Our garden is a haven of peace and colour and bird song. We are so lucky. The sun has been shining today and we felt the warmth.
There can be no choir today but our wonderful leader, Claire, has sent us a class from warm up to wind down, reminders of songs we know and the four parts for a brand new song so that when we are all together again, we will have a new song almost ready. Here is a starter song to get us all going. It made me weep to hear her voice again but after a few listens I was bouncing around the kitchen singing my heart out!
Next door’s cat Zorro was tree climbing but I wasn’t quick enough to catch him full face.
I was given a beautiful book for my birthday, The Singing Tree, written and illustrated by Kate Seredy, which I read yesterday and absolutely loved. The story was very touching and the illustrations very lovely. Thank you very much C.
It was Sing for your Heart, Sing for your Soul today at the Eco park and I thought you might like to hear a couple of snippets. They are both recorded with the camera looking at the floorboards as I hadn’t asked anyone if they would be okay with being filmed. The sessions are open to anyone to come along and songs are taught by voice in four parts. Everyone comes away feeling loved and exhilarated.
We love these little Italian lemony treats which we buy at a local market occasionally.
The great actor, singer, and socialist Paul Robeson died on this day in 1976. He was a great friend to the mining community in Britain. Here he sings for miners during a visit to Britain in 1949. This song was played at my Dad’s Humanist funeral and is a great favourite.
I grew up hearing and loving Paul Robeson’s voice and in the year that my Dad lived in Cornwall before we were able to join him (I was only 6 years old) Mum played ‘Just a Wearyin’ for you’ every evening and it can still bring me to tears as I remember how much I missed my Dad and it’s only now that I realise that she wasn’t playing it for me but for herself. How they must have missed each other that year. They’d already had five years apart during the war and now Mum had three of us to look after and a fourth on the way who was born just ten weeks before we eventually moved to Cornwall and were all together again and living by Pill Creek as I wrote about here.
We have just come home from watching Official Secrets, the story of Katharine Gun, whistle blower extraordinaire. See it if you can.
The Suitcase Singers went by train all the way to Saltash Regatta & Waterside Festival 2019 today to sing in the glorious sunshine, the highlight of the day being singing ‘Ann Glanville’ around her statue. It was a brilliant day out, singing our hearts out and interestingly, being underneath the Brunel Bridge for a change!
Boat full of flowers on Saltash station
The Suitcase Singers with Ann Glanville about whom our lovely Claire, choir leader, has written a song
It’s Father’s Day here in the UK and so breakfast was the lovely Mr S’s favourite, French Toast with Summer Fruits, Creme Fraiche and Maple Syrup.
Breakfast
It’s been the Falmouth Shanty Festival this weekend and my choir was singing. There are shanty singers around every corner and in every venue throughout the weekend. It is enormous fun.
My choir, The Suitcase Singers, at the Shanty Festival
We went to watch The Jolly Strumpets in which a friend sings and then Femmes de la Mer, run by my choir leader and with many of my friends singing. They are brilliant.
I set the alarm for 4am so that I could get up to see the Super Blood Wolf Moon, hoping that the skies would be clear. They were, the stars were very sparkly and the Moon amazing! I watched as the shadow crept over the moon and it began to go red leaving a white glow on one side. I stayed up for an hour until it was total and red. Sadly, my photos don’t do the colour justice. It was much redder to the naked eye. In the midst of the starry silence and the moon magic, I heard an Owl hooting.
First sight
Almost total
We are sorting out our cds with a view to giving away those we no longer listen to. One definitely to keep is the Paul Robeson. When I was just five years old, my Daddy was away having moved to Cornwall ahead of the family. What was supposed to be a short time turned out to be a full year. I used to ask all the time for Just a Wearyin’ for You by Paul Robeson to be played and I would weep along to the song, missing my Daddy so much. Heaven only knows how Mum coped. Playing it this morning, I cried again, remembering how it was all those years ago and missing him all over again.
On my way home from singing tonight, not far from home, a beautiful ginger fox strolled across the lane and went under a gate into a field. What a treat!
