Yesterday my choir, The Ingleheart Singers, met in the Big Shed at Community Roots as our usual rehearsal space was unavailable. It was wonderful to sing in there, the acoustics were excellent and we were singing to the garden. Here we are singing a bit of “Summertime.”
The wild flower border is looking beautiful and is full of pollinators.
The Owl Box arrived today and is going to be fixed to the Big Shed at some point soon.
That was just the best afternoon! Singing started again after a break of a whole month. It was really good to see everyone but that was eclipsed by singing together in harmony again. My goodness, it raises ones endorphins! We started with Pachabel’s Canon, a five part harmony that I first learned at a workshop at WOMAD and went on to ‘We wish you all good things.’ I don’t have a recording of us singing but I do have our leader, Claire, singing all the parts. I pass on all the sentiments to you, Dear Reader.
And a lovely choir friend has just sent me a video of this afternoon’s singing – so full of joy – thank you L..
Just one Grape Hyacinth has appeared in a tub, not where I planted them!
Crocuses are beginning to appear. 
We’ve put lots of shiny baubles on our growing Christmas tree in the garden and love the effect. I popped one of my glass angels at the top.
Primroses are my favourite flowers and finding them in the garden this morning was a delight. This photo is for Nancy.
Hope you will be very happy in your new home. 🙂
After choir this afternoon, we went to a local pub for our annual carol sing. It was brilliant, the crowds loved it especially our rendition of Fairytale of New York. We collect for our charities at all our gigs.
The most delightful topper has been put on our local post box. I love the detail , especially the tiny shoelaces, and the humour in this one. I wish I knew the crafter.
At choir rehearsal this afternoon, we were told that last night’s concert raised an amazing £675 for our two charities – the wonderful ShelterBox that responds to disasters of all kinds around the world and our local charity, the Camborne, Pool and Redruth food bank which looks after local people, including nurses and teachers, who need help in these hard times to feed their families.
Thank you to our lovely generous audience.
Redruth was buzzing today, all in town for the St Piran’s day celebrations. I especially loved the stilt walkers.
Later, on my way to sing in the Market Hall, one of the stilt people called to me, “Hello, lovely lady! Would you like a daffodil?” Of course, I said that I’d love one but please would he hold it for a moment while I took his photo for my blog!
Singing Cornish songs in the Market Hall with The Ingleheart Singers, and with an enormous, enthusiastic audience, was an absolute delight. Thanks to Sue for the video. You can see I am holding my daffodil.
Last Monday, at choir, was our first singing of this beautiful song learnt from a video by Anni Zylstra. It’s a Ukrainian blessing meaning, ‘Many Years’ or the implied meaning “wishing you many years of life” – a traditional Ukrainian celebratory song and is sung at weddings, namings and other celebrations. We sing it here in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
We still, just, have white tulips.
Our edible trough has lots of seeds planted and, so far, just a few edible flowers which I like to use on cakes and in salads. 
We made a birthday bouquet from our garden for a friend who shares her birthday with Shakespeare.
A week or so ago my choir recorded a beautiful piece to be played at a funeral of a Mum who had been one of our stalwarts in the audience. It is such a lovely piece I thought you might like to hear it here – The Shoshone Love Song. Please press play even thought it seems to show 00.00. It does play! This is for Helen.
Supper tonight was delicious – a new recipe for Cod and Chorizo Stew.
It was so good to be singing again in the barn with The Ingleheart Singers this afternoon. We learned a wonderful African piece and I’ll send you the recording as soon as I can.
No cake in the house! That’s not good so I planned on making a favourite Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake only we didn’t have enough blueberries and no lemon. So, here we have a very pretty mixture and, later, Blueberry and Raspberry with Lime cake.
A week ago, just 15 of us gathered at the Eco Park to sing Cornish Christmas carols in a safe and socially distanced way. Enjoy listening to us. For this who wanted to know, I’m right at the end singing “Thy beloved name!” I’m elsewhere too so you can watch again from the start if you like, even perhaps contribute to one of our charities. Nadelik Lowen is Happy Christmas in Cornish.
Photographer Tobias Baumgaertner captured this image of two widowed fairy penguins looking over the Melbourne skyline. It has won an award in Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photography Awards 2020.
The backstory is so heartwarming. The lighter penguin is an elderly female whose partner died this year. The darker one is a younger male who lost his partner two years ago. Biologists have followed them as they meet every night to comfort each other. They stand for hours together watching the city lights.
I made our Chocolate Amaretti Torte this afternoon, one for us and one for our daughter who is visiting for an outdoor pasty lunch tomorrow, looking forward to eating it soon!
Mixing the cream and the chocolate mixture
P.S. We saw the Great Conjunction tonight for a few moments when the clouds parted!
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