September 30th

I’ve been working apace to get my next video done, but it’ll have to wait until October now! We had a rehearsal tonight for The Bridge Singers – our last before we head to Cumbria. We ironed out a few problems we’d encountered yesterday and are ready for action. Here are a couple more clips from yesterday’s concert to whet your appetite!

September 29th

In the afternoon it was the first of The Bridge Singers’ “Songs For Autumn” recitals including the world premiere of my Lullaby of Silences and a septet of volunteers also sang Autumn Sea. On the whole this was an excellent recital and once again it is clear to one and all what a splendid choir this is and how wonderful it is to wave my arms around in front of them. I also did the drumming because Ray was absent, and I received two remarks from the same person: I was too loud when I was standing right next to her (we started in amongst the audience); I’m not a bad drummer, am I? I’m quite happy with that feedback. There was universal praise for my new song, almost entirely the result of Connor singing the solo at the start, I’m sure. Here are our three soloists of the afternoon.

September 28th

We went to Newcastle today for some shopping and to see the Downton Abbey film. Very soppy but I loved it. Jamie like it too in spite of the soppiness! We laughed a lot too, and managed to nab all the purchases we went into town for. Excellent morning and afternoon, then home for more athletics. I love days like this.

September 27th

I’m working hard on my next Twelve Of The Best blog – it’s taking a while but it will get there before the end of September, I’m determined. In the meantime, tonight was one of the first for a long time that we were both in with nothing urgent to attend to, so an evening of telly (athletics) in relaxed circumstances!

September 26th

Tonight at Lionheart Harmony we started singing Christmas music – lots of my arrangements and also In The Bleak Midwinter. I think we might do it with the tenors and basses from The Bridge Singers this year too. The sopranos and altos can do Hodie on their own this time. If you don’t know what I’m talking about:

September 25th

A choir in New Zealand recently sang my Hodie Chrstus Natus Est in New Zealand. The recording of it has appeared on YouTube!

September 24th

I finished my newest Twelve Of The Best catalogue and blog which you can read here. I also sorted out in my head what needs to be done for the choir on Sunday, so all in all it should be a good night’s sleep!

Twelve Of The Best: Songs Of The River.

September 23rd

Choir night and a difficult rehearsal with everyone feeling a bit on edge about the concert. This is always how it is when we practise at St. Michael’s. I forget each time. We’ve sung so many times this year without any fretting whatsoever…at weddings and in guest appearances, but for some reason tonight’s dress rehearsal filled everyone with doubts and we returned to our “looking down furiously at the music because I don’t know it” old ways with nobody listening or blending and intent on their own issues – all that lightness and cheeriness of recent months has disappeared. Bloomin’ concerts, eh?! I guess all will be well on Sunday as it also usually is, but it would be so good to have a good rehearsal beforehand as well! I also worked on my new video. I’m quite happy with it, although somewhere in the transfer to YouTube it has lost some of its sharpness, but still, you get the idea, I’m sure!

September 22nd

I dug up potatoes today – not all of them. There are still plenty left in the ground. I also picked lots of runner beans. I’ve started a new Twelve Of The Best blog, the video of which is going to be troublesome, I can tell. Anyway, the men on the bridge have left a fine array of paraphernalia behind for the weekend, including an intriguing green tent-like structure over some of the slices they’ve taken out of the road surface. Here are some picture of my watering can investigating!

September 21st

We went to Tynemouth market and shops today in search of specific things. We were completely unsuccessful. We tried a few other places too and were similarly thwarted by once again wanting things that are not what everyone is buying and therefore are hard to find. However, while we were in Tynemouth we sat and had a drink in Kitschener’s Vintage Café in the Green Ginger Arcade. Jamie had a coffee, but I selected a milkshake from their extensive selection based on popular chocolate bars and sweets – Bounty Milkshake. Delicious. We shall return there. It’s a very quirky place indeed. We popped up to Gallery 45 on our return and as we browsed on came my song Autumn Sea as the background music. I spotted it immediately and gave out a squeal of delight, and the very lovely Cheryl Jackson behind the counter chuckled at her ruse. We weren’t the only people in there so it was very thrilling. We watched rugby once we were home for good, and other telly treats. Nice day, if a bit frustrating early doors.

September 20th

I’ve spent just about the entire day writing the programme for The Bridge Singers’ Songs Of Autumn concerts. I quite enjoy it, but it takes so very long. Anyway, there was a merry quartet of Fingers Adrift this evening to take my mind away from the (by then) completed job. Here’s the front cover, which surprisingly took a goodly proportion of time – I really am not a graphic designer!

September 19th

Lionheart Harmony performed at a concert in St. Lawrence’s Church this evening. My No-Umbrella Blues was on the menu as well as lots of yummy cake. This little snippet is of us singing Sweet Caroline, and the image is from our performance position but before the concert began. Most of us are in the picture in the distance. It’s a very beautiful church, and nice to sing in so maybe others I know could give it a go sometime!

September 18th

Today I travelled back from Worksop on a variety of trains and a bus, noticing things of interest as I waited at stations. Then I finished the blog to go with my new video catalogue, then we went to a bonus Lionheart Harmony rehearsal in readiness for tomorrow’s concert in Warkworth, then I went to sleep. Here’s my new blog: Twelve Of The Best: Songs In Popular Styles.

September 17th

Today I went to London with Mum to see Kew Gardens in general and the Dale Chihuly glass exhibition in particular. Oh my goodness, it was spectacular. We walked for ages, and we oohed and aahed very often. Jamie and I had been to Kew the last time there was Chihuly glass there, but I really think that this was more beautiful and more dramatic. Some of the pieces sit starkly in the open, dominating the landscape in a dramatic and colourful fashion and others are integrated into the foliage, are rather plant-like themselves and just blend in. Mum had never been to Kew before so even without the glass it would have been thrilling. We did a bit of messing about as you see here.

September 16th

Preparing for choir and choir itself most of the day, but also managed to just about finish the new blog and video. Here’s the video. It’s all about music in a variety of popular styles. Choir was very encouraging. I was incredibly energetic – it usually works. We tackled all the hardest music and also put some very classy musicality into our Italian madrigals. The first autumn concert is in less than a fortnight!

September 15th

Today, Jamie and I went to Ross Sands for a rare walk together. We made it all the way to the obelisks and were transfixed to find over 1000 seals at the water’s edge. We skirted round them by clambering up the dunes, then sat up there and watched them loll about and wobblyjoust with each other for about half an hour until the cold northerly seeped into our sinews.

September 14th

Singing at Felton Music and making a start on a new “Twelve Of The Best” video, picking all the broad beans for freezing.

September 13th

A day of mostly gardening and tasks related to that. I dug up one bucket of potatoes washed and sorted them for the winter – this is less than a quarter of what’s in the ground. I gathered a bucketful of runner beans, washed sliced and blanched them for freezing. I made Mum’s damsons into jam. Yesterday there were white cauliflowers to harvest, and there will be more, I can see. White and fluffy like in the song – not one of my songs, but one that I’ve had to play a lot in Autumn assemblies! I also did some marketing and we had Fingers Adrift here tonight, so a good combination of activities all in all!

September 12th

I’ve been working on a new Twelve Of the Best video and blog and I’ve finally finished it. It’s all about rounds and partner songs and songs which have rounds as part of them. It turns out I’ve written quite a few and they’re all pretty popular too. Here it all is:

And the blog with more information and links is here. Twelve Of The Best: Songs With Rounds.

September 11th

I’m working on my new blog which should be finished tomorrow, but today I’ve been keeping an eye on the bridge outside. They’ve been taking away the railings on the new bridge for repair and so lots of workmen have been here yesterday and today. The choir likes me to keep them informed from my excellent vantage point, so I’ve been writing one of my step-by-step updates of what I see through the window.

September 10th

It was the end-of-summer MadriGALS tour round Northumberland today: Acklington, Whittingham and Longframlington. Lots of fun, greatly improved singing at each performance, lots of chat. I had some bat chat with Hazel over lunch. She knows lots about bats and is incredibly enthusiastic about them. I love people who are enthusiastic about something. She had just been to a bat conference in Nottingham and had attended a workshop by researchers who have recorded the calls bats make, and manipulated the recordings so that these calls can now be heard by humans. It sounds fascinating, and the calls are rather beautiful it seems. I forgot to mention my bat song “Creatures Of the Night”, but another time, perhaps!

Rebekah, Tessa and I sang a couple of trios. Here’s a bit of one of them as recorded by Shuna. Rebekah’s the one with the loveliest voice, Tessa’s the one who’s the most accurate, I’m the one who jigs about the most. Not a bad effort considering that we’d not sung them together until today. We went to The Running Fox in Longframlington for (in my case) chocolate cake and fizzy orange (San Pelegrino Blood Orange) before an early night to catch up on the sleeping.

September 9th

A day of prep for choir: breakfast meetings; alto practice; printing; article-writing; rhythmic-warm-up designing; actual rehearsal; wind-down. It takes a lot of winding down, I might add…pub for rum and coke and chatting for an hour or so, then much turning over of thoughts, then eventual dropping off to sleep, then early wake-up on Tuesday. It’s always the same. Trouble is…tomorrow’s a busy one as well!

September 8th

I went to The Hepworth Wakefield for Musical Sculptures. We tackled three Winged Figures with quite a few families in attendance despite the gallery being fairly quiet. I had a look around the newly planted garden and look what I found! Hepworth’s Ascending Form. Maybe I should hunt them all out! After driving home, I went to MadriGALS for the last rehearsal before Tuesday’s tour – 1st soprano today, but 2nd on Tuesday. There’s no credit in this really. I should be able to sight-read any part after all what with all my aural and score-reading training.

September 7th

The Bridge Singers sang for Sarah and Ben’s wedding at Brinkburn today: Amazing Grace, Schubert’s Ave Maria and a bit of Sanctus from Missa Luba while they signed the registers. An excellent job. Then I drove to Worksop and spent the evening watching cricket with Mum. Earlier Jamie and I had been to Alnwick Gardens to use our new Friends of the Garden cards. This is going to be a very excellent birthday gift, I can see. The roses were splendid, and I was happy to see Hepworth’s Ascending Form again.

September 6th

Today I was starting a new Twelve of The Best video and also we had lots of cake and other birthday treats left. Heads down sort of day.

September 5th

Jamie’s birthday, and Lionheart Harmony at our house, so lots of housework, gardening and cake making and duck with cherry sauce and home grown vegetables for lunch as is our birthday tradition. Here’s a song I wrote for Jamie on a previous birthday in 2001 – the zebra birthday, and here too is a picture of him on that very day in a frame I received when I left my wonderful teaching job in Australia – they both sit on my desk here!

September 4th

Shopping for tomorrow and finishing off the blog. I added the Christmas Arrangements one to the Christmas one so that everything’s in the one place. Twelve Of The Best: Christmas.

September 3rd

Another day, another video. This time, Christmas arrangements. I learned how to make the pathways smoother today…look at those oh so smooth titles heading to their positions! Also, one of the weed sunflowers snapped off at its root in the wind today. I cut it to about 15 inches and brought it in. It’s recovering in a vase and may yet open.

September 2nd

Someone at choir tonight said that this is the best thing of mine that he knows, another said that the words were moving her to tears and she was struggling to sing it, but it was gorgeous, several others were of a mind to come up to me and say how they love it…and Jamie likes it too. Oh my! Must be worth another listen!

September 1st

I made another “Twelve Of The Best” video catalogue today – Christmas songs. Here’s the video and there’s more information links on the blog. Twelve Of The Best: Christmas.