The week that was. Echoes of a long ago satirical show TWTWTW. But with our weather forecasting giving us false hurricane winds as well, wasn't there a bit of Deja Vue, did it ricochet through our minds reminding us of the storm of 1987 when Michael Fish's tame forecast came undone and we woke to all those trees brought down. 15th October 1987.
Then there is the beautiful Auroras or Northern Lights we have all been experiencing. Photos bounce through my F/B of gorgeous coloured skies, over Stonehenge or Avebury. If, of course, I had lived through prehistoric times I would be seeing signs of the gods warning us of troubled times in the future maybe.
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| photo taken from Swindon Advertiser |
English music on the radio, or at least music composed by English composers. When I was a child I was often ill, lying in bed hour after hour with only the radio for company and it seemed around 5 0 clock in the late afternoon someone indulged themselves with 'Lark Ascending' or some Elgar. I remember being quite disappointed when we went to lunch at some friends at Great Malvern, for this was the place where Elgar had settled. We walked the hills and drank the water, but it was very suburban.
As for my back ;) well a paracetamol before I get up will take away the pain of actually getting up and once walking around there is not much pain. So I shall wait for it to heal up.
I have been thinking about love and romance, something we hardly talk about in blogland. But I am sure it starts at the beginning of all relationships. The grass ring my first husband wove for me must have disintegrated into brown dust before I got the garnet engagement ring. I wear a garnet ring today from Paul, I love the dark red of this semi-precious stone. There are beautiful cloisonne Anglo-Saxon jewels found in the graves of the A/S women. Nowadays we would not be buried with our treasured belongings but then burial was an acknowledgement of lives well lived.
During WWI Elgar and his wife Alice (who suffered badly with her nerves) settled in my village in a house called Brinkwells where he composed many pieces of his music. I have always loved Elgar’s music although he comes a close second to my favourite composer Ralph Vaughan Williams who was inspired to compose Lark Ascending while sitting on Effingham common and collecting folk songs from the travelling Gypsies and and watching the larks ascending. I lived in Effingham for 26 years and the skylarks were still there at the beginning but long gone now. Fortunately we still see skylarks here in the South Downs. Where would we be without music, birds, the countryside, but like you I am suspicious of brightly coloured sunrises and sunsets as nowadays they signify pollutant particles in the atmosphere. Hope your back gets better. Gentle stretches are good for backs and on that note I am off to my weekly yoga class ahead of my week in Crete on a yoga retreat. Two hours of yoga a day and I won’t know my body! Sarah x
ReplyDeleteSky larks are, what I would call, a very memorable bird. They rise out of the grass singing their hearts out and then disappear into the blue sky. I saw them on Bath Downs and know their song is only to lead us away from their eggs. Lark Ascending just captured that moment as they fly upwards, I think England's most favourite piece of classical music. I suppose the colours of Northern lights is preferable to the yellow smogs we had as children in the 'Black Country' not called that for nothing! Enjoy your holiday, hope you get good food on a retreat as well.
DeleteOne paracetamol can ease your pain? Three to me are like lollies.
ReplyDeleteWe've been having southern lights. Apparently it is to do with sun and death rays, whatever, so we see the same. Not everything that happens is about planet earth.
Love, romance, sex? Were any of those ever satisfactory in my life? I grew to embrace comfort.
Well being a great coward over pain have always taken one paracetamol for the day I might be in so much pain, I need to take three Andrew. I see the Auroras turn as Southern Lights in Australia, seems strange but logical. Perhaps love is only for the young then but I think romance is definitely on the way out.
DeleteThose Northern Lights are lovely. I keep forgetting to look for them in the night sky. My niece photographed some but I forgot to ask what time is best to see them. I will have to Google it.
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ReplyDeleteI think the best way to see them Ellen is through the lense of a camera, but I may be wrong. Anyway your camera has to be on dark mode.
One day I was walking through my village when I was approached by "she who gets things done". Most villages have someone like her; the person who organises jumble sales, visits the sick, gives lifts to those who want to go to church......"Just the man!" she said "I've got a little job for you". My heart sank but I've learned that there's no point in arguing with such a force of nature. "It's down the churchyard" she explained. When we got there she produced a black beret which I immediately recognised. "What do you think?" she exclaimed, "they've gone and buried Mr Bouchard without his hat." My job was to lift the flat stone that marked his final resting place while she put the old hat underneath. So at least one man was interred with his most precious possession.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely village story John, it has almost the bones of a short story. But at least Mr. Bouchard had his belongings safely with him. When you see all those old burials where men were buried with their swords and often horses and in pagan times, food and wine and even a game or two, all we acknowledge in the grave is a flower or two.
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