Steve Miller Band

Its a late night for me, still not sleeping very well...............this helps

Weekend Music

Music to relax and enjoy.............reminiscent of blue skies, the sound of the sea and song birds.

Blue Skies; music for the weekend.

Today the rain has gone and we have blue skies. I’ve spent the whole day in the garden. I’d like to say I’ve been working away all day; truth is I spent long periods just sitting listening to the birds and enjoying the sunshine. I did do quite a lot of work, but its only a small garden and I was out there for hours, Which gave me plenty of time to just sit. I enjoy just sitting in the garden watching the world go by.

Bob Marley-I can see clearly now. (HQ)



Allman Brothers Band - Blue Sky







ELO - Mr.Blue Sky (Original Promo)

A birthday, grandchildren staying and some music.

Tonight I have three grandchildren staying, their mothers are out celebrating the youngest birthday. My youngest daughter is 29 tomorrow, oh how old that makes me feel. Her cake has a picture of Bertha her horse on it. Before they went out I made cheese pasta with lashings of cheese and fresh basil with a side dish of potato salad made from freshly dug potatoes  served with fresh mint and chives.
I've just bedded the younger two and I'm sat here watching my all time favourite movie, 'Avatar' with my eldest grandson, he's almost 11. I couldn't decide on my music choice tonight and on a whim, I asked him. This, apparently, is the music of choice for my almost 11 yr old grandson. It seems to fit the mood of the moment.

Song Saturday...................Madness, House of Fun

I thought this was appropriate, the grandchildren are staying the weekend................no quiet sedate weekend for me. it's all go here.

Song saturday.............storms and rain

Need I say more……………………..

Celebration of blue; Pale Blue Eyes.

We are a couple of weeks away from the longest day, midsummers day, by the end of the month we will be heading back into darkness and another winter. It feels as if last winter has never left us. We have had a nice day here and there, sometimes even a couple of days, or at best a week, but then we descend back into the cold the wet and the miserable. A friend said to me we have lovely long summer evenings, and so we do, but long summer evenings are not the slightest use if it’s too cold to go out and enjoy them. I’m sitting here, at my computer, it’s a few minutes before 11 and it’s almost dark. If you look north you can still see the glow of evening light. Usually I love these long summer evenings but today I’m indoors, wearing winter woolies and turning up the heating. The song ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ has been playing over and over in my head all day. I’ve always liked this song. It made me start thinking about ‘blue’, I guess I’m a little ‘blue’ at the moment ( both literally and metaphorically). This lack of summer is enough to make any one feel ‘blue’.

But; ‘blue’ can be good too, here is a selection of the ‘good’ blues this melancholy mood has led me too. ……….

A collection of ‘Blue’ paintings.

 First here are the well known favorites’; the Blue Dancers by Degas,
followed by a couple of Picasso

and a couple of Monet.


The photo at the top of the page is of the American abstract expressionist painter and artist Helen Frankenthaler sitting amidst her art in her New York City studio. Photographed by Gordon Parks for LIFE magazine ca. 1956.

Polarbearprince by Sweedish artist Nils Dardel.
Nils Elias Christoffer von Dardel (sign: Nils Dardel) (1888 – 1943) was a Swedish post-impressionist painter born in Bettna, Södermanland, Sweden. After studying at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm, he was one of a group of young artists who went to Paris in around 1910.

In the Garden my Richard Emil Miller
Richard Emil Miller (1875-1943), American Impressionist painter, studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, & then sailed for Paris to study at Academie Julian (1898–1901). Paris was the art capital of the 19th-century. Its museums, exhibition spaces, art academies, & the manner in which the arts were perceived as an integral part of everyday life drew painters, sculptors, & architects from around the world to the French capital.

The flower meadow by Lynn Rodgie
Lynn Rodgie is constantly inspired by her environment; the Scottish countryside around her gives endless ideas for paintings. As she says; ‘The soft rolling hills of the borders is perhaps not as spectacular as the rugged north or as picturesque as the Lake District, but it has a gentle pull that grows on you over time. The geometric shapes and colours of the ploughed fields, rows of hay bales in a golden field are visions that will get me itching to pick up a paintbrush'.


Farm Blue by John Piper
John Piper paintings are always in oils on board or on canvas. A restricted use of colour and an emphasis on line and form, set within the Cornish landscape dominate the paintings. John paintings often have a series of thin glazes applied one upon another. Sometimes earlier drawing is allowed to show through; whilst at other times the painting is deeply scratched and scraped, providing an intensity of depth and colour. At other times, particularly with smaller paintings, paint is applied more opaquely and with less over-drawing.


A poem by Anne Bronte
The Bluebell.

( watercolour by Clair Winteringham)

A fine and subtle spirit dwells
In every little flower,
Each one its own sweet feeling breathes
With more or less of power.
There is a silent eloquence
In every wild bluebell
That fills my softened heart with bliss
That words could never tell.
( Barbara Bagley)

Yet I recall not long ago
A bright and sunny day,
'Twas when I led a toilsome life
So many leagues away;
( Barbara Bagley)
That day along a sunny road
All carelessly I strayed,
Between two banks where smiling flowers
Their varied hues displayed.


Before me rose a lofty hill,
Behind me lay the sea,
My heart was not so heavy then
As it was wont to be.
( Barbara Bagley)
Less harassed than at other times
I saw the scene was fair,
And spoke and laughed to those around,
As if I knew no care.
( Anne Mortimer)

But when I looked upon the bank
My wandering glances fell
Upon a little trembling flower,
A single sweet bluebell.
(John Connolley)
Whence came that rising in my throat,
That dimness in my eye?
Why did those burning drops distil --
Those bitter feelings rise?
(Matthew Palmer)
O, that lone flower recalled to me
My happy childhood's hours
When bluebells seemed like fairy gifts
A prize among the flowers,
(Sally Stafford)
Those sunny days of merriment
When heart and soul were free,
And when I dwelt with kindred hearts
That loved and cared for me.
( water colour by Mulligan Greta)
I had not then mid heartless crowds
To spend a thankless life
In seeking after others' weal
With anxious toil and strife.
'Sad wanderer, weep those blissful times
That never may return!'
The lovely floweret seemed to say,
And thus it made me mourn.

And the music that began this tour of the blue………………Pale Blue Eyes

The most annoying song in the world.

Good morning world.
After a wild and windy weekend gardening I woke up to calm blue skies, no wind and mild temperature, a perfect start to the week. Except for one thing. This irritating song that, for no apparent reason, appeared in my head the very nano second I drifted  into consciousness.
Warning……….don’t listen to this it’s the most annoying song in the world and will stick in your head all day.
Hey ho………..Monday morning back to work, have a pleasant day folks  :-) 

Another couple of songs

Leonard Cohen, another great songwriter and poet

just a couple of songs

There's a lot of Johnny Cash on TV recently, I'd forgotten how much I like him. In the youtube comments under this video some one has written..
'please take Justin Bieber and send Johnny back'...........now I know you can't go around wishing people dead.......but I kinda see their point :-)

Song Saturday Sunshine

My ‘project’ for this week has been printing off and mounting some of the hundreds of photographs I took when I went to Rhodes in 2004. I have albums and albums of photographs charting the kids growing up, family holidays, birthdays Christmases’ etc, (as I’m sure has every one else). And then, about ten or so years ago, I bought my first digital camera and suddenly…………..the family albums stop. Now I’m missing the photograph albums and I’ve decided to sort out the photographs, print some of them,  and make up new albums. And.....… first on my list was Rhodes.

To me this was the holiday of a lifetime. I loved it, apart from the unlimited culture, history, art, architecture, an intact medieval walled town, ancient archeology sites on every corner, sea food like no other and many ,many more delights, what  I think of more than any thing else, is the SUNSHINE. I kid you not; the weather was wonderful, all day, every day. The skies were blue, the seas were blue and the sun was hot. This music doesn’t have very much to do with Rhodes……………but its all about the sunshine……….

Song Saturday; ..........colour and spots.

Two songs that are full of colour and fun, to go with this weeks
‘Art Sunday’……..which is also colourful and fun.

Brian Hyland; Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
and
Rolling Stones;   She's a Rainbow -

Song Saturday; Eva Cassidy

I've got a 4 day long-weekend break................and I have a cold, nasty thumping headache, runny nose and itchy eyes............I need some soothing music.

A sunset through the trees and music to match.

A sunset through the trees and some music.

This has been a very busy weekend, in two days I’ve visited a small gallery in Aberdeen, marveled at the sun setting through the trees, stayed over at my daughters to look after the grandchildren while she went to a friends 30th and then managed to get home in time to do a couple of hours in the garden.

The weather was warm and the sky was  blue. The ice had gone and the sun was shining. I saw the sun dipping behind the trees yesterday on my way to my daughters and ever since then, this song has been buzzing around my head.

‘’All I need is the air that I breathe’’……that summed up exactly how I was feeling as I watched the sun through the trees.




The Hollies;  All I need is the air that I breathe

Song saturday; La diva

Was looking for something a little different……………..and found this……….
I find it strangely compelling.

Opera Babes - Casta Diva

Opera Babes - Casta Diva

From the Bellini Opera Norma

"Casta diva" was one of the most familiar arias of the nineteenth century, I love the way these ladies bring the vaguely Gothic  back into opera.

Song Saturday; Vivaldi & Roberta Flack

A few hours late for a real 'Song Saturday'..........but whats a couple of hours between friends?
 
I’ve had a great day. The weather is cold, wet and horrible, snow, sleet, rain and temperatures just high enough to turn every thing into a grey slushy mess. I spent one and a half hours on a bus and at the end of the day, when it was dark as well as cold wet and horrible, I did the journey in reverse. But, it was a really good day because, for the first time in ages, I got to see a very dear friend who’s health is failing, she is almost housebound now. We spent the afternoon reminiscing, chatting and generally enjoying pleasant conversation. When ever I manage to see her I know it could be the last time, we don’t say so……….but we know……….so we make the most of it…………..yep a great day, I hope we have more days like that.

The music just reflects the way I’m feeling right now.


Vivaldi, Four Seasons, Winter.


The first time I ever saw your face

Etta James; I'd rather go blind.

I’d rather go blind; Etta James

One of the best……………….

Song Saturday; Carol King

Song Saturday; Carol King

I heard her playing on the radio today at work. That brought back memories, before getting rid of all my vinyl last year it was one of my favourite albums.

The Glass harp, music or a novelty?..............or both?

http://www.roberttiso.com/

I’m not sure if I should post this as ‘music’ or as a novelty act, but either way, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen or heard before. I found it fascinating and strangely hypnotic.
 The glass harp was first created in 1741 by an Irishman, Richard Pockrich: he is known as the first virtuoso of this instrument and started a completely new musical tradition.
Robert Tiso was born in London in 1968 and spent most of his life in Italy where he still lives. His musical education started at the age of 15 studying classical guitar and ever since has evolved in many directions. He studied music theory, composition and sound engineering with Paolo Marzocchi and has participated in some of his projects.

His interest for glass music began in 2000 when he was musical director of a theatre production for which he created and played his first glass harp.