No song title today, just noting the date! Just think the days (well daylight) will start getting longer!
Last bit about the weekend. On Sunday we went to Crosby Beach and saw the Gormley Art work of human figures all over the beach and in the sea. We watched the sea swallow up some of the figures. See the picture at the bottom.
Finally I think I have an illustrator for my book. I will keep you posted!
Had to use the well-known Christmas song as my title if you know how football fans adapt it when playing away. At the end of today’s blog is my comments about my wonderful Saturday at the footie but first a few words about last week’s Story Telling adventures.
I visited my village primary school last Monday. I am well-known at the school and over the last year I have been in to do stories on the First World War, Shakespeare and World Book Day themes. I told my Angel story to K.S.2 and the Angry Snowman to K.S.1. Both are stories I know well and the children participated fully in the stories. Last Wednesday saw my Book Club present an entertainment extravaganza in the Three Horseshoes pub. It was a super evening with a fantastic mix of stories, poems and songs. The performers did really well and I think it was our best night ever and it has set a high bench mark for future evenings. I told a new story that I managed to learn in 10 days! I followed that up with two performances on Thursday in two different venues that were certainly different (stories and audiences).
To round off a busy Thursday I went back to my old school for a retirement do. I had to speak at that as well! It was great seeing so many old friends. I was really lucky to have worked there for so long.
Finally the football. Clare and I went to Liverpool for the weekend. We were staying right by the Albert Dock. We went to an exhibition called The Danger Tree which has been going round the country commemorating the Battle of the Somme. It involved using modern technology when you looked at the paintings which were on huge canvasses. It is difficult to find words to describe the whole exhibition but it was unbelievable and certainly brought the futility to the fore. Poems were read by famous actors that were played via an i-pad in a flurry of images through headphones as you viewed the paintings. It included how the painting’s layers were built up.
I shot off to Blackpool on Saturday to watch the mighty Hatters. It was a superb performance and a comprehensive win. The last two games have seen us playing us much more fluent football. I am hoping that we will be playing in a higher division next season, certainly confidence is growing. I won’t mention the cricket! Oh dear we are certainly coming second.
More about the weekend in my next blog!
This was to be the title for the last post but I advertised the Three Horseshoes this Wednesday.
This title is courtesy of the Dave Clark Five and because I heard it at football last Tuesday. I went to Swindon to watch my team playing them in the Mickey Mouse Cup; it is a bizarre competition and one my club have used to blood youth team players and have been fined for it despite beating teams from the division above. Every time Swindon scored the above title was blasted out over the P.A. , when we scored nothing was played! We helpfully sang “Glad All Over” for them. I am now going to show my prejudice and say I hate football clubs manufacturing music to celebrate a goal bit like I detest drums at games! Modern Football -Bah Humbug!!!!! Did see a super game on Saturday that had everything apart from us winning (it was a draw).
I had a busy week last week working in an Infant School in Birmingham all day Wednesday and telling Christmas Stories at Wick Court on Thursday, as well as my normal commitments. I also went to a fascinating talk on Buzzards, it did show that since persecution had been stopped their numbers have soared. One day perhaps land owners of Grouse Moors and Pheasant shoots will leave the Hen Harrier alone so we might see it breed in England in the future.
I have just been telling stories at the Village Primary School and also corny Christmas jokes. The children told me some great ones as well. I have one more Gig for young people at Wick Court on Thursday.
Don’t forget anyone reading this, that on Wednesday at 8 p.m. my Book Club are putting on our Christmas Extravaganza in the Three Horseshoes Frampton which includes songs, poems and I will be doing a story. It will be good old fashioned fun and it is free! So come along and join us. It is free!!!!!!!!
No song title today but I thought I would give some publicity to next week’s Gig in the pub. It is our Book Club’s Christmas Entertainment. It is a super old- fashioned evening there will be songs, poems and a story from yours truly. It is free! We might hold a collection for Farms for City Children at the end of the evening. My brother Mike is coming over to perform his poems he is a fantastic Performance Poet. My fellow “Blunderbird”, Brian Dimmock will be singing a couple of his songs and doing a poem. There will be other contributions but not sure what yet! I am hoping Dan who lives opposite me and is a professional musician will be doing a couple of numbers. So come on have some fun and Join US on the night!
I will do my latest news from the last week over the weekend-there is quite a bit with recent Gigs and footie.
Probably a good time to have Show of Hands angry song about bankers as the title as all these rich millionaire “Men of the People” seem to be taking over the Western World. If you haven’t heard it listen to it, originally a response to the Banking Crisis but still resonates with us now.
I hope you have been enjoying this marvellous weather, frosts and spectacular sunsets. I had a delightful day birding with children from Grimsby yesterday at Wick Court and we saw some great birds. Earlier in the week I spent a great couple of hours watching a Peregrine although I was looking for Short Eared Owls.
I didn’t mention we saw Ian McEwan at Stroud Book Festival last week, he was really good and it has motivated me to read more of his recent books.
Story Telling tomorrow afternoon outside by the fire. I will make sure I am well wrapped up!
Well almost as the leaves litter the ground, OK a tenuous link to a song title! The leaves do make a bit of a hazard when out on the bike. On my ride yesterday I was very tentative going down hill and hampered by wet leaves going up (tyres don’t grip). It was good to get a decent ride in after the awful rain Sunday and Monday. I now have the delight of filling bags full of leaves to look forward to, we have trees in the garden and around!
I have been playing around with a couple of my stories this week as well as working on a poem. I am also looking for a story for the pub gig (Wednesday 14th in the Three Horseshoes Frampton) to tell. No Wick Court this week so a surprisingly free week on the Story Telling front.
“It is the hope that gets you!” I went to football on Tuesday night full of optimism after my team’s recent form for a big one against Portsmouth. I was really looking forward to this one against another good old fashioned and well supported club. Both sets of supporters have been on roller coaster of fortune in recent years. Sadly after a wonderful start the wheels came off and we were comprehensively outplayed in the second half. I now go to Exeter on Saturday full of trepidation!
A “Boss” song title for today. I chose this one because last night we went to watch Martyn Joseph perform and he sang the above as part of his set. He is a wonderful Welsh singer mixing up gentle sensitive songs with emotionally charged “protest songs”. His song “Cardiff Bay” is one of my all time favourites a lovely song about a father and his son. It always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I always feel emotional listening to it. The venue was interesting it was at Woodchester Convent which is now a small concert venue where they film the performance. I would recommend going to a Gig there it is different!
I enjoyed this morning’s Gig for SP3. We hosted it in Frampton and the stories went down well. I was pleased with my “Flowers on the Beach” story. I am thinking of doing one of my own stories when have the village pub gig next month.
Not a song title today but a story title instead. It is one of mine and I am telling to ladies from SP3 (Stroud Pyramid of the Third Age) on Friday. It is based on a Degas painting “Beach Scene” I originally wrote it for a schools project (The National Gallery’s Take One Picture). I have upgraded it for an adult audience so I had to do quite a bit of research. currently learning that for Telling and two other stories. Back to my regular Thursday slot this week with children from Old Oak in London.
Busy spell for me with a long Children’s Centre Meeting yesterday afternoon. Today I was doing my voluntary Bird watching with the young people at Wick Court. Loads of Redwings over today! I eventually saw the Bittern in Frampton and looking for a Siberian Chiffchaff close to my house tomorrow.
They must do surely sometime soon!
It is hard to make sense of the news this year. Millionaires here and across the pond masquerading as “men of the people” telling outrageous lies, playing to xenophobic audiences.
Still off to Book Club for meal and discussion of Paul Scott’s book “Staying On”.
Haven’t had a Neil Young song title for a while but as I had a busy weekend thought it was appropriate. Saturday was First Round of the F.A. Cup at Exeter. I went with our Dave and Vicky. A strange game where we at times poor and then some real flashes of brilliance. At least we won but I hope we start being more consistent over the whole 90 minutes. I also had a lovely birthday present from them as well, a beautiful poetry book with photographs of Gloucestershire (all the poems have a link with the county.)
Yesterday two of us went on a long cycle almost 50 miles to the wonderful cakes at the village of Hill. They now close for the winter-a long time to April! We met some others there who cycled back with us.
A quiet week on the Story telling front so I am decorating and reorganising my office. I am building up a decent library of folk tales from around the world.