News & Updates from Wanda Lipski · Page 16

Well, I did it.

Not as well as I would have liked (I got a bit stressed right at the end) and the bride and her Dad fair raced up the aisle (as I had feared) but the brides father was happy ... with the music, not to get rid of his daughter.

I promised you last week a photo of the wedding and here it is. This is the organists view of French wedding. The couple sit facing the assembly which means that I get a back view.

OK, it was a pretty back view, but I dont exactly get to admire the bride. At least there is no problem about image rights !!! So with the wedding behind me, Ive had time for a little designing so here are two of my latest.

I have a red Christmas phone and am intending to create some phones in more teenage girl friendly colours, so watch this space.

ENJOY and have a good week.

This was the dessert of the day in a restaurant where we had dinner with friends last weekend. Of course when the French get together over a meal, at least half the time is spent talking about other restaurants and this occasion was no different.

Now Im not one to spend time with my phone in hand, snapping pictures while my food gets cold (or in this case the icecream melts!) but I thought the dessert was such a balancing act (waitress with a steady hand) that it was worth a picture.

Any of you salivating? Ive been very quiet on the design side as Ive been in church for several hours ever day practising hard on the organ as I am playing for a wedding on Saturday.

The bride has chosen to arrive to Wageners bridal march (Here comes the bride ... ) and to leave to Charpentiers Te Deum, so Ive probably been driving the neighbourhood mad as Ive been learning to play these with my FEET !

Ill let you know how it goes ... Two calendars for you that I have been able to put up this week, and there are more in the pipeline, so ENJOY!

There I was together trying to play my piano (Ive been too busy with work this week to get time to go and play the organ in church and couldnt understand why my piano key were sort of ... sticky.

No grandchildren (sniff, sniff) and no-one plays the piano but me so I just wiped off the keys and wondered.

There I was playing Chopins Raindrop Prelude and I suddenly looked up to see a large blob between the wall and the ceiling.

We have a very spidery house, but they tend to signal their presence by mammoth cobwebs, not blobs so I call the cavalry ...

I had decided it was a snail. My husband did the necessary and confirm my worst suspicion. It was a snail. We photographed him on the piano keys (another wipe down necessary) but this is one active snail.

The trip from the door to the outside and the piano is about 2 meters, up the piano, across the keys, down the piano across the floor and up a 4 metre wall (yes, VERY high ceilings on the ground floor).

Makes you wonder if this wasnt a PRESTO snail. Hope he had his passport with him. These are one of my latest designs and another (oldie but goodie) with ... you guessed it ... A SNAIL. ENJOY !

Im back from my organ course and what a gruelling ordeal it was.I gave my all !!!!!!

I returned home completely demoralised, certain that I would never learn to play with my feet, and feeling like an idiot that my musical theory knowledge is so limited (poor kids wanting to learn an instrument here have to do 1 or 2 years of theory before theyre allowed to even touch an instrument ... unless they come to learn with me of course!) .

Every morning we had individual lessons with concert level organists and played on 6 different organs in churches in the area.

Needed my car, but it was worth the travelling to play on some incredible instrument.

The photo is of the organ in the collegiale church of Our Lady of Hope in Montbrison, with its more than 1200 pipes only a very small proportion of which are ever visible from the nef ...

An organ that I PLAYED. Yippee!!! Never mind how useless I am, Im a stayer and have spent 3 hours daily in church since my return on Sunday trying to play with my feet.

Must be easy for an octopus methinks .....

As relaxation, Ive made up a few of my recent designs and these are two of the results. ENJOY ....

I love sharing with you all the odd customs and traditions here in France ... its always so nice to see how the other half lives, isnt it.

Well this was spotted during our recent trip to the Drome (lavender country) and was a new one on me.

The French love not to bury their dead in the ground, but in concrete lined underground vaults. I can confirm that it is really unnerving to see a coffin being carried down steps into one of these underground chambers and placed reverently atop another relative whose funeral you attended a couple of years previously!!!

Such vaults are often then covered with (vast marble slab) and since theres no earth in sight, theres no planting of flowers and people place marble plaques on little stands on the tombs.

These are called Ex-voto. In this little cemetary, the marble plaques were NOT predominant, the most common ex-voto being these floral tributes in a sort of glazed pottery (this is NOT a region known for its porcelain or pottery) that seemed to weather extremely well.

Fascinating and rather beautiful.