Down in the boondocks�

The morning was spent raking and cleaning up the yard and flower beds. All of us were out there performing various domestic tasks. I finally got to see the dirt in the beds once the oak leaves were gotten rid of, and all the dead plant matter from last year has been removed from around the day lilies and peonies. The peonies are putting forth little, frond-like growths, and when I look closely I can see the miniscule flower buds among the leaves.

That�s the good news. The bad news is that I took the wheelbarrow around to the back yard to dump the detritus in the woods and saw my clothes lying on the ground, the clothesline severed. It just wore out and couldn�t take the weight and snapped. So I had to gather up that mess, put the still damp clothes in the dryer and now I have to go out and buy a new clothesline. Dang.

This afternoon was spent at the gala concert celebrating the end of the local music competition. One of Hubby�s guitar students walked off with a prize, so we attended to support our own. It went on way too long, but there were some truly precious moments. Two sisters, aged maybe 9 and 10, accompanied each other on recorder and piano. They were adorable, and couldn�t seem to figure out who should stand on the left to bow. Then there was the little girl who sang a French ditty about a little ant and got lost in the fourth verse, did a pirouette and said, �Ouf!�, endearing herself to the audience. The tiny little boy who played Debussy flawlessly won our hearts completely and the teenaged cellist who won in the concerto class had us all melting into little puddles in our chairs. Afterwards there was a reception: sandwiches, veggies, dip, fruit and pastries, plus your choice of white or red wine. I didn�t need any supper when we got home. We sat with our students and their friends and had a wonderful time.

I never cease to be amazed by the level of musicianship in our little provincial town�actually Sh�brooke qualifies as a city, it has a big university (as well as our own Bushop�s), many factories and industries, a symphony orchestra, et cetera, so on and so forth�considering how far we are from a really large cultural centre. This was brought home to me when the Montreal Symphony played here. They are so far beyond our own dinky OSS, and yet we have an orchestra, which many centres do not. There is a thriving conservatory (on a small scale, mind you), elementary and secondary schools with an arts and music stream, a very strong music department at the Coll�ge, and both UdeS and Bushop�s have good music departments. There are many, many private music teachers doing a brisk trade in teaching violin and piano to really little kids, and some of these little kids keep at it until they reach a very high level of proficency. I forgot to mention the youth orchestra, where many of those young musicians end up for a while.

It�s not like Montreal or Toronto, that�s true, but if one has to be stuck in the boondocks, I really can�t think of nicer boondocks in which to be stuck.

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