Song Saturday; Van Morrison,Ballerina

One of my favourites, I fell in love with this mans music a very long time ago and it has never lost its charm for me. I especially like this track, from the first album of his I ever (still do) owned.

think I want to live in a mud house

I want to live in a mud house, maybe I could even build my own.............how good would that be ?  :-)

 

RAIN..................

 
paintings by 
Spyros Vassiliou, born 1903

  in Galaxidi, a village in Central Greece

A poem;
Rain by Shel Silverstein 

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can't do a handstand--
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--
I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.

 

Carlos Santana

Sometimes, it all gets too much,

I feel like...''stop the world I want to get off''

There seems to be so much bad out there and I need to not think about it, ................

This helps......................

 

That time of year again; free fruit and jam making.

(above; from my garden)
That time of year again; food for free

I don’t think I need many words here, the pictures are self explanatory. Its that time of year again, time to go hedgerow picking. My garden fruit  didn’t amount to very much. I didn’t really expect it to because most of the fruit was only planted this year or toward the end of last year. But; what I did harvest from the garden made  a couple of very tasty little snacks. Hopefully by next year there will be enough for a few meals.

The wild berries are abundant this year.




The Rowanberries are full and plump very early. Last years Rowanberry and Apple Marmalade is marked October 09, and here we are, at the start of September and already the Rowanberries are ripe.

I had my two grandchildren staying with my and they were happy to help.

Later that evening, after tea, wicked granny that I am, I sent my grandson up the ladder to pick as many of the tiny crab apples from my garden tree as he could reach.

It’s always the same, the nicest ones stayed on the tree right at the top out of reach.

These little apples are not good enough to eat but they add a fantastic flavour and good setting quality to preserves.

And this weekend I’ve had my other granddaughter staying. I explained to her that I wanted to attempt rosehip syrup for the first time this year.

She picked as many Rosehips as she could and I’m pretty sure I can make a batch of syrup from them.

Once I had a bag full of Rosehips we wandered along by the burn picking the ripe Blackberries, and this afternoon she has gone home proudly clutching her jar of Blackberry and Apple jam. Can’t get a lot fresher than that, this time yesterday they were on the bush, teatime today the jam will be on her toast.

Art Sunday; Sir james Guthrie

(above; schoosdays)

Sir James Guthrie (June 10, 1859 – September 6, 1930) was a Scottish painter.
He was best known in his own lifetime as a portrait painter, although today he is more generally known as a painter of Scottish Realism.
He was born in Greenock, the son of a clergyman, he originally enrolled at Glasgow University to study law, but abandoned this in favour of painting in 1877.

(below; Pastures new)

Unlike many contemporary painters he did not study in Paris, he was mostly self-taught, although he was mentored for a short time by James Drummond in Glasgow and then John Pettie in London.

(below; the highland funeral)

He lived most of his life in the Scottish Borders, most notably in Cockburnspath, Berwickshire, where he painted some of his most important works, including A Hind's Daughter 1883 (my personal favourite, just love that little girl in the cabbage patch), and Schoolmates. He was strongly influenced by the French Realists, but is remembered as one of the painters in the Glasgow movement.

(below; The Hinds daughter, my personal favourite)

Guthrie embraced the establishment, being the first of the 'Glasgow Boys' to be elected to the Royal Scottish Academy (1888). He was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1888, and a full member in 1892. In 1902 he succeeded Sir George Reid as RSA president in 1902, and he was knighted the following year.

(below; reading the morning paper)

Guthrie became one of the most progressive of Scottish 19th century painters. He chose his subjects from everyday life; A Highland Funeral (1881) was widely regarded as a master-piece and is today held by Glasgow Art Gallery. This is a wonderfully atmospheric painting and showers his remarkable skills, but as I said, my own particular favourite is the Hinds Daughter.

(below; The summerhouse)

 

Song Saturday; Ravi Shankar

This week, I felt like something a little different. He always makes me remember an eccentric aunt and uncle of mine, both now long dead. When we were children back in the 50's one of my uncles played the  sitar, when we visited, the strange instrument sitting in the corner of the living room was a source of wonder. One day he announced that he, his wife and their four children were all going to become vegetarians, and from that day onwards they were. A few years later, he announced that the entire family were going to move out of English suburbia and live in a remote part of the welsh Hills, which they did. After that I didn't get to see them very much, but the sitar forever reminds me of them.