Week Two is over, and half of the residents left yesterday morning, leaving the remaining four of us acutely aware that our time here is half over, and that we, too, shall have to leave and return to the real world.

I’ve officially scrapped the work I did during my first week on the orchestra piece in favor of the work I did this past week. This newer material still makes sense to me after a few days, unlike the earlier stuff, and feels so much better. I’ve managed a good introductory section, and am now working at first major chunk of the ‘meat’ of the piece.

Thursday evening, all of us gave brief presentations of our work in preparation for the departure of half of the residents. There were no slouches in this bunch, that’s for darned sure! I presented the extant bits of the orchestra piece, “Take All My Loves”, and “In the dark pine-wood”, the latter of which is the only song in my oeuvre that I can play and sing with anything approaching ease. The rest are far too involved for me to do more than just sing – the piano accompaniments are light-years beyond my meagre abilities!

Friday morning was the weekly trip into Sheridan for supplies, and I was the only resident who went. It was a really nice opportunity to bond further with Ruthie – we explored the newer health food store together (well-stocked, and reasonably priced!), and had a fun time telling stories on the car ride home. The trip took up a significant portion of the day, so I didn’t manage much work, which is a pity, but an acceptable trade-off for going into town.

Today was a quiet, semi-lonely sort of day since only four of us are here until the next batch of resident arrives on Monday. The weather only added to the sense of quietness and loneliness – it was the first consistently overcast day since I arrived nearly two weeks ago. Add to that the coolness, and intermittent light sprinklings of rain, and it was a quiet day, indeed! I spent the day alternately taking photos around the grounds, and doing a bit of web design (always therapeutic and kind of fun) for Darien’s new site, which should be a relatively quick site to put together since he’s already given me the vast majority of material for the site.

Here, then, are a few photos from Thursday and from today.

Just a nice little view.

The driveway, walking toward the highway.

One of three herds of deer in the space of two alfalfa fields! So many!!

The sunset on Thursday evening.

An different view toward Labrador Beach.

Me! Sitting in front of the baby grand in the Barn.

The awesomest little shack near the ‘other composer’s studio’.