St Conan's Kirk

Reeling from another long day, unable to decide which of the few photos I took best sum up the extraordinary building we were singing in today. It's been two and a half years since we were supposed to give this concert in the extraordinary St Conan's Kirk by the side of Loch Awe, and today, even after everything, our group of eight singers was one down because of Covid. 

We had opted to perform in the afternoon so that we wouldn't be driving that road home in the dark, but even so we had to leave home before lunch, our car filled with keyboard, stand, personal music stands, music - and a picnic - and drive about 90 minutes north to Loch Awe. We passed, very slowly, a bad accident on the high part of the road over from Inveraray; we'd already been overtaken by an unmarked car with blue flashing lights and a siren, presumably a doctor, so we were waiting, in a horrid sort of way, to find out why. Still don't know the whole story, but there was a van on its roof among trees quite far below the level of the road - all we could see as we drove past with our hazards flashing to warn oncoming traffic. 

St Conan's is a totally extraordinary building, completed in the 1930s despite its looking much older. I'd been inside once before, in the early 1980s, and what I remembered - a bare stone interior with great pools of water on the floor and an air of dereliction - left me quite unprepared for how it looks now. The Trust who now own it have done an immense job, though they still have trouble with the water ingress from the quirky roof. 

I think we sang well, though as I had some parts to sustain on my own because of the stricken second soprano I felt quite stressed at times as the voice felt it might not last. (It did, in the event - I found a place to project from that felt ready to go on a bit more!) There were thanks, and coffee, and cake - lots of cake. 

Our journey home was speeded up by the sudden looming up behind us of a large white touring bus driven by a maniac. If you're familiar with the road from Inveraray to the Cowal turn-off, you'll know the deadly corners and lack of overtaking spaces - not a place to be hounded by a bus at 60mph. Fortunately, Himself kept his nerve and the bus kept going over the Rest and Be Thankful when we turned off ...

Our day ended with pasta and red wine and somnolence in front of the telly. I remember very little of what was on, and now I'm off to bed. More singing in the morning...