Misc. Interests

Exploring Cornwall

St Michaels Mount, Cornwall - Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
| Hannah Sterry

Hello! It’s been a long time since the last post and a lot has happened in the past three months (it’ll take quite a few blog posts for me to catch up)!

The whole family have enjoyed a brief trip to Cornwall and, to our amazement, it was sunny for the whole week. I also got to practice my archery skills with my big-little sister (but thankfully there are no photos of that)! 😛

St Michaels Mount, Cornwall - Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
St Michaels Mount, Cornwall – Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
Hayle Sunset by Hannah Sterry.
Hayle Sunset by Hannah Sterry.
Lanhydrock House. Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
Lanhydrock House. Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
Levant Tin Mine, Cornwall. Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
Levant Tin Mine, Cornwall. Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
The Minack Theatre, Cornwall. Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
The Minack Theatre, Cornwall. Image copyright of Hannah Sterry.
Hannah Sterry, looking slightly ridiculous at St Michael's Mount, Cornwall.
Hannah Sterry, looking slightly ridiculous at St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall.

The best bits of the week:

  • Visiting St Michael’s Mount and exploring the gardens – St Michael’s Mount is beautiful and the gardens are full of interesting and exotic plants. There are plenty of places to hide away and just enjoy being there too.
  • Watching a kid’s version of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ at The Minack Theatre. It is my ambition to perform at the Minack Theatre one day.
  • Picnics in the gardens of Lanhydrock House and Godolphin. We didn’t go in to the houses at either of these National Trust properties, but the gardens were really good fun to explore.

The slower bits of the week:

  • The Mines – I feel bad admitting it and understand that mining is a huge part of Cornwall’s heritage, but I can only have so much interest in mines that aren’t working anymore. The way the machines work is interesting, that some of the beam engines used hippopotamus leather on the hinged moving parts is a fun fact and the way that copper seeps out of the rock in to any wooden beams left behind and eventually turns them in to turquoise-green copper is fascinating, but it doesn’t take very long to  see all of that.

 

All in all it was a great holiday and don’t let the negative comments about the mines put you off – they are great places to visit and are full of history, but I just wasn’t quite as interested in them as some of the other family members!

 

Hannah x

Life is Changing: Crafts, Cartoons & Live Music

AnsaBack Poster
Aside | | Hannah Sterry

Hello again!

Life has been changing fast, which has meant that I’ve not drawn and uploaded the cartoons that I aimed to have completed by now. Here’s what’s been going on:

Christmas Cartoon Sales!

The Musical Compliments cartoon still seems to be doing really well. After thousands of sporadic shares on facebook, people seem to be going  mad with t-shirt buying! If you’ve got a musical friend, who loves puns, it could make a really nice complimentary gift!

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!"

‘Musical Compliments’ is available on cards, mugs, t-shirts and bags over here: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/hannahsterrycartoons

Music

My sister has been involved in my most recent recording and I’m absolutely desperate to share it, but it’s not finished yet! Would love to hear any band name suggestions for dark, electronic, synth rock with flutes and a female singer… leave me a comment if you have any ideas!

On Wednesday I went to a few of the cafe’s and galleries in town, to ask whether they’d be interested in some live harp music and had a really nice chat with the people in The Art Cafe and The Harbour House. By complete chance, I bumped in to a few people I knew and had played for before and they gave me some really nice, on-the-spot references – it’s a small town! 🙂

The Weekly Gigs:

Tomorrow – I’ll be playing music with Hamer & Isaacs at East Portlemouth Village Hall, 8pm.

Tuesday (11th) – Ansa Back will be playing at The Hideaway Speakeasy, Kingsbridge, 8pm.

Here’s a poster I made earlier!

Ansa Back Poster

[Click for bigger picture]

Thursday (13th) – Ben Carr will be playing at The Kings Arms, Kingsbridge (I’ll be guesting on flute).

More live music dates on the Gigs & Events page.

Education

In addition to all of this, I’ve got an Open University deadline on Tuesday and I’m desperately trying to learn some new Grade VIII standard flute pieces. The driving theory hasn’t even been looked at!

Really glad to be busy, meeting so many people and doing so many things!

Hope nobody minds the lack of cartoons too much (they take a surprisingly long time to draw/perfect). I’ll release more as soon as I’m happy with them!

Hannah x

Bedford: Pink Pianos, Escaped Orangutans & Bewildered Birds

Lazy Orangutan in Bedford Park
| Hannah Sterry

For the past week I’ve been travelling, meeting new people and exploring the town of Bedford. The orangutan just happened to be

Here are 3 photographic highlights from the break:

Pink Pianos

Travelling through St. Pancras Station on Monday…

Pink Piano at St Pancras International Station, London. Played by Howard Kahn.

Bedford also has musical tiles in the town centre! We weren’t quite brave around to stick around and work out how to play a tune on them, but thought that they were a brilliant idea!

 

Autumn Leaves

The autumn colours were wonderful and there seemed to be geese absolutely everywhere!

Bewildered Birds

Some very suspicious pigeons eyeing us up in the park.

I think they just wanted to attack us for some bread!

I enjoyed my time in Bedford and met some wonderful people.

It’s good to be back, but I’d love to visit again at some point!

Hannah 🙂

2012 Bucket List

| Hannah Sterry

Inspired by Lesley Carter over at Bucket List Publications, I’ve decided to make a bucket list of my own for this year and will let you know how I get on!

The list has been split in to sections, because I have a lot of specific music and cartoon aims.

Music

  1. Study a full time music course with the Open University.
    Currently studying:

    AA302 From composition to performance: musicians at work
    A224 Inside music
     
  2. Continue improving my skills as a flautist and harpist.Currently studying: ABRSM Grade 8 Flute.
  3. Play the saxophone in public at least once before the end of the year.
  4. Learn the clarinet to at least Grade 5 standard.
  5. Write, sing and record at least one song on harp.
  6. Gig! Gig! Gig! As much as possible (see shows)!

Cartoons

  1. Release a new cartoon once every two weeks and upload to Sterry Cartoons.
    Cartoons so far: Unhappea, Breve, Bass Face
  2. Create a storyboard and some short animations with local animator Ben Carr.
  3. Target local music shops and sell batches of mugs/cards.

Misc.

  1. Learn to drive!
  2. Add to the photography portfolio.
  3. Be happy! – I realise this one is continuous can’t ever be ticked off the list, but it’s probably one of the most important. It’s lovely being able to laugh and smile and share ideas with other people and seems to make everyone feel good.

There’s the list anyway. I’ll tick things off as I go and add links if I blog about them.

It’s fun being busy! 😀

Back from Spain!

| Hannah Sterry

El Corillo

I’ve been absent from the blog for a while because I’ve been holidaying in the Picos Mountains in Spain.

Anyway, I thought it’d be nice to do a quick photoblog of the time I spent there (Santander’s park might have to get its own post, because I took far too many photos).

We stayed in a wonderful house in Los Llanos, just down the hill from a beautiful old village called Mogrovejo, in a valley surrounded by mountains.

Favourite places that I visited:

  • Potes is the town closest to Los Llanos and on Mondays it has a really good market that sells lots of local cheeses, freshly baked bread (and some food not dissimilar to a pasty) and sweets. Most of the shops seem to sell the standard non-useful tourist gifts (as well as a selection of locally made alcoholic drinks and sweets), but the ferreterias (hardware/ironmongers shop) seemed to have some quite interesting and useful things in them (including massive tea mugs and really cheap tools).
  • Mirador del Oso, San Glorio, Collado de Llesba (Cantabria). You get some brilliant views of the mountains from this spot and it makes a great place to have a picnic.Bear Statue, Mirador del Oso, San Glorio, Collado de Llesba (Cantabria)
  • The Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana is really pretty and worth a quick look. The highlight of that place for me is, perhaps oddly, finding a live baby owl  in one of the bins and watching as someone told some passing nuns (who also seemed a little surprised by the the owl).Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana.
  • Fuente Dé is stunningly beautiful. A few minutes in a cable car (or “teleferico”) gets you right up in to the mountains and from there, you’re free to explore the paths as you wish. About 20 minutes walk gets you to the refuge, where there’s a small cafe (often surrounded by a few opportunistic horses).Fuente De
  • Peninsula de la Magdalena, Santander. This is the best park I have ever been to and it’s all free. There’s a great play area, a beach (which you can choose to access via slide), woodland, castles, pirate ships and even a mini-zoo with seals, sea lions and penguins. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast on the day we were there, but we still had a great time.CastleSantander Beach

Hamer & Isaacs at The Millbrook Inn

| Hannah Sterry

Hamer & Isaacs played a really energetic set at the Millbrook Inn earlier on Sunday afternoon. They play gypsy jazz with a sound reminiscent of Django Reinhardt and Hot Club of France and were kind enough to let me stand in as guest flautist on one or two tunes! When I wasn’t playing I found the time to take a few photos and videos. Here’s how they turned out:

Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band at The Millbrook Inn, South Pool.

The gig was brilliant!

Everyone had a lot of fun and there was smiling…

Singing…

Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band at The Millbrook Inn, South Pool.

Laughter…

Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band at The Millbrook Inn, South Pool.

And even some dancing (I’m attempting to upload the video now, but Devonian internet is a little bit temperamental).

The whole afternoon was a lot of fun and the atmosphere was really relaxed and welcoming. I thoroughly enjoyed playing and listening to the music and hope I have plenty of chances to see the band again!

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.

Free Classical Sheet Music from the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

| Hannah Sterry

I’ve just found out about the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). They provide a brilliant website for finding free classical music scores and seem to just generally have a really good collaborative/community attitude. Here’s what they have to say on their website:

“We at the IMSLP believe that music should be something that is easily accessible for everyone. For this purpose we have created a music library to provide music scores free of charge to anyone with internet access, with several other projects in planning. IMSLP is also entirely collaborative, and all contributions are greatly welcome.”
 
I just thought it was a great project that you might like to know about. If you’re really keen you can even follow them on twitter (@imslp). Hope you find it helpful!
 
Featured image by Horia Varlan (CC BY 2.0)

Creativity or Die

| Hannah Sterry
The Fire Horse

I’m considering going back to university to study Sound and Music Technology. I’ve been looking at dbs

It’s scary – I still have a pretty bad/embarrassing reaction to conversations about higher education, because I’m not over past experience yet. But I guess the only way to counter it is to go back and do something I love so that I end up feeling better about it.

Anyway, the prospect of a life stuck in horribly uncreative/dead jobs is scarier than the idea of learning more about technology and meeting people who want the same things as me. I think.