Andra Day - Rise Up

I love this song, obviously inspired by Maya Angelou.

An anthem for keeping going.eh?

It’s Saturday night and I’ve just had a delightfully hot long shower after work. 

Covered in dogs I’m now watching the 1971 The French Connection and I’ve forgotten just how good it is .but I need to go to bed soon as I’m up in the morning 

I can’t wait to go part time. Only a month or so to go.

It’s almost dusk and a man is shooting rabbits in the field with a powerful air rifle 

I can’t find Albert in the cottage so I’ve just called over for him to be careful as Albert too is hunting rabbits.

The man didn’t look pleased

I didn’t care.

For Albert limped up out of the grass when he heard my voice .

Mrs Trellis left a phone message worried about the war memorial inside the Church 

My elder sister messaged asking what I wanted for my birthday

I asked for a super king sized lightweight duvet 

Another two friends have messaged me but I’m tired so I promised myself to answer them tomorrow night ….I ate some cold sushi rice with chicken then  drank a gin and tonic on the patio before returning to Gene Hackman 

It’s almost dark 

And the pipistrelle bats are roaring up and down the lane like a Top Gun video with Mary watching them as though she’s sat at Wimbledon 

'Still I Rise' by Maya Angelou

The poem is new to me 

It slaps you hard when heard for the first time does it not ?

The words AND the performance 

It’s Nu’s birthday today, she’s in Turkey 

Off to work

First Kiss

Kitchen table

Coffee.

The bantam cockerel is noisy next door which is strange as it’s 10.30.

I’m planning my cooking for the weekend as I’m working both days

Katsu curry, sushi and mushroom noodles.

Tonight I’m out to dinner for a colleagues leaving do .

The 1970s Italian in Conwy, Alfredo’s 

More coffee, me thinks, then I need to post some birthday cards.

Amongst others it’s Nu’s birthday tomorrow.

My nephew texted me yesterday

The message was simple and to the point.

“ Julie and I had our first kiss today” 

I was touched he had shared the milestone with me and managed a exuberant reply of “ OMG !”

“ Yep “ came the economical and proud response.

I told him to keep on practicing if he liked it 

And he sent me lots of laughing emojis 

😆🤣

Now my first kiss with a girl was a somewhat overblown and unpleasant affair, Her name was Eirian  and the kiss was wet and sloppy and passionless. She had a bosom that acted as though it had a brain of its own and I felt somewhat hemmed in by it and Eirian’s lips as I lay prostrate on her parents couch.

I was sixteen and disappointed 

I was 18 when I was kissed by a man. 

It felt like a one off as it was by the brother of my then girlfriend and although it felt right in so many ways, it totally felt wrong in others. 

It was six years later when I was more grown up when I had my second , proper snog with a man.

Now this too was a strange affair which happened after midnight in the back entrance doorway of Bootham Park Hospital’s psychiatric wing.

He was a policeman with a thick black beard who had stopped for a cuppa at our mother and baby unit

I was showing him out when he unexpectedly pushed me against the door and kissed me.

If there was more to the moment, like the build up of flirting or any furtive blushing , I can’t recall it. 

I always remember him as being tall and cheerful, and full of manly smiles.

I wonder now if he was just a security guard. 

But his kiss was a million miles away from the ones I had experienced before.

And one or two since.

Downton ( Spoilers)

 

 I felt like a Sunday afternoon film today.

Nothing too taxing.

Just something to wash over me .

It had to be Downton Abbey a new Era .

Now watching Downton is a bit like attending a works reunion or a night out with old school mates. 

You are visiting with people that you like but you haven’t really got enough time to talk to.

24 main characters within a two hour storyline? 

Therefore everything plot line is hurried and save for a couple of scenes, most of the pathos and drama is lost.

It must be slightly annoying for some to watch their favourite characters, for instance  Anna, Mr Bates and Danka who just stand around muttering the odd word and I had to smile at Imelda Staunton who popped up in three scenes only to say something like I need a cup of coffee and I’m off to a sleep before exiting stage left.

But it’s very silly and lovely to look at , what with Downton being used as the  backdrop for a cinema shoot as most of the toffs relocate to the south of France to take possession of a villa left to Dowager some seventy years previously.

And in good fairy tale style all the romantic loose ends are tied up with Baxter, Mosely, Mrs Padmore and 

Barrow finding happier endings.

Of course it is Maggie Smith’s swan song as the wisecracking Lady Dowager and rather movingly her final scene with the glorious Penelope Wilton ( her nemesis for all of the tv series ) is sweet and unhurried and incredibly poignant 

Take your tissues

It was sunny in Chester when I left the cinema and it was nice to sit in the sun on Northgate street and listen to a busker playing a Spanish guitar

I fell asleep 

Sewing

 

Gawd it was a busy shift, somewhat fraught and rather stressful 

I’m now drinking a huge gin with a wonderful long slice of cucumber 

Watching Sewing Bee

I’d love to meet the three presenters over dinner

Bucket Of Coffee

 Bucket of coffee.

It’s a bright morning.

Bracing in the lane.

The wind turbine over the valley at Marian Mawr is working again and there is enough breeze to have it turning, albeit slowly. 

The woodpecker is busy.

And early too, as it’s just past six.

I am pink, 

Pink after a hot shower 

And I feel as clean as you only used to feel the Sunday night before school.

Dorothy is sulking,

And has adopted a strange position in the kitchen reading chair

She knows I’m off to work

kór

Post Covid choir lockdown has seen a sudden burst in new male choristers . One younger man with a higher range has been nabbed by the female tenors, all of whom looked suitably chuffed. The other guy sat next to me .

Jamie , still bursting from his yearly obsession with Eurovision , announced loudly that we were going to learn this year’s Icelandic entry IN Icelandic and I heard the new man mutter “ oh bollocks “ under his breath. It was a euphemism for what have I got myself into ?

I think he enjoyed the session.

Anyhow I think we sounded better than the original to be fair . 

I’ve talked before about the power of singing in a choir and  tonight I was reminded of the special camaraderie shared voices generate . 

The good humour and the kindness especially .

The younger man sang rather well, and it was lovely to see many of the choristers going up to him at the end of the class to tell him so.

The face to face kindness and good humour I mentioned have reminded me that some of the negative and indeed nasty blog comments received recently have really been inappropriate and unfortunate………and bad habits of internet life.

And I’m tired of them and it..toxic and sad as the whole experience has become

My Laburnum

 

I’ve spent most of the day cleaning away the dust and mess from ten days of workman. 

Four loads of washing hang drying on the garden walls, my gates and the field gate and the carpets have been shampooed with hot water and hints of lemon juice.

I had smoked salmon for lunch, eaten with long green beans cooked in garlic. 

And had a break in the Churchyard where the blue Alkanet frames the yellow Welsh poppies in an Ukrainian flag display .

Exactly a year yesterday I planted the baby laburnum and when  I visited it today I was happy to see it had flowered well and looked straight and tall and healthy.

Choir Later