Just a quiet weekend in the country. . .

Two weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to accompany Trevor to a weekend seminar for flute teachers where he was the guest "lecturer."  The course was organized by Julie Wright, who is a wonderful teacher herself, and came to the studio in January to give us a class about teaching (bringing with her fresh pan au chocolat she had purchased in Paris that very morning - fantastic woman).  Julie kindly invited us along with Trevor to the flutes en vacances course in Wales, essentially to be the official "guinea pigs"/Vana Whites for Trevor's lectures, and to take advantage of all the good information on teaching. 

At Paddington Station, about to board our train to Newport, Wales (Kristin's mild euphoria brought to you by the latte you see clutched in her hand, her first in several weeks).

The unique part of the course was its location - an Elizabethan manor house in Wales, complete with the obligatory gardens, spacious rooms, secret passages, creaky floor boards, and (naturally) ghosts.  It was build back in the day by a man of middling importance in Henry VIII's employ, and is now owned by a family who rents it out to groups on retreats/seminars/etc like ours.

Treowen House, near Monmouth, the location of our teaching course, and also our accommodations.  The studio girls had the privilege of sharing a room in the attic, just like Mr. Rochester's loony wife!  (Actually, I think it's because we were the youngest members of the group by a good twenty years, so the powers-that-be probably figured if anybody was going to have to hot-foot it up and down five floors of 500 year-old stairs forty times a day, it should be us.)

Treowen House boasts many interesting features, but WiFi is not among them.  I had forgotten about this rather charming Elizabethan deficiency until we arrived at the house and I realized I had also forgotten to inform Bateman base-camp I would be absent for our usual Sunday night Skype date.  

In a pinch, I searched the house for the single available bar of cell reception to be found (which turned out could only be had by straining my neck at a very uncomfortable angle while awkwardly perched on my bed up in our house-top, mad-woman-in-the-attic quarters) and used my remaining credit to phone Renton, WA.  The conversation went something like this:

Kristin:  Hello, Mom?

Mom:  . . . . Kristin?  Why are you calling the house instead of the computer?  Oh god, are you okay, did something happen, did you get hurt, are you sick, what's wrong, why are you calling???

Kristin: Well I did trip over a big step in the house this morning because I forgot it was there, and I landed flat on my face and my ankle/pride are kinda sore, but other than that. . . 

Mom:  What?!  Where are you?!

Kristin:  Well, I forgot to tell you I'm in Wales.

Mom:  Wales?!  . . . . Did you intend to be in Wales?

Kristin:  . . . . No, Mom.  No, I've been abducted.

Our classroom for the weekend looked to be what was once one of Treowen's drawing rooms.

Jenny, Adrian and So Yun rehearse for our informal concert that night for our new teacher friends.  All this playing, however, is very disruptive to Jhen-Wei's nap (see pink mass on sofa in background)

We had a really good time participating in the classes that Trevor and Julie gave, and it was nice to get a chance to talk about teaching with a group who had a lot of experience.  They were interested to hear about how each of us had received our early training, which turned out not only to be quite different between the six of us, but also very different from the English system.  We also got to play lots of flute ensemble pieces arranged by Julie's business partner, Nick, (fun music for kids) and to goof around with great teaching tools and games like boomwhackers.

I think we managed to charm our way into the hearts of our teacher friends, who were especially fun (as most ladies-of-a-certain-age are) after they'd indulged in a glass of wine or two (or three or four).  Nick and Julie cooked us the most FABULOUS meals, for which we were very grateful, complete with elevensies and afternoon tea in the sitting room, and breakfast, lunch and dinner in Treowen's dinning room.   Really fun to get to know everyone else on the course that way.

Mingling

Model student

Modeling student

Four butt, four flute sofa!

The view from our "classroom."

The gardens were pretty great too, and besides a morning run which I managed to sneak in each day before the festivities got started, we also had a bit of time to explore the grounds around the house.

Trevor and So Yun walk with Joanna (right), a very nice Polish girl studying at the Brussels Conservatoire who we met on the course.

And in the midst of all this teaching and learning and eating and boomwhacking, you ask, did we find any time to "play" Downton Abbey?  You better believe it.
(Although next time, Jenny and Adrian, it's not my turn be the ugly sister.)