The Violins of June

Ivy and I have been busy with music over the last few weeks as lessons wrap up for the year. One highlight for me was a duet she and I played together at the spring recital -- a quirky number I had composed specifically for us to try, with her on violin and me with my 5-string viola. I wish I had a video of that one.

I did catch her fiddle tunes at the recital (first and last clips in the first video below). She played with the Fiddlekidz at another recital, and also had a very successful morning busking at the Penticton Farmer's Market, raising a bunch of money for the Academy's bursary fund and some for her pocket as well -- as a bonus, Uncle Mark and Roel got to watch for a bit too.



Last night I got to play at the annual "Adult Recital", hosted at a beautiful home on the Naramata Bench. It's a very supportive crowd, mostly the musicians themselves, and a number of friends we've made, with no hotshot kids or pros to upstage our humble efforts. Our teacher Liz and I had been practicing the violin duet I composed earlier this year, and it was a real thrill to be able to play it and hear it come alive:

Pedal Pusher

His sisters dressed him to be one of them -- how could I not take a photo? But the real purpose of this post is to brag about...err...I mean, share in a milestone Ezra hit this week. Of course we're pretty geeky about bikes around here, so we probably take this one too seriously, but I was pretty proud of the little guy for learning to pedal. Full credit to the run-bike for teaching him the much more difficult balancing part of the equation -- adding in the pedaling is the easy part. I wish I had a proper shot of his proud face to add to the video.