After several  days of sunshiny weather the rain and hail were impressive over the weekend, then sunny days again but with a cold, cold wind. The freesia are blooming all over the place but must be very confused. So are we. It was useful to have the reason to get out and although numbers were down from last week it was good to see some folk back from the sick list; last week's visitors have now gone home but we still hosted another returning family member and we all enjoyed her company. The newer dances are coming on nicely and although we didn't have enough confident couples towards the end to dance Christmas at the Heath it gave us plenty of time to teach Anna Holden's Strathspey properly. It was challenging for some but lovely to dance so it was satisfying to get to the end and hear people saying that they too thought it a lovely dance. I am looking forward already to next week when a lot more 'swallows' will have returned to these shores and the class should be getting seriously busy again. 
One more thing - an advanced date for the diary, we are having a 'Picnic on the Patio' at the Elea again on June 15th, more information to follow; and don't forget the Ceilidh on 9th April to celebrate our 25th birthday - apparently there will be cake!

This has been a weird and frantically busy week, things that have been 'pending' for ages are finally successfully completed but other things that have previously been just vague possibilities are now uncomfortably real and needing action, some family friends have been having a hard time, but for others the sun is shining and life has taken a turn for the better, up and down and then my computer dies ... hopefully there is some hope of resurrection but no luck so far... I am so used to everything being 'just there' on my PC that I feel completely disorientated without it and it's hard to focus on all the basic things I do with a computer, like updating this website, even though I don't need to use that particular computer at all.
On the dancing front, this week's Tuesday class was such a lot of fun - though perhaps not the most successful from a dancing point of view. We had the largest turn out of the year so far, including a lovely newcomer and returnee guests, but very few experienced dancers so it was perhaps not surprising that my little masterclass on diamond poussettes was enthusiastically enjoyed but not desperately successful - we didn't really have time to go into the details of it for everyone - but I love a challenge - and as long as the process of trying is fun in itself it hardly matters if it takes a few weeks to get there.  We did manage to get Christmas at the Heath danced as the final dance - although we scrapped around a bit to get 7 couples so late in the session - but it's definitely been added to the list of 'dances we like' so the night ended on a positive high, and that it always the best way to go. Jx

We had almost the same dances on the programme as last week, but a very different selection of dancers to attempt them. The result was a great fun night... but not many of the dances were completed 'as written'!
Diamond Poussette's need revision methinks. :-) However there were lots of brave attempts and a great atmosphere throughout the evening.
It was lovely to have so many visitors to the session, they hopefully had a good time, they certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves - both on and off the dance floor.
In a few weeks it will be the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Society. We are going to celebrate it with a ceilidh - already there is plenty of interest from people who are hosting family and intend to bring them along for the fun... it will be a perfect night for them to join us with lots of easy dances and fun, however, in the meantime practice your diamond poussettes and I hope to see you next week.

It was good to know that everyone enjoyed the classes while I was away, but it was also good to be back and have such an enthusiastic welcome. The class numbers are still lower than normal for this time of the year, there are many people away and/or poorly so it was surprising we managed so many dances with 2 sets up. Everyone worked hard with yet more new dances on the programme but there was lots of laughter too and plenty of feelings of achievement when we revisited 'all round poussettes' aka 'diamond poussettes' for the first time for more than a year. All the new dances were pronounced winners and despite the additional walk-throughs and mini 'teach-ins' we managed to complete the whole programme. Well done everyone, I'm looking forward to next week already.​