BB walked round to the local corner shop and post office with a couple of my parcels, including my April Cover Story Collaboration piece. Then, at lunch time I jumped out of my skin when Ang's parcel dropped through our letter box. The postman catches my by surprise everything!
I'll wait for Ang to let me know she's received my stitching before I post pictures...
That was pretty much it for the day... although I did manage to knock up a batch of oaty biscuits to go into the oven while we were eating. For once I got my act together to make use of the hot oven.
It's been too hot to do anything which can be left until tomorrow.
Music
A Debussy prelude - Voiles (Sails) - played by Pascal Rogé
Not only have I swapped to summer pyjamas but we may even swap out our winter weight duvet tonight! (We can always add a quilt if this proves to be a little rash!).
Stitching
I've finished the April piece for the Cover Story Collaboration. I think Ang has already posted hers to me. Mine will get posted on Wednesday morning. It's been fun to do, this month, even with the 'Snippy Snippy' moment on Easter Sunday when I needed to take out a section. It's too soon to post a picture; we wait until we know that both pieces have arrived at each other's house.
Gardening
In this weather? It's too hot during the day!
I did this little drawing a day or so of me planting something or other in the veg plot. You can tell by the scrap of writing that these pictures are often very small
Shopping
Our local B and Q Homebase became The Range recently, when B and Q Homebase closed a lot of stores and The Range bought them. I fancied having a look around but I've been biding my time, as there was a lot of interest when it opened. We went for a looksee this morning; I want to make a simple skirt and needed some elastic, and BB wanted to hooks.
I remembered The Range as having an interesting and eclectic mix of things... but either my memory is at fault, or they have shifted their market considerably. It turned out to be a cheap trip - a mere 59p for some elastic which I suspect may be too narrow. Still, I've satisfied my curiosity... for almost no money!
[When I wrote this paragraph I confused the two stores...]
Music
Since I post in the evenings (UK time) this is sort of the last opportunity to post Ella Fitzgerald singing 'April in Paris'. At least, the last opportunity in April.
It's 'water the garden' weather... already, in April. I haven't exactly 'cast any clouts' yet but if there really is going to be a spell of really hot weather I may be tempted...
We were given a bottle of delicious wine and also a bee-friendly planter kit by our neighbours as a thank you for looking after their cat. If This blog is even more typo-infested than usual, blame the wine. I'm just finishing my glass as I tap out the letters. I've sorted out the kit, filling the container with the earth and sprinking in the seeds. Germination in 2 - 4 weeks; something to look forward to.
Music
Poulenc playing Poulenc; movement perpetual no 1
Another memory from the past for me. I enjoy the way it cheerfully rattles along.
I did some stitching and a lot of reading in the morning.
My current Book is 'Wifedom' by Anna Funder, a portrait of Eileen Shaunessy who was George Orwell's wife. She is apparently largely ignored by Orwell's biographers, and Anna Funder sets out to right this wrong.
I hadn't realised quite how controversial Anna Funder's book is; if I had read the reviews first I might not have chosen it. I'm still at the beginning so I'll carry on for a bit longer. I think her view of 'The invisible Mrs Orwell' is highly influenced by her own feelings of being trapped in the role of mother and housewife while trying to retrieve enough time to do justice to her own career as a writer.
....
In the afternoon a friend came round for 'tea-in-the-garden'. BB did the 'butlering', making the tea, assembling the tea-tray and bringing it out, and we all sat and chatted, while friend and I companionably deadheaded a pot of pansies together. I can't resist fiddling with plants when I'm in the garden. That needs deadheading, or there's a weed, or something always needs something doing to it!
She's visiting a rather deaf elderly friend who is in hospital. We commented on how difficult conversations are in these circumstances - one certainly can't be private!
I noticed that when I talked to my parents who were both hard of hearing and could never get on with their hearing aids, that I always came away feeling cross and irritated, even though I wasn't really annoyed. I think it's something to do with the effect of raising one's voice, and using a slightly sharper tone in order to enunciate clearly. It's the way one speaks when one is cross, so I suppose it's not surprising that one starts to feel cross after twenty minutes of it!
Music
A lovely, delicate little piano piece by Robert Schumann. It sounds so simple, but is fiendishly complicated to make it sound like this. I've tried to learn it a number of times...
Fantasiestucke op12 no 1, 'des Abends'. Abend is German for evening.
The early piano music was written for Clara, his great love, and eventually his wife.
I've had a couple of wakeful nights; I don't think there's any particular reason. They just come along from time to time. It doesn't bother me, especially now I've retired from schoolteachingand don'thaveto summon up the energy to lead samba bands, cart loads of equipment around and keep teach up to 40 children at a time. Now I just listen to audiobooks or the radio through my cosy phones and drift in and out of sleep...
Radio 4 World service, provided they are covering something that I find fairly tedious - politics or cricket comes to mind - is best... my current audiobooks are too interesting!
It's much easier to manage the headphones now I have wireless ones. I used to get into a real tangle when they had to be plugged in with a length of wire!
....
The news has been full of the pope's funeral. I feel for my Roman Catholic friends who will be grieving for the loss of someone they genuinely loved, on much the same level as when the Queen died.
(I won't mention Trump's rather bright blue uit, sticking out like a beacon among the other world leaders... After he made such a meal of Zelensky and the subject of dressing respectfully too)
(Oh, did I just mention Trump's suit? Sorry, it slipped out by accident)
I've had to talk some sense to myself to stop rushing out into the vegetable patch to see if the potatoes we planted yesterday have come up yet,
But beans... well that's another matter;
They are growing in paper tubes made from scrap paper. Every time I go past there seems to be another one just peeping through the earth.
Audio books
I have two books on the go;
The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch - fantasy adventure, a precursor of the Rivers of London series, set in New York in the time of prohibition. The action takes place, at least to begin with, in a sort of Jeeves and Wooster environment in and around the world of hazz and nightclubs. I'm not very far in, but it's good fun and I'm entitled.
Next to Nature by Ronald Blythe. This is a lovely, lovely month by month account of his life in the Essex countryside. Part nature notes, part reflection on village and church life, part natural history - it's very wide ranging and eclectic. Luminous. That's the word, and beautifully read.
I have given up on the audio book version of Less by Patrick Grant. I find his tone of voice off-putting; it feels like being on the receiving end of a long and rather dry lecture.
Books
I read Conclave by Richard Harris late into the night yesterday and I'm paying for it now; I've been getting sleeper and sleepier as the day wore on! Very enjoyable, and I'm praying that the real conclave to elect a new pope is nothing like this work of fiction!
Music
How about a bit of Fauré? A Berceuse, (not the 'Listen with Mother' one), for cello and piano. I think I like the cello version best.
Although the day began cloudy, it steadily improved until by mid-morning I was able have a go at planting my potatoes.
I convinced myself I could manage all by myself, and to begin with everything went well. I couldn't be bothered to get out the oxygen cylinder on the trolley, so I was still attached to the concentrator indoors by the nearly-but-not-quite-long-enough cannula. That was the first mistake.
I've developed the technique of taking several deep breathes, hanging the cannula on the bay tree and carefully going to the shed or wherever to fetch sonething closer. I reckon I have just enough time to walk a couple of steps, do whatever I want to do, and retrieve the cannula. It sort of works... but the half sack of potting compost had got wet and was much heavier than I expected - so I paused to catch my breath before the next step.
That's where I hit a snag; I upended the compost bag into the tub... but it wouldn't tip out, but overflowed and quite literally filled my boots!
A sensible person would have zipped up their boots before they embarked upon this escapade. I know. No need to say anything.
BB has developed a strategy for when I disappear into the garden without saying anything. He waits about five or ten minutes, and then casually appears as if just taking a breath of fresh air to see if I'm OK....
With his help and muscles the job was completed without further mishaps, the four tubs planted with Golden Belle and Butter Gold potatoes (my current Albert Bartlett favourites from the supermarket) and all the spilt earth swept up.
I won't have 'learned my lesson'. I shall continue to get into scrapes from time time! It stops life from getting boring...
Music
It's a lovely evening now - looking like Summer, but looks are deceptive. At half past seven it's definitely cold again.
It's been a productive day so far, a bit of cover story collaboration stitching, and adding to some other ongoing projects, as well as making an airfryer meat loaf for lunch, and freezer the leftovers for another day.
So this piece, 'Summer Evening' by Greig, is a lovely way for me to end the day, reflecting on the warm afternoon and looking forward summer days to come.
I learned it for a piano exam back in about 1971... I don't think I managed to play it any where near this gracefully though! I remember having endless difficulties with the delicate little runs of notes - water? Or a light breeze? Not the way I played them!
The garden will be erupting now, with the combination of a fee warmer days and then the rain.
Books
I gave in and started the fifth of the Elizabeth Falconer novels, 'A Barefoot Wedding'. It's quite a travelogue; an idyllic house in the Channel Islands, another in Oxford, a run- down near derelict pig-farm in the fens with no electricity, gas, or running water, and now a glorious villa in Italy. The descriptions are lovely. Even the pig-farm in a bleak January... maybe not 'lovely' in that case, but very evocative.
The book club choice is 'I, Julian', a fictionalised biography of Julian of Norwich. The 'all will be well, and all will be well, and all things will be well' lady. I have not the slightest desire to read this, so will just - not read it. What a rebel I am!
Music
One of my all-time favourite film theme tunes... for Ladies in Lavender, starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.
The choice is inspired by the cover of 'Wings of the Morning', showing lavender fields in France;
What's not to love about the film? Cornwall (not France!) in Summer, the beautiful 1930s period setting, music, mystery, romance... and of course the wonderful Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.
The theme is played by Joshua Bell; the first time I heard this I was bowled over by the way he kept the sound of his violin going so smoothly and continuously all the way through.
Way back at the beginning of the month, when we got back from our Spring break bear Bridport, Dorset, I put in some potatoes, and the other day I noticed that the first shoots had appeared above the soil. I've added more earth to cover the leaves completely, and I reckon I can do that once or maybe twice more before I leave them alone. These pots are just labelled 'fridge potatoes' as I have no idea what variety they are; 'la ratte', perhaps.
I'm expecting a delivery of some more pots, for my Albert Bartlett potatoes. Then I shall have six on the go, two each of three different sorts.
I thought the mice had eaten my peas, but the first shoots are up! This gives me a problem; on the assumption I was going to have to start again I sowed more, but indoors. If they they all come up I shall need more pots and more earth! I don't mind having lots of fresh peas, if I'm more successful this year. Last year was desperately disappointing. 🐌
I have a new scheme for trying to organise my crop rotation as I'm forever getting confused about what I grew where. This year, my potatoes will all be in one particular kind of pot and the beans and peas in square tubs. Next year, I'll swap! Seemples, no?
I've also started off some spinach and radishes.
The Tree Spinach 🌳 will be next!
Books
I've just finished 'On the Wings of the Morning' by Elizabeth Falconer. Elizabethd put me on to these, for which I'm very grateful. Intertwined love stories, with gorgeous locations, characters one can sympathise with, (even the dreadful Flavia!) and descriptions of wonderful meals, mostly eaten in courtyards or street cafes in France... would these simple lunches - olives, bread, wine, salads, cheeses - work in England? Can I recreate the ambience in suburban Sussex?
I've been hoarding the last couple of books in the series, only one left. Then I shall have to start again.
The other book is 'Every Good Boy Does Fine' by Jeremy Denk. JD is a concert pianist and this is part biography, part very deep insights in music (mainly piano) through harmony, melody and rhythm. I guess reading it is for me what all those books on quantum physics are for my husband...
JD gives a playlist for each chapter, and at the end of the book a more detailed note on each piece. To my great joy I have found that someone has created a playlist of everything on Spotify, so I have reinstalled Spotify on my phone so I can go through it all again.
Now what shall I read?
Music
The joy of books like 'Every Good Boy Does Fine', and also 'The Year Of Wonder' by Clemency Burton-Hill, and also of programmes like Classical Mixtape and Classical Fix on BBCsounds is that you are introduced to an eclectic mix of music which is completely new to you.
As well as listening to the music in EGBDF I plan to revisit 'The Year of Wonder', which also has playlists on Spotify. Excellent!
But what shall I post for tonight? I'm so sleepy after my time in the garden, a lullaby, from Debussy's 'Children's Corner' seems just right.
Jimbo's Lullaby might refer to an elephant in the little zoo at Jardin des Plantes in Paris at the time Debussy was composing 'Children's Corner'.
Yesterday afternoon I spent a relaxing hour adding to my Cover Story Collaboration. Ang andI are stitching the last patch before we get going on the next phase.
My patch is going on the top right, above the pen pocket.
Unfortunately when I finished off the thread and turned the work over to look at the little section I had just done, I realised it was far too high, well above the top of the area!
So, deep breath, and Snippy Snippy Snippy went my scissors! I did my best to pretend that snipping the stitches out was as relaxing as doing the slow stitching in the first place. I wasn't totally successful.
Ah well. I started on a different section this morning and, fingers crossed, it's looking promising.
The Neighbour's Cat
It's a tricky situation when you are looking after a neighbour's cat, and it starts limping badly. We took it to the vet who prescribed a painkiller liquid and said keep him in for the weekend. We still had a litter tray and a packet of cat litter left over from when our cats were still alive, so that was easy to organise.
We've been in touch with the owners so they know what's going on, and hopefully won't trip over the litter tray in the kitchen...
He's a lot better now, and on the whole it's much easier for us to keep him in while they are away, rather than trying to manage through the school holidays with everyone home and running in and out all the time.
They are due home now, and it's time for the cat to be allowed out anyway.
Last time they went away, the cat disappeared! We searched, and so did everyone else, and then we had a call asking us to fetch him from the vet! He'd been scooped up by someone thinking he was their lost cat, but when they got him back to their house they realised they'd got the wrong cat! They got the vet to scan his microchip, rang the owners who were in Spain (!) who arranged for us to collect.
Music
This setting of 'if ye love me, keep my commandments' by Thomas Tallis, was recommended by Sencosue. She particularly liked the version sung by the Tallis Scholars.
While tracking it down, I inadvertently listened to this one, recorded at a lower pitch by the Gesualdo Six. I really like the gravelly bass part.
I've copied the whole of the programme note below as it gives the text, and also the new edict on church music from Archbishop Cranmer. This causes a complete shift in sound and texture from the style of the Taverner setting I posted yesterday.
If ye love me by Thomas Tallis (c.1505–1585), recorded at low pitch by members of The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park.
This track comes from The Gesualdo Six’s first album, ‘English Motets’, a programme linking two hundred years of music from medieval and Tudor England (available here: http://bit.ly/2Fmp8Od).
“Weavers of rich and plangent aural tapestries, The Gesualdo Six meld style and substance with beguiling sure-footedness. An auspicious debut.” – BBC Music Magazine
“The fine-grained texture of solo voices allows us to savour the amazing harmonic pungency of English sacred music, which at times seems almost modernist. It is a wonderful achievement.” – The Telegraph
- - - If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may bide with you for ever, e’vn the spirit of truth.
Yesterday I couldn't resist these little chicks at the farm shop, and bought one for each of us. They are just the right size to fit in the palm of your hand... disconcertingly heavy though, as they are made of cast iron!
We ate some chocolate, but not loads (so far, the evening is yet young).
My zoom church was, as always, cheerful, and friendly and welcoming. Normally, to avoid the chaos, one member of the congregation is 'the responder' for the service, and says all the congregational bits while the rest of us are muted but today we all said all the responses and had a joyful mini-chaos. (We did all mute ourselves for the humns; that would have been a step too far!
We had a good lunch - more in the line of what my mother-in-law would call 'an elegant sufficiency' than 'a right blow-out'.
It was very pleasant to sit and read and enjoy a peaceful day.
I remember Easters when the children were small, frantically hiding Easter eggs around the garden while the children were distracted. Then the scurrying around trying to find them all, and finally the long process of 'how to divide them fairly' afterwards. They had a good system; first split them 50/50, then negotiate, as one preferred dark chocolate and the other preferred white chocolate.
We've just had supper. Who knew that a leek, a carrot and a potato, finely chopped, sweated in a smudge of butter and simmered with a vegetable stock cube (I use Kallo stock cubes) could taste so good. There's enough for another day too.
Music
'And when the Sabbath was past...' the gospel reading for today.
This setting of of the gospel, composed 500 years, ago interposes the traditional chants with glorious polyphony.
Dum Transisset Sabbatum by John Taverner (1490-1545), sung by the Tallis Scholars.
Latin:
Dum transisset Sabbatum,
Maria Magdalene et Maria Jacobi et Salome
emerunt aromata ut venientes ungerent Jesum.
Alleluia.
Et valde mane una sabbatorum veniunt ad monumentum orto iam sole ut venientes ungerent Jesum.
Alleluia.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Alleluia.
English:
And when the Sabbath was past,
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome
had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
Alleluia.
And very early in the morning, the first day of the week,
they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun that they might come and anoint him.
Alleluia.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Alleluia.
The day began with rain, and ended with sunshine. Appropriate really, when we are moving from The Crucifixion towards The Resurrection.
Once the rain stopped I managed to get outside and refill all the bird feeders. They've been empty for too long waiting for me to order the feed. Now, of course, I'll have to wait for them to discover the feeders. I reckon the squirrels will be first...
Lunch was a triumph snatched from disaster. Yesterday I followed a recipe from the BBC Good Food website for cooking belly pork in the slow cooker. It's a two stage process, and remarkably simple. First the strips go in, with no seasoning or oil or anything, just as they ate, for three and a half hours on high. Easy peasy. Then you make a glaze involving garlic and ginger and tomato ketchup and honey and soy sauce. The pork is removed from the slow cooker and the fat and stuff in the pot poured away (NOT down the sink, it's very fatty!). Finally the pork is returned to the pot and the glaze stirred all over it, for another hour and a half on high. Still easy peasy... except I forgot all about it for nearly five hours...
I trimmed off the burned bits and we had what was kept for lunch. It tasted remarkably good. I'll definitely make it again. Properly.
The afternoon was lovely, lovely, lovely, meeting up with our children to hand over Easter eggs over tea and cake at our favourite outdoor meeting place. It was WARM for the first time this year! I even took my coat off!
Seeing them is always so special, such a treat.
Music
The second movement from Schubert's Sonata in B flat major, played by Alfred Brendel.
I find myself clock-watching until 3pm, when according to the Gospels, if I remember rightly, and I'm not going to look it up, Jesus 'gave up his spirit' and his suffering was over.
It is finished.
At least we know what happened next, unlike his family and disciples.
It's really weird to think back to that first Easter time. Thursday evening was The Last Supper, say starting around 8pm? I'm guessing, I'm sure I could look it up, but I'm not really bothered about the details here. For me the point is that about 12 hours later The Crucifixion was happening, and around 3pm Jesus was dead. The time frame was so compressed.
I only worked that out quite recently, a bit surprising considering how old I am.
And while these momentus events were underway, the rest of the world continued, oblivious. People would have been eating, fighting, laughing, shopping, washing, cleaning, cooking, working...
Much the same everywhere today.
Indeed, my day was pretty much the same as any other; cooking, washing-up, sowing peas (again; the mice won't get this lot, I hope, I've put them on the hall windowsill)
except...
every so often my thoughts would return to the first Maundy Thursday, when Christ gathered his disciples for what was essentially his own wake, he shared a meal, and then, extraordinarily, took on the role of a servant, washing their feet, told them to love and serve each other as he lived and served them.
Music
Two versions of the anthem 'God so lived the world'; the Stainer one,
I usually remember to tear open the corner of the microwave rice packet before I zap it.
But not always.
Not much rice escaped; I fully expected the inside of the microwave to look as though it had been covered with a rice-coloured flick wallpaper.
Music
Now how did this memory surface? The Dvorak Wind Serenade was one of the pieces we studied for O-level music. I doubt I've listened to it in over 50 years, and yet it is so familiar.
This is the second movement, Minuetto, maybe my favourite.
Just, fairly ordinary. BB (Best Beloved) set on another adventure this morning. It's lucky he actually enjoys driving as he has to do it all these days. I'd rather lost my confidence through hardly driving at all for a couple of years after the first lockdown, and now, using oxygen, it's not such a good idea for me to drive anyway. I know some people do manage to drive safely while using oxygen, but I'm not in that category p.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. BB. Adventure. He's embarking on having some tooth implants, and step one is to have an MRI scan to check his jaw bone density.
It turned out to be a very simple procedure, hardly more than a dental x-ray, none of this being bodily inserted into a scanner sort of do. He returned un-ruffled and un-scathed in time for a late lunch.
We're due a grocery delivery tomorrow morning. Until then our fridge has been looking a bit Mother Hubbard-like.
Luckily the freezer came up trumps, and a couple of 'heading for overdue' containers provided meat loaf and tomato sauce. Good-oh. I'll start batch cooking again next week.
Supper was even more challenging, but crackers and cheese with 'salady bits' and a handful of crisps made a nice plateful.
The comments on my 'Bungalow Legs' post yesterday brought some useful suggestions; using a step-stool or a couple of large thick books to do step-up exercises, and I guess having a sturdy chair or table nearby for support would be sensible. Also, apparently you only need to do the stairs once a day to receive some benefit. That's just as well as I've only been up the stairs once so far!
And that was pretty much that for today.
Tomorrow I MUST get on with a bit of admin; even I am beginning to get tired of procrastinating and I know I'll feel much better for getting it done.
Music
Another movement from the Capriol Suite by Peter Warlock; Mattachins or Sword Dance. Nice and busy to get me energised for tomorrow morning.
Just over a year ago, on Saturday 31st March, I had a chest clinic appointment with a new consultant. It was the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, an odd day for an outpatient appointment. I think they must have been putting on extra clinics to clear the backlog.
I'd been struggling with increased breathless all year, and several months later I went onto 24 hour oxygen support which has made my life so much easier. Now I just adjust the flow rate between 1 l/m for sitting and relaxing, 2 or 3 l/m for playing the piano, wrestling with tax returns and other stressful paperwork, 4 or 5 for cooking or moving around, up to 6 or 7 for walking and exercising.
Back in March last year this consultant impressed upon us the necessity for either moving to a bungalow or putting in a stair lift if a move wasn't imminent. Going up the stairs to the bathroom was becoming detrimental to my health, because of the savage effect the exertion was having on my heart and lungs.
So we had a stair lift installed within days, and I hadn't used the stairs since.
And presumably I am in danger of developing 'stair lift' legs!
I did some careful trials working out the oxygen flow rate I needed and using an oximeter to monitor oxygen levels (I've been told to stay above 87%) and pulse rate (I'm not supposed to exceed 100bpm).
Using a flow rate of 5 I've found I can manage the stairs if I take it steadily and rest for a minute or so when I get to the top. If I'm feeling a bit tired I take a breather halfway. I've been making a point of going upstairs three or four times a day for the past few days - today has been a bit tougher as I had my covid vaccination yesterday and it has rather sapped my energy levels today.
I guess my message is if you are living in a bungalow or a flat then watch out you too aren't in danger of developing bungalow legs!
‘You asked what I count each evening and each morning... What I counted each day... Do you know the sums that I do?’
Gamache stood still, in case moving would scare this man off and he’d never have his answer. But he knew he needn’t worry. This man was afraid of nothing.
‘I count my blessings.’
He turned and saw his wife, Irene, on the terrasse, as though he’d sensed her there.
‘We’re all blessed and we’re all blighted, Chief Inspector,’ said Finney. ‘Every day each of us does our sums. The question is, what do we count?’
I don't keep a Gratitude Journal but I do regularly take time to count my blessings.
Small joys, noticed through the day, acknowledged with a silent 'thank you', and remembered in the quiet of the evening.
Music
From Peter Warlock's Capriole Suite, a dance called 'Pieds en l'air'
I was looking for something to write today - because not every day is crammed with interesting events, sometimes the day begins with bubble and squeak, sausages, egg and tomato for breakfast, continues through chicken and vegetable curry, or was it vegetable and chicken curry, for I bulked out the chicken from yesterday's roast with a bit of onion and a few sticks of celery, and the remains of a yellow pepper and a bit of onion, and finally sardines on toast for supper, with not much happening in between...
my eyes lit upon some tulips, still just about surviving in their vase after 10 days...
and the garden is full of tulips at the moment...
So I went looking for 'Tulips from Amsterdam' on YouTube, but came across Max Bygraves singing 'Gillygillyossenfevverkatzenellenbogen by the sea'
Now I used to have a CD called 'Junior Choice', a compilation of the songs and tunes played on the children’s radio programme of that name, broadcast on Saturday mornings. How I used to love listening to it...
I often played tracks from the CD in my music lessons, and this was a favourite with the youngest children. We used to make up actions and join in with the children on the recording, especially once they could say Gillygillyossenfevverkatzenellenbogen by the sea'.
(There are quite a few 'teaching points' in the song!)
Here's your chance to sing along, with actions if you like...
I bit the bullet and got on with some drearily dreary paperwork that has to be done. Procrastinating wasn't helping any.
Tree
But before I got stuck in (oh dear, procrastinating again) I did step outside the back door to take an interim picture of the oak tree at the bottom of the garden;
Oh the lively leafyness of it! That whiter trunk going almost vertically upwards to the right of the main trunk is a determined conker tree, and it too has fat ripe buds on it, hoping to reach the sun before it is engulfed by the oak canopy in full leaf.
When a weary task you find it, Persevere and never mind it...
I spent several hours making copies of paperwork to send on to the legal eagle who is leading us through probate and HMRC requirements if that becomes necessary, and copies for my brother who is co-executor. It's so easy for me to miss a copy, get them in the wrong order, muddle them up... but finally I had three piles; originals, and two sets of copies.
I was so pleased I went straight into the kitchen an cooked lunch! Salmon fillets done in the air fryer (wrap in a foil or baking paper parcel with a bit of butter, a slice of lemon, chopped onion, salt, pepper, herbs and cook for 15 mins at 180°C), boiled potatoes and grilled Mediterranean vegetable selection stir fried from frozen for 6 or so minutes.
Whoops! Lunch was ready to serve and it wasn't even 12 o'clock! Delicious at any time of day, in my view.
After a decent interval for dessert (bananas and custard) and coffee, I wrote out the post-its to stick on the various stacks, and annotated the bank statements, and wrote a covering letter. Oh that feels so good! BB took one set off to the post and I'll hand the other over when my brother comes next week.
Music
Well, after all that copying and computering this was the obvious choice.
A fanfare - for Spring! For trees exploding into leaf everywhere I went today. For my friend's cherry tree, an extravagance of small flowers, for her flower beds full of primroses, for all the violets in the grass,for the lilac buds, and the horse chestnut buds...
I went round to a friend's garden for tea this afternoon. It was just about warm enough to enjoy being outside especially when holding a big mug of tea to keep my hands warm.
Her garden was a pleasure to sit in as we caught up with each other's news, so peaceful.
And then we took the long way home to keep the car battery charged so I had time to notice how the countryside is changing almost daily as more and more kewves and flowers appear.
A bath to start with, which is always an energy-sapper for me.
A series of phone calls sorting out changes to medicines, and dealing with my father's estate,
A successful start made on cleaning the oven door glass panel, (washing up liquid, and cillit bang power degreaser had no effect at all, vinegar and extremely ancient baking powder looked promising, but in the end it was a product called 'pink stuff' which came with what looked like an oversized battery powered toothbrush that got the job done. My next plan of attack would have been another product called 'bar keeper's friend')
I'm supposed to have joined my book club on zoom tonight, but instead I'm having an early night.
I'll leave you with a Mendelssohn Gondola song, one of the Songs without Words, as a bedtime story/lullaby.
I reckon I'll be asleep before Daniel Baremboim has reached the end...
Back on Monday 31st I wrote about the leaves just appearing on the apple tree, adding that the apple blossom would arrive soon. If there isn't a fierce frost, or a wild storm, we should be getting plenty of apples.
In the Vegetable Patch
I've had a great afternoon in the garden, sorting out tubs for vegetables. I've now two tubs with crimson flowering broad bean seeds, and one each of Kelvedon Wonder and Ambassador peas. A triumph of hope over experience, perhaps. 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌 🐌
Three more tubs are ready for radishes, spring onions and lettuces. I was beginning to run out of steam so they will have to wait for another day.
What else shall I be planting? My biggest two tubs, which I used to use as drums in my samba kit made of 'junk' items, are ear-marked for tree spinach and a witch hazel tree my gardener bought at my request from a garden centre she goes to. Then there's rainbow chard, my Albert Bartlett potatoes from the supermarket which are chitting nicely, and ordinary spinach. Finally there will be French beans as well. After that? Who knows. It depends on space and inclination and energy and opportunity.
The first thing I did last Friday afternoon when we'd got back from holiday and had lunch, was to go into the garden for fresh air after more than three long hours in the car. After days of cold winds the air was relatively mild, and I sat there with my hands in the lovely warm crumbly earth planting my first two tubs of potatoes. Supermarket ones again, probably 'la ratte', I forgot to check. It's not important (to me, anyway). I've half filled the tub, and will top it up with more earth as the shoots appear until it is full.
Music
The cherry blossom season in our road is almost over; I think when the estate was built fack in the 1950s they planted cherry trees at intervals in the verges along the road. The trees are slowly dying, but homeowners can pay for the council to replace them. Some of our closer neighbours have done so; I was just about to follow suit when BT or whoever arrived and planted a new telegraph pole outside our house! Well, we already had a street light in 'our' verge, so it's now really too crowded to fit in a tree as well!
Our next door neighbours were on holiday at the time.
'You should have asked them to put it somewhere else,' he said.
'They offered, but the only possible alternative was in front of your house!' I replied.
He was very appreciative that we'd agreed to have it outside our window. Although it can be a little embarrassing to hear an engineer clanking ladders and climbing up to the level of our bedroom window first thing in the morning when I'm getting dressed.
Anyway, back to the music; this is a traditional Japanese song called 'Sakura', celebrating cherry blossom season.
The other day I sorted through my seeds looking for broad beans, peas, French beans and salads to sow. As a result I've ordered lettuce, carrot, rainbow chard and spinach.
And Tree Spinach!
I'd never heard of such a thing, so I thought that I would add some excitement to the veg patch! Here's the description, from the Sarah Raven website;
It grows 6 feet tall, which sounds very impressive indeed. It will give me an excuse to buy some bigger tubs.
Elizabethd recommended Higgledy Garden for seeds. They don't seem to have vegetable seeds, but do have a wonderful selection of flower seeds, especially sweet peas. I can see I'll be placing an order soon.
I can order bags of peat-free compost from the milkman, so this morning two bags were sitting beside my pint of milk. Very convenient for me, but I hope the milkman wasn't delivering too many on his round.
Panda walks into a bar, eats, shoots, and leaves
There was a grammar book with that name, I remember reading it. I expect there's a copy on the shelf somewhere. One of the chapters was on punctuation, hence the title.
The book came to mind when I went to open these crisps.
I suspect these ladies would have had something to say about the apparent inclusion of 25% recycled plastic added along with their prized cheddar cheese! They still taste very good.
Music
I used to use 'Venetian Carnival' by Ronald Binge in music lessons.
First I taught the action song 'my hat, it has three corners'. I learned this from my father sitting on a chair lift on a rare skiing holiday (I went skiing just three times in all). He learned when he was a student in the 1950s when he went on a ski trip with some Austrian students. So he taught me in German!
Skip this next video if you know the song already
I would explain about Venice, and carnival time, and then play the track. After a few minutes I would start signing the song... it's quite hard to keep up!
I do enjoy the scenes so cleverly depicted in the music... listen out for the reveller who is clearly the worse for wear!
On Wednesday last week we went to Buckfast Abbey, in Buckfastleigh, Devon. I chose it for several reasons
We were looking for somewhere with food, loos and shelter to meet up with friends we hadn't seen for over 25 years, since they moved away from our neck of the woods and Buckfast Abbey is partway between their house and where we were staying
I remembered the Abbey, and particularly the stained glass at the East end, from when we used to atop there for breakfast on our long drives to visit my parents who lived in Falmouth; they moved away in around 1999.
Meeting our friends was wonderful; they - and maybe we - hadn't changed. It could have been 25 days instead of 25 years...
After having coffee and chatting, catching up on all the news, we decided we were getting cold and stiffening up. We went into the Abbey, and looked around.
At the far end, up some stairs, is the Chapel of Reconciliation, and there was the window.
It was better, bigger, more, than I remembered. His eyes seemed to gaze straight into yours, with no judgement, just acceptance. We all sat there in silence for about quarter of an hour just to look, and think, and pray.
It's not often I feel as though I have met with God. That morning was one of those times.
Music
'I know that my redeemer liveth'; from Handel's Messiah.
I've had a fine time sorting through my box of seeds.
I had planned to sow lettuce, spring onions and radish, all with cloches to help them along, and also prepare pots for crimson flowering broad beans and some peas. But one step outside the back door into the sun, and into that biting wind, and I turned tail and fled back indoors.
So I made a pot of tea and rooted through my seeds, chucking out a whole load of scruffy, very out-of-date packets and just keeping the slightly out-of-date packets. I've now got a shopping list. My friends are always meeting up for a coffee at garden centres around and about, so I'll see if they're happy to get me some fresh seeds.
As I'm always saying 'tomorrow is another day'!
Cuckoosand music
Cuckoos start arriving in April. When we first moved here, 46 years ago, we were on the edge of the town with nothing but fields behind us until the bypass. The stream and strip of woodland either side are still there, but ther fields are now an upmarket housing estate and a popular golf course. This could be why we haven't heard the cuckoo in decades...
Here's Benjamin Britten's setting of The Cuckoo from his set of children's s9ngs called 'Friday Afternoons'
I've been a bit erratic with posts this week; we've been away for a few days, from Monday until today.
We stayed at a lovely little 1 bed cottage on a smallholding 'down along, out along, round along lea', not in Cornwall but in Dorset, a few miles from Charmouth.
Because the farm is on a very steep hillside, the back door of the bungalow, a converted farm building, was on a level with the roof of the farmhouse next-door. We had a little balcony looking out over fields and the hillside opposite. The hedge was full of sparrows., chittering and gossiping.
The weather looked wonderful until you stepped out of the door when the biting north-east wind took all the warmth out of the day.
It didn't matter, after all I wasn't planning to go surfing or paddling...
The sky was brilliant blue, but the sea was cold and grey. At least I assume it was cold. I didn't take any steps to verify my assumptions. This was from a photograph I took on Tuesday at Charmouth beach. We didn't stay long; the pay and display car park machines were playing up so went off somewhere else.
Music
For too many months life has felt a bit like this piece; 'A short ride in a fast machine' by John Adams.
I love this piece, so exhilarating, so exciting... but there comes a time when IT HAS TO STOP!!!
What happened to Tuesday's post? Much the same as happened to February's stitching; it got merged. Tuesday and Wednesday, February and March.
Ang and I were both a bit 'full-on' through the past couple of months so we cut ourselves a bit of slack.
I started this back in February. It's a square, representing a lawn of spring flowers, crocus at the top (ignore the red blobs, I'll explain in a minute), daffodils in the middle and tulips at the bottom. It makes a little seasonal corner on the back of the cover with autumn and winter. The blank patch is the last remaining area.
The background is a Christmas fabric, complete with red berries, which I didn't want. The berries at the top will be covered over, and the ones in the middle are undered a little needle turn appliqué patch. First I rough stitched lines in two, maybe three shades of green, then French knots for crocuses and daisy stitches for the daffodils and tulips.
Karen Turner (Stitching Life) made daffodils look so easy:
Maybe I should have used embroidery floss. Maybe I should have made them bigger. My scissors were twitching, but I sent it off before I started snipping them out!
So the flowers encompass February crocus, early daffodils and the first March tulips, which were coming into flower at the end of the month.
Ang sent me a patchwork of ribbons from her stash;
She chose books and music and sewing to reflect our shared interests, embezzling some of the notes with bright French knots. A brilliant way to do an awkward long thin space, and lovely choice of colours.
Flat gifts too; an interesting looking recipe book and a little notepad. I'm looking forward to using both.
Oh oh! Just one patch each... but we won't have finished. I think we're planning to do some decorative stitching along the borders between the patches, and then add the date, and then finally make up the covers. We'll be going for a wee whily yet.
Music
I always think of this Mendelssohn 'Song without Words' op 102 no 5 as Spring-like. It's actually known as 'the Joyous Peasant'. It took me some time to find a version at a speed I like. This one is played by Andras Schiff. Daniel Baramboim rattles through in 1'08 (not the fastest, either!). Jacopo Salvatori mooches towards the end in 1' 45" (yawn). Andras takes 1' 38" which seems gently happy to me. A few seconds make all the difference.
A good friend from my school days used to play it, and I liked it so much I borrowed her music.
There is another 'Song without Words' which is called 'Spring' but I dislike it intensely!
