Thursday 27th February - spring...?

 We were at Nymans Gardens again today; it's becoming a regular haunt. The house is interesting; there was a huge fire in 1947 which turned it into a ruin. A new house was built seamlessly inside the ruin and incorporating much of what was left, which is why the left hand side in this picture looks like an old manor house, and the right a ruined country mansion.

I do love a garden door! I can walk through without stooping, but BB would get a tremendous whack on his forehead if he wasn't careful. 

This camellia will be covered in red flowers next time we see it;

And just look at all the buds on this vine;

.....

'You can learn to draw in 30 days'

I'm letting my enthusiasm for this book run away with me; 

This is part of the first lesson; all you need is a piece of paper and a pencil...

I've skipped the previous page where you were instructed to draw a circle and a sun to show the direction of the light.

Like this...

.....

The next line was a challenge to find music for. I spent time hunting down the memory of a hymn, words by Keble, tune by Orlando Gibbons which I remembered from school;

But the lyrics don't fit the poem after the forth line.

I remembered a very modern, formless piece by Ligeti called Atmospheres which was in a unit on 'Space' I used to teach to year 5 and 6;

It has a formless, awesome sound... but not to everyone's taste. Ligeti was deliberately avoiding form, beats, pulse, rhythm, melody; all the things we expect in music

Then I came across this, Debussy Images for orchestra, La Nuit - which seems to suggest the bird of paradise as well. So take your pick!