I’m starting the new year with lots of new things to get to grips with – mostly computer-related, which will require rapid and extreme re-learning! First thing is this actual computer which arrived on 29th December, and has necessitated the upgrading or replacement of a few of the main programmes I use in my day-to-day composery life.

January 1st
But first, it was our customary trip up to Ross Sands to see the new year’s sunrise. The sun was not there at the time, appeared later, and then was replaced by soaking rain and wind. We then went to Mum’s for party snacks and the outer edge of a new jigsaw. Composery life proper starts tomorrow!

To find out more about Lullaby Of Silences, click here!

January 2nd
I’m having a very frustrating time learning this new (to me) music notating programme, I must say. Exceedingly frustrating. Inordinately frustrating. Mind-alteringly frustrating. The task I’m trying to do, I could so easily turn on the old computer and complete it with the old programme in an hour, maximum. So far, I have spent a day and a bit on it, and am still nowhere near complete. I’m trying to keep the bigger picture in mind, but oh boy, is it off-hackingly frustrating. I’m hoping that by the end of this extreme-learning boot-camp, I will not only be so very knowledgably nimble, but I will also still love this piece of music, which is the heavenly essence of my task.

January 3rd
Things are looking up, technology-wise, but still a slow process. I’ve moved on to fiddling with this one for our May Day themed concert.

January 4th
My camera situation is still unresolved, so this morning on my sunrise walk I had the phone, so did some panoramas for a change – the phone’s quite good at them – better than my last camera, and the camera that I’ve temporarily gone back to cannot do panoramas.

January 5th
Day off with my splendid family, with chatting and merriment.

January 6th
After a traumatic week and a bit learning new Sibelius stuff, I prepared a score for The Bridge Singers’ first rehearsal of 2025 today. There are still things I do not know how to do, of course, but we’re getting there. The song in question was Hail Shining Morn, and we did the learning of it this evening and it sounded splendid – so very cheery. This is the recording that inspired me to locate the music and prepare a score.

January 7th
Amble for a stroll by the splashy sea, then a day of pondering and organising for choirs and concerts. Here’s a bit of Amble and an excerpt from one of my Silent Early Stroll songs with lyrics by Ian McMillan.

January 8th
This week is so full of treats as (nearly) all the choirs start back up. Tonight it was Swarland Voices and they spent lots of cheery time getting to grips with a new one – The Peanut Vendor. Earlier I went for a walk round the Guyzance Loop at sunrise, and took frosty pictures, so here are some of them, with Swarland Voices singing of a frosty day in one of last year’s gigs. It’s the middle minute and the soloist in verse 1 is Vin.

January 9th
I sent out a choir email today: the first with the new computer. It was another stressful process. Every step of the way, things cause frustration. I’m good at this sort of stuff, but oh my goodness, these computer folk make things difficult for everyone with their “improvements”. Jamie looked up some of the problems in forums etc as he likes to do, and so many people have the same problems, and have done for months. Anyway, I sent a message and choir members have replied in their dribbly-in way that they have received it. Included was a link to our new playlist for the first half of 2025, which you might like to listen to!

May Day Concert songs for The Bridge Singers – YouTube

January 10th
More music notation learning for me today and also I’ve been writing an article for our village magazine, The Bridge, about The Bridge Singers. I do this every two months. It seems to come round quicker than that and sometimes, when there’s no poster to share and no immediate concert upcoming, it draws on my reserves of inspiration more than others. Anyway, it’s done. Here’s the song I’ve been working on:

Padstow May Song

January 11th
A mixture of a day, with icy walk, work and shopping. Not much to report.

January 12th
Another mixture of a day with more ice, more work and more walking, no shopping but lunch and jigsaw-ing with Mum. I’ve combined some of the two days’ walking photos with a fragment of Dancing Stream, performed by Rock Festival Choir…in 2005, can you believe!

January 13th
Choir night and we started on Four Pence A Day in earnest, getting to grips with verses 1 and 3. Also, it was a top sunrise, and later a full moon. Here’s some evidence:

January 14th
Choir committee tonight. I always get a bit worked up about these things, but as usual, it all went cheerily. I learn that this full moon we have is the Wolf Moon, so here’s my wolf song!

January 15th
I was at an excellently cheery Swarland Voices practice this evening. We had a go at this song, on account of all the Wolf Moon talk this week. It’s my wolfy song, Lupset Chase. We reminisced that we’d sung it in June 2022 and that somewhere there was a recording of that – our first ever outing in public! When I got back, I rootled out the recording and some suitably wildlifey pictures, also from June 2022, and here’s a minute of it.

January 16th
It was like the old days today, with a sunrise at Warkworth Beach in Northumberland. Jamie came too as a special treat, we did the leaping, and we saw stonechats, shingle and other things from the Earthbound song!

January 17th
Grocery shopping with Mum, fish and chips for lunch, then learning tracks – the next new thing to learn. Actually, it was more straightforward than I expected, so maybe I really am getting the hang of things. In the middle of all that someone in Scotland bought scores of this arrangement – one of our favourites, and a pleasing occurrence.

18th January
Top pre-sunrise and sunrise this morning, I thought. Here’s the evidence with a bit of marimba concerto. There was a time when I wrote things that didn’t have singers in them!!!

19th January
The Pastoral Dance (3rd Movement) from Vivaldi’s Spring is occupying me at present. I’m thinking we might sing it in The Bridge Singers. I think I’ll leave it until last to learn – it’ll be tricky and there’s plenty more music in the pile. In the meantime, here it is for four trombones. I like trombones.

20th January
Choir night and a bloomingly splendid rehearsal too. It was the big music switchover (although we’re keeping a handful of pieces over from before. One of the ones that was handed out was Burns’ “A Man’s A Man For A’ That”, and we sang it through on account of it being Burns Night at the weekend. I was looking back for one of our previous recordings to share, and found this video of our lockdown Burns Night.

21st January
Two Movies today: Conclave and A Complete Unknown. We both preferred the first, but both were good. So wonderful to hear Allegri’s Miserere in Conclave, and the scene with the umbrellas was truly eye-catching!

22nd January
Today I saw five deer and eight bullfinches on my morning walk, but no pictures, so here’s a song about a robin and a wren. I did see a robin!

23rd and 24th January
Dentist on Thursday morning, so didn’t feel like doing much after that. A storm with mighty winds came through today, so no going out. Someone did buy scores of The Birks Of Aberfeldy though, so I’ll share that seeing as it’s Burn’s birthday tomorrow!

25th January
Burns night and lots of people have been listening to my Burns songs, during the last few weeks. I’ve shared a few on here already myself, but here’s one that’s been particularly relevant during the last day or so!

26th January
I’m extricating myself from Twitter/X by doing lots of searching and deleting and unfollowing. I came across this, which was pleasing: “Hey Wow! Are you the ‘ladyfinger’ Cheryl Camm? If so, I’m honoured to be on a thread with you.”
I am indeed the Ladyfinger Cheryl Camm, and this is why:

27th January
Choir (The Bridge Singers) night tonight which was an absolute thrill and a half. Meanwhile, I’ve been getting to grips with this for the Swarland Voices choir. Sibelius and me are becoming friends, I might add!

28th January
Jamie and I went for a walk up at Beadnell today. The sun shone on us, then we were rained on a teensy bit. It was all very beautiful, as you can see. I was thinking of A Takeaway Sunrise as we walked; not that it was sunrise, but that’s the place that inspired Ian McMillan in the writing of the words.

29th January
I received this feedback today: “Yes! Been ages since I played Banana Fanfare, thanks for the reminder, that’s getting reposted immediately, anyone in any kind of funk, stink, mood or dog just needs a shot of this!”…
…then: “This is what we all need, cheers me the fuck up every time I play it, from the wonderful Cheryl Camm.”…
…then (when told that I still hear of the occasional performance of this from here and there): “It’s one of life’s small joys Cheryl, and if you let them in they will all club together and make a whole.”
Cheering exchange with Richard Mortimer, who’s an archaeologist and shares really splendid photos on BlueSky: richard mortimer (@richardmortimer.bsky.social) — Bluesky

30th January
At Lionheart Harmony this evening, we continued our alphabetical foray through Mick’s folders of music, arriving at T with The Water Of Tyne. Some of us have this filed under T and some have it under W! Anyway, they agreed that it is a good arrangement, and upon arriving home I looked to see if I have a recording of us singing it so that I could extract a minute to share with some photos. I found that we recorded it as part of our CD “Something For The Weekend” in 2013. The personnel on that recording is: Bass-Mick and Sid; Baritone-Jamie and Simon; Lead: Gary and Gary; Tenor: Michael and Cheryl. I’ve combined it this morning with some photos from May 2024 of the bridges and River Tyne in Newcastle and Gateshead. I discover that I still have not finished my extreme re-learning as it has taken me so much longer than it would have if I’d opened up the old computer to do it!!! I also discovered (after making this one!) that I’d already used this recording to make a video in 2013, also using pictures of the River Tyne in Newcastle and Gateshead. Ah well, we tend to forget things, eh?! And it’s nice to be reminded!

31st January
A frustrating morning with the technology, then a sad afternoon with news that a member of Swarland Voices died suddenly on Thursday, but then a cheering message from another pal and a Rock Festival Choir rehearsal for Sunday’s Candlemas ended the day on an encouraging note. Here are some spare January pictures accompanied by Swarland Voices on a cheery song, because we do laugh a lot.