Blogcard from Maitland, NSW, Australia

The outdoor show at Miss Traill’s House, Bathurst was a dream!

The evening weather was perfection, beautiful sunset and not too hot and nobody was pestered with flies or biting insects. Lovely cross section of ages and Claire made a lot of new friends after her performance.

Miss Traill’s House is a preserved small town house with a beautiful garden that’s almost 200 years old, which is important heritage for Australia. Claire performed in the garden and the audience brought wine and picnics as the lawn layout was club style with round tables and chairs. Some who did not bring a picnic ordered Dominoes pizza delivery.

After a wonderful night and our b&b cabin it was a surprise to awaken to heavy rain, but also a relief that this was not the weather f the evening before. The cooling of the rainy day turned out to be a blessing for the driving, though.

We had a 5 hour drive to Maitland, much of it over the beautiful Blue Mountain roads we had travelled a couple of days earlier. Even in the mist and rain clouds this is still a beautiful place.

What a change over the other side of the mountains. We were away from the friendly and pretty rural towns of New South Wales and into the busy commuter belt of Sydney, though we did not go to Sydney as our route drifted North East to Newcastle where Claire and a singer joining Claire tonight, Bernadette Lannan, joined in a radio performance on ABC Newcastle.

I was surprised to see how graffiti riddled Newcastle is. Is this Australia’s gangs capital? I never asked the people we met, though those we met were jolly and good to us, there there was some harshness and bluntness in their language that I had not heard elsewhere in Australia yet. I was still in memory of the pride of the towns people of central New South Wales.

Tonight's concert, jointly with Bernadette Lannan and Claire Roche is in the chapel of Maitland Gaol.

This is not a Johnny Cash kind of thing as the Gaol is now a museum but the chapel, though basic, is huge with terrific acoustics. 90 tickets already sold so there maybe 30 to 60 more people turn up. There is room here for them.

I have just heard rehearsals by Bernadette and Claire which was spectacular so I think tonight’s show will be stunning, be special.

The rain has now passed leaving a beautiful sunset. I will share more news of our concert here and then of our long drive to Brisbane, at least 11 hours, and straight into a show at the Kookaburra Folk Club there. We will then have 4 days in Brisbane with little travel and so look forward to this.

Well the fresh scones for tonight’s audience are arriving and so I must go, only if it is to sneak a pre-concert scone.