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Tag Archives: The Suitcase Singers

St Piran’s Day, Singing and Marching for Our NHS

St Piran’s day is tomorrow and there have been parades all over Cornwall today. In Redruth, the rain held off just for the duration of the parade. The theme is both St Piran represented by his flag, black with a white cross,  and daffodils. Every local school takes part and the whole event is one of joy.

The start of the Parade with Redruth’s mascot, Tolgus the Lamb leading.

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As part of the celebrations, my choir had been asked to sing Cornish songs and though the audience was quite small they were very enthusiastic.

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I had to leave the performance early to catch the train to Truro, a train it turned out, which was full of people coming up from Penzance to the Save Our NHS March. There were tens of thousands marching in London and several hundred of us in Truro. This photo was taken at the end as the crowd is beginning to leave.

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Love, Bosses and A Warmup 

The world is in such great need of love – we can each do our bit and be willing to practise.

This evening my choirs have sung in a very beautiful building, The Alverton Hotel in Truro which was a convent in a previous life. I loved the bosses on the ceiling.

We did our warmup in The Great Hall, another beautiful room.

 
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Posted by on December 15, 2016 in architecture, Beauty

 

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Baby Hats, Singing and Ted Hughes

I have finished the two Christmas Tree hats in case the twin Grand-babies arrive earlier than expected! The colours of the stars were chosen by their excited big sister.

Tree hats

Tree hats

Last night The Ingleheart Singers and The Suitcase singers sang carols for the Open Evening at Krowji where all the artists’ studios were open and it was a brilliant evening.

Singing for the artists

Singing for the artists

We are having some bitterly cold times and this poem by Ted Hughes came to mind. I just love all the similes. I hope you enjoy it too.

The Warm and the Cold – Ted Hughes

Freezing dusk is closing
    Like a slow trap of steel
On trees and roads and hills and all
    That can no longer feel.
        But the carp is in its depth
          Like a planet in its heaven.
        And the badger in its bedding
          Like a loaf in the oven.
        And the butterfly in its mummy
          Like a viol in its case.
        And the owl in its feathers
          Like a doll in its lace.

Freezing dusk has tightened
    Like a nut screwed tight
On the starry aeroplane
    Of the soaring night.
        But the trout is in its hole
          Like a chuckle in a sleeper.
        The hare strays down the highway
          Like a root going deeper.
        The snail is dry in the outhouse
          Like a seed in a sunflower.
        The owl is pale on the gatepost
          Like a clock on its tower.

Moonlight freezes the shaggy world
    Like a mammoth of ice –
The past and the future
    Are the jaws of a steel vice.
        But the cod is in the tide-rip
          Like a key in a purse.
        The deer are on the bare-blown hill
          Like smiles on a nurse.
        The flies are behind the plaster
          Like the lost score of a jig.
        Sparrows are in the ivy-clump
          Like money in a pig.

Such a frost
    The flimsy moon
        Has lost her wits.

          A star falls.

The sweating farmers
    Turn in their sleep
        Like oxen on spits.

 

 

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A Wedding, A Parade and the Clock Tower 

I was the Celebrant for the loveliest Humanist Wedding Ceremony today. I just love how personal and special these ceremonies are. With their permission, here are the beautiful and very happy Bride and her Husband.My choirs, The Inglehearts and The Suitcases,  sang for the Christmas lights switch on in Redruth this evening. The parade of all the local schools with their lanterns was delightful and the singing, of course, very well received! I love it when the audience also join in, especially with the much loved Cornish carols written by Thomas Merritt.Waiting for my lift after the event, the following caught my eye.It looked like eyes and golden hair. In fact, it is two faces of the town clock and the lit up underside of the viaduct.

 
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Posted by on November 26, 2016 in Beauty, Celebration, Happiness

 

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Boat Yard, Shaggy and Windows 

Singing in the Zed Shed in Penryn this morning with The Suitcase Singers, I was able to zoom in on the lovely Mr S who was working on our boat in nearby  Freeman’s Wharf  while I was having fun!

Just look at this shaggy hairdo! In fact it is a Clematis seed head outside our kitchen window and I love it!

In Truro this afternoon I looked up and saw this beautiful architectural detail around these windows.

 
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Posted by on November 3, 2016 in Beauty, environment

 

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World Peace Day, One Day One Choir and Love

Today twenty Cornish choirs have been singing outside Truro Cathedral or in the nearby Methodist Church in an event which spanned eight hours. To quote one of my lovely singing buddies, Jan,  “What a truly magical, uplifting, awe inspiring, heart wrenching, happy, wonderful day spent in Truro with friends from everywhere celebrating World Peace Day! How we all need to smile, send our love and peace to all our brothers and sisters and stop this nastiness, unrest and hatred!
I am going to try and be nice to everyone !”

The Ingleheart Singers and The Suitcase Singers

The Ingleheart Singers and The Suitcase Singers

A huge Thank you to Paul for the enormous amount of organisation that must have gone on to make this such a smooth running, successful and satisfyingly moving day.

 

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Penryn River, Choir Baby, and An Evening Rainbow

It is so lovely every Thursday to have this view of the Penryn River when we are singing with The Suitcase Singers. What a privilege.

Penryn River

Penryn River

We have a new Choir Baby, J, who is just eleven weeks old – and what a joy to us all. His Mum and his Granny sing with us – three generations singing together. Isn’t that just brilliant?

We were in the kitchen just after 8pm having supper with our lovely neighbour when we became aware of a particularly beautiful light outside and then saw the rainbow. It was there for over ten minutes and was surrounded by the glorious golden light of the magic Golden Hour.

An evening rainbow

An evening rainbow

 

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Uplifting Singing, A Mistake and Evening Blooms

What a fabulous sing this morning with Claire Ingleheart and The Suitcase Singers. We went from Shoshalosa to Batonebo, through Yenemanormanoa to Janie Mama, all sung with such joy! I have so missed singing and harmonising with other beautiful voices while we have been away.  Believe me, I took some beautiful photos of the Penryn River and some bluebells this morning and only realised when I tried to upload them that I had had no memory card in my camera! So here are a few photos of beautiful flowers in our garden this evening.

 

 

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Carol Ann Duffy, Singing and Pastor Niemoeller

Today is National Poetry Day in the UK and the BBC have been celebrating with poems throughout the day. One of the first poems I heard this morning on the BBC was this favourite, much loved  by all those who have been 10 years old and by all those who recognise a 10 year old that they have known – a delightful evocation of that final year of primary school and the transition to being just a bit more grown up – and maybe learning things you weren’t really sure that you wanted to know. It reminded me so much, not only of my own top year in Primary School at Bosvigo in Truro but also of the six years I taught the top class, the 10-11 year olds, at Plover Primary School in Doncaster.  Those were such happy days full of fond memories.

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan.
That for an hour, then a skittle of milk
and the chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust.
A window opened with a long pole.
The laugh of a bell swung by a running child.
This was better than home. Enthralling books.
The classroom glowed like a sweetshop.
Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley
faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.
Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, you found
she’d left a gold star by your name.
The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved.
A xylophone’s nonsense heard from another form.
Over the Easter term the inky tadpoles changed
from commas into exclamation marks. Three frogs
hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce,
followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking
away from the lunch queue. A rough boy
told you how you were born. You kicked him, but stared at your
parents, appalled, when you got back home.
That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.
A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,
fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. You asked her
how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled,
then turned away. Reports were handed out.
You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown,
as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.

Today was my first time back at singing with The Suitcase Singers and it was just wonderful. How one’s spirits can be lifted by singing in harmony with other voices! Our lovely Choir-babies were there being very busy and a new baby has arrived while I’ve been away. Welcome, little one.

Two of our Choir-babies

Two of our Choir-babies

I asked the lovely Mr Smith for a poem for today that he would like me to include in today’s blog. Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas was one considered but he came to this one after lots of discussion and thought. We have had this postcard on our noticeboard in the kitchen for years.

First they came....

First they came….

 

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Wedding, Water Lily and Wet Leaves

I conducted the loveliest Humanist Wedding Ceremony this morning, in a beautiful garden with Cornish mist mizzling and everyone smiling.  It was personal and very moving and made even more special by the fact that a small group from The Suitcase Singers, one of the choirs I sing with, sang a number of most appropriate songs, chosen by the couple and beautifully arranged by our MD, Claire Ingleheart.  Thank you to the singers who helped to make that a very special ceremony for everyone involved.  Photos will follow later.

Two of our number invited us all back for lunch and that was really good too, to unwind with friends over a truly delicious meal and then to have a walk around their lovely and very productive garden. There was a Water Lily just opening on their pond.  (Thank you, P and J, for the rhubarb!)

Water Lily

Water Lily

I love taking photos in the rain! I love how droplets collect and act as little magnifying glasses on the leaves. Do click on the photo and then zoom in – it’s like magic!

Water droplets

Water droplets

 

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