A Little Art, A Little Music

Today was our church ladies' "Lunch Bunch." At the restaurant, we were surrounded by large, impressive art work. Someone said the painter is the owner's wife. This is the warm Latin scene that I gazed at, all through my Lemon Chicken Pizza:

Lovely, isn't it? Mexico? Italy? Provence? Crete? I don't care -- it's warm!
Afterward, I went to a local music store that sells lots of stringed instruments. Julia is interested in playing a harp, but we decided to start with something small, very small. She saw a lap harp here, and fell in love with it. First though, I want you to see the crazy, fascinating and beautiful instrument they had lying about. It's a Ukranian Bandura:

I would love to play such a thing. Isn't it exquisite? It's chromatic, which means it has all the half-steps of a piano keyboard. I just love it. The owner said someone traded it in for a guitar. She doesn't have a price on it; it's a conversation piece.
So, here's Julia, with her lap harp. She has been so happy all afternoon/evening, playing it constantly.

It came with the sheets of music that are inserted under the strings. There are twelve songs, and the sheets guide her in plucking the strings in the right order, to play that song. This harp has two octaves, in the key of G, so there are some songs that she just can't play, if they have accidentals or notes outside of the key. Eventually I want to teach her her to read music (again -- I taught her once before, on the piano) so she can do more with the harp.