An 1810 Federal; because when you are looking for something to do this is it.

Here it is! And what a lot of work it will be. It is currently divided into 3 apts. One on the east (river/right side as you look) one on the west and one in the, what we call, the carriage house. The basement runs the full length of the house and has a street level entry. Craig has plans to turn the basement into a garage.  There are plans for french doors on the east side both floors and "Juliet balconies" for both. We are going to repoint the brick and then go with black/green trim instead of the white. We are still working out the actual details of the layout but current plans involve kitchen in the NE corner, family room SE (the front of the house is south facing) corner, and the more formal side will be on the west north and south side. Something like a library/dinning room NW and living room (have to have a place for the Christmas tree and for parties to flow into) on the SW. The carriage house for now will remain separate with a small commercial kitchen and a place for me to work on crafts and costumes without having all that crap in the house. Currently there is a small sleeping loft that will stay so that the carriage house can be used as a guest house!

This might seem like a lot of space for two people and a labrador but Craig and I love to give parties and have friends over for dinner. My daughter, Harmony, is soon to marry a terrific guy from Austria and we want his family to be able to come visit and not worry about paying for a place to stay. I have friends in Europe and across the US and we are hoping that we will have people visit pretty regularly.

This house is going to look terrific all seasons of the year and I can't wait to get started with the landscaping.

Pictures will be posted during the renovation.

Norbert has a new Home and so do we!

Norbert now lives in a Rheingold Cardocase. If you haven't check out these cases; do! Very nice engineering and excellent workmanship. If you have the dosh by all means think about getting one for your horn.

Craig did buy the brick federal at the other end of town. We haven't sold the greek revival yet but hope springs eternal.

I'm getting ready to attend the IHS 42 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Dates are 18 - 23 July 2010. So soon I will have to make sure I have enough to do for the 17 hour flight from LA. My daughter lives in LA so I think I'll fly out a couple of days before departure for Australia. That will let me rest before another long plane ride. I have to tell you I'm dreading that much time trapped in a small seat. But I'm looking forward to seeing some of my new facebook "friends" and some real life friends as well. I've never been to Australia before.

The Quest!

Not for a new horn but for a house! Craig felt he wanted to move to a bigger house. Some place he could have people stay. The house we live in now is a Greek Revival High Posted Cape. The title is longer and more grand than the house :o} The house is actually quite cute. I wouldn't have minded staying and doing a bit more work on it, (a master suite and another bathroom come to mind) but Craig wanted something different. So, the hunt began.

And this is why I live in Maine. It's beaches and weather like this that make is easier to put up with the shoveling. This day was our reward for the cold and wet months of April, May, June and July. We even broke rainfall records for August.

Three macs in the AM. Christina is just out of the picture on the left. We cover all three versions of mac laptops. This is the AM ritual at "Andy's Summer camp for Duffah Horn Players".

I'm trapped in the guest room for the next two days. I've just had my radio-active iodine for the thyroid cancer. I can't play my horn for a week because the radiation is trapped in the body fluids and no one wants me to put radioactive condensation in my horn. So, I have my Kindle, laptop and I have internet. I'm catching up on all the blogs I like and I have my mouthpiece so I can play along to some music. I have ear training on my computer so I should be able to progress my playing to some degree. It's only two days right?

Frigyes Hidas Horn Concerto

Here's a new concerto you all should take a listen to. Szabolcs Zempléni is the horn player and the video is on YouTube.
Just paste the following link in your browser and hey presto: new music for the horn and a talented young horn player.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Loewenberg50&view=videos#play/all/uploads-all/0/b0bcMXbvSyc