I had asked Zdenka to put us in touch with a group of singers from Zreče who could join us at our annual Folk Carol event and so it was the Marjan Hren and the Odmev Quartet were invited to join us. But when it transpired that only one of the singers spoke any English, I got in touch with my friend Mojca Belak who teaches English at Ljubljana University (and also teaches them to sing English carols) and invited her and her students to come to the festival. Mojca couldn't jon us, but 12 of the students could - their flights were arranged from Venice, and by including the hire of a mini bus driven by me, and a car driven by Pat Walker in our travel plans we were able to arrange the transfers from Liverpool to Dentdale.

As usual people in Sedbergh and Dentdale and places nearby showed enormous hospitality to our Slovene friends. I have never needed to ring people up and ask them to do things as so many people contact me asking if they can help. What a wonderful generous community we live in!

Richard and Susa Ellis in Sedbergh had some time ago offered accommodation to any visiting Zreče singers so they gave the four men a fabulous Sunday dinner of local lamb, and beds for a couple of nights (the rest of the time they were with us in the youth hostel.)

David and Anthea Boulton invited our whole party of 16 Slovene singers in from the cold during our carolling expedition on Thursday night, and made the Slovenes very welcome in their home, singing round their fire.....and well fed and lubricated too.

Liz Heslop at the Youth Hostel, which I have used for several singing events in the past, made us very welcome and was able to meet all my unusual requests as well as giving us a very good deal on the extra night for all the Slovenes before the festival began. She even joined in all the singing and came to the Slovene carol workshop in Sunday.

Jane and David Willis, formerly of the British Council, who have been learning Slovene songs with the rest of my singing group, housed all 12 Ljubljana University students in their home (a former Inn) in Kendal for the last two nights - which was very useful and convenient as I had arranged through the Brewery Arts Centre where I teach harmony singing for the Slovenes to go to the Christmas Ceilidh there, which they loved.

Emma and David Watkins, and Lisa, and Dr.Clare Mingins who all sing English and Slovene songs in my singing group, Howgills Harmony, helped with the concert and workshops, and Ron and Sandra at the Sportsman's Inn tollerated the arrival of over 150 singers and Balkan dancers in their pub with their usual charm and goodwill.

Mike at Farfield Mill kindly gave the Slovenes free passes to explore the Mill before singing there, and the Mill cafe offered a discount on lunch for the Slovenes in return for singing to MP Tim Farron and the assembled eaters of lunch.

There were over 70 people in the concert, and similar numbers in the workshops. Some events were of course free - such as the Saturday pub singing and dancing event, the singing at Farfield Mill cafe, and the Monday Rydal Cave and Badger Bar singing, so that those who couldn't afford to pay for the expenses of our teachers and singers could still enjoy their company.

But of course the bulk of our thanks must go to the Town Twinning Committee whose seemingly endless meetings, hard work, and dedication to our twinining makes it all possible.

Here's a day by day report of the visit and the Folk Carols festival:

Thursday December 1

Carolling

After picking up the 16 slovene singers, settlling into the youth hostel and eating dinner we all went out to sing our carols on the doorsteps of people's houses. I had warned them with leaflets to say we were coming and between what times, and asked them to get in touch if they didn't want us to come. I had also used the phrase "weather permitting" and it is possible that that had encouraged some of the Dentdalers to go to bed early thinking we would be deterred by the light drizzle - so we sang Silent Night in Slovene and English quietly under the bedroom window of Brian and Stella's house at Stonehouse, and later were greeeted at the door of Tony Playfoot, who came to Slovenia with the town band.

And then we walked up the hill to David and Anthea Boulton's house where we sang outside while they listened at the door, before being invited into their living room to sing round the log fire, and be treated to several gallons of mulled wine and a veritable Triglav of mince pies. Some of the students said: "Oh yes, our tutor Mojca Belak has described a typical English living room but now we know what it's like."

Despite all the excitement I think they were very tired (having started at 5am from Ljubljana and Zreče) so we finiished there at 10.30pm and went back to the hostel.

Friday

In the morning we had a tour of the shops and post office in Sedbergh before visiting Farfield Mill Arts Centre where the students sang their lovely English carols and Odmev sang their Slovene harmony - and then Tim Farron our local MP came down, a sort of surprise visit.

Concert

After supper was our concert. Dressed up in traditional 18th century English costume, I did a reading of one of Thomas Hardy's stories about a fiddler who is coming home from playing at a wedding when a bull comes after him. He knows he hasn't time to get over the hedge so he turns and plays tunes to him. The bull stops while the tunes are being played but the minute they stop, he comes after the fiddler again. At last he remembers the old country legend that on Christmas eve all the cattle go down on their bended knee in homage to the birth of Jesus - so he plays the Nativity Hymn - a carol we all sing in our choir - and while the bull is down on his knees he hops over the hedge and escapes.

We had such a good fiddler with us - Tom Bell-Richards who plays for a group of Morris Men - and he played some great tunes at appropriate moments in the story, and the choir joined in on the carol. It was wonderful. Very traditional English culture.

The West Gallery choir The Gladly Solemn Sound sang a couple of sets - and very much impressed Marjan Hren who had an extended conversatoin with Paul Guppy in the interval - and Odmev sang - and very much impressed all the English visitors who had come to the Dent Memorial hall for the concert (again about 70 of them - some were here for the whole weekend, some just for one off events.) And in the interval, the Ljubljana students brought round Potica, a traditional Slovene cake which their gandmothers had baked as a present for me, washed down by a few dozen bottles of mulled wine which I had brought for the evening.

And in the second half we had more singing from both groups, and Alan Nowell from the choir showed us this dance he had discovered from old manuscripts in Wyresdale - which involves three men dancing round in a circle to the music of Greensleeves (played by singers from the band on flute and Cello and English concertina) with different movements like kicking each other on the bottom, or putting their ankles together in the centre like the Isle of Man logo.

Saturday

Saturday morning was my workshop in Sedbergh - with even more people than at the concert. I had spent a long time preparing for this as I knew that some of Odmev didn't speak English - so I had sent them the words, and music and a CD of the songs in advance, and also wrote out all the English words in Slovene phonetics with translations into Slovene, and also made sure that we had plenty of English to Slovene translations available to help our friends from Zreče.

I started with my usual warm ups which included inviting people to find three people they don't know and have a short conversation with them. They also all had name labels so that helped people with introductions. We did stretches, and breathing exercises, and voice warm ups - and then straight into May Your Cup Always Be Full, a wassailing song in four parts - which sounds terrific with 70 singers - I invited them to walk around the room singing it to each other (so they can really appreciate the harmonies - but also so that everyone in the group could welcome everyone else with this cheery song.)

Some of the English even chose to sing it in Slovene: “Naj bo vasa casa bedno polna in naj bo na vasi mizi vedno dovolj jedi, ki bi jo s kom delili in naj bodo vasi koraki vedno gotovi na poti, pa kateri hodite,” and “Zelimo vam veselja, in zdravja, in lubezmi, in vecni mir," and "Zelimo vam vse dobre stvari v letu, ki prihaja, vse dobre stari v letu, ki priharja”.

>We also learnt Sweet Chiming Christmas Bells, the Sheffield pub carol Merry Christmas, and an arrangement of the Field Mice Carol from the Wind in the Willows - partly so we will all have something we can sing together when we join them at Christmas.

Paul Guppy's workshop was equally well attended and also included several local people playing instruments - flutes, fiddles, bassoon, oboe, cello, and tuba! - though not necessarily the same people who came in the morning. I tend not to use written music as it makes it more accessible to people (a central ethos in our network) while Paul leans very heavily on the written music to create very interesting music - attracting perhaps musicians who have more training than those who learn by ear.

In the evening we sang in the Pub - The Sportsman's Inn - with singers from several choirs from Cautley, Dent, Edinburgh, Kent, Sedbergh, Sheffield, Kendal, and of course Slovenia - and also folk and circle dancing with fiddle and accordian music in the other end of the pub. Pat Walker and Jessica Abrahams - who both teach Euro dance - took their shoes off and danced bare footed because their shoes were sticking on the floor. One of the students asked: "Is it traditional to take your shoes off when dancing in pubs in England?" Not sure how much of a warped impression of English country life we were presenting.

Sunday

Sunday morning was our Slovene Carol workshop. I prepared Glej zvezdice borje (with Samo's translation), Bozje Nam Je Royen Sin (with translation by Mojca Belak) and Sveta Noc (Silent Night, with translations into six different languages thanks to an article about the song I found in the Ryanair magazine.) I also wrote out on big sheets the phonetics for the words so that the English singers could read them easily even if they had never seen or spoken a Slovene word before.

Once everyone had learnt the tune and were happy with the words, we went into different rooms to learn the parts - and then came back 10 minutes later to sing it in four part harmony. It was quite stunning. Some of my singers had learnt this in my own groups, but it was so much more wonderful to sing it with all the Slovenes and English singing together - even Odmev joined in the singing.

We did the same thing with the other songs, and then took off with packed lunches for our afternoon walk in the rain. The Slovene students were surprised how the English hardly notice the rain: “There was even one woman who had a hood but didn't put it up, she just let her hair get wet!” We sang by a little waterfall, in the woods, by the river, and in the tiny Cowgill church nearby - where Marjan Hren sang a wonderful tenor solo to the assembled walkers.

And then it was back to the hostel for afternoon tea by a roaring log fire, with lashings of tea and cakes and scones, and everyone singing together before our ending ceremony with presents and speeches.

Sunday Evening and Ceilidh

And then while Odmev settled into an evening of extraordinary hospitality from Richard and Susa Ellis in Sedbergh (they were staying there for two nights as well) I took the students to the evening Ceilidh in the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal where I teach harmony singing groups. (The students were staying with one of my singers in a house which used to be an Inn. Jane Willis, their host, says the house is only happy if it's full to bursting.)

Monday

Monday was our outing to the Lake District. At last it had stopped raining - was even sunny, though Lake Windermere was shrouded in mist. We drove up to Little Langdale and I led them on a short walk to the caves at Tilberthwaite, where Odmev sang - Odmev by name, odmev by nature as their songs echoed round the cavern. Then back via Slaters' Bridge and the beautiful Little Langdale tarn, and on to Grasmere with a tour of Worsdworth's grave, the church, and the house where he lived by the lake. The students bought souvenirs in the Wordsworth shop (they study his poems on their English course) before visiting the house - the Odmev men drank beer in the cafe. I bought Sarah Nelson's celebrated ginger bread for them to try.

Then they had a few hours in Ambleside for shopping before we met in the Badger Bar for our Cave expedition. We left the Badger Bar at about 6.30pm, followed along the edge of Rydal Water with some splendid singing on the Lakeside lit by our lanterns. And then up a steep grassy bank to the cave - it looked very beautiful all the lights and lanterns and torches going up the hill in procession, like something quite timeless.

We lit the cave with candles and all the different groups sang in English and Slovene - a beautiful sound - and then had a feast in the cave with lashings of mulled wine, quiche, pies and sausages before returning to the Badger Bar for more singing.

I had made up carol sheets with all the words to the English carols which the Ljubljana University singers sing, as a well as a few more, and we all sang Coventry Carol in four parts which Odmev had learnt, and others too such as Tece mi Tece, Nocoj pa oh nocoj, Kolko kaplic, and Bozje nam je royen sin - and one last singing of Glej zvezdice Bozje, which the students were getting a bit sick of by now. We finished with a Slovene farewell song from Odmev, and then we all sang Auld Lang Syne together.

It was a very nice ending - both for the Slovene visit, and as an end of term celebration for my three evening classes in Harmony singing from Kendal, Sedbergh and Dent who had been practicing Slovene songs all term and had met together for this international celebration of song and harmony.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning after a 5am start, we went to Liverpool's John Lennon airport where everyone sang Yellow Submarine when they saw the replica outside the terminus, and his extraordinarlly hopeful anthem for a better world, Imagine. And then all the Slovenes flew off - it was very sad leaving them.

The success of the weekend was measured not just by what was achieved with our singing but by the spirit of friendship and cooperation which prevailed here. Many of the English tried out Slovene phrases and words (especially "bi kaj popilli?" - "Can I get you a drink?"), and even the Odmev singers other than Marjan (who speaks very good English anyway) spoke a few words of English for the first time. There were several songs in English and in Slovene which everyone sang together in international harmony. Everyone agreed it was a true vocal celebration of the twinning between our two towns.