World Bee Day

Today marked World Bee Day according to Positive News Magazine.   Is there a day to celebrate everything now?  Mind you the bees need celebrating.   

Our neighbour John keeps bees so our garden is full of them at the minute.   The cotoneaster is starting to bloom and they're all over it and we left a lot of dandelions until their blooms had disappeared.  The bluebells though don't seem to attract them in the same way.  I've also seen quite a few bumble bees around - they're really fun to watch, just getting on with their business and burrowing into the ground. 

And then I've become addicted to the Spelling Bee - another NYTimes puzzle alongside Wordle - are you on the Wordle fad yet?  Apart from the really annoying American spelling of words it's a good brain challenge.   I've reach Queen Bee status a couple of times on the Spelling Bee and they have absolutely beautiful bee pictures - a couple of which I have appropriated here.  

In other news we are progressing well with recording on the new album which we now have a working title for - Shoreline.   Our fundraiser on Kickstarter got off to a good start and we're on schedule to have all the guide tracks finished in another 10 days or so, barring more hospital appointments for mum.   We're down with her every weekend now so the week and our brains are split - I keep trying to walk through a window to get to the loo in the middle of the night - it's very disorientating moving between two beds on a regular basis.  It's around now that I wish that I'd got a 'proper job' with a pension and paid sick leave when I had the chance and when petrol didn't administer heart failure every time you went to fill up the car.   A bit late now.  But all will work out.  

So once the guide tracks, or the skeleton tracks as I like to call them, are done, then it's time to add the little bits of other instruments.   Nowadays that's mostly done remotely - we send tracks to a keyboard player or guitarist or fiddle player and they add their bits and send it back for finishing.   So then when all the songs are completed to our satisfaction we put final vocals and harmonies on the tracks and start mixing - that's when the fun really begins.  

We hope to have a sample of one of the songs in a basic form shortly. 

Images removed due to copyright infringement ... 

The Squirrels babies are here ...

 I just had to share this ... 

In the middle of the recording this afternoon I looked out the window and we had four feeding together ... how fabulous.  

Thank you for all your comments the other day - much appreciated :) xx

Too much

Sing for Earth Day Rostrevor 
singing in the forest after a morning workshop learning songs to praise the Earth.

It's been such a long time since I posted here - nearly three months - that I hardly know how to start writing.   It's not that there's been anything overly dramatic happening that has kept me away, just an accumulation of too much.   Too much distraction, too much general illness, too much tiredness, just too much.  Anyway, I'm back for now - not promising anything more than that, just to say hello and let you know we're all still alive here! 

So what have I been up to? 

We had a first trip of the year over to Scotland to do a couple of folk club gigs last month - it was harder than usual to get ourselves wound up and started, but by the third gig we were back in our stride again and the fourth gig of the week, when we got back home again, was superb. Great energy.  

crossing bridges in Scotland

My extra two new choirs have been enjoyable but I'm finding it hard to keep my energy up for three nights a week, especially during the dark months, driving on country roads and leaving a roaring fire after an early dinner.   Now with the brighter evenings it's not quite as bad.   But the one off workshops I've been doing -for International Women's Day and for Earth Day, have been very enjoyable.   I think I'd like to do more of those.   

Recording wise we're making good progress, finishing songs and getting guide tracks completed, ready for other musicians to add sparkle to them.   We are launching a crowdfunding campaign to presell that CD and get people involved with the process.   Here's the link if you're interested in contributing.  You can hear one of the songs which will be a single - People - in the background of the video.    

The view from Carrick Cottage Cafe in the Mournes on a sunny Easter Tuesday - heavenly.
The Isle of Man was visible in the distance and the place was absolutely packed. 

The garden is starting to perk up and I'm so excited to see that my wisteria has finally bloomed - I've always loved seeing very old wisteria after being in a house once on Orkney where the conservatory was just full of blooms and from there the whole house was filled with the heady smell.   I think I planted this one 5 years ago and patience has finally won out.  

Over Covid I've had more time to play with paper and paints and have dabbled with junk journalling which I really enjoy - it's great not to have to be brilliant at something and just enjoy sticking things in a book with glue. 

and playing with found poetry 

I think the best part of this pastime is all the bits to be bought - sweetie shop for grown ups lol. 

I have been dropping in from time to time to catch up with your writings and I was very grateful to Susan for getting in touch a while back to see if we were ok - I appreciated it so much Susan and hope I didn't scare you off with my ranting - it wasn't the best day when I wrote back !

Take care everyone and belated Bealtaine greetings.