Adrian and I have been in Australia and have been playing a bit of music and doing a little road-tripping. We went to New South Wales, on our most recent road-trip. What fun we have had with our dulcimer-world friends!
This is a beautiful time of year to travel north from Daylesford, Victoria. We spent nearly three weeks visiting with dear friends and making new, genuine, friendships and real-life connections with people, as well as sight-seeing and enjoying Australia’s wildlife. I’m feeling very blessed by wonderful relationships and experiences.
We played music with Richard Troughear, strumming cardboard dulcimers that he made out of Ikea packing materials (cardboard!). Because he is an expert luthier, specialising in sound quality, these funny instruments sounded fantastic!
Richard’s wife, Delphine, offered familiarly-Southern but delightfully-Australian hospitality to us (including our little Miss Jelly Bean) at the beach and in a beautiful Brogo AirBnB cottage (it was dog friendly!). Wombats and wallabies were everywhere! Take a look at my video below:
Adrian and I also enjoyed visiting with our friend, Terry Hennessy, a luthier who built Richard Fariña’s dulcimer. Here’s a video of Richard Fariña playing the dulcimer built by Terry Hennessy:
Terry is a fascinating friend, an outstanding artist, a great storyteller, and a very nice person to know.
In the Blue Mountains, Adrian and I had a visit and played music with a facebook friend who we had not previously met: Anne Bowman. Anne is an extremely talented artist/illustrator, a great musician, and a wonderful tour guide. She is also an active participant in social media related to the dulcimer. She is definitely a dulcimer enthusiast, like my hubby and me! Here’s a little selfie-video of the three of us playing together during our jam.
We are all good friends who enjoy jamming, walking in the rain forest, and having high tea together now!
Memphis-Dulcimer 