I spent the day up to my elbows in Christmas Trees.  I have been volunteering for the Caring Christmas Trees project over the last couple of years and today was my first session. It’s a great project with all the profits going to a winter shelter for homeless people providing hot meals and a safe, warm place to sleep over the winter months.

First job: get out of bed!  A big ask this morning as I was a little ‘tender’ after having a great time with our friends having a Christmas meal and a few wee drinkies.

Then off to the site to unload 127 Normand Fir trees out of a Bedford truck, count them all and set them up for display.  The other volunteers and I greeted a steady stream of folks picking up their trees and we unwrapped and wrapped a bunch for our discerning customers to make sure they were getting what they wanted.  Michelle came along to pick our tree (as I “would have picked the wrong one”) which was generally the story of the day for the gentlemen picking trees.

After my stint I brought our tree home and Michelle and mum helped decorate it.  I love putting up our Christmas tree.  Mish and I have collected a number of ornaments over the years that remind us of our friends, families and the things we love.  We have ornaments ranging from home-made decorations from our first tree that we made out of paper when we were skint to my favourite; Boba Fett.

As I type this Mr Potato Head is surveying the living-room from his perch at the top of our tree.  It’s become a tradition for him to be up there in place of a star or a fairy.

There are some photos over at our flickr site.

Mish and I have just returned from our trip to Boston.  We had a great time reconnecting with our friends, seeing our old stomping grounds and even discovering some new ones.

This trip turned into a bit of a musical adventure.  Our friend Bethany had asked me to sing at her wedding (a favour I was happy to be able to repay as she had sung beautifully at ours in 2006).  Bethany is the Contemporary Music Director at Newton Presbyterian Church, where the wedding was to be.  She has assembled a talented bunch of musicians and it was great to be able to play in a band again.   After some rehearsal I managed to get through the song without messing up too much and the backing was great from the guys.

I had also dragged my banjo over the ocean with me. I don’t think I could stand being apart from it for a whole week so it was nice to be asked to sing a wee song at the reception in-between the sets from the Ceilidh band.

Before leaving, I had briefly looked for opportunities to play in Boston.  I had noticed a couple of open-mic nights and sessions but they just didn’t work with our schedule.  Our good friend Lisa, who we were staying with, had suggested we try the Cantab Lounge as it has a very well established open-mic night on Mondays.

By this point in the trip I must confess I was a little knackered.  We had been enjoying a nice dinner in Harvard Square with Lisa and Kelly who was visiting, so I wasn’t too bothered when time got away from us and we were quite late for the start of the open-mic.  I thought at this point it would be way too late to sign up and was actually relieved.

We decided to walk along to the bar anyway and check it out for next time.  On the walk over to Central Square we happened to walk passed a music shop called Sandy’s.  I remember buying guitar strings there when I lived in Boston for a short while in 2004.   I had to make a quick double take when I heard and saw a bunch of banjo, fiddle and cello players crammed in the shop and jamming away.

Unbelievably they were having an Old Time open jam session.  I plucked up the courage to ask if I could join them and they were more than welcoming, so I tuned up to the key of A and away we went.  I kept up with the playing as best as I could whilst Michelle, Lisa and Kelly managed to squeeze in to the shop and find a seat.

I shakily shared a couple of songs with the group and learned a good few more.  It was amazingly serendipitous to happen upon the session like that and I was thrilled to get the chance to  play with other clawhammer and traditional fiddle players.  It was interesting to hear the difference in styles between traditional American and Scottish traditional fiddle playing, particularly the cross-tunings and I learned a lot just by listening to what was going on.  I’ve made a good few mental notes of improvements I can make to my playing for the next time I accidentally come across a jam session.

Jon and Kathy, two of the musicians there,  have set up a nice website called planetbanjo.com where you can hear some soundclips of the type of music we were playing.

Here is a link to Sandy’s Music shop in Cambridge: www.sandysmusic.org You can find out more about their instruments,  services and regular jam sessions.

After a wee while we headed off to the Cantab but I was not overwhelmed by the place so decided to head home, my musical appetite already well and truly sated.