yesterday(!) was highly anticipated as a planned busy but nice day.  The resulting day was glorious.

As you may know I am mid way through my first ever solo art exhibition.  it was quite a long time in the planning and prepping and quite emotional in the setting up and previewing… but it’s there now. It’s actually going well in terms of feedback and I am definitely extremely proud of it.

A small group of wonderful friends who I know mainly through teaching them stained glass during the wonderful Welsh Legends Window Project, had arranged a jolly to the Radnorshire Museum to see my exhibition and I had arranged to go with them and do our fave thing “Ladies Who Lunch”, first.  So as you can tell, it was already going to be a lovely day.

These, lovely, colourful, energy filled, inspiring women gathered to join me at The Herb Garden for pre-exhibition food.  The Cafe is my very favourite in Llandrindod Wells, a community cafe , serving wholesome, freshly made, delicious delights with top quality organic ingredients. It has friendly staff, cosy sofas, a selection of newspapers and magazines, a pile of toys for any kids, a local information board and a gallery wall.  In this instance there was a display of stunning photographs of China by a local photographer/friend of mine, Mike Lewis. A perfect accompaniment to our lunch with it being Chinese New Year. (sadly I didn’t take any photos at it would have meant leaning across strangers who were eating their lunch and I thought that might appear a tad rude!  the place was packed)

As we trotted round to the museum, it was a gloriously sunny early Spring day, the type of day that fills you with optimism and joy for new beginnings and the arrival of Spring flowers and the hope of Summer not too far away.

There was quite a buzz of excitement from my friends climbing the stairs (or using the lift) to reach the exhibition space.  I think there were genuinely impressed and enjoyed the exhibition, which really gave me quite a boost.  Additionally, because of the location, they had the bonus of discovering this quaint and eclectic collections within the museum itself.  So a fabulous afternoon..

… but there was icing on our daily cake … on arrival we were told that three internationally acclaimed harpists were about to arrive to look at the Welsh triple harp the museum has in its collection and that one of these harpists was going to play it…. we were allowed to sit in on an impromptu harp recital by Robin Huw Bowen (head to discography and click the listen button, its exquisite …  ).Robin proceeded to discuss the history of this harp, his interaction with the ancestors of the owner who donated it to the museum in 1952, and played some classic Welsh tunes and some Welsh gypsy popular music of the time

Those gorgeous looking ladies sat by the harpist are Camille & Kennerly Kitt, otherwise known as The Harp Twins here as part of a world tour, having just finished a 4th gig in Wales.  They play rock music on electric harps – something to behold!

Here’s a little clip from the recital.  Robin did apologise, he said if he’d known there would be an audience he would have arrived earlier to tune the harp!!!  Still …we were happy !

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