Happy New Year

From the Mourne to the Cooleys - winter sunshine

Happy New Year dear blogger friends.   May 2022 be kind to us all. 

Lots of love and blessings

Fil 

My Green (and Blue) Garden House

Tom has been busy building in the garden ... 

and here I can reveal 

my Green House :)

Made from recycled windows and wood - I am so pleased.   He has done a brilliant job.   It's warm enough to sit in and bring a small table in to, but I've high hopes for the tomatoes and lettuce and chilli I've planted.  

We've thought of umpteen names for it, the Tardis coming up tops, but as my office already has that nickname it can't be used twice lol so I've opted for the Green House :)  

I'm gradually working on this wee area, the raspberry patch is swamped with ivy - and the raised bed has peas and onions coming on if we ever get enough heat for them to grow.  So this will eventually be a wee secret garden and a great sun trap.  

He also made this cracker trellis substitute from driftwood - my idea I have to boast, but he did the putting together - absolutely love it :)    

The rose looks a wee bit windswept - we're having fierce winds here at the moment and it gets very cold the minute your out of the sun - but the horse's head looks soooo good - he makes me smile every time I go past. 

Scratching my head now to see what's next on my list :) ... mwah haw haw ... 

The Wonders of Zoom and the frosty mornings.

I've just had the most wonderful Weekend at a Conference for community singing leaders - all done on Zoom - for 215 delegates!!  

I am in awe of the technology and the wonderful organising skills of the team behind the Natural Voice Network.*   And there's a second weekend to come - woohoo!  

On Sunday afternoon alone I attended an Alexander Technique session followed by vocal improvisation lead by a leader in Oregon and finishing the afternoon with a Feldenkrais relaxation session.   On Saturday we had a wonderful singing session lead by a Colombian singer, another gathering where we learned songs from Palestine, Africa and Finland and joined in the AGM as well.   They had even arranged a pub and a chill out space :   Brilliant.   It finished last night with a gathering for well being and I was quite shocked at the loss that is being felt by leaders in some of the big urban areas across England.   It made me appreciate how blessed I am here living in this musical community out of the city.   In fact I'e decided to take a 3 month (at least) break from leading the choir to take a further step back into finding my own creative voice.  However this weekend has really helped.  

Back in March when we first had the mad panic of the pandemic and the 'what on earth are we going to do now', I dived straight in to zoom with a very thinly veiled affection and joy for the wonders of technology which was allowing us to stay connected mixed with an even more thinly veiled anger at having to learn something else new.   The stress of running sessions every week and one to one classes and preparing for exams and and and .... while friends were talking about having lovely family quizzes and coffee mornings left me quietly seething .   But work's work and I felt a real sense of obligation to my group.  

Now that I'm back again to the wonders of technology - we're both tech nerds in this house  - my creativity is finally starting to come up to the surface again - painting, playing with paper, knitting and playing both the marimba and guitar which has been sadly neglected for months.  

We have an online gig coming up at the start of February so the voice and guitar both need dusting off and the fingers need to be hardened up again ... ouch. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Everything was frozen the other morning when we went for a walk around the seafront at Warrenpoint - 

the low tide and frozen sand making gorgeous patterns .

Lots of painted stones lined the wall  - a very cheerful sight.  I particularly love the top one.  

And the heron must've been finding lots of fish in the low tide.  

Take care and have a good quiet and safe week.

*I'm sure I've written about Natural Voice here before - that it's everyone's birthright to sing, and should not just be kept to the confines of the trained singing world - our definitions of good singers combined with the awful critics on tv talent competitions have stopped people singing to themselves, to their babies, while they're working, even in the shower, for fear of being heard.  The constant cry of I can't sing really shocks me as without doubt everyone can sing - you may not sing like Pavarotti or Barbara Streisand or whomever you rate as being brilliant, but you can sing like you.   With not a lot of practice everyone can sing in tune and the joy of singing in a group, while not available through lockdown, is one of the most uplifting experiences anyone can have.   By not singing, people are missing out on the health benefits of this simple self help practice.   

The natural voice approach encourages and helps everyone to find their voice and dovetails very well with folk music which comes from the storytelling oral tradition - the story being more important than the voice .   We use short songs from all around the world, many written by our own song leaders, all with, uplifting heartfelt lyrics, simple melodies and often glorious harmonies.   England is the centre of the Natural Voice Network but there are people leading singing groups this way all over the world.     

Off to a calmer place

I had to venture outside today for various meetings and passed a dog yapping delightedly at the waves that are churning up the beach - the poor girl who was with him was huddled against the wall trying to get some shelter while the dog yelped at every passer by to come and look and see what he had found ... very funny.   Unfortunately I was in too big a hurry to get out of the rain and too busy laughing at him to take out my phone and take a picture of him ... but this was later

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the photos at the Scavenger Hunt - I really must go and figure out what on earth is going on with Blogger - "give it a good talking to" as Kate would say :) . But it won't let me comment individually and by the time I go back and look at what someone else has said to comment on it, I've lost the original thing .... Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.   Life's too short ...

Yesterday we gathered to give a final send off to a lovely singer colleague of ours, Rosemary Woods, who battled for several years with cancer and could finally rest without pain.   It was a very emotional day but a beautiful send off for a beautiful woman who blessed everyone who ever met her with her presence, her heart felt words and her gentle personality.   Even when we visited her in the Hospice, Tom and I came out smiling, feeling like we had been uplifted and gifted with something.  We worked on the same circuit and with the same agents and although we weren't close close friends you were a big part of my musical family and I will miss you dear Rosie, as will all the many people who's lives you have touched.  Rest in Peace dear friend.

September in Photos

I started this at the start of September in the hope that I might get to play along this month with Hawthorn's aka Kate's Scavenger Hunt. - a word for a picture, a picture for a word.   The past two months I've been almost there, but not quite .... and here I am on the last Friday rushing around looking for the last couple of photos lol.  So here goes ...

Cosy

Meet my new grand nephew born at the end of August - this photo is the epitome of cosy to me ... the size of it - awwww.   Unfortunately he lives in Australia so it'll be some time before I meet him, but all are well.

Changing Foliage

I had great plans to photograph a local house that is always covered by a beautiful red climber at this time of the year, but I'm just back from the dentist, thinking I was due for a simple procedure and ended up with a root extraction ...on my birthday!!!!!   So photo forgotten - so this is one I took this week last year up the Fairy Glen

Scarf

My friend Cat and I went to see the American knitting designer Stephen West at Woollin outside Dublin earlier in the Summer.   He was a hoot, so over the top, and a perfect antidote for me who has to do everything by the book.  

I decided to do one of his patterns - this is The Doodler which was great fun to knit and I know it's more of a shawl than a scarf, but I wouldn't have the nerve to wear it as a shawl, so scarf it is!  And it's a bit out of focus cause the wind just wouldn't keep still for a second.

Cobweb

There are thousands of cob spiders around at the minute and cobwebs everywhere - our house is quite old and if you leave it for a couple of days it's been invaded again.  

But none of the webs are pretty enough - but this is one from last year when the fuchsia were still in full flow

Baking

What can I say?   Not my finest hour lol . This should have been a nut crust for a quiche ... oops

My Own Choice

I have to include another pic from my flight at the start of the month - and yes, I'm still smiling about that.   But it's a full year past now since the big birthday ( a year ago today in fact :) ) - this birthday doesn't count for anything other than the fact that I've managed to survive another year.

I thought the islands looked like those big crystals you see - you know where the edges are a different colour - 

So delighted to be playing again - off to visit the other photos now.

In Dublin's Fair City

It's a gorgeous day here today but I'm sitting in a long queue on the phone waiting to get through to national insurance people so I'm putting the time to good use.   

For a myriad of reasons we had to cancel our planned holiday in France this year so we decided on a few day trips to make up for it.  Firstly to Dublin

And we had blue skies and warm sunshine for it on Friday.  My friend, Hungarian poet  Csilla Toldy, with whom I collaborated on a two handed theatre piece called The Emigrant Woman's Tale, had a video poem in an exhibition of New Voices of Ireland (I'll give this a separate post) so we decided to make a day of it.   The train to Dublin always feels like a treat to me (trains were already gone when I was growing up in rural Fermanagh) and after lunch in my favourite Lebanese restaurant and a wander around Grafton Street we headed in to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.

Image borrowed from the Internet

Photography was not allowed in the main room where the actual book is on display so I've borrowed these couple of images from the Internet.  

Now, I'm sure all you learned folks reading this know about or at least have heard of The Book of Kells.   It's a 9th century illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels plus some introductory texts which was written by 4 scribes and 3 artists as far as scholars can tell.  

It really is a beautiful thing and is considered the oldest example of its kind in Europe and is Ireland's greatest treasure.  

As well as the main manuscript, the University also holds 7 out of around 20 remaining small transcribed books that monks would have written themselves before setting out around the world to preach the gospel.  

Internet Picture ( I think this one is of Matthew)

The exhibition From Darkness to Light describes the making of the book, plus The Book of Armagh which was written slightly earlier and the Book of Durrow, what inks were used and how they. were made and the fact that the exhibit book took somewhere around 189 calf skins to make.  Such laborious work.  And the scholarly research is impressive.

I've wanted to visit this for as long as I can remember, but I'm a terrible tourist and never got around o it and unfortunately when we went in the place was packed - apparently there was a cruise ship in for the day.   We got a glimpse of the book for a couple of minutes and the young people from the tours were so noisy we couldn't wait to get out again.   I will go back sometime though - perhaps in Winter.   

The best part by far of the exhibition for me was walking through The Long Room which is the oldest library in the world and was built in the mid 1700s to house every book that was printed in the British Isles.  It's a beautiful space and houses over 200,000 ancient books and manuscripts including an original copy of the Irish Declaration of Independence - apparently only 2 of them exist.  

The magnificent Long Room

Notice there's no J on the edges - there was no
letter J in Latin

The domed ceiling was added
long after the original building to house a second level of books

 The library also houses the Brian Boru harp which interestingly (for me anyway ) has nothing to do with the 11th century High King of Ireland Brian Boru, but was given to Trinity in the 18th century and dates back to the late 14th or early 15th century.   It is the symbol of Ireland and is one of only three instruments of its kind in existence.
Again there were so many people around it was hard to get a decent photo but I loved the detail on this - it's encrusted with tiny jewels and crystals which suggests that it was the instrument of a master musician or bard or someone from a very prominent family.

A detail of the Brian Boru harp

Another image borrowed from the internet

So all in all a very interesting browse and I'd highly recommend it, if you haven't already visited.   Trinity is right in the centre of Dublin so very easy to get to - but try to avoid the cruise ships unless you're actually on it yourself lol

So from there after a wee sojourn in Powerscourt Town House for tea and cakes, it was a long walk to the exhibition which was a delight.  

As I said earlier I'll do a separate post for the exhibition .... stay tuned :)

Mid Week Musings - Dec 14 2017

We've had great fun this week making a video in the house ...

We rearranged the studio, got every available camera and set to work.

The light was perfect from the morning sun until about midday

The music business has changed beyond all recognition in recent years - especially since the advent of social media, and it too is changing all the time.  It works well for younger performers who have grown up with social media but for older wans like ourselves it's much harder.

Recently I asked a friend if she'd got the new CD and she said :No, I'm waiting for it come up on YouTube so I can download it for free!!  Some friend I thought!!   But I knew she was only joking - still, that's the way a lot of people think.   CDs don't sell anymore - in fact our last album was probably the last we'll record in that format.  So video has become very important -for bookers in clubs, for people to listen to songs and possibly cover them - that's an amazing feeling, hearing someone else singing a song you've written - and for people to just use as a radio station.

After an hour or so the sun got too bright for a while,
before disappearing,
leaving a dark shadow in the opposite corner

The big white blob on the right is actually a light from the sitting room laid on its side
filling in the dark bit.

Goodness knows how it'll turn out - it'll take a few goes to get it right, but it's a fun process to be involved in.
Tom has film editing facilities in the studio and has edited several TV shows both for companies here, in America and in Hungary.

I'll let you see the final results when we have them.





As to the rest of our work, I'm really excited to tell you that I've been accepted on to a programme run by the British Lung Foundation, to train as a singing group leader for people with varying degrees of Lung Problems.  I'll be part of a very small team working in Northern Ireland.
Otherwise, things are winding down now for the holidays - apart from the daily instrumental and vocal practice.   Singmarra finished up last night - we head out for our Christmas dinner party on Friday and reconvene early in January with plans for a concert and for taking part in a locally written cantata for Easter.  Touring is also now finished for the year, and next year's tours are well booked up.  And the one to one classes finish today, with all my students ready to be entered for their exams in the Spring.

All in all it's been a productive year, in spite of, or maybe as a result of, spending so much time off the road.

Now I'm ready to get the Christmas tree up and start wrapping presents ... my favourite time of the year.  

Photo Scavenger Hunt October 2017

I didn't get a chance to join in with you all last month for the photo Scavenge Hunt and really missed you all - but I'm delighted to get back to playing this month.

Hawthorn always come up with an amazing list of prompts to really challenge our heads, and this month there have been some real corkers ....  so here goes.  

Street

We have had beautiful proper Autumn days for the past few days and we took our visiting friend across in the ferry to Carlingford in Co. Louth.  Carlingford is a Norman Town and very popular with tourists... this is the pedestrian street and the arch at the bottom housed the town jail.

Empty

This is the jail - just tucked in to the left corner of the arch.   It is tiny and thankfully very empty.   totally open to the elements and only about 4 foot high - I couldn't stand up in it. but I"m sure it housed at least 3 or 4 men waiting for deportation in the 17 and 1800s

Starts with a ...... F

We stopped in PJs pub for a pint of Guinness and some lunch.   They're all prepared for Halloween and the fire was very welcome after the ferry crossing.

Neat

PJs pub is famous throughout Ireland - for many things.   For a start, it's one of the last remaining grocery pubs - they've made this a tourist feature now.   Plus the Guinness is very good and you don't have to pay Dublin prices for it, although it's still a price hike compared to here in the North.
But it is also famous for its collection of leprechaun clothes!!!
What a neat little man was Sean Og - these are his belongings.   Again, the pub was decorated for Halloween so the cobweb streak is masking his little jacket but you get the idea.   Every year, Carlingford hosts a leprechaun hunt in the mountains behind .   It also has a great Oyster Festival, if that's your thing.

Unexpected

This stone is new since the last time we were over in Carlingford and so interesting - for sure Kate is more familiar with the theme than I am.  Occasionally you see Ogham writing on jewellery and it's a huge field of study.   I loved this stone carving listing the trees for the different lunar months of the year - the year of course beginning on November 1st and ending on October 31st.   Apologies if this photo runs off the page a bit, but I wanted to make it large enough for you to read.

Paper

Thankfully the wet weather of the past few months has let up for a while and allowed the leaves to dry out.   I just love the smell and the lovely crunchy richness that looks and sounds like paper. 

The Fairy Glen

Vase

This vase came out of Tom's grandmother's house and it's being kept safe up on a ledge in the porch with last years' hydrangeas in it... that's actually a clay drum beside it - all the big items that we can't find a home for end up on that ledge, but then so too do the young swallows in spring if we don't keep an eye out.

Kettle

The seaspray in this photo is known as a Kettle around here, or the Carlingford Kettles.
At certain times of year, the wind whips up the lough  - they're like mini tornadoes on the water ... this was the only picture I've ever been able to catch of them.   It's something to do with the lay of the mountains on either side of the lough - the sprays of water go up to 20 or 30 feet high and then appear to run across the top of the water into shore.   Very exciting to see.  

My own choice

I spotted this one time in France - not because I love macaroons - I do :)  but because of the name.
I never use my full name - because our society here was so blatantly us and them, religious wise, and my name gave away my background like a stamp on my forehead I never liked it.   Being known as Phil people had to guess a while longer.
When someone shouts Philomena I hear nuns in my head usually with raised voices and usually attached to the feeling of having done something wrong .....
But there is one exception... when it is pronounced by a French man - how shallow am I!!  Philomène sounds so much more ancient and goddess like than Philomena ... to my ears anyway ... I'd nearly moved to France for that lol.  

Making ...

As I've been spending much more time knitting this year, my horizons have been widening to learn some of the wonderful new-to-me skills that are out there.   For the first time I joined in a Mystery Knitalong - which has me tortured - not because of the mystery (you don't get the full pattern at the start), but because of the blinking beads - there are about 800 of the little blighters on this piece .... never again.
Fine lace knitting is not something I've ever tackled before, and it's very annoying because you can't really see what it's going to look like until it's off the needles.   The last row had about 250 beads on it and I"m now on the cast off which is very slow.  
But it will be worth it when I'm finished.
For the crafters reading this, the yarn is a hand dyed Tussah Silk from Yorkshire I think - this was a first for me - beautiful yarn to work with - it is so strong, but still fine - this colour is called Mermaid's Tale - can't wait to get to the end of it to see what it looks like - once I have it finished and blocked I'll do a show and tell.    Repeat note to self: KEEP AWAY FROM BEADS!!!

So that's been my month.   Off now to have a look at everyone else's pictures for the month.  
Are you taking part?  What's your month been like?  

Scavenger Photo Hunt August 2017

Dear All

I've been kind of caught up with stuff this past couple of months so I thought I'd catch up through this month's Scavenger Hunt organised by Hawthorn at I Live, I Love, I Craft.  Thank you Hawthorn for hosting this each month - it really gets the grey cells working and at the moment they need all the help they can get :) 

1. Relaxed 

Meet our new-to-us caravan and we're away for a much needed week of relaxation.  This was not an easy acquisition for me.  The gypsies live in caravans - and for much of my life I've felt like a gypsy being on the road so much.  lol
Anyway I'm over it now and cannot wait to hit the road again - it's really only about the size of a tent on wheels, but I love it.

2. It begins with an M...

At the end of last month my Mum turned 90.  We had a family gathering for her and she was so pleased to see cousins from America and England as well as from all over Ireland.  My mum, Marguerite, is a great crafter - she's just finishing another crocheted blanket at the minute, so a friend of mine made this beautiful cake with wool and crochet flowers on it.  

3. Time for...

A new CD!!  

Yay .... We got it finished in time for the festival at the end of July and had a very successful launch concert.  The final run of CDs won't be here for another couple of weeks (we got a short run done for the launch), so we'll be starting to promote after our holiday.   That's always fun once you get over the initial panic of letting people hear what you've been doing and keep your fingers crossed that they like it.
This is a collection of mostly our own songs, with Tom singing 4 of his own songs on the album and yours truly doing the rest.  With the exception of one traditional song "Peace in Erin" written in the early 1800s, and one from a wonderful American singer songwriter, the rest of the offerings are ours - songs about immigration, politics, peace and our travels.

4. Tangerine 

Sitting in the hairdresser's last week I was rummaging through the list of prompts and trying to get ideas of what I could photograph for each of them - but Tangerine left me stumped.  So as a last measure I headed off to Google to see what would come up under the word ... And lo and behold there's a new literary magazine published here in Northern Ireland that I had never heard of.   So thank  you Hawthorn for this prompt.   My first two copies have just arrived - in time for leisurely reading time  - looking forward to diving in.    Introducing The Tangerine Magazine

5. It begins with an O... 

I missed last month's Scavenger hunt, but while I was searching for an image to fit the word Ring I took this pic of a stone landing in the water.   Isn't it a perfect O? ;)

6. Whiskery

Our last cat died nearly three years ago and I miss her greatly.  But a special bonus has been the rise in bird numbers in the garden.  We were both gettng to a place of thinking that we'll maybe not have a cat again and enjoy feeding and watching the birds coming and going instead - after all, they don't need minding when we're away on a tour.
But then, we started getting a regular visitor - this three coloured very talkative female who decided that she owned our house and garden.   Tom came in from the garage one day to find her in the kitchen sitting looking at him as if to say "where have you been?"  At our pre festival party she wandered in again and sat in the middle of everyone as happy as Larry.   So a few weeks back I posted this photo on Facebook and asked if anyone knew her and my friend, another musician, who lives about 1/4 mile away came back - "omg, that's our cat!"
Her name's Peaches and she's still visiting - occasionally bringing her two friends with her.   We thought this was really funny - musician to musician - good taste, this cat has!
However!!  Now she's attacking my birds and we are not amused - two beautiful nesting wood pigeons who cooed us awake each morning have both been killed ... some action is going to have to be taken.  

7. Lace -

It's been a constant job this year, removing spiders, from both inside and outside the house - endless.   But you have to forgive the wee blighters when they weave such beautiful webs.  This one appeared the other morning on the fuchsia bush outside the window.  Thankfully you can't see the dirt of my windows in this photo!!

8. Bridge 

Well a sort of bridge ....

After years of negotiating and arguing and political posturing, a ferry has been opened to cross Carlingford Lough between Greenore in the South and Greencastle in the North.  We decided to come back that way from Dublin a few weeks back ... The top view is looking north to the Mournes and the bottom one, looking back to the Cooley's.  It's a lovely crossing, ideal if you're doing a tourist trip between Dublin and Belfast and wanting to take the coast road the whole way ... but it was absolutely freezing that day.  

9. Letters

Last year I wrote here about Poetic Action Rostrevor (PAR), a lovely initiative started by my friend Catherine which she brought back here after visiting a small Spanish village where someone in turn had picked it up from somewhere in South America.  

Last year the organisers put up 20 boards around the village and this year added 7 or 8 more.   Some are painted directly on to walls, others on removable boards, in case the Council in their wisdom decide they should be taken down.  This is one of the new ones.

10. My own choice

My neighbour has been growing Christmas trees for the past 10 years or so, and this year I noticed the bigger ones all have these huge pine cones ... In the evening sun they look like a bunch of little animals huddling up for the night.  

So what has your month been like?  Check out the other Scavengers here.  

Thanks again Hawthorn.