Orchard played a Garden Party at Danesbury Neurological Centre in Welwyn There was music, food and a really lovely atmosphere. The sun was shining; a truly perfect afternoon! I Had great fun performing for the patients, staff and volunteers of Danesbury and QVM hospital today. An honour and a privilege to be asked to play at their summer party.

I am going to try violin with a shoulder rest again. I stopped using one in 2008 when my back collapsed so I need to use one again of I can to help with my posture as my neck gets tired when I am playing then my head goes down. Might take a bit of getting used to I suspect. Its fine if your back is not messed up to be honest, but mine has been curved since I was about 14 years old. Playing it lower is mostly a folk thing. You cant get the notes. The modern violin came about around 1530. They were played standing mostly at first. Seated Orchestras followed a little later.

‘The violin should rest on the collarbone and be supported by the left hand and by the shoulder. Gentle weight from the head, with a relaxed neck, stabilizes the violin on the collarbone. The chin rest protects the top of the violin and adjusts for the length of the player’s neck. As the violin strings are held parallel to the floor a shoulder pad is fitted to fill the slight space between the back of the violin and the player’s shoulder. The shoulder pad should not prevent the violin from resting on the collarbone and should not be used to compensate for the length of the player’s neck. A frequently overlooked function of the shoulder pad is to provide friction so that the violin neither pivots too easily nor slips off the shoulder. The violin may be held briefly by increased weight of the head on the chinrest in order to free the left hand but ongoing support of the violin shifts constantly between the left shoulder, jaw, and left hand, with contact with the collarbone remaining constant. Low density foam pads in minimal contact with the back of the violin will not adversely affect the sound of the instrument.’

The Great Denham Village fete is today so I wandered down to that as it had a few interesting cars among other things.

My brain is working over time again I think. I think I might do a re-edit of Vickys video for the Delta Ladies song Refugee and cut in some contemporary footage of the Farage riots and stuff. to bring it up to date. Then I can post that and lose about another 500 Facebook friends. Widely attributed to American author and social critic H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) but not found verbatim in his published works, so the source and original form of this expression are not known with certainty. Likely a nearly verbatim paraphrase of: “No one in this world, so far as I know … has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

Just a thought in the currant troubled times:

“Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.””