It was such fun up at Cafe Mapleton this morning when I stopped in for a late breakfast

 

Stuart  a frequent patron   was there having brekky on his way to the Mens shed  showing off a really impressive sculpture he had just created  and telling me how  years ago he had found  an old rusty military vehicle in a paddock cut into three parts and had restored it and sold it to the Canberra war memorial  for a cool  $70.000   and it is still there on display ( pretty impressive )

John and Laifun

Then  the lovely Laifun  coowner  with John  has been having guitar lessons  came out of the kitchen to  show us her progress on the guitar . So far her  beginners repertoire is  several songs including  Horse With No Name and Brown Eyed Girl and she displayed  excellent mastery  of the  two chords needed for the first and also a skillful handling of the rather large  steel string guitar she was using   She was genuinely delighted  when I actually knew the words to Horse With No  Name  and could sing along with her then this other  bloke arrived  who was not only  on an expert on the guitar but could play the spoons  and the cafe  was  suddenly filled with rip roaring cheerful sound

It was true Laifun probably needed to brush  up on her chord changes  and the spoon player didn’t quite get the tempo right but what the hec we  were makin music   and by all accounts our impromptu ensemble  was even appreciated by the other patrons sitting outside

John the other coowner and Laifuns partner was all smiles  and sat there with  a beaming  look on his face  which I am not sure was incredulity or wonder ….that his wifes progress on the guitar was really paying off  or that  we actually sounded not too bad  …..

Coming from a similar part of the world as I do John and I reminisced about the delights of Little Boxes On The Hillside ……which used to be part of my repertoire on the guitar  with the kids .

I had to cut the music and merriment short  and get back to my packing  for yet another house move  but I promised  to take my  soprano and sopranino  recorders along  another time and regale them with some irish jigs and reels  my fingers used to fairly fly over the notes to  the irish washerwoman and Marys Wedding so we’ll see  ……

Maybe I can persuade John and Laifun to  have a regular open mic  breakfast  session at their lovely cafe .