July 31st
Today we’ve been composing colourful corners in Gallery 6 at The Hepworth Wakefield. Lots of families and lovely Halima helping. I asked her to take a picture or two during one of the workshops. She obliged…..and some! This is part of workshop 3 where we had a picnic in the colourful corner. You hear us billowing out our orange and red blanket with the white spots – Daniel got over excited at this point, but what fun he was having. Back north for loveliness with Barbara and the other cheery Australians before she headed back to Ireland. July’s been so busy. August tomorrow and a quiet time perhaps.

July 30th
Sunburst and verse 2 of Four Pence A Day. Essentially, a day off. Shopping for limes, wondering at loud hen-nighters at the station heading to Sheffield, flopping in front of telly cricket, assorted food and chortling, a bit of thought about tomorrow’s upcoming toil.

July 29th
A patient woman waits in the rain outside the cinema in Worksop for her daughter who insists on taking a photo of her through a nearby K6 telephone box. Eventually they make their way to their seats, endure approximately 20 minutes of adverts aimed at children, before relaxing into the joys of The BFG, which coincidentally features a K6 telephone box on The BFG’s kitchen bench. Earlier there was driving through splish-spalshy rain from Northumberland to Worksop, wondering why people think that side-lights are enough in such conditions, and later there was dashing along the splish-splashy roadways of Nottinghamshire to gather Jamie from his London train. And even later, live cricket on the telly because we’re in SkySports-land.

July 28th
A quiet day so a few July memories: walking past a tree with a bird in it; my favourite fringey lightshade at Cragside; Lionheart Harmony on my arrangement of Water Of Tyne at Nether Grange.

July 27th
In the wee small hours of the morning a train dangerously overheats between Edinburgh and Newcastle. Meanwhile…Station 1, Morpeth. Train 1 to Newcastle, delayed by 16 minutes. Station 2, Newcastle. Stricken train along with several others are parked at all platforms. Train 2 to York, delayed by 25 minutes. Happy chatting now with Gaynor and Colin on our family outing. Station 3, York. Connection onwards missed. Train 4 to Station 4, Doncaster. Train 5 to Station 5 Retford, delayed by 11 minutes. Station 5 1/2 Retford Lower Level. Train 6 to Worksop. Lunch and further merriment with Mum and Dad at The Shireoaks Inn. Coffee cake, tea, icy water, train chat, bathroom and garage chat, at Mum and Dad’s. Ambling, then realising, than racing through bustley market-day Worksop for Train 7 to Station 5 1/2, delayed by 4 minutes. Station 5 to Station 3 on train 8, delayed by 6 minutes. Station 3 to Station 2 on train 9, on time, on time, on time. One gets off, the others remain. One records the sights and sounds of Newcastle Central for 45 minutes in the evening light, then train 10 to Station 1 and nearly home. Wonderful, happy day with the Mums and Dads and trains and stations.

July 26th
I created a new video and blog today about Magical Glass, and again spent most of my time thinking about The Bridge Singers. Here’s the video I created about our existence thus far. Looking back on the day, I don’t actually think I went outside once, which is a crying shame as it looked like a lovely one from up here. Ah well. A happy job done, and tomorrow I’ll hardly be in! Here I am inside the Felton Park Greenhouse with Jamie and Jenny prior to our party on Monday. Photo courtesy of Judy! Music courtesy of The Bridge Singers.

July 25th
Today’s been all about The Bridge Singers. I had a glorious catch-up this morning with Sarah who’s going to come to our away day in September and give us some top tips on how to sing properly! Then I’ve spent most of the rest of the day putting the finishing touches to Nymphs and Shepherds and making cheese straws for our party. Then this evening we’ve had of end-of-year sociable get-together (although as Tim implied during speech-time, every Monday is essentially a social get-together with added singing) which was in the Felton Park Greenhouse. The third verse of Magical Glass is about this glorious and exquisite structure, so it was a very thrilling occasion. We sang four songs to our assembled friends, family and our hosts, before tucking into the amassed deliciousness and chatting merrily. Being the MD of this choir is the best grown-up musical thing that I’ve ever done. Pity that we have a month off now in so many ways, although it gives me a big chance to sort out all the sheep for December. This is half of the scene – the performing half of the greenhouse – all the food, drink and most of our guests are in the other, and you’re hearing the end of Magical Glass.

July 24th
Angus, Erin and Jamie get over-excited in the pumphouse, Angus tells us the route we’re to take, Angus loses his flipflop in the creek, Jamie saves the day with a nearby branch, Colin reads the info sheets in the pinkish sitting room around the mid-day chimes, Peter asks questions in the library with the red, fringey light shades, Angus has a go in the snooker room to great applause from Gaynor, the brand new science room delights us all, Gaynor and Cheryl go low-tech and admire the glass rods, Angus and Erin find plenty of mud up at the barefoot walk while the grown-ups chat and eat barbeque leftovers in the rain. It’s a fun day out at Cragside, that’s what.

July 23rd
Nymphs and Shepherds all day, six Australians and a barbeque all evening. Lovely, happy day. No recording of it, though. No photo either, so here’s a “spare” from Friday’s sunrise walk – it’s the sun, and The Bridge Singers on their Anerio.

July 22nd
Sometimes the noises of the day come to you. There I was working away (with the windows open, on account of it being another summery, warm day) on Purcell’s Nymphs and Shepherds for The Bridge Singers and along comes an exuberant wedding party for photos on the bridge and also Northumberland Water with two vehicles including this rather fetching blue pipey enormous thing parked right outside for the clearing of storm water drains down river. Seeing as the telephone box is the icon of the week, I managed to get it into both shots from different windows!

July 21st
I walked up to the sycamores this morning to get some summery shots for another upcoming blog – the sun and the moon were behaving in a most spectacular way. I then spent the day fashioning the sheep music for December, and this evening watched The Shawshank Redemption on the ITV Player. All very inspiring stuff, as is this – it’s the moon and a sunrise cloud sporting together alluringly and The Bridge Singers giving it some gorgeousness on Anerio’s Factum Est Silentium – one of our favourites.

July 20th
I went up, up, up into the garden to record the storm, saw the weedy, jungly mess that is up there and formulated a plan, which I then commenced to implement as the storm raged outside. So spent the remainder of the day back out in the rain taking photos of the telephone box and back inside taking this one of it through a watery window, and sorting out the video and blog for Alison’s K6 Telephone Box. Also had cheery chats with all the Mums, the chairman, the step-father, the librarian, the shop assistant, the singer, the auntie, the neighbour, the dog-walker. I also ate pie and it was yum.

July 19th
This morning I was listening and watching as Ally edited The Bridge Singers’ recording. More of that another day. It’s been very hot all day so I’ve stayed in for the rest of it. (I’ve been listening to Cold War: Stories From The Big Freeze podcasts on and off on the BBCiplayer. Brilliant programme, fascinating listening to people who were there, and lots of aspects to it I didn’t know anything about.) Earlier in the month, however, I went stalking though the dunes and stopped to admire some linnets, and a spotted flycatcher with caught flies and dishevelled feathers (tricky to sort out your dishevelled feathers when your beak stuffed with flies, I should imagine).

July 18th
News today that this song, Henry Hotspur Percy, has overtaken Slow Down! Red Squirrels! in “views” on my YouTube Channel seapieparcel. An interesting phenomenon, because it doesn’t have the cuteness factor that the squirrels have. Looking at the statistics, I can report that 43% of those views have been in the United States, with 37% in the UK and the rest spread around 23 other countries. More news today of upcoming performances in September of No-Umbrella Blues and Ooh Ladyfinger, and That First Christmas Night in November. Also, an exuberant The Bridge Singers final proper rehearsal including the song about this telephone box – next week there’s the party (with a teensy bit of singing) in the Magical Glass itself. This is the telephone box in the early morning sunshine as seen from my window in the relatively sweltering heat of Northumberland in mid-July.

July 17th
I’ve spent the entire day today updating the portfolio section of my website which has been a happy task – looking back on some composing highlights of the year thus far. I took this picture from the plane a week ago as we careered into Newcastle from Barcelona. Quite happy to see this somewhat strange Northumberlandia from above. I think she looks better from up there than when you’re stomping around trying to find her feet (!) The music is from last Thursday’s Lionheart Harmony gig. It’s Gary’s beautiful “Northumberland” song arranged by me, and with background noise from the patrons of the bar at Nether Grange Hotel in Alnmouth.

July 16th
The three sycamores in their summer finery, rain on the umbrella, birds in the bushes, drips in the storm-water drain, traffic on the distant A1. (Actually this is early tomorrow morning as it was sunny today, but I didn’t do anything 🙂 )

July 15th
I don’t have many completely rubbish days, but today was one of them. Luckily I have a spare fade-in from my wonderful recent day in France with Michael. It’s the 11 o’clock chimes at the Basilica in Lourdes with a photo from inside it.

July 14th
Conducting, singing and chatting in Wooler. Singing and chatting in Alnmouth. This is Lionheart Harmony singing my arrangement of Water Of Tyne in Alnmouth this evening. (with Mick, Sid, Gary, Jamie, Simon and Gwyn.)

July 13th
Been staring at an Australian folksong for a lot of the day, waiting for inspiration to strike as to how I might arrange it for this happy bunch. It’s The Bridge Singers – over seven minutes of laughter and fooling about out-takes from Monday night’s recording session compressed into one minute along with a lovely bit of stained glass I noticed in St. Michael’s Church, Felton during one of the quieter moments (before the choir arrived, I guess). I’ve also been gathering together all the recordings and photos from my recent days in Wakefield Cathedral and writing up a blog about that.

July 12th
A power cut at the dentist, sorting through yesterday’s recordings, considering the sheep, catching up on sitting about flopping. Time to relax and prepare for more action another day.

July 11th
A day of preparation for the recording session this evening with Ally and The Bridge Singers at St. Michael’s. I think we sounded pretty good – we’ll see in a week or so when the editing happens. We managed to get through The Felton Sycamores a few times, also Anerio’s Factum Est Silentium and a quick rendition of Alison’s K6 Telephone Box to finish off the evening – you see this in the picture, but what you’re hearing is a bit of our warm-up on the roses with encouragement and yelling from the conductor and our usual merriment at the end. Home to rum and coke while watching University Challenge on the iPlayer which included a question about Giles Gilbert Scott who actually designed our telephone box himself.

July 10th
Barcelona airport which is mostly about queueing – to return your hire car, to check in, to be security checked, and then the biggest, longest, slowest, fullest-of-loud-complainers queue of them all – for passport checking. I stayed with Jamie in one of the “All Passports” queues (as opposed to one for EU citizens) which was the slower of the two types of queue what with all the stamping and the like, but really they were all of breathtaking slowness and length and the pushing in was on a momentous scale, with pushers-in of all nationalities, and complainers-about-pushers-in also of all nationalities. The loudest complainer was from Manchester, but after a goodly while of serious and tumultuous disgruntlement about the inefficiencies of the Spanish system of Sunday queue management and the blatant impertinence of the interlopers, he himself interloped into a different queue, and headed off into the relative haven of queuing for a snack in the departure lounge. Here we are landing after a stomach-turning up-and-down-in-the-turbulence circuit of the Tyneside and North Shields area. You hear the wheels touch down, the unclicking of multiple seat-belts, the dealing-with-sick-bags of a nearby poorly family, the somewhat breathless pilot saying incomprehensible things in Spanish and English, and the calmer recorded message. Welcome to Newcastle! My best picture of the flight is looking down on the River Tyne and all its splendid bridges and other nearby icons.

July 9th
Coscojuela de Sobrarbe to Barcelona, shedding people as we go. Just four of us left by the evening when we go out for tapas, then walk the darkening streets, taking in a bit of Gaudi as we go. This is the sight and sound of the intersection of Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer d’Aragó at about 10pm. You see Gaudi’s Casa Batlló and a distinctive yellow and black taxi. You hear taxi too as well as scooter and Spanish and English al fresco diners.

July 8th
Day out in Graus. Beautiful town with a basilica half way up a hill, a market place full of painty buildings, intricate roof lines and many-styled arches, Scarce Swallowtail butterflies on the lavender, and lots of swallows (see July 5th for that). We’re staying in a place next to a chiming church tower. Twice on the hour it chimes. Here’s “7 o’clock with butterfly and bird”.

July 7th
Lourdes. Roaming, recording and photographing in the sun with Michael. Roaming, recording and photographing in the sun without Michael whilst he works and works and works. Meeting and chatting with lots of Michael’s colleagues including Joan with whom I’ve chatted on Facebook and now met in real life, hurrah. Meeting up with family including three holidaying Australians, one Irish who lives in Australia, one Australian who lives in Ireland and one Australian who lives in Northumberland. Wheeeeeeeh! Farewell to Michael who’s off to deposit the Leeds 400 at the Airport. Drive (well, I was just being the passenger) for three hours through the Pyrenees to Coscojuela de Sobrarbe where all the Australians have been staying. First night in Spain, with heat and thunder. It’s a Lourdes Soundscape with a goldfinch from the amazingly dramatic, textural mosaics outside the Basilica.

July 6th
Early morning walk through busy Worksop setting up for market day, train 1 to Retford (a proper and unprecedented treat as it came into Retford Upper Level from the branch line, somehow), train 2 to Peterborough accompanied by lots of suits on their way to London, train 3 to Stansted Airport accompanied by lots of clever young people on their way to Cambridge University, queues and more queues, accent-spotting and people-watching with birdwatchers from Essex, pilgrims from Norfolk, family-party members from Bristol and a delightful Dad with two delightful children heading to Edinburgh to see Grandad, plane 1 to Lourdes, queues and more queues, Michael at the airport, Michael at the Lake, Michael being patient, professional, cheery, bi-lingual, lovely-beyond-the-call-of-duty with 400 yellow-clad pilgrimage-goers from Leeds, sibling pizza and beer and Wales playing football on the café telly with Welsh fans and Portuguese fans at adjoining tables, a night’s sleep in France. Here’s a Lourdes-Leeds Mass-scape.

July 5th
Following on from the last post, July 4th ended with an exceptionally exhausting and rewarding rehearsal of The Bridge Singers, focusing on The Three Sycamores for next week’s recording session with Ally. Then today …. packing, early bus to Morpeth, train 1 to Newcastle accompanied by oh-so-smart-Alecky teenagers with the day off due to the teachers’ strike bad-mouthing the train guard and wheeling their bikes into other passengers, and also laughing, friendly, polite teenagers enjoying their bonus day off by just being happy and summery and heading out for some shopping and mateship (as former Aussie PM John Howard always used to say) , train 2 to York, train 3 to Retford, train 4 to Worksop, strolling through the summery ‘Sop with Mum, cricket on the telly because it’s a house with the Sky, England winning again in men’s and women’s internationals, early to bed, no photos, no recording because I’m on holiday. Wheeeeh! So here’s one I made , er, later, of some Spanish swallows at the basilica in Graus.

July 4th
I’ve been to Wakefield Cathedral again today for the last of the three days of Community Cohesion workshops with lots of Year 3 children. It’s been an absolute delight, just like the other two days. This is one of my singing groups on my “You And Me Attached” friendship song. The scene is the quire at the end of the day post-dramatic-greetings-and-singing-our-new-song, and pre-getting-our-prints-back-and-sharing-our-friendship-bracelets. And there’s still choir to come! Yee-hah!

July 3rd
This morning we went to Belsay where there were birds and men playing croquet (that blue ball is actually airborne!). Then Jamie went to Spain and I came home for the finishing off of Morley’s Bonny Boot for The Bridge Singers’ festive sheep-fest.

July 2nd
It’s been a while since I went to the beach for the sunrise, but that’s what I did this morning and look how I enjoyed it even though I left the house at 4am in order to make it in time! At the end of my walk at about 5.45 I met three other people – a golfer – he’s the one who unconvincingly thwacks the ball at the beginning – I stop for him to make his shot, but it does no good – it’s a rubbish shot, the lawnkeeper on his ride-on mower (faintly in the background), and a jogger – he’s the one who speaks! I carried on my way up the gravel path to the car park and the warbly tree birds which I would not see. I stopped to listen, and then moved on. This afternoon I’ve been bonny-booting with the Thomas Morley and some shepherds.

July 1st
The 100th Anniversary of the start of the Battle Of The Somme. Felton War Memorial inscription and “You Will Remember…”

Here are my mates. Wherever they are, my heart’s with them, always there.
I left them behind in the sand and in the mud,
But I’ll always remember.

We will remember, won’t we? We will remember.
I know he’s not coming back, they’re not coming back.
Poppies, poppies, so many, I can’t bear it.
The last thing he said to me: “Will you remember?”