Oxford Castle May 1st update

Not a lot to add as the event is going ahead as planned except a 1000 start rather than 0900.

As all the owners there are BOGA  members
(British Organ Grinders' Assoc.  http://www.melright.com/boga/) we'll have a few pictures of other events we've run or attended and other info re the association dotted round the organs.

We spent a couple of hours at the castle a few days ago on a photoshoot - publicity for the day along with other characters who will be playing a part. Not sure when it will appear but I expect a spread in the local press in the week or so preceeding the event. I've pinched a copy of one of the picture (left) but hope there may be more. BOGA official phtographers wuill be present on the day anyway.
Hope to see some of you on the 1st.

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Oxford Castle organ festival Sunday May !st

We haven't been out recently but now the weather's beginning to look a bit better it's time to hit the streets again. The next definite event is at Oxford Castle when five or six organs will on site for the day, approx 0900 to 1500. I've a good idea who's coming so can say with confidence there'll be some of the best small organ in the country present, including some home build. Don't be afraid to talk to us and ask questions.It's Royal wedding / bank holiday weekend and we expect it to be busy.

Better book an evening to tune Rosie properly. Christmas left her sounding a bit rough in spite of proper tuning before hand and "tweeking" almost every evening.

Warming up for the season - possible event in Oxford

Nothing much to report since Christmas but Rosie has been getting a little attention, oiling round the various bits that need it, polish to the brass and woodwork and a tuning. That still needs a bit more attention but it will be right before we go out again. At Christmas the tuning was going out so quickly that in the end I didn't bother with more than a quick tweak each evening. No one seemed to notice, or they were just too polite to mention it,  but I could hear the pipes going out during the first few minutes of every day.

Nothing is definite yet but we were so well received at Christmas that the Castle have been asking about other dates and more organs. We're looking at Sunday May 1st as a possible with about half a dozen organs around the site. John West has been talking to them and making arangements. If it goes ahead there'll be something in BOGA - newsletter, web site or both soon. Organ owners interested can wait and see or give one of us a call.

Look forward to meeting some of you on the streets as soon as the weather gets a bit better.

If it stands still photograph it.

Just a quick note. It seems we've become a fixture after 10 days on the same pitch - and still four more to go, plus the following pre Christmas weekend. I've lost count of how many time we've been asked over the past couple of days  "Can we take a picture with you?" It seems we're on some sort of treasure hunt for kids young and not so young where one of the tasks is to get of photo of yourself with someone interesting in Oxford. Apparently we rate a close second to Anthony, the town crier, who is worth more points as he's only in town on selected days while we're there every afternoon.  Always worth a few coins in the charity bucket - Macmillan cancer this time at the request of the castle management. I don't know whether Santa might be worth more but he's only here at weekends. Now there's a thought, a picture of Rosie and Santa.  

Oxford Castle

Well, over officious traffic wardens actually prevented us getting into Bourton on the Water for the evening there so we parked up outside the town and walked in  sans Rosie.

Oxford Castle is going well. Attached one picture pinched from the Oxford Mail. Could have cropped it a bit more accurately! Strictly copyright so I probably shouldn't have copied it. If they object I'll have to take it down and put one of my own in. This is one of hundreds they took - you know how fast motor drives can take pictures, and at one time both of us (me and the photographer) were lying in the middle of the road to try to get better views. Temperature was well below freezing at the time.

Christmas starts now

It snowed last night. Just a very few flakes but there was no doubt about it. It largely got lost in the artificial snow but you can tell the real thing. No mistake this morning though, a light dusting on the car Time to add thermals under the usual outfit.
After a quiet few weeks it's suddenly got busy. A tentative enguiry about busking at Oxford Castle brought a booking for no less than 21 day in late November and December - Nov 26 to Dec 12 and weekends to Christmas. We'll be there from midday to teatime each of those days.

Hope to add some pictures soon, in the meantime look up their web site to see what's going on. http://www.oxfordcastle.com/oxford_castle_events.html


In addition we will be in Bourton on the Water on the evening of Friday Dec 3 (that's the one day we'll leave Oxford a bit earlier ).


Come and say hello if you see us there.

Banbury Organ Festival

Not this year, but this picture was in the local paper (Banbury Guardian) as publicity for the event. They took several similar ones during the day so perhaps there'll be something on their web site bu the computer here is so slow today it's been trying to load it for best part of half an hour. It was another good day and for my money Banbury have got it just right. I didn't count but there must have been about 20 organ in total dotter round the town and with the town criers competition going on the the town centre on the same day it was indeed a colourful - and loud - day.

Takings were a bit down on pervious years but the mayor's charities still benefits by a reasonable sum. Well woprth a visit if you're on the area, usually the first Saturday of September. There's a good market too so something for everyone. 

 A couple of pages back in the same issue of the paper was the other picture. Geoff and Joan were at a local festival the previous weekend. The paper seem to have a thing about organ grinders with their arms round their organs. I've included this because when we first got Rosie Geoff was chairman of BOGA and helped us find our feet by passing on invitations local to us, some of which contacts we have kept up to become part of our regular circuit. Thanks Geoff and Joan .