May 31st
Soundscape of the day: the garden while digging, and the first irises emerged from their buds overnight.

May 30th
Countertenor of the day: Christopher Robson. I just came across this programme on the radio today, and enjoyed it immensely. Such delightful music peppers the programme including “Sound The Trumpet” by Purcell which brings back some happy memories of my days filling in as MD of Bailiffgate Singers, and which in turn led me onto The Bridge Singers. Lovely thing to find on a busy day. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rq6dn

May 29th
New song of the day: Quiet Window. I’ve spent the past couple of months composing this song for The Bridge Singers, and most of today creating a recording of it to help them learn it in time for our concert in June. Here’s the recording along with some pictures of the window in question. We had a go at learning some of it at tonight’s rehearsal complete with glass orchestra instruments.

May 28th
Shed of the day: the Aln Valley Railway Loco Shed, where they were holding their Spring Bank Holiday Music Day, and where both Lionheart Harmony and The Bridge Singers performed in a joint slot this afternoon. There was a steam engine, Richboro, hooting and puffing along the line outside as we sang, and during Lionheart Harmony’s slot it came up and parked just behind where these pictures were being taken, and in The Bridge Singers’ last song it tooted along with us. Both groups had about a quarter of their membership absent from this event, but those that were there? Oh boy, there was gusto and merriment, and a goodly proportion of musical excellence.

May 27th
Natural resource of the day: fine Thirston clay. In the 18th century, top quality clay from this local seam was carted down to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to be a vital part in the flourishing glass-making industry. I wrote a verse about this in my song Magical Glass (verse 2 if you’d like to listen). Today I’ve been weeding part of this seam of fine clay which seems to have quite a presence in the upper part of our garden. It encourages the growth of nothing really except that the roots of ground elder find it a playful hidey hole and embed themselves in the heart of clods of it which need to be broken open carefully to find and remove the pesky roots, and then rubbed apart, like butter in flour, into a fine tilth and spread about lightly to avoid further clod-forming.

May 26th
Flower of the day: The scrunched-up flower in the hanging basket. This is the first and there are many to come. It goes through three stages, I have discovered and now I see the third stage I am very happy indeed that there are many more to come. There are two types of white ones and darker pink ones too. I bought them last year, failed to plant them, left them in the greenhouse, neglected over the winter, where they turned into sticks. Half of them sprang back to life unexpectedly in March and now look. Hurrah. I didn’t know what it was, but after and appeal to my friends it has been identified as Leucanthemum, or shasta daisy by Kirsten and Ann.
1. The scrunched-up post-bud stage
2. The middle gets bigger but the petals stay small and scrunched-up.
3. The middle fluffs up, the petals unscrunch and settle into a blueish pink of delight.

May 25th
Bird of the day: a blackbird came to, and stayed, within a foot of my feet as I forked up one of the buttercup beds this morning. We had a chat. It ate a worm or two and sat watching me. I was busy with the forks so no photo. Instead I give you my favourite song about blackbirds in a stunning arrangement.

May 24th

“Seeing beauty where in fact there’s failure” of the day: Buttercups. I had silently vowed to myself that I would have uprooted all the buttercups before they flowered, in my regimen of “weeding every day”, and I can report that there is not a single buttercup in the half of the garden that I have tackled and planted up with vegetables, but the other half is now ablaze, and so emerging from the darkness of failure and subsequent despondency, I have decided to see the beauty in them and celebrate their rather glorious jewels of delight. They sit well with the “right things”, after all!
1. As I say, they sit well with the alliums.
2. And they are forming a bonny hedgerow with the bluebells, white things and daffodils ready for sleep.
3. None of these three plants is where they should be, but a harmonious trio nonetheless.
4. Look at me, lithodora!
5. Photobombing my allium close-up.
6. Another plant that has thus far escaped the fork: dandelion without its dandy or its lion.

May 23rd
Cheery things on a downbeat sort of day: kneeling on the foam, soft weeding amongst the potatoes in the sun; hard weeding with the big fork in an untackled bed in the shade; laughing with Jamie; tuning the glasses and bottles for the glass orchestra; daisies and buttercups in the hedgerows; oodles of kiwifruit with banana cake and ice cream; driving through the beautiful Northumberland countryside in drizzle; rehearsing Rachmaninov with wonderful Rock Festival Choir and inspiring Peter Brown; singing and chatting with my alto mate Anne; Peter Hignett’s birthday treats; fly on a flower.

May 22nd
Banana News Of The Day: Marks and Spencer (or M&S as we’re seemingly now to say) will be putting bananas in their fruit salads from now on. It’s science, which we like. It’s bananas, which we like. Banana Salad. This comes on top of several other banana-related news items in recent days. Thanks go to Shuna for finding this one at the weekend: Banana Piano. And last week up popped: Wonky Bananas And last month bananas found themselves in the most privileged of hands: Banana Queen
You want some music to go with that lot? OK, I can supply that too.

May 21st
Composer of the day: Claudio Monteverdi. I’ve been loving this week’s composer of the week on BBC Radio 3. I caught up on this episode today in between being the composer myself. I particularly enjoyed Laetaniae Della Beata Vergine at 41 minutes. Sublime music indeed with a bit of rhythmic piquancy, like I like. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08px29d

May 20th
Neglected video of the day: The Lamb. This is the world premiere performance of the SATB version of this song by Rock Festival Choir. I’ve spent a lot of today in the company of members of this choir, with a lot of chat about recordings of one’s pieces. The Bridge Singers currently have this in their repertoire and will be performing it in the Magical Glass concert on June 17th. The pics are of various excursions from 2011 and this is the first video I ever put on my seapieparcel Youtube Channel. It’s not been watched at all so far in 2017 except for 3 seconds of it by someone in Romania on 25th April. Time to rectify that situation!

May 19th
Train of the day: the 18.30 from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh calling at Morpeth at 21.55, delayed by 22 minutes, but all relevant passengers safely delivered into the soft, refreshing Northumberland drizzle.

May 18th
Lake Of The Day: Langold Lake, near Worksop. Mum and I have never been before. Dad went there 75 years ago with his mates on bikes. We saw the lake, 25 or so goslings (very cute), a silhouette canopy, a goose stretch, horse chestnut blossom, cygnets (three cygnets are cuter than 25 goslings, as it happens), an iris wall, the other end of the lake, reeds, a great crested grebe (but no greblings, declared Dad to much tittering). We waved our hands and sticks triumphantly while Papa Swan hissed, “Good Morning!”

May 17th
Sculpture of the day: Pierced Hemisphere by Barbara Hepworth. I’ve driven to Worksop through sunshine (in the upper north) and rain (in the lower north) and en route I called in at The Hepworth Wakefield to see the new loveliness in galleries 2 and 3 – Hepworth and Moore. I was delighted beyond measure to see Pierced Hemisphere back on display. I was commissioned to compose this song about it six or so years ago when the gallery first opened, and I’m still exceedingly proud of it and fond of the sculpture itself.

May 16th
Singers of the day: the ladies of Longframlington who get together for 7 weeks every year to learn a few songs to sing at the Longframlington Music Festival Prizewinners’ recital. This is in June and they’re half way through their run so far, working hard, making friends and having laughs. They asked me to help them this year. There are 15 of them (13 tonight), average age around 70 I’d say, and here they are rehearsing Maori folksong E Papa. The only request before I started was that they didn’t want anything in a foreign language. Ha!

May 15th

Knobbly curly bits

The space between

Two drips

Dark rain

Stalk leaf drip

Purple petals

Silhouette silhouette

Pink Overexposed

Widest variety of flowers on show of the day: Aquilegia. And it rained, which made my heart sing. And there was The Bridge Singers this evening, which did the same

Spidery

.

May 14th
Bird-on-the-feeder-outside-the-kitchen-window of the day: Greenfinch. It watched and ducked and dived and hoyed out the unfancied seeds and watched some more and stayed for many minutes allowing me to race upstairs and down for the little camera and negotiate the steam on the window and zoom right on in. And it is a rare visitor so caused much excitement.

May 13th
Camaraderie and musicianship of the day: There is this wonderful group of people from all walks of life who come together to sing and laugh and chat (when they should and when they shouldn’t) and support each other. I am a part of this group and today I have spent almost all of my day with them. It has been wonderful. We sang at a wedding in Brinkburn Priory which is a beautiful place with a very resonant acoustic. It was our first ever wedding and I was anxious about this beforehand and during. Singing for our own concerts – well of course you take it seriously and strive to be brilliant, but if a slip-up happens you can laugh it off with a ‘silly us’ and the audience appreciates you anyway, but for a wedding when you are merely one of the enhancements to the most memorable day in their lives so far, there is no room for slip-ups. We had no slip-ups. We soared. We overcame slight issues (music being forgotten; bats pooping on the basses; shrieking and cheering from the exultant crowd as the happy couple exited, masking the giving of notes; time delays from one transept to the other; extreme coldness eating into our very bones) with aplomb (and specifically: an efficient librarian; a cloth, brush and dustpan; fingers crossed and excellent musicianship; watching the conductor; an assortment of scarves in choir colours and much discussed thermal undergarments). We then went to The Anglers’ Arms in Weldon Bridge for pie (others had other food) and rum and coke (others had other drinks) and much merriment and chitchat. I won’t say that I shouldn’t have worried, because all the worrying made me ready for all eventualities, and gave me and the choir a winning edge. We very much rocked that priory today and people who know us not, said so to our faces and behind our backs. I took no pictures and recorded no music, so all you have are my thoughts on this most all-consuming and splendid aspect of my life, The Bridge Singers.

May 12th
Mixed bag of the day: successful completion of a major weeding task – the front bed and its adjacent pathway; encouraging progress on a new composing project; exhilarating Rock Festival Choir rehearsal on the Rachmaninov Vespers (that’s going to be a stunning concert); disappointment that The Felton Sycamores played no part in the service this evening at Durham Cathedral, for the commemoration of the soldiers concerned (despite some gentle lobbying from me and poet Tony) . I remain convinced that this piece is an excellent one, and that this would have been the perfect occasion for it. Ah me.

May 11th
Mirror of the day: the one in Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes version of Snow White. I was looking for possible readings for our upsoming glass recital and came across this on my bookshelf. It would do well in our “Comedy Glass” section, I think.

May 10th

Mosaic

Glass river

Reconnaissance mission of the day: I went down to Brinkburn Priory to see how cold it would be, where we’re going to sit, where we’re going to perform… The Bridge Singers are singing at a wedding there on Saturday, you see.

Pipe Chorus

Spring leaf sunshine

I can report that it will be pretty cold inside. Long Johns may be required. It’s beautiful too and outside there was gloriousness on the weather front. I saw a nuthatch, which made me happier than almost anything else, but no photo of the jumpy little blighter.

Daisy time

Old house. Older cloister.

Decorative grave cover with dappled pink light

Peacock butterfly Dandelion

Organ Cloister. This is where The Bridge Singers will do their stuff on Saturday.

Bricks Stones Cement

Holy Mushrooms

Messing about when no-one’s there

May 9th
Song Of The Day: Of All The Birds by John Bartlet. I’ve loved this song since I first heard it on The King’s Singers’ Madrigal History Tour LPs. Here they are with their fancy 1970s tank tops. Splendid stuff. I was arranging it into a 3-parter today for some singers I’m working with.

May 8th
Graphic designing of the day: The Magical Glass Recital Poster, featuring the choir logo, the window, the cross, a watermark, correct information, and a selection of what you might hear. What it doesn’t mention is a song by Gary, a song filled with literary and piratical gore, a song of outrageous innuendo, poignant WW 1 songs, songs by me, and it doesn’t specifically say which Renaissance masterpieces, but Lotti’s Crucifixus is one of the them, so come along and wallow in that gorgeousness, why don’t you?! Tickets from Tim!

May 7th
Song for the coming week: Spag Time. It’s an ironic ditty poking slight fun at the testing that is about to take place in primary schools this coming week. I was “commissioned” to write it and three other songs for a version of Snow White that was being mounted at a primary school. For some reason, Snow White was going to be teaching the little squirrels and rabbits who lived near the seven dwarfs how to do maths and grammar. I composed this and two other songs and revamped an earlier one, and taught them to the children as requested. The children loved them. The teachers said they loved them. I provided learning/practice and backing tracks. The teacher in charge of the production removed them all from the show and they did not pay me. Ah well – you win some, you lose some. In my opinion, it’s a topically cool song which in essence is a three-part round in a reggae style, and can be taught to a class of primary school children in a matter of one lesson’s-worth of time! What’s not to include in your show?

May 7th (morning)
Dawn Chorus Of The Day: the one in my garden. Earlier (03.30), I was lying awake listening to a load of broadcasters on BBC Radio 4 commentating on birds singing before dawn all over Europe for International Dawn Chorus Day. Apparently it is today. They spoke of bitterns, cuckoos and Ceti’s warblers. I went outside with my machine and my gardening equipment, intent upon recording my own dawn chorus. I did it. I also listened cheerfully and managed an hour and a half of weeding – mostly dock and buttercups. The saxifraga, which started flowering on Wednesday, is now a riotously pink pincushion.

May 5th
Alleluias of the day: Some by Rachmaninov. I spent some of today practising this tricky language. I think the biggest problem for me is that the letters are written so small-ly. We’re singing this and all the other movements with Rock Festival Choir in June. Marvellous stuff. I made a delicious Quiche Lorraine today, composed some soprano music and cleared a stretch of overgrown path of all plants, mostly weeds and daffodils. Weeds have gone into bins and compost and daffodils are awaiting replanting. Alliluiya.

May 4th
Artist Of The Day: There are a few options for this title. We went to Somerset House to see the Sony Photograph of the Year award winners which included a small exhibition by Martin Parr who was being honoured by the panel and on the way back to Kings Cross we stopped off at Tottenham Court Road to look at the Paolozzi mosaics. I love Martin Parr’s photos, and lots of the other photos by the award winners were excellent, but I think my artist of the day has to be Paolozzi. The vibrancy of the colours and just the contrast of these shapes with the white tiles all over the rest of the tube station were quite startling and breath-taking. We saw him again as we approached the British Library near St. Pancras Station. That Newton statue is bigger than I imagined. Home for local council voting and merry Lionheart Harmony gig, then an offer of new work from new people which I can’t do because of other gigs.

May 3rd
Opera of the day: The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Ades. We’ve come to London on trains and after meetings and have been to The Royal Opera House. My favourite things were the squeaking soprano, the ondes martinot, all the drumming and brassiness, the demonic and manic sheep safely grazing, the jokes, things repeating, the water, the drama and colour in the orchestral accompaniment, Thomas Allen’s voice, the full house for a contemporary opera, the delight at “popping” down to London for an opera midweek.
http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-exterminating-angel-by-tom-cairns

May 2nd
Song Of The Day: The Way Old Friends Do by Abba. I’ve spent a lot of time with this song today, getting it ready for the Longramlington festival choir this evening. On the first morning of my first teaching job back here in England, I taught this song to an entire school of 9-13 year olds along with all the teachers, all of whom had got no idea who I was – some upstart who’d just breezed in from the southern hemisphere with a hybrid accent. It went well, although the predictions from the headteacher that “if you can get up and do that on your first day, then all will be well here,” were, alas, misjudged. It went well this evening too – I had them singing in three parts and I even heard three of them say they liked it. Hopefully the momentum here will be maintained.

May 1st
Things You Can See From The Top Of The Compost Heap.

Because of my persistent clearing of garden beds, of weeds and last year’s dead stuff, the compost heaps are becoming full and so periodically I climb to the top of them to stamp stuff down. The view from up there is splendid, so I went up there a few times today to record the Bank Holiday goings on.
1.The full view from the very top of the heap, un-zoomed-in. You can also see on this one quite a bit of the garden that I’ve tackled. I started at the front so the closest bits to the camera are still completely overgrown!
2.If I zoom in fully I can almost see the crumbs on the discarded afternoon tea plates at The Running Fox.
3.Under my feet – compost….including here…. clippings, slimy cucumber trimmings, dead stalks from last year’s growth and a bird’s egg – still whole but filthy and no doubt stinky as… if I stepped on it. Carefully does it.
4.To the right is the chicken wire storage facility.
5.Looking through the lancewood, which is one of our New Zealand natives, I can see the entire telephone box over the roof.
6.The reason I went up there in the first place was to stamp some debris into the corners, but while I was stamping and snapping, it drizzled on the greenhouse roof.
7.Jamie has put some netting round the fledgling broan beans to stop the pigeons from plucking them out for fun.
8.In a fit of pique because they can’t now get to the broad beans, the pigeons pooped on the unknown blue flowery plants that survived the winter unwatered and un-potted-out in their original polystrene tray from the garden centre.
9.The saxifraga has started.
10.There was a new song today for May Day Bank Holiday – there are swallows.
11.I’m not yet fully on top of the weeds.
12.Over by Pat’s chimney the river scurries by.
13.The sun was out briefly, first thing, and these tattered daffodils, still strike a shapely pose.
14.Below and to the left is the bagged compost storge facility and an old wooden, collapsible clothes dryer.
15.Ferns a-coming.
16.To the left is the shed which has a fraying roof covering.
17.The roof of the shed provides an excellent place to store the spare planks of wood, which in turn provide an excellent place for the growing of surplus green stuff and cobwebs.
18.My fork and kneeling foam lie waiting for the next gentle weed raid. The main weeding fork requiring the use of all arms and legs is to the left of this picture, leaning against the aluminium struts.

19.Next door’s Japanese maple is looking bonny through the apple tree.
20.The apple tree will be looking bonny in a day or two.
21.A drippy tulip has fallen victim to the mighty wind we had the other day. It has not broken off, just collapsed into the strimmings.

22.Towards the end of the day, the traffic built up through the village.
23.The birds do not come to the feeder while I am standing on the compost heap. They chirrup nearby, imploring me to leave.

24.Blue tit on the apple tree, waiting….

25.Above and to the right is the neighbours’ yellow hose reel. I think I’d like a hose reel as our hose is currently in an almighty tangly heap down by the tap and the magnolia.
26.Last thing before I went back in the house was the magnolia by the messed up hose. You can’t see anything from down there, except this beauty which is the best it’s ever been in terms of bloom density.