Taranaki Garden Spectacular

Every spring there is a local garden festival. I'm not entirely certain on the required criteria to be a part of the festival, but I did have the pleasure of seeing two lovely gardens. The festival was over two weekends. Various locations in town and the surrounding rural area were open to the public for viewing. I performed at Hurworth Cottage and a local winery both weekends of the festival.

Hurworth Cottage is a settlers cabin that was built in the 1850's. It is a part of the local historic society now and has been restored to excellent condition. It is open on the weekends for viewing, and has a lovely garden/yard surrounding it. I performed there with the orchestra both weekends of the festival. It is the New Plymouth orchestra's annual fundraiser to perform there in small groups while selling tea/coffee and cakes. It is positively delightful to have a cup of tea and a yummy treat while sitting in the garden listening to a string quartet. Or brass ensemble. Or piano solos :) I performed with a french horn player, with a violinist, and some solo piano sprinkled here and there to fill time. I found it just as relaxing and enjoyable to perform as I did to sit and listen to the other musicians. Somehow playing in a garden made me feel sophisticated :)

Coming up the drive

The Cottage

The garden, taken from the corner of the porch

One side of the yard/garden

The living room in the cottage

The second weekend I also had the pleasure of performing with a cellist at a winery. It is a lodge used for company retreats and also has a wine shop where it hosts wine tastings and small community events. It was another delightful piece of paradise in New Zealand. I hadn't performed with a cellist prior to this, and other than a slight technical difficulty (we had the keyboard plugged in but were missing the amp to actually get any sound, so we had to wait for it to arrive), it was a lovely Saturday afternoon full of French, English, and German classical music.

The Lodge

The backdrop to my garden gigs :)