It’s St Piran’s Day today and this evening I will be joining a Singalong Zoom of Cornish songs. That will be fun but the very best thing is that family around the world will be joining me – from Hawaii, from Munich, from Atlanta and from London. What a treat!
Flag of St Piran
Another very busy day but just look what we are achieving!
I dug up a pretty little pice of pottery while working today.
A friend sent me this and I love it! I so miss singing it with my choir. I miss my choir. I’m missing the sun too!
Storm Christoph has begun to batter us and is forecast to be around for the next couple of days. It has, therefore, been an inside day finishing off the marmalade this morning and this afternoon, reading by the fire. I’ve just finished “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens, a beautifully written novel celebrating nature, first love and incorporating a mystery that keeps the reader guessing to the last page. If you haven’t read it yet, you have a treat in store. 
We were briefly in Truro this morning to find a particular book for the lovely Mr S (with success) and when finished called in at a well spaced and airy cafe for toast and coffee!
My choirs have been unable to sing together this Christmas but a very tech savvy member of our gang has put together a video of us singing in previous years with some stills. Here it is.
Our first Christmas present was delivered today, a gorgeous bunch of autumnal coloured flowers already in their glass so no chasing around trying to find one. I love the bright red berries in the water too. 
Our squirrel came to investigate his feeder for the first time this morning (photo taken through the window on a very long zoom). We have since propped it open a little to help him as he didn’t manage to get any peanuts this morning.
I found some delightful Angel earrings today for our choir zoom parties next week. 
It was such an unexpected joy to come across the Redruth Wassailers singing The Redruth Wassail in the market this morning. Here is a snippet for you.
Our Sweet Peas in one pot are glorious. The other pot is finished. 🙁
Sweet Peas
Serendipity again as the bright orange Montbretia/ Crocosmia has popped up with the purple Tom Thumb Pittosporum hedge.
Montbretia against the dark Tom Thumb Pittosporum
A couple of months ago , I was asked to take part in a Birthday video for an ex pupil of mine. The idea was to screw up some paper with a Happy Birthday message on it. Have it thrown to you from the left, unscrew it, show the message to the camera and throw it off to the right. It made for a very special and individual birthday present.
It occurred to me that it would be a lovely thing to do for our dear choir leader, Claire, with whom we have been unable to sing in person for 5 months because of the Covid situation. Fortunately we have in one of our choirs a brilliantly talented individual who agreed to put together the 60+ videos valiantly made by our community of choir members! Thanks so much, Kenn! What a success it has been! Here it is for your delectation. The setting is the Penryn River, our view from the rehearsal room and the music is sung by the choirs.
The bees are busy, we are glad to see. This one was moving around all the Lavender pots.
Our eldest was due to come from Exeter for a couple of hours this afternoon to fix my Beetle. In exchange I made her a couple of fabric masks. I had not anticipated how hard it would be to see her but not be allowed to hug.
My spirits were lifted by a wonderful zoom session this evening, Greenham Women singing songs of the time, all led by my lovely choir leader, Claire. In between singing the songs, people shared their stories of being at the various gates, all given colours and each with a very distinct personality. A couple of the participants had been there with their Mums as very young children. One Mum and daughter were there together from their different parts of the UK; participants came from allover the country and were really inspiring. It was a brilliant session.
The Clematis Armandii sent us the last blooms today.
Choir was on Zoom tonight and was great fun! What a lovely lot we are! Thanks to Claire for a fabulous lesson. 
It’s my kid brother’s birthday today and despite us posting on 7th April (to Atlanta, USA) his card has not arrived so here is another! 
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.
New for November
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.
Commentator Award
