Morning Music

 As some will know, I spend inordinate hours with BBC Radio 3 on, in this room, that room, every room.

 ... Earlier in life I had a great time listening to 'pop' music, my first 45 (as far as I can remember) being Adam Faith's 'What Do You Want' (1959) which replaced my mother's 78 rpm choice of the Vienna Boys Choir and 'The Happy Wanderer', that had not endeared me to the Scouts or any other boys' organisations! I did dive into strange genres, like Hawaiian guitar, but was mainly preoccupied with American blues and folk before the 'English Invasion' and much of that is due to my parents interests in Woody Guthrie and Paul Robeson (and ... The Laughing Policeman!) as well as an older brother's interest in modern American folk (The Weavers et al.)  Then it was onto Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and on, and on ... until the Stiff Road Tour and The Stranglers at the Roundhouse in '77 on early visits back from Germany.

In Germany we mainly saw Americans as we lived near Frankfurt in the 'US Sector' (Bowie was an exception, but that was his 'Berlin' years) and interest in the 'pop' world disappeared with our return to the UK in the mid-80's when classical and world music became ascendent. There were keys through odd things into other genres - 'Das Boot', which we saw as a serial on German TV, led to Rina Ketty and 'J'Attendrai' and that back to the European popular music of the Edwardian era onwards to WW2, a favourite being Fréhel's 'Où est-il donc?' - a sentimental song about how an immigrant to the US misses the working class areas of Paris with end of the Belle Epoque.

 Anyway, enough of this prattle. The essence is that, although I did accidentally hear Taylor Swift the other month, I have no interest in today's 'pop', there's too much going on elsewhere and R3 constantly surprises me, as it did this morning with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile producing a brilliant mix of classical through to blue grass mastery. It was a great way to start a Monday.

Now it's Friday ... that was the week that was, wherever it went!!! A highlight for this week was Art on Tuesday morning. I am not sleeping well and was awake most of Monday night so I had to drag the enthusiasm out of my tired body. I decided to have a go at an Albanian sunset: It turned out very well but I'm not going to place a scan of it side by side with the photo as the scan came out very contrasty and lost consideable subtlety (that's my excuse anyway).

Sleep continues to be a problem and rather than try and fight it, I stayed up until about 2am watching films every evening (including pt 2 of Ken Burns' prog on the American Buffalo) and when I still couldn't sleep, saw the world news up to 6am. Sleep then came in two hour bites ... not good.

I spent time on Wednesday on preliminary booking for a next break. I had looked at NT properties in Cornwall and in the North, but the prices are now a bit high, having spent the best part of £10K on Pauline's flat, so I've booked a cottage in W Ireland for a week in June at 1/3 the price of Cornwall! It's well-placed for a walk up Croagh Patrick, so if I succeed in doing that, I'll have visited the shrines of both patron and matron saints of Ireland in 2026 ... not bad for a heathen! But that is to come.

I've two more weeks on eye drops - just steroids now and then I should be getting new glasses. It seems crazy, but life is almost on hold until then. Visually, everyday life is different and will only be settled once my optometrist has guided me to the best solutions for my new sight! But, as with the breaks, I'm also planning to do things here. Once March is here, a skip should arrive so that I can start clearing the outbuildings here - a trigger, perhaps, for downsizing. Elsewhere, historical family matters have occupied my emails, daily!

I'm now up to Friday evening and there's not much more to say, so, until next time ... Ciao! 

Following discussion about Benwee Head - here's a google earth image -