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An Amazing Week

| Hannah Sterry

This is the best week I’ve had in such a long time! Mainly because lots of interesting things are happening:

Monday – Lovely walk around Mount Edgcumbe and Kingsand with great company (the image above was taken from the Amphitheatre woods at Mount Edgcumbe).

Tuesday – Meeting people, helping out and my first experience of attempting to play harmonium.

Wednesday (today) – Caught up with Laura and Charlotte from the The Carrivick Sisters (a brilliant folk/bluegrass duo), great flute lesson this afternoon (I have an exam next week!) and this evening I’ll be going to Ben Carr’s Blues Night at The Royal Oak in Malborough (I’ll be bringing my flute, but have no idea who I’ll be playing music with – it’s great fun)!

Thursday – Going to see Enter Shikari in Plymouth (and might see some other nice people along the way)!

Friday – Work and hopefully catching up with a wonderful friend!

Saturday – Going to see Hamer & Issacs gypsy swing band play at The Hermitage Inn in Kingsbridge with some lovely people!

Basically, it’s an amazing week (I’ll try to get some decent photos of all of these things)! If you’re free to come to the Royal Oak this evening, or The Hermitage on Saturday (or both), it’ll be great to see you there!

Photoblog: Dartmoor Zoological Park

| Hannah Sterry

Here are collection of photos that I took on a visit to Dartmoor Zoological Park (the zoo that the story/film “We Bought a Zoo” is based on). If you’d like to see more or larger pictures, I’ve uploaded a whole album of zoo photos on RedBubble. Anyway, here are the pictures:

Dartmoor Zoo Peacock by Hannah Sterry
Peacock Blue
Dartmoor Zoo Mandarin Duck - Photo by Hannah Sterry
Mandarin Duck
Lynx have to be some of the most chilled out creatures I have ever seen. The tufty ears are great too.
“What’s for dinner?”
Dartmoor Zoo - Bear in the woods by Hannah Sterry
If you go down to the woods today…
Capybara – The largest rodents on earth.

I would love to hear any comments you’ve got about the photos or this blog in general, so please feel free to comment and ask questions. I’ll try to answer as soon as I can!

Gallows Ghost

| Hannah Sterry

I’ve been meaning to post something about this hypnotic folk-rock duo for ages. Powerful vocals are provided by Kate Young and hark back to a time of smugglers and highwaymen, while Mako weaves the pieces together with sensitive guitar harmonies. By chance, I met them at a blues night at the pub and they were kind enough to let me play flute on a few of the songs in their set (despite the fact that we’d only just met) and asked me if I’d like to play at their next gig too.

Here’s the video for their track “Sleeping Stones”:

If you like them and want to know more, the latest news will be up on their facebook page. Kate’s done some rather nice artwork featuring a raven called Edris and it sounds like there’s plenty more to come. I know a website is in the works and will let you know when it’s ready.

I’d jump at any chance to see or play with this duo again – the atmosphere they create is completely magical. I wish them all the best for the future and hope they go far!

North Sands Beach and Salcombe Castle

Went for a walk at North Sands beach (in Salcombe) at low tide and managed to get a few good pictures of the beach and the castle! It was really cold, but the photos seemed to come out fairly well!
| Hannah Sterry
If you look closely, there are lots of really pretty coloured shells and flecks in the sand.
If you look closely, there are lots of really pretty coloured shells and flecks in the sand.

A few days ago I went for a walk on North Sands beach in Salcombe. When I got there the tide was out, which meant I could get some really nice photos of the beach and the castle. Salcombe is a lovely in winter; out of season the the beaches are often quiet and empty and, although it’s cold, there’s still lots of fun to be had searching for (and photographing) all of the little interesting plants and animals hiding around the rockpools!

The really nice thing about this beach is that when the tide is this low, you can walk around to the left and find a nice old castle:

 

 

North Sands Castle at low tide. Photograph by Hannah Sterry.
Salcombe Castle

I should warn you that there are “NO ENTRY” signs all around castle because it is a ruin and the walls aren’t guaranteed to be structurally stable or safe. Here’s a bit of background information quoted from wikipedia’s article on Salcombe Castle though:

“The castle is thought to have been constructed originally during the reign of Henry VIII, to defend the Kingsbridge estuary against French andSpanish pirates. It was the last place to hold out in the Royal cause against the victorious Parliamentarian troops of Oliver Cromwell in theEnglish Civil War. Sir Edmund Fortescue was ordered to hold it in 1643, when nearby Plymouth rose against the king; he rebuilt the castle at a cost of £135 6s 11d, and gave it the name “Fort Charles”. The castle was besieged from 15 January to 7 May 1646, and surrendered then only because it became clear that all other royalist strongholds had been overrun; the garrison were allowed to withdraw with their colours flying. After the Civil War the castle was “slighted” (ruined) on the orders of Parliament as it was “too dangerous” to allow it to remain.”

Anyway, after that brief history lesson (and to finish) here’s a picture of a some inquisitive ducks. They seemed to be having a pretty good time down by the water’s edge.

Ducks on North Sands beach in Salcombe. Photograph by Hannah Sterry.
Ducks on North Sands beach in Salcombe.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures! Feel free to comment – I’m happy to answer any questions or just have a nice chat!

H xxx

The Sterrys have a new website!

| Hannah Sterry

The Sterrys have a new website!

http://sterrys.com/

At the moment it’s just bare bones, but I’m really glad we’ve finally got something up! I’m hoping to get some good images from a photoshoot on Thursday, so it should be updated fairly soon.

I should probably mention that John (in the middle in the picture above) isn’t really that short, he’s just sat down at the piano. We really need some better pictures!

Anyway, here are a few of the tracks from the site:

Hope you like them and feel free to let us know what you think!

H xxx

The Royal Oak Blues Night

Blues/Jazz trio with Saxophone, Double Bass and Slide Guitar/Vocals at the Royal Oak Pub.
| Hannah Sterry

On Wednesday 25th Jan, there was a brilliant session at the Royal Oak.

About a week before, my dad (Joe) and I had been asked we’d like to come and join in with some blues with Ben Carr and a few guest musicians. Neither of us knew exactly how it would work and we’d had no idea what we were going to play – just that it started at 8pm and that it’d probably be a lot of fun.

Ben Carr played his blues set first, with brother Tom Carr on double bass. Ben is an excellent guitarist and manages to organise things like this so quickly – I’m not sure that anyone else would be able to do it!

Next, Tez Locke played a set of completely original works and Ben asked if  Doug “Big Toe” Smith and I would join in . Tez was the only one who’d played the songs before, but I joined in with improvised flute fills and harmonies and generally had a good time. People seemed to think we’d been playing together for ages, so it must have sounded fairly good, and we all really enjoyed it.

The last set was made up of three the musicians from Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band (Howard, Julian and Rosie) and my dad (Joe) joined them on saxophone with fills, harmonies and improvisations. They were amazing – Rosie has a stunning voice which suited the blues/swing style perfectly and meshed really well with the guitar and bass.

The evening ended with everyone joining in for the last blues and lots of chatting! The atmosphere was just so relaxed and appreciative that I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t want to play there again.

I’ll let you know when there’s another one!

H xxx

Music Cartoon: Musical Compliments

Musical Compliments: A music cartoon by Hannah Sterry of Sterry Cartoons.
| Hannah Sterry

I got a tablet yesterday, so I’ve been trying to re-draw my old cartoons and had a few new ideas along the way. Anyway… here’s the new digital version of the Musical Compliments cartoon. Hope it makes a few of you music teachers and students chuckle! 😀

Musical Compliments - Music Cartoon by Hannah Sterry. Comic shows some music notes complimenting each other. Text reads: "Liking the natural look!" "Thanks! You're looking pretty sharp yourself!" Great joke for music teachers and students.
Musical Compliments
“Liking the natural look!”
“Thanks! You’re looking pretty sharp yourself!”
Image © Hannah Sterry 2012. All rights reserved.

 

The cartoons reads:

“Liking the natural look!”

“Thanks! You’re looking pretty sharp yourself!”

Gift Ideas for Musicians:

Follow Sterry Cartoons on:

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M.A.D. Pantomime a massive success!

| Hannah Sterry
Cartoon by Hannah Sterry

Pantomime is over and I’m still trying to refrain from shouting things like “It’s behind you… Oh yes it is!” at confused strangers. My favourite part happened on the Saturday night, when one of the props broke and resulted in some rude (but very funny) improvised lines from the cast, involving flying baubles and rather squeaky voices.

Overall, it was a massive success – The tickets were almost completely sold out and I enjoyed the whole week, despite having seen the pantomime more than 8 times, which says a lot about the quality of the script and the community atmosphere. It was nice to see so many of the actors/chorus helping out with the costumes too and as a result, the costumes this year were stunning.

It’s a shame it’s all over, but I’m really looking forward to next year and hoping it’ll be even better!

On a completely unrelated note, if you’re interested in experimental music, this look like a great idea: Here’s a record player that has been modified to translate tree rings into music.

Malborough Pantomime is On!

| Hannah Sterry

Yes! This week (starting tonight!) I’ll be playing flute for the Malborough Amateur Dramatics group (MAD group), who are putting on a new version of Sleeping Beauty that has been especially written and directed by Felicity Goodall. It’s on at Malborough Village hall from the 18th – 21st January and you can buy tickets from the Kingsbridge Tourist Information Centre and Malborough Post Office. There are a few more details over on malboroughvillage.org.uk.

Anyway, we’ve got a great cast this year and the audience dress rehearsal yesterday went amazingly well, so it looks like it’s going to be a good year.

Lots of thanks to the cast, T. Electrics for sorting out the sound (they do a brilliant job and always manage to make the band and cast sound amazing), Andy Morgan on lighting and the hundreds of people have volunteered to help with everything from costumes and stage direction to providing tea and coffee (we all need a nice cup of tea now and again)! It’s great fun to be involved with such an enthusiastic, supportive and hard working group of people.