1 What a joy to be back at singing again this morning. I couldn’t join in everything but enjoyed watching our beautiful Choir baby, playing, dancing and singing.
The joy of singing
2 Choir baby E has grown up so much in the weeks I have been away. Our last song today was the rousing Bella Ciao and our choir leader gave E her own copy of the words. She held them very seriously and sang along with fervour with the rest of us.
Daisy and E singing Bella Ciao
For a special treat, watch this short video, not very good quality but a treat nevertheless, listening to Choir-baby E singing Bella Ciao, backed by The Suitcase Singers.
3 A quick and easy supper was called for so Kedgeree (of a sort) was our choice.
1 I caught sight of these fungi in a neighbour’s drive on the walk up from town. I wonder which creature finds them so tasty. They seem to take quite big chunks.
Fungi
2 I love the pink edge on this tiny and fluffy feather that was tangled up in the hedgerow.
Whose feather?
3 A friend sent me this today and I have to agree with its sentiment.
1 Three choir-babies with us today. It is such a joy to be watching these little people growing up.
Choir baby T, walking and really confident. Says Hiya!
Choir baby E, has her first shoes and walks with help
Our newest choir-baby
2 Two of our choir members keep chickens and regularly bring their delicious eggs to sell. Only 5 in the box this week as one poor chicken has met a sad demise courtesy of the local fox. I made us a beautifully golden frittata for lunch and it was scrumptious served with some salad.
1 After choir, I was catching a quiet moment by the side of the river when I saw a fat, gingery looking bird with enormous webbed feet perched on a rusty buoy. Though it had something of the Cormorant about it, I didn’t really recognise it and only discovered that it was a very young Cormorant when I checked it online.
Bird life on the Penryn River
Very fat young cormorant
2 There are times when only comfort food will do! My CF of choice this lunchtime was Semolina with Jam, proper nursery food and made in a moment and with Strawberry Freezer Jam at the ready in the freezer. I was enchanted by the ice-crystals on the jam so had to wait to have my pudding until I had taken this photo!
Ice crystals on my strawberry freezer jam
Semolina with a dollop of Strawberry Freezer Jam
3 Our Christmas present arrived form America this afternoon having had some contretemps with the Customs Office for some unfathomable reason. It is a beautiful bread basket with a clay insert which you heat in the oven and then it keeps the bread warm as long as necessary. It is both beautiful and useful thus satisfying the words of William Morris –
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”.
1 Today’s walk took us past the mysterious gate again.This time I looked more closely and held my camera over the top to where I couldn’t see and discovered a path but I still don’t know where it goes. I shall have to ask some older people who’ve lived here much longer than we have. I did see the label this time – Marygate. I wonder who she was…….
Mysterious gate
Behind the gate….
2 On the back of a car parked next door I saw this sign which made me smile.
Silly sign
3 Setting out for choir tonight (first sing in three weeks!) the moon had just risen. It was new on January 11th so is only three nights old and is very beautiful.
1 I found a beautiful yellow moth on the bedroom door frame this morning. It seems it is a Brimstone Moth Opisthograptis Luteolata.
Brimstone Moth Opisthograptis luteolata
2 The Choir-babies were a delight this morning, beginning to take an interest in each other. T loved the bubbles!
Our Choir-babies
Bubble fun
3 I called into the Nursery on the way home looking for a purple clematis in flower now to add to our Suffragette Garden which is nearly planted up. I didn’t find one but did find this amazingly beautiful Purple Passion Flower.
1 Asked by whatshappeningatmyhouse, which charity would I give £1m if I had such a sum, I realised that ShelterBox is one of my beautiful things. Started by one man with a very big heart and a very special vision, here in Cornwall, this charity works worldwide to give shelter and dignity to those affected by disaster, be it natural (tsunami, earthquake etc) or man-made (war, civil strife etc). It was indeed, a beautiful thing Tom Henderson started. http://www.shelterbox.org/
ShelterBox has brought these Fijian families new homes allowing them to start to rebuild their lives again whilst living in comfort and dignity.
2 My good friend, Jean, gave us a rhubarb plant at choir on Monday – and because we cannot pick any until next year, gave me a bunch of rhubarb too. Today I’ve made a very special pudding that has been cooked in our family for three generations! It’s an Ambrose Heath recipe called Rhubarb Butterscotch Pie but we don’t put it in a pie case and we call it Different-Every-Time Pudding because it is! See my Food pages for the recipe and photos of the process and see shelikesherfood for KJ’s take on the pudding.
Different-Every-Time Rhubarb Pudding
3 Both our garden and next-door’s have some beautiful, delicate colour at the moment.
1 The cream of tomato soup that Mr S made for our lunch looked so perfectly orange and beautiful.
2 We went for our favourite local walk from Chapel Porth up to Wheal Coates coming back to the beach cafe for a delicious hot chocolate and some homemade ginger cake (made by Rosie)
3 Singing with the Inglehearts for the first time in two weeks was overlaid with sadness as one of our singers, the much loved Mo, died last week and we were practising “You are my Sunshine” to sing tomorrow at her funeral. That was hard but it did us all good to sing and to remember her with some stories. We sang ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ in her honour as it was another of her favourites.
1 Our choir babies had fun today as we sang our hearts out.They also enjoyed the attention during the delicious lunch that L put on for us all to say goodbye to one of our members who is leaving us.
2 Had a fabulous drive through very narrow Cornish lanes lined with ancient trees down to Porth Navas to meet Lowen, the baby whose naming ceremony I’m to do in April. Her name is Cornish for happy. Isn’t that lovely?
3 Then on the corner, as I left, I spotted a field full of daffodils, absolutely glorious in their yellowness.
1 Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet and Nobel prizewinner, died on 1st February 2012 and The Guardian printed this poem of hers which I find very beautiful.
A miracle (what else can you call it): the sun rose today at three fourteen a.m. and will set tonight at one past eight
A miracle that’s lost on us: the hand actually has fewer than six fingers but still it’s got more than four.
A miracle, just take a look around: the inescapable earth.
An extra miracle, extra and ordinary: the unthinkable can be thought.
(translated into English by Stanisław Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)
Wislawa Szymborska in 2010. Photograph: Jacek Turczyk/EPA
2 Had another enquiry about a wedding, this one a recommendation from a couple whose wedding I did a couple of years ago which is very pleasing.
3 Singing with the Inglehearts. Tonight we rehearsed ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ by the Beatles in an arrangement by Claire and it felt good!
