Can drumming get better than this?

It's been a full on few weeks in Tigland and so this weekend's drumming extravaganza crept up on me somewhat - but it's impact certainly won't be fading away like a wall flower any time soon! But because pictures (and video) say it so much better than words, to give you a flavour...




This weekend, thanks to some outstanding organisation on the part of our gigs team and one band member in particular, Batala Lancaster took to the hills and played a gig at Ingleton Falls in North Yorkshire.  For starters I hadn't clocked Ingleton was in North Yorkshire so passing the sign welcoming me to the county of my birth was pretty fun but nothing beat the gig itself.

We played an initial set at the car park (and the sun shone! ALL DAY! It was absolutely stunning) then loaded up our backpacks with our drums (cable ties and a bit of genius) to walk up to the target falls for our gig - Thornton Force. I'd never been to Ingleton before and the walk up there (about 1.5 miles) was absolutely beautiful - walking through sun dappled trees in gorgeous sunshine, with a babbling river alongside to keep us company. There are a number of different falls on the trail but having seen the location of sthe others, Thornton Force was definitely the best (and possibly the only!) choice for getting our feet wet.

Wandering up with fellow band members, chatting about this, that and the other and generally being stunned by the beauty of the surrounds and the amazing fortuity of the weather was a delight. And although a little awkward at times, having a drum on my back was pretty fun too.

But the gig itself...wow! Being a waterfall pool there were rocks and pebbles to navigate, and as you'll see from the video some band members snagged themselves a dry spot - but I have to say, being in the water suited me just fine. Even on the occasions I almost lost my balance (and the one occasion that I actually did and fell back into the water!) Although at the beginning of the gig I wasn't sure how our usual movements would work (stepping side to side, sometimes turning around, jumps and the like) once we'd settled in the movements just fitted in - although it was more swaying than stepping. The mis-balancing incidents were also somewhat courtesy of rather energetic dancing on my part - and the over balancing was watching a fellow band member chase after her beater and end up submerging herself (in the 4 inches of water...). It did, however, prove our organiser's statement at practice the previous week: "Don't worry if you fall in - your drum floats so just grab on to that!"

With the gig itself done a bunch of us ended up getting properly wet and swimming in the deeper part of the pool - VERY cold but totally worth it! Given how warm I'd got on the walk up I had every intention of cooling off properly before embarking on the descent - and splashing around in water is always good fun. As some people started to head back to the car park the excitement took a different turn as a young boy who'd been playing in the water had slipped and cracked his head on a rock. A combination of Team Batala (one of whom's a nurse, another had a good strong voice to cut through the hubbub asking if anyone had phone signal to call an ambulance, general concern and a certain Tigger-shaped entity who was one of two people who dashed up the side of the valley to get phone signal and call through to the emergency services) helped get him the attention he needed although it certainly changed the feel of the afternoon somewhat. With an ambulance called and first aid applied, I was then "casually invited" to go and put my trousers back on - when the call went out in need of signal to phone for an ambulance I'd just got out of the water so had gone up the hillside barefoot and sans trousers. All part of the nature of the beast, eh?

With the young lad being escorted to the ambulance (by this point he was walking along holding hands with his best friend so although scary at the time, as far as I know he's all set for a full recovery - and a very exciting story to tell his friends) I packed up my drum and ended up completing the trails (around 4 miles in total) with another band member and some others who'd come to enjoy the day. I must confess that by the time we got back to the car park I was looking forward to letting the car take the weight of my drum but having a chance to amble back through yet more beautiful countryside was fabulous.

The trails also had a number of "money trees" along the route, old trunks that people had pushed / hammered coins into which, at a distance, looked no different from any other log but up close were an amazing impromptu social art. There were even some little toadstool ones!

All in all it was a stunning day - I still haven't managed to find the words to capture just how awesome it was, but they'll come in time. Certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience (I may play in a waterfall again - who knows! - but with such stunning weather?! The chances aren't that high!) and one that I'll remember for ever. Brilliant.

Oh, and this all came a day after we (Batala) played at the opening to the rugby league semi-final in Wigan! Batala - Hey!

Building a home (literally)

This has been a glorious weekend which involved a chunk of time doing just what I fancied. Now, there's still a long list of things "to do" which didn't all get blasted through, but I did do something I hadn't been expecting - which was veritably to devour Alternative Housebuilding by Mike McClintock. A book with a story, if ever there was one...

A dear old friend (who's also a very talented artist) is the reason I have my paws on this book. He'd been doing a lot of research and reading into alternative building techniques but having done so was clearing out before a move to a new abode - and had a STACK of books about self building and sustainable building alternatives which were looking for a new home. I pretty much cleared him out of said books (it being an area of interest to me as well) on the understanding that after I'd read and digested, I'd find a suitable new home for them where lots of people could benefit from them. I had an idea of where they may next end up, but after my August WWOOFing and a conversation with the community I was staying in, that seemed like the best place for them. And, given I'm hopefully due to be dropping in on that particular community again in October, I thought I'd best get cracking on reading these books before they move into their new new home! This particular book had started (or at least, spent part of it's life) in Phoenix Public Library - which is also a rather endearing synergy with other parts of my life at the moment.

The first book I'd taken a look at was more of a "when thinking about building your own home, these are all the things you should think about" book but Mr McClintock's was exactly what this weekend needed - great photos of different types of houses, a descriptive intro on each style of building, a discussion of some of the key considerations and then some really quite detailed "and then, to get things underway..." sections (which I skimmed at best). Sustainable / alternative building techniques is something which I've been dancing around for some time - it's one of those topics which I'm interested in, but seemingly not enough to do much about. So the fortuitous engagement with these books has been rather marvellous.

The biggest thing I've learnt from the book is that, actually, the idea of designing and building my own home isn't something which is top of my priority list. Don't get me wrong, the houses which were featured looked wonderful, and the idea of a house much "closer to nature" (built of wood, or even earth walls) sounds brilliant - as long as it's someone else's plan. I'd be more than happy to get stuck in with someone else's project, but starting off on my own with one doesn't really appeal. Which was a rather surprising - but very useful! - discovery to make.

It also got me thinking about cabling and piping and all the bits of the houses I've inhabited to date which I take for granted. Which I get experts in to deal with. And which are so "normal" they're often not even really seen for the brilliant inventions that they are. Reinforcing again - I appreciate these things, but have no particular desire to become the expert myself (I've toyed with the idea of doing an electrics or plumbing course - but have always ended up discovering I'd much rather be committing my time to something else).

And of course, I also got a very informative introduction to several Alternative housebuilding approaches:

Log Houses: think log cabin. Think house made of wood. Endearing to me, but somehow didn't really hook me.

Timber-frame houses: build a frame, fill in the gaps - this one I really didn't have a lot of interest in somehow

Pole Houses: stick some poles in the ground - build your house on them. Loved this one - something about not needing to chuck down a bunch of concrete foundations for the whole footprint of the house. And that when the house was no longer being a house the footprint left on the land was so much reduced.

Cordwood masonry: why use brings when you can use logs? This one, again, sounded like a goer for me - with lots of scope for creativity with the size, shape and dimensions of the logs used. I must confess that by this point my attention span was waning, but the idea definitely sank in.

Stone masonry: too much rock. Too much heavy rock. Not inspired. At least not for me personally.

Earth masonry: ooh, now we might be talking. Although the "moulds" to make the earth masonry in looked pretty serious!

Earth-sheltered houses: possibly very cool. Possibly not. I think I'd miss the light of being above ground. But who knows.

One of the really interesting aspects of the book was that in the descriptive sections of each the author really emphasised the importance of feeling excited by the technique settled upon (either for self build or if engaging contractors to do the actual building). I think the book has furnished me with a greater awareness of construction options and will open my eyes as I see different buildings. Definitely worth a read if you're thinking of self-build at all.