Day One of my TO Adventures!!!

CanI just say that I am soooo looking forward to hitting my pillow as soon as I'm finished writing this blog! I didn't have time to check my email while I was in Toronto and so I've had lots of catching up to do ever since I got home. It's nuts how stuff piles up so quickly in a just a few short days...

My trip to Toronto was a lot of fun. Where do I begin? 3 days of being on the road felt like 3 weeks of fun adventures...

Highlights:

Lindsay Ferguson and I driving to Toronto in her big white van...listening to Joel Plaskett live on CBC radio, Lindsay eating DQ ice cream and spitting it out her window on the 401 because she doesn't like too much of the white stuff! (you had to be there to truly understand just how funny that was!)...lots of great talks and tune sharing (I have many new sources of inspiration)...being so caught up in our conversation that we missed the DVP exit! Good times and a great start to our journey.

Then it was off to Ward's Island...The lilac trees were so sweet smelling...I remembered my childhood - fond memories of playing outdoors and picking lily of the valley bouquets from my neighbour's yard (got introuble for that one a number of times but I did it anyway)...oh, and my favourite tree that has those amazing white flowers that remind me of freesia were everywhere! I was in sensory heaven! My Mom's garden was looking so gorgeous as well....a gardener's paradise...Can you tell that I love flowers? Not me! : )

Now for the show...Lindsay Ferguson, Yael Wand and Matthew Barber all joined me at the Rectory Cafe for a truly magical show. What a beautiful experience we had performing to a full room of smiling faces. Lots of my family came to the show, including my great aunt from the Netherlands and my Oma. That was so special for me. I savoured every note during that performance. The time went by so fast and before I knew it, I had to rush to the city side for my next show! My sister's amazing boyfriend, Phil, drove us back to the city in his boat, playing lots of amazing reggae tunes. Everyone on the boat had such an amazing time. The viewof the city was pretty spectacular. It was so much fun to have my own personal boat ride to the city certainly made me feel pretty darn special!

Lindsay and I got to the El Mocambo right on time. I had another great experience performing with In Support of Living. Got to play my piccolo, my bansuri and classical flute all in one show which was a real treat. I love playing with those guys. Can't wait to start recording our new album. The Poets did an amazing set as well. Good to see Ottawa folk showing the good stuff that they're made of. I really love what the Poests are doing. Can't wait to do more shows with them soon.

Matt, Lindsay and I ended up leaving the Elmo shortly after the Poet's set to see a Led Zepplin cover band at Healey's. I know, you're asking what the heck? Why would I ever want to do that after such a special night of performing? Well for two reasons. First, Matt's friend was playing in the band. Second, sometimes it's so much fun to go see a show where you know all the tunes and can just have a good old-fashioned dancing and partying night of it. We certainly had a great time! It made a perfect close to the evening...

See why I feel like I've been away for weeks? That was only day one of my trip! So much more to share but I think I'll save that for tomorrow...I have a lot more stories to tell you about, that's for sure...

Nighty Night,

Love Rozalind