Hillie2412

Another new friend! I thought, dear follower, that you'd like to hear news of an unexpected visitor to my ancient building. Despite the Abbey sadly now being closed to visitors or worshippers, a feathered friend has found his (or her) way in and has been flying around the building, evading all attempts to show him (or her) the exit.  The pigeon is in great shape, and seems to be enjoying the sun streaming through the upper windows of the lovely Abbey. Now this is not the first time we've had wild visitors.  Birds do occasionally fly in, but I can also remember bees nesting in one of the upper windows, Mr Gary's charming dog friends and for all I know, there might at one time have been bats in the belfry. There are also occasional squeaks as I've already mentioned.  Sometimes they seem to be coming from the nearby railway line (I told there is quite a bend in the track), sometimes it has been the Abbey's PA system hyperventilating, and at other times there

Dear friends The long overdue work on me has now begun, and I am being dismantled - yes, dismantled!  And no, this is not at all painful For more years than you can imagine, my pneumatics have been drying out and failing, and I have become more and more unreliable I would love always to fill this beautiful building with my rich tones, and usually that is just what I do, but not always. My many pneumatic motors are a patchwork of sticking plasters, my lovely pipes are covered with 60 years' worth of dust, and woodworm are munching their way into my timbers The day work began is a day I will always remember.  Hundreds of lead tubes were removed (for recycling), my keyboards extracted, the pedalboards removed revealing countless lost pencils and piles of dirt, my stop heads removed and the the lovely console removed But I am still here, waiting eagerly for all the work to get done so we can have that epic celebration promised by this building. I am going to look sad for a wh

A hidden treasure trove? More secrets will be revealed later this year, but in an unexpected place If you sit on my stool facing my lovely console, and look down, what do you see?   Well, your feet obviously, but also some little levers, two much larger pedals on the right hand side, and lots of large piano-like keys   -   which my organist friends play with their feet No secrets so far! But look again.   The little levers (which draw various combinations of stops) are in a slight concave curve, to parallel the curved shape of the actual pedal notes.   But the wood board behind the levers is shaped the other way, i.e. convex curved.   How does that work - that’s secret no 1 No 2 secret is that there is a hidden treasure trove down there.   Under the pedal notes, buried in years and years of dirt and dust, are lots of lost pencils, rubbers, keys, and maybe even coins, and maybe even marbles or precious stones   -   who knows!   The pedal board will be taken up