Poetry wednesday; If I were a bear..........

I am so cold, it shouldn't be this cold, wet or windy in April........................

If I were a bear,
And a big bear too,
I shouldn't much care
If it froze or snew;
I shouldn't much mind
If it snowed or friz--
I'd be all fur-lined
With a coat like his!

For i'd have fur boots and a brown fur wrap,
And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap.
I'd have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws.

And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws.
With a big brown furry-down up to my head,
I'd sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.

OMG.... it's 1.30 in the morning and I've just been woken up by howling winds. I looked outside and there is a blizzard........snow swirling every where and it's so cold. I can feel the icy wind under doors and windows..........and my double glazing is quite good so what on earth must it be like outside. It's almost April ..wtf is going on????

Mary Black, singer songwriter

Clockwork Quartet, a strange musical experience

http://www.clockworkquartet.com/

It’s strangely reminiscent of something vaguely gothic. Also uniquely entertaining, it’s burlesque reinvented.

This is what they say about themselves on facebook;

From their East London warehouse, a coterie of young musicians and artists have grabbed the attention of the previously US-centric Steampunk scene. No longer beholden to the traditional media industry, the internet generation have harnessed the hardware, software and distribution channels they grew up with to give birth to a new culture – the first truly indigenous folk culture of the internet. Steampunk is an aesthetic of the mechanical inventions of the industrial revolution, the last great period of technological upheaval. The Steampunk look has been adopted by a rising counterculture whose ideals echo punk-inspired self reliance and anti-establishment sentiments, but with nihilism replaced by an optimism about human potential. The past year has seen a slew of Steampunk specific festivals and events across the world, the creation of a peer reviewed journal ("Neo-Victorian Studies"), and features in The New York Times, Wired magazine and on MTV.

"The Clockwork Quartet is a Dresden Dolls-esque collective of 20-odd musicians, actors and cabaret performers who all play various bizarre and morbidly dark characters. Intrigued?" – NME

The Clockwork Quartet consists of a core quartet of guitar, bass banjo, violin and cello, with help from accordion, oboe, piccolo banjo, Stroh violin, musical saw, and the magnificent Steamdrone, as well as the percussive possibilities of clocks, metronomes, discarded mechanical parts and found objects. Members include two trained luthiers, a carpenter, a jeweler, a prop maker and sculptor, a doctor of zoology. Available through the band’s website are beautifully crafted leather-bound Victorian-style pocket books filled with song lyrics, music and original illustrations, along with unique Clockwork Quartet jewellery.

The Clockwork Quartet are based at House of Strange studios (Noah and the Whale, Emmy the Great, Mumford & Sons).

www.clockworkquartet.com
Email: press@clockworkquartet.com
Tel: +44 (0) 779 695 5572
http://twitter.com/ClockwrkQuartet




 
 

Art Sunday; Emma Davis

Taken from this web site;

http://www.tolquhon-gallery.co.uk/Artists/emma%20s.davis%20rsw.htm

EMMA S.DAVIS RSW was born in Ayrshire into a family of artists. Her father, mother and brother are all respected artists.  She studied drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art graduating in 1998. While still a student, she exhibited in a number of Scottish galleries. This culminated in a sell-out Degree Show and her work has been in demand ever since.
 
Emma was the youngest ever winner of the Alexander Graham Munro Travel Award, awarded to her at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (RSW) in 1999. This award enabled her to travel extensively in Italy during 2000. As a result she  successfully exhibited many paintings of Italy at the annual RSW exhibition in 2001. She was elected an artist member of the RSW in the same year and in 2002 she was awarded the Sir William Gillies award at the RSW.
 
Emma's favourite subject matter is landscape but she also enjoys Still Life and enjoys combining paint with textiles and experimenting with different patterns and textures.
"I have a great love for the Scottish landscape, the daily changes in light and colour of our landscape influence the way I work every day, along with my own moods and emotions about particular areas I am painting.  My paintings have a textural quality, I like to "play" with different marks with my paint.  Collage of different materials, puddles and occasionally the "happy accident" are how my paintings come together alongside my favourite palette of rich pinks, indigoes and violets  - I am definitely a colourist at heart."

More of her paintings here
http://www.scottishartpaintings.co.uk/artist-emma-s-davis.asp

I don't have any thing to add to this except that I have seen a couple of her works and they really do have a very special quality, the colours are subtle and soft and perfectly represent the soft shades of the scottish landscape. She captures the essence of the Scottish  landscape.



 

Does the internet actually exist??

Just had am extraordinarily weird conversation about the nature of the internet with my daughter. Apparently the nature of networks is part of a course she is studying and this bought us to the subject of the internet in general and what, exactly, the internet actually is. By which I mean; does the internet actually exist, and if it does, where exactly it is and what form does it take. If something exists in strictly empirical terms it is usual to expect the ‘thing’ in question to have form and to be accessible to and detectable by our senses. The internet very obviously doesn’t fall into this category. My computer, which does exist in these terms, can be used to show images and hear sounds from the internet, but it’s not the internet itself, it’s a computer, a machine which is easily understood as being part of the ‘real’ and empirically validated world.
Which led us to ask; ‘’if the internet actually exists, and if it doesn’t exist in empirical form, what category of existence does the internet fall into and how is it’s existence defined’’?
‘’And if it does exist in empirical terms how does this definition work’’??
I can’t be the only person to have thought of this, there must be some clever philosophical thinker out there who has defined the existence of the internet and I would really like to know how this definition works.
These questions seem important to me, if things are now accepted as having ‘being’ without being subject to empirical scrutiny, that opens up a whole lot of space for a whole lot of debate about the definition of existence. This website said  ''frequently asked questions about the internet'' but it didn't answer my question.

http://emeagwali.com/history/internet/

Song Saturday; Ry Cooder

Ry Cooder singing Vigilante Man in a clip from 'The Old Grey Whistle Test'. Remember that?? I used to love that programme. Ever wondered where the programme got its title?? The story goes that there were a couple of grey haired ladies who used to clean the studio and they were oft around the building during rehearsals or even recordings. The 'test' was .... if they where whistling the song the next day... it passed!! No idea if this is a true story but its kinda nice.

Marisa Monte and Carlinhos Brown, Brazilian Music to enjoy.

Just back from hospital, YUK…. Injections in hand (not nice). Time for quick coffee and music before going into work.
This is nice, makes me feel loads better and fit for work, a little info from from Wikipedia.

Marisa Monte
While classically trained in opera singing, she grew up surrounded by the sounds of the Portela samba school, and combines diverse influences into her music. After failing to break through 1980s Brazilian Pop rock she went to semi-exile in Italy. She became a hybrid of MPB diva and Pop rock performer. Most of her music is in the style of modern MPB, she has also recorded traditional samba and folk tunes, as well and songs performed by Marvin Gaye, Lou Reed and George Harrison. Much of her work has been in collaboration with musicians/songwriters Carlinhos Brown,  and producer Arto Lindsay. Marisa Monte is unique as a Brazilian artist due to the fact that she owns the rights to all of her songs; it was the main demand to renew her contract with EMI Music.

Carlinhos Brown
 (born Antonio Carlos Santos de Freitas on November 23, 1962) is a Brazilian musician from Salvador, Bahia. He was born in Candeal Pequeno, a small neighbourhood in the Brotas area of Salvador de Bahia (Brazil). In 1967 he was still a child when Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (two 25 year old musicians from Bahia) started a movement that would radically change Brazilian and popular music:

controversial Kit Kat advert .................................By Greenpeace

This is what Greenpeace have to say;

Wow. There are several other words I could use to express my amazement at the response to our campaign about Nestlé's use of palm oil, but none of them are fit to write here, so "wow" will have to do for now.

Since Wednesday morning - when we launched our controversial Kit Kat advert and demanded that Nestlé stop using palm oil from companies destroying Indonesia's rain-forests - events have unfolded rapidly, and everyone at Greenpeace is amazed at how our supporters have taken this so much further than we ever imagined. Here's a quick recap:

    * Nestlé told Youtube to pull our video due to copyright infringement. It was later reinstated, but not before we'd uploaded it elsewhere and asked supporters to do the same. Current number of views: 585,000 and counting.
    * Facebook users went to Nestlé's fan page to ask what the company was doing about their palm oil suppliers, where they were met with rude and arrogant responses from the company. Word of this spread like wildfire around the internet, and has been the talk of many high-profile blogs and news websites.
    * Thousands of people around the world sent Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke emails, but we've discovered that Nestlé blocked many of these. Now, emails are going to André Kudelski, a member of the board of directors, and we're working out what to do with the ones which didn't get through.

Nestlé have issued a statement saying that they'll stop buying directly from the worst supplier, Sinar Mas, but this doesn't go far enough as much of their palm oil comes through third parties, like Cargill, who continue to buy palm oil from Sinar Mas.

Your actions are having a big impact at Nestlé HQ. If you haven't already, email Nestlé now demanding they stop using palm oil and other products from the notorious Sinar Mas. We had some technical problems with our website on Wednesday so if you weren't able to send your email, it's working absolutely fine now.

And don't forget to share our Kit Kat video with your friends.

,Don't think I'm allowed to post the actual advert here, too controversial, also copyright issues involved. But take a look  at the greenpeace campaign to stop Nestle buying palm oil and destroying the rain forest. It's pretty yukky but makes it's point.

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/index.html?utm_source=monkeyemailupdate&utm_medium=email&utm_term=palmoil&utm_campaign=forests

OMG......................I can access Multiply again! Have no idea what has been going on but for the last week or so, every time I tried to get into Multiply, I was told ''website unavailabel check the address etc'', Now, suddenly and for no apparent reason, I can get back in again. Oh...........missed it here, will have to catch up after work

midweek music; Van Canto

And now for something completely different......Van Canto is an a cappella metal band from Germany, founded in 2006 and composed of five singers and a drummer. Although the group is often classified as an a cappella ensemble, they use real drums in their music, instead of vocal percussion or beatboxing.

van Canto fuses a cappella with heavy/power metal, creating what they call "a capella hero metal". While only two of the five singers perform the lead vocals, the other three will instead use their voices to imitate the guitars and the bass, with the help of amplifiers, in an attempt to sound closer to the original instruments.

Gardening No 6

Another little garden update;
It was Mothers Day on Sunday and my daughter asked me if I would like to go the the garden center with her (silly question!!).

She bought me a couple of trays of bedding plants, she said she thought I would rather chose bedding plants than have a bunch of flowers. What a wise daughter.

Sure you remember these ... 'containers' from last year when they were full of multi-coloured bizzy lizzy throughout the summer months.

 It's so nice to have them planted up again, this time in various shades of pink.

This is my most recent eco-addition to the garden. I haven't figured out a way to have a water butt in the garden to collect rain water BUT;.... these cut off milk containers will (in theory)  collect the rain water ready for me unscrew the 'lid' and fill the watering can. One container only holds 2 liters but if I get enough of them fixed to the fence it will certainly help.

Art Sunday Sir Henry Raeburn.

Sir Henry Raeburn;

Scotlands greatest portrait painter,
March 1756 – 8 July 1823)

He was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, a former village now within the city of Edinburgh.

Orphaned, he was supported by his older brother and placed in Heriot's Hospital, where he received an education. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and various pieces of jewellery, mourning rings and the like, adorned with minute drawings on ivory by his hand, still exist.

 Soon he took to the production of carefully finished portrait miniatures; meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil painting, at which he was self-taught.

The goldsmith watched the progress of his pupil with interest, and introduced him to David Martin, who had been the favourite assistant of Allan Ramsay the Latter, and was now the leading portrait painter in Edinburgh. Raeburn was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy.

Soon he had gained sufficient skill to make him decide to devote himself exclusively to painting.

Read more here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Raeburn

The Gardening starts No5

The gardening starts today No 5

THE STORY SO FAR

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/481/The_Gardening_Starts_Today

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/485/The_Gardening_Starts_No2

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/486/The_Gardening_Starts_No3

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/494/The_Gardening_Starts_No4

Just a quick update;
At last the first tomato seedlings are big enough to transplant into the troughs and put on the window sill.
Now I have rocket seedlings in troughs on the living room window sill and tomato seedlings on the kitchen window sill.
I also have my first batch of lettuce seedlings on the kitchen window sill.  These little seedlings in the black pots are pretty special young fellows.
They are grown from seed that I harvested from my wonderful parsley plant last year. If the weather holds for just another couple of days I’ll be very tempted to transplant these red onion seedlings into the big black pots out side. They are still very small and young to be left out side but they are outgrowing these tiny trays. I just hope they are strong enough to cope outside; maybe I should cover them for the first few weeks of outdoor life.
And this morning I see the first signs that the pepper and chili seeds are growing, soon I shall be finding places fro them on window sills.
Making space for my 'food plants' means clearing away some of the decorative plants and that includes cutting and potting the spider plant babies.
Think it's time for another lunch time plant sale at work.

Art Sunday, unknown painting.

I spent friday with a team of 11 /12 year olds at the University of Dundee as they presented their project to a group of visitors and judges (we won a prize). The event was held in one of the newest buildings of the campus which, along with every other part of the university, had several paintings hung along the walls. This painting really appealed to me, it caught my attention immediately we entered the building. No one there seemed to know any thing about it but I strongly suspect it's by  a past or present student of Duncan and Jordanstone College of Art (part of the University).
We were in a huge double height gallery and this painting was hung very high, much too far away to get a good look and absolutely no chance of getting up close. I estimated the size to be about 6 ft x 8 ft (aprox 2 mts x 3 mts). This is the best shot I could get but my zoom isn't very good and there was no way of getting any closer.
To me, this is very typically a student life study but, an exceptionally good one. I longed to get up close and inspect the detail, no chance of that. The red headscarf sets off the blues and greys perfectly, the detail on the hands is especially good and the profile is striking to say the least. Now I'm on a mission to find out who painted it what if any thing else they have produced. First thing tomorrow I shall be emailing the curator of the university and asking for details.  

Weekend Music, Rufus Wainwright, Sean Lennon and Moby.

Think this must be quite unique, Sean Lennon son of John Lennon, and Rufus Wainwright son Louden Wainwright, singing a Lennon tribute, live on stage with Moby. Across The Universe, with Rufus lead singing.

The Gardening Starts No4

The gardening Starts No4

THE STORY SO FAR

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/481/The_Gardening_Starts_Today

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/485/The_Gardening_Starts_No2

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/486/The_Gardening_Starts_No3

This weekend there was no snow, no ice, and no visitors (except the granddaughter for a couple of hours Sunday afternoon). This gave me the perfect opportunity to get out there in the garden and get on with things.

Off I went to the garden for what I suppose could be called ‘’damage assessment’’. To my amazement all the lavender pots look ok. I chopped away at the straggly bits and took off the dead bits from last year and what was left seems to be ok. The fact that I get a wafting smell of lavender when I walk past or chop bits off is a very good sign.

Many of the mint and spearmint pots look totally dead but you never know, I’ll just wait and see. The encouraging thing is that some of the pots where the herbs all look completely dead are filling up with snowdrops.


Snowdrops in bloom mean that spring has defiantly arrived in my garden. The one mint pot that looks relatively undamaged is the Chocolate Mint, so glad that one survived.

Already it’s sending out new shoots and looking good. On every tiny piece of land left untamed the spring bulbs are beginning to shoot, I just love the sight of this, it means we can say goodbye to the worst of  winter for another year.

The one area that did sustain a lot of damage is the pond area. The ice has left all those tiles I fixed around the edges last year cracked and flaking. The little pots with strawberries sitting on the edge of the pond froze and thawed so many times in the end they just cracked and fell to pieces. The pond itself is a dark and dingy mess. Somewhere in there I think I have one goldfish but the whole thing needs clearing out and replanting. The water froze and thawed so many times all the plants died and falling leaves and strong winds have left the water looking murky and black. Maybe I should look out for an inexpensive solar pump to keep the water circulating next year.

Remember how I thought my rose was killed by the sub zero temperatures? just look at it now, more pink buds than I have ever seen before. This is far from the dead rose I thought I had.

 And still the parsley thrives, through out the worst of the winter this parsley has remained fresh, green and lush, I’m sure it’s some sort of arctic species of parsley.  I told a work colleague about my thriving parsley and she said it’s an old wives tale that only wise women can grow parsley  (lol) , I thought this was funny but obviously not to be taken seriously.

I'm also very pleased with my rosemary. I have a couple of bushes but this one always looks good and you can smell it as soon as you enter the garden.

 I checked on the fruit canes I planted last October, they all seem to have survived intact and most of them have new buds already. I’m especially pleased with the quince I bought. There was a wild quince bush growing in an old allotment close to where my mother lives and years ago we used to pick the fruit and make the most delicious quince jelly. I’m really looking forward to that this year.

I finished my gardening spree by re-potting some of the tiny seedlings sown from the seeds I bought last month.

I planted onions, tomatoes, peppers, chili and salad. Some, like the peppers and chili haven’t even sprouted yet but the rocket came up within days and soon needed a better pot and a more permanent position. I cleared away all the ornamental plants from my living room window sill to make way for my ‘food’ plants. When the onions are strong enough they can go outside but the salad and tomatoes will need to stay indoors which means my window sill space is about to double up as ‘greenhouse’ space. The plan with the rocket is to keep it growing in the window sill and pick a few leaves to eat as I need them. Next to be potted and found window space will be the tomatoes, already they are sprouting into strong little seedlings.
Dealing with ‘food’ seedlings is a very strange experience and quite different to dealing with non-food plants.

The rocket seedlings are tiny and obviously very fragile but knowing they are a ‘food’ crop seems to make so much difference to the way I handle them and the way I think about them. It’s easy enough to forget to water the plants once in a while but knowing these are food makes me remember, the feeling is akin to remembering to check a cake that’s in the oven. Allowing these tiny seedlings to die would be like letting the cake burn.
It's just so nice to start gardening again