14th February 2024 - Happy Valentine's Day

Raking up old music memories:  Putting the photograph of the three youngsters the other day on my blog, bought back a memory, of when these three, Sarah, Ephraim and Mark went off to Ghana for a year or so.  On an old external drive I have many, many photos of this expedition to Ghana.  Ephraim and Sarah have had three children since then and split up - but that's life isn't it?

I think they were off to make their fortune but it didn't quite workout that way.  Can I forget waiting for them to drive down from Bristol to me waiting outside the chemist shop in Weston clutching Mark's essential diabetic insulin to hand on as they sped onto the airport.

Or, a few years later when the boys confessed that on arriving in Accra Mark had to be hospitalised - news they kept from me for all that time.

They went clutching their new expensive computers to conquer Ghana but it did not turn out as planned.  In the first few days Ephraim managed to run over his computer with a car.  Mark had offers of jobs but he could  not stand the heat.

Yesterday's shock announcement of Steve Wright's sudden death at 69 years old, his radio DJ spot on Radio 2 on Sunday having been so much part of my life, the realisation that the Grim Reaper has taken another figure from the past.  Remember listening to a crackly Radio Caroline in one's bedroom as a teenager? 

So I remembered the music of Peter Gabriel and Youssou n'Dour singing together in that rather naive way of youth - 'Shaking the Tree' an affirmation of female power so beautifully depicted in the graceful girls on the video.  Then 'Birima,'  not sure what the story is that lies behind, the probable chief strolling through his village handing out money but I love  Youssou's voice.  Gabriel looks so young at this time, time has flown but his song at a more mature age, should be played at my end because it is just full of the nonsense and happiness we sometimes feel when listening to music.  What is it?

'Solsbury Hill' An Iron Age Fort just outside Bath, many the time I have climbed that hill, people have asked me are there really eagles flying up there.  The answer is sadly no, but Gabriel who lives a couple of miles further on at Box must also have walked that way as well.

  

So you  may skip the first two videos, but the third should set you dancing. Though I may add here it is a compilation, I could not find the original.

 

Saint Valentine is also patron saint of the bees.  One bee will just collect one teaspoon in its lifetime, so be frugal with real honey.