Sunday, January 24, 2010

Friday "My Town" Shootout--Sounds!

I'm a few days late here, but here nonetheless! Being a musician and a music teacher, this is a busy time of year--my own groups had their concerts last week, and this was tech week for a show I'm playing.

So... on to the pictures!

This week's theme was chosen by Nan from France--Sounds in your Town!

Click on the camera icon in the sidebar to see the other participants' photos!

As I'm sure you've heard, California has had a whopper of storm after storm this week. The normally quite stream near my house was turned in to a furious, raging whitewater experience...

Here's what the creek looks like on a summer day:


...and here's the same stretch of the creek after 4.5" of rain in 4 days. (Dublin normally gets about 15" of rain annually, so having this much in such a short time means that we have to watch the local creek levels and have sandbags at the ready)





I've never seen ducks work so hard to stay in one spot...


A young boy looks and listens to Mother Nature's work...


Along with the rain, and with it being winter... our surrounding mountains were once again dusted with snow. None fell on the valley floor, though!


Like I said, I'm playing in a show that opened this week... so here are some "behind the scene"s shots! This is was we musicians see!



My battle ax...





A musician's view from the pit...



And lastly, a proud teacher moment... this weekend was a memorial reception and concert for a man who had volunteered with my orchestras for over 20 years (his wife still comes in 4x a week). I had asked my students if any of them wanted to play for it, and 12 of them stepped up. They even came in on a day the didn't have school to practice.... I have such great students! Here they are, playing the famous "Pavane" by Maurice Ravel (and that's me playing the piano behind them!).

Friday, January 1, 2010

Friday "My Town" Shootout--"UNDER CONSTRUCTION"

Happy New Year from Dublin, California!!

It's 2010, and with it, Gordon from St. Augustine, Florida got tapped to choose the first FMTS topic of the new year--UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Head here to see a GREAT write-up on his thoughts, then head here to see the other participants' great photos!

This was a fun topic for me; back in October, when we had to do a photo study of a building, I shot the Kolb House, which is the homestead of one of Dublin's founding families and was in the process of being moved to our Heritage Park. In October, the house had just been moved (in THIRDS, no less!) to its new home and the contractors were slowly shoring it up to start putting it back together.

What a difference 4 months make!

Here's what it looked like in early October:


And now...





Some of the surrounding farm buildings are in various stages of construction...



And of course, with construction, I have to have the obligatory orange cones...



Some more shots of the house and grounds...




What's going on? Give 'em a call! :)



Some of the farm equipment that will eventually be on display...


The paving stones starting to be placed...



A shot of the park.... and my car ;) ...


And lastly, a new life under construction... my best friend got married this week!! Cheers to them as they construct their new life as husband and wife!