Photo Scavenger Hunt for April 2014

Hi, thank you for all your lovely lovely kind comments. It means so much to me that you all cared so much.  xx

Hurrah! How much fun it is to hunt for items especially when on holiday. (Note to all- I was a super well-behaved Scavenger this month and got right on with it so even the post was begun in the Easter holidays! To make up largely for being so late the last few months!)

Greenthumb provided the lovely list of items this time.


I was delighted to see TRUCK  up for grabs- I seem to spend my time travelling on the A1 up to Northumberland, giggling at the funny lorryloads that pass us by.  Sadly, a few real corkers were missed as I spotted them too late to snap- including the Rolo tube lorry, a truck carrying another truck, 2 tractors aboard, a conservatory and more!  Combining Truck and Carry here.

Truck 1 has a rather nice load of spools of thick cable- Ang/Bob, you could make a HUGE cotton-reel table out of one of these! Ones for giants!

I have NO idea what Truck no.2 is for- it had all these weird holes at the side- I almost lost the camera and my head, leaning out the window at 70mph!

Yay, everyone's favourite truck is no.3- precarious new car loads

Truck no.4 is my personal favourite- 20metres of straw!!! Again, serious danger of decapitation was experienced in the making of this photo!

A is for?

Archaeological.  Here at Vindolanda, voluteers dig in search of archaeological findings on this Roman site.  Apparently, they ask for hundreds of volunteers to apply each year and the places are filled within 10 minutes when the application site goes live.  I tried hard to get a shot in which the volunteers' faces were not showing and snapped this moment!

11am



Rubbish phone photo but I've been pretty hopeless with the timed ones so far so when I saw an opportunity...

Smooth

The most delicious chocolate cake that CBC made on Easter Sunday to herald my return to chocolate eating.  It was sublime and so smooth- a really moist gateau/cake.  A week on and it is still really tasty and smooth and moist!
Scale

3 scales in fact (all 3 are descending)- in Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata.  The sonata was written originally for this mysterious instrument,an Arpeggione,  an archaic string instrument which no longer exists. It was 6-stringed and had frets like a guitar but was played with a bow like a cello, held between the knees. It was invented c.1823 by Johann Georg Stauffer, who was a guitar maker from Vienna.  It had a brief spate of popularity around a decade after its invention but it was short-lived.    This was one of the last solo viola pieces I learnt before stopping viola lessons and it is a corker- very very hard but very satisfying to play.  It is transcribed for all manner of instruments but I like it best on the viola. (Thank you to Wiki for the details)


Tile

Tiles found at two examples of my hobbies-

Chequered tiles at the church my orchestra rehearsed at on Palm Sunday

and more ornate tiles at my lindy-hop class in Southend.


Logo

Strictly speaking, titles of products or items but they're synonymous with logos surely- my drawings as a teenager of logos/titles- we found this sketchpad at my Grandad's house which is full of my drawings I would do when I was there. Many happy hours there spent drawing, when not playing in the heavenly garden.

Scrap


This is actually a photo from November- my local park's bonfire preparation and I've wanted to share it for ages- not because it is a great picture but just for the sheer fascination of what made up the bonfire- it looks like some sort of scrap igloo- it even appears to have an entrance!!!!   (Katie- that's an idea for your DIY fort- make one then burn it!!!!)


Match
I had a GREAT example for this- I spotted two Police vans driving side by side with identical registration numbers bar one letter and snapped a shot but it's probably not a great thing to publish photos of police cars on the net!
So instead...


Yes, er, matches (CBC just totally dissed this. "Big deal, it's matches you saddo!"
Or this?
Path


A winding path on Castle Crag in the Lake District (near Borrowdale)- that's WOMOTM climbing up. On the way down, I was the one at the back.  Having a bit of a hissy fit over walking on loose slates...

Layers


In the woods, I saw many layers- piles of wood, the rings and cross-section of trees, fallen branches, cracked logs.  All beautiful, all intricate.  Here, I looked down into a broken log to see the different layers of grain

During our Lake District walk, we saw this 'cliff'of rock with all the different layers of colours/types of stone.

Head over to Greenthumb for more April photo goodness and why not join in next time?  Val did!

Flight of the Bumblebee

Today, my Grandad made his last public appearance at his funeral. It was held at a new cemetery not too far from where I live and seemed a really beautiful, open, fresh, peaceful place with a lake where trees are planted with plaques for the deceased.

A real nice crowd turned up including over 30 fellow beekeepers, 4 teachers (including Head) from the school where he taught bee-keeping, friends and neighbours, past and present, family of course.

They had managed to find these photos by contacting an Essex-based magazine who had published these photos with an interview with Grandad some while ago (mind you, he was in the local paper and on BBC Radio Essex with Ken Crowther a few times in the past so there were other places that had taken photos) and they were projected from screens in the Crematorium and on the front of really lovely order of services, along with a picture of him as a young bespectacled lad of 30ish on the back with honeybees dotted here and there.

The service was not religious, as my Grandfather was not religious, but it had some nice elements to it.  After the bringing in of his casket (which I found very humbling- it looked so small for such a tall man) and a welcome, we sang Morning has broken which has very fitting lyrics for a man who loved nature so much, which I accompanied on the keyboard.  After this, my cousin came and read a poem which was lovely.

After this, I came up to play a piece which my Grandad had commissioned me to write some 16 years ago. He was SUCH a clever man and had a plan for me to write a 20minute long piece for full symphony orchestra and singer details of which he wrote to me in a 5-page long letter with intricate details and ideas for inspiration.  I started the said piece at the time, writing the overture and various sequences and sections for it but never completing it, it being an huge task and one that was quite exciting but daunting and of course, life, other musical committments got in the way.  Oh how I wished I had finished it for him. I spoke about it and then played the extracts from it on the keyboard.

My Mum, then my sister and then a fellow bee-keeper came up and gave talks about him.  All three were touching, funny, and a real tribute to the amazing man he was.  My Mum, talking about him, showed how intelligent he was, all the classes he enrolled in after retirement, including, Russian, violin-making, Welsh, microbiology, yoga and many more (I, who always has regarded him as one of the most active people I know was shocked at the list), talked about his time as a Civil Servant at the Employment office (from 1949 until retirement) and an amazing anecdote about how he met Fred Astaire through his work and suggested to him that he use an English ballet company for An American in Paris rather than 'importing' dancers from abroad, since it would be much easier.  My sister's talk was of her memories of him and her first comment, that she never considered him to be an 'old person' struck me so much.  That was so true- he wasn't ever old- he was so active, enthusiastic, amazing.  Then the bee-keeper spoke. She had only known him for 9 years and it was him who got her into bee-keeping. She'd met him at a County show and her daughter had told him (he was representing his division of the Essex Beekeepers) she wanted to be a bee-keeper.  He introduced her to someone who was selling some equipment, got her a swarm to look after and then continued to support her, teaching her everything about bee-keeping. She'd phoned him most days to ask advice, he'd often phone her to tell her something and her grandaughter (who always wanted to speak to him on the phone) actually thought he was a giant bee! Possibly due to the first time she saw him being in his netted faced suit.  She really really seemed to care about him and it represented one of many conversations I had later.

At this point, this was when the curtains closed on his coffin and to accompany it, my sister and I played Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee.   I had managed to hold it together all the way through the service but as I stood there waiting to start, it was hard to keep it together but that I had to do for this very very hard piece for him- he was my staunchest supporter as a musician. He had come to more performances of mine than anyone else, he who was a supportive, delighted critic.  My sister, managed to play whilst her eyes and nose dripped all over the piano.

After waiting outside and being greeted by people who really really loved him, we headed to a pub near his house for some food and drinks. So many people spoke to me expressing their love for him.  A whole gaggle of lady beekeepers between around 35-60 talked to me and all had told me they were his proteges, they all phoned him regularly to ask him advice and how to do things.  Each one told me he was the kindest, most intelligent and most patient and helpful person they knew, always ready to offer advice, encourage, support and offer a great perspective.  It was a lovely time to see my family, including my cousins who I have not seen for so long, see these friends and know how much he was and still is loved. I loved hearing tales and only wish I had talked to him more of his amazing life, and learnt to be what he was myself.

Don't be sad that I have died
Be glad that I lived.


I haven't said all I want to about him, this is just a summary of the day only.  His life has so much to celebrate and talk about but I love the above: A fitting tribute to this giant bee as he makes his final flight.

282820

It was CBC's birthday last week and I was hunting through my pile of craft mags when I spotted an Owl card in one of them. CBC likes owls so I was mystified to search through the annals of my mind to discover I had never made him an owl card!  The card design was similarish to this so I decided to do my own version based on what I had- It did use a pale blue card base and orange feet so at least I stuck to that. It was mostly a case of cutting out shapes, assemvling (I just did mine free-hand- you didn't need templates for these) and sticking on with either Prittstick or 3d sticky-pads (plus a little white gel pen for the gleam in the eyes).  I was pleased to make use of the gingham card- this is made out of a sort of disposable party container.  I bought a pile of them when I was last in Bali about 8 years ago for my friend Kate's little boy's 3rd birthday which he celebrated out there when my Gamelan group went out to play for the Bali International Arts festival.  Kate asked me to go and get things for the party which I dutifully did. I bought far too many of these containers (a pack of 10 cost about 10p) so I just took them home in my suitcase thinking they'd be good for craft-projects- they are scalloped edged so I was pleased that that shape-edge was already pre-cut for me.

As I was picmonkeying the photo, I was reminded of a GENIUS advert that an insurance company did when I was about 13-14.  Guardian Direct's logo was an Owl and their contact number was 0800 28 28 20 (say it outloud) and I remembered it for years!  You can see the original advert here- it's the first video- skip to about 2:30 to see it in action!  At the time it came out, I was learning Mozart's Concerto for Flute in G major and in the first movement, there was this tricky rhythm with these grace-notes which my flute teacher told me to say, "Toowhit toowhit toowhoo" to remember (I've never forgotten it to this day) at which point, I said, "282820", told him about the advert and he wrote it into my flute music where it is still written in his handwriting. He died about 12 years ago which I was incredibly sad about but I smile when I hear the Mozart G concerto and remember this ( You can hear the concert here: Listen from 2:14 but the Owl bit is at 2:18-19!)

How about that for the power of advertising!

Incidently, CBC had a nice birthday, although I was a bit rubbish as I had had an awful headache all day and I was really flagging during our dinner out. We got home at 8.30 and I promptly fell asleep but unfortunately then woke up at midnight with head really pounding and barely slept a wink, alternating between cold shivers and hot sweats, tossing, turning and felt dreadful in the morning still with headache even worse- hiding from the light like some sort of vampire.  Poor CBC- hope he liked his presents though!

I am linking to Claire Justine's Creative Mondays with my card.


and the Pink Elephant Monday Challenge with my favourite pastel shade- light blue!

Party Frock

We went to a 50th Birthday celebration and I finally wore a dress I had bought a while back from Poppy England, a Grace tea dress.  The buying of this dress was totally down to the blogging as I had seen the red version advertised on Char's blog and had loved it and ummed and ahed for months.   I loved the fact it is made in England and not abroad and was a quintessential cotton, lined 50's frock that would be great for both lindy-hopping and a special occasion but wasn't sure about the cost.  It wasn't until a good 3 weeks after the red one had gone into the sale that I decided to buy one but the red had all gone- I checked with Hannah at Poppy and they searched and finally found a size 10 (a bit big to be honest) in the navy- you can wear it backwards with a v-neck as well but I'm not so keen.

Finally, I wore it with the new black tulle petticoat my sister had bought me for my birthday.  It was suitably swishy worn with Primark cardigan and George dalmation shoes (and Alex Munroe-style Bee necklace)



My sister came over to practice for my Grandad's funeral today- we're playing a piece together and then I am playing a piece by myself- she rehearsed her speech on me- I smiled lots at the memories, it felt very bittersweet remembering those events and times.  My niece had us in fits of laughter as we were rehearsing the flight of the bumblebee and she asked to play too and had a rainstick which she played meticulously in time, turning it every two bars on the downbeat.  That was good until she got the castanets and ocarina out and set up a faster pulse on them than we were playing which totally sped us up and threw us and we shook uncontrollably, trying to keep going but it's impossible to play the flute whilst laughing until we collapsed with laughter mid piece.

We then had tea and chocolate cake that CBC had made last week. My niece was definitely showing signs of cupboard love here: she was after that cake!




Linking to the lovely Patti at Visible Monday with my party dress! A petticoat, I find, always makes you feel visible- getting through doors is hard and people have to give you a wide berth!

Meet me at the temple

We had a really fun day at Vindolanda.  For anyone that doesn't know, this is an archaeological dig in Northumberland, not far from Hadrian's wall.  It was a Roman military settlement for many years



 Entire outfit (except hiding walking boots= thrifted/charity shop-
M&S vintage (80's???) check dress, belt from vintage dress, coat originally H&M, Beret (Primark new)

Not far from Hadrian's Wall, you can see archaeologists working on digs as you wander around

Vindolanda was once upon a time, one of the key military posts in the north of England.  It is the home of Britain's Top Treasure according to a vote by the British Public- a series of wooden writing tablets that give us an insight into the lives of the Roman soldiers and their families in Roman times. It is a miracle that they survived for us to be able to read, since they were made of thin wood and had they not been preserved upon some layers of bracken without exposure to oxygen, they would have perished along with all other wood/paper matter.

The site is extensive and you can see the ruins and remains of the Roman town: residences of officers and barracks, a temple to an unknown God, mausoleum...

Reproduction fort and site in the middle of archaeological dig- there are nine layers of settlements built on top of each other over the occupation period

Water containers

During the drier weather, you can see volunteers digging on the site, carefully searching for interesting matter.  I stood and watched some volunteers and saw one unearthing some pieces of pottery and we talked to the head of the site who told us a few things.

There is a reproduction fort at the edge of the site and a repro Roman temple which is pictured above with me.

The museum was interesting with many relics and finds and transcriptions of the wooden writing tablets.

There were several of these 'workshops' that contain many unexhibited findings- pottery, metal, stone, wood etc

Carvings

Roman sandals- already pictured in my Roman wishlist post

Glass beads

I'd definitely recommend a visit to here.  You can also visit its sister site, the Roman military museum, some miles along Hadrians' wall!

Aerial view from the reproduction fort

The incredibly sad tale of the Indonesian Big Feast

Image taken with thanks from here

I love a good bit of childhood nostalgia! Who's ever eaten a Big Feast ice-lolly?   Hands up?
They've always been my favourite ice-lolly all my life and I can bet you know why.  The big chocolate chunk in the middle of course!  My preferred method of eating them is the following:

1. Carefully nibble around the perimeter (from bottom by the stick, up over the top and back down the other side)
2.  Now, carefully break off the front and back panels of nutty chocolate leaf with your two front teeth and crunch joyfully. You should be left with an ice-cream covered chocolate block.
3.  Lick off the ice-cream from the front and back (if it's a hot day and you fear droppage, then you might have to nibble to do this faster)
4.  You should be left with a clean chocolate block.  Slowly nibble around the edge and downwards until you are just left with the chocolate parallel to the stick.
5.  Finito.

As usual, of course, I have digressed from the original point I came here to make.  Well, you can understand my love of the Big Feast.   When I first moved to Indonesia to study Gamelan on the Scholarship programme, it was August and I was very homesick.  I adored the food in Java and Bali, it was wonderful, but after two weeks, I was craving proper chocolate.  In Bali/Java, it's not proper chocolate- it taste cheap, waxy and odd (or at least what I could buy for my budget in local shops was.  Couldn't afford foreign imports) and I hadn't seen any proper actual blocks of solid chocolate.

Well, fast forward 3 weeks and I was in Yogyakarta, a city in Central  Java for the week-long Foreign student Orientation Programme where we learnt to speak Indonesian better, got to know each other and found out about our courses.  There was one day mid-week where we had the chance to leave our campus for the afternoon to explore/relax/do things by ourselves. I set off with a small group of Europeans (Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Poland) and we went into town and went to get our hair cut etc and buy cheap Indonesian dictionaries.  On our return journey, we were all talking intently of our craving for real chocolate, chocolate in blocks and we saw a small shock with a sign advertising ice-creams including the holy grail of ice-lollies, the BIG FEAST!!! Excitedly, I pointed it out and told everyone that at the centre, there was a big block of chocolate!  We stampeded into the shop and each purchased our Big Feast.  The exterior was delicious, the ice-cream in the middle, creamy and delightful as it should be but as we ate the ice-cream, something was amiss.  The ice-cream kept going and we reached the middle without finding the treasure.

Yes, woefully, devastatingly, guttingly, it transpired that Indonesian Big Feasts do not have a chocolate block in the centre, but just consist of the ice-cream!!!!   It was a sad moment for all of us.  Yes, we enjoyed the crunchy exterior and smooth ice-cream but to miss the key USP (unique selling point) of the Big Feast was a pretty bitter pill to swallow (first world problems eh?)

Over to you:  How would you have felt in this situation?  What's your feeling about Big Feasts?  Have you ever experienced a similar 'foreign equivalents' tale of disappointment?

"Look miss: Lingerie!"

I was teaching phonics to Reception yesterday (that's 4-5 year olds). They are on Phase 3 sounds I think and we were revising the 'ee' phoneme.  One of the tasks was for them to think of and write down all the words that have the 'ee' sound in them.  The usual ones were being discussed by pairs of children  - sheep, sleep, sweet, feet, meet and then one little boy, who was working with another boy said to me (whilst holding up his mini-whiteboard to me), "We've got one Miss, Lingerie" and the board said, Lonjuree.  I did a double-take and asked him to repeat it and yes, he and his little friend knew the word Lingerie!!!!  I almost wet myself laughing!!!

It was also a funny day because I was listening to the Empress of the Pagodas from Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose Suite with Year 4 (8-9 year olds) and the children were sitting answering questions on a sheet about the piece as they listened.  One of those they had to answer was, "How does the music make you feel?" and one little boy, not known for his er- extensive vocabulary or humour had written that it made him feel romantic!!!!! I smiled lots!!! I knew what he meant though!!!

I brought in my Grandad's mandolin to show the children in singing assembly and to Reception and played it to them.  When I asked what instrument they thought it was, I was impressed that the suggestions were varied and were not just, "Violin" or "Guitar" but included Lute (year 6 boy), Sitar (year 3 girl), Banjo (Year 4), Ukelele (Reception)

One little boy in Year 2 is clever, musical and I like him, but he is a little odd at times!!  We were listening to Leroy Anderson's The Typewriter which is a highly amusing piece which children adore and at the end, I asked him how it made him feel.  The majority of them end up saying, "Excited, happy, busy, joyful, giggly, amused..." but in his case, he said "It makes me feel angry.  I asked him to explain why he felt like that and he said, "because it makes me feel happy and so that makes me makes me feel angry because I don't like feeling happy".  Oh well then!

One other little girl had been dancing her arms around in an amusing way as she listened and when I asked her how it made her feel, she said, "Hungry, because I heard the ding of the microwave and that told me dinner was on the way- mmmmm!" (that'll be the ding of the typewriter then!)

It was then highly amusing as I asked to listen again to whether the amount of taps on the Typewriter was equal every time or if it changed.  To do this, I included a technique I learnt on my recent Dalcroze course.  We had listened to the typewriter and had to show the lengths of phrases by moving a scarf along in one direction until the phrase changed.  I adapted this and made them move along miming typing with their fingers until the DING and then they had to quickly 'push' the typewriter back the other way and begin again until the next bell/ding.  This was really amusing, particularly in the middle where the phrase lengths are really irregular and some are really short.  They seemed to enjoy it.

A sweet comment I overheard yesterday was, "I LOVE coming to this room, we always have fun!". Good!

Yes, it's a hard job at times, but you do hear the funniest and sweetest things!

When the blue bells are out

I have long associated the smell and sight of bluebells with 'I capture the castle' by Dodie Smith.  Cassandra, our heroine, smells bluebell perfume in the upperclass department store and she declares that it smells like heaven.  She is asked to walk in the woods to see the bluebells with Stephen, the lad who loves her unrequited-  and she imagines it in her mind:
Cassandra: Can you smell bluebells?
Stephen: I can smell heaven.

Bluebells and a walk in the woods are synonymous with romance and fragility in my mind. 



CBC and I went to our local woodland to see the bluebells that carpeted the forest, their dusky bells ringing our a silent song of joy! There is a silent magnificence I find in the woods.  The trees look down in the wisdom of age, knowing, remembering in taciturn thought.

The hues of a carpet of bluebells- their smell, their transient fragility:

Each individual bloom ringing out a symphony in blue!


We meandered on, stopping every second to carefully view the vivid hostesses of the woods, careful never to damage their fleeting glory.



And who is this upon yonder tree-stump?



Come closer...it is the bluebell transfigured!


Up and down, up and down, I wander up and down

Over hill, over vale, thorough bush, thorough briar


And then I encountered Robin Puck in his raincoat, riding the waves of the fallen logs.



Traversing the trees and branches in careless abandon.



He swung from his fairy ladder like the birds whose constant refrain echoed in those woods.




I found this poem by Anne Bronte at this site.  Tis is a little melancholic but nonetheless beautiful and befitting of these wonderful flowers.


The Blue Bell

A fine and subtle spirit dwells
In every little flower,
Each one its own sweet feeling breathes
With more or less of power.
There is a silent eloquence
In every wild bluebell
That fills my softened heart with bliss
That words could never tell.

Yet I recall not long ago
A bright and sunny day,
'Twas when I led a toilsome life S
o many leagues away;

That day along a sunny road
All carelessly I strayed,
Between two banks where smiling flowers
Their varied hues displayed.

Before me rose a lofty hill,
Behind me lay the sea,
My heart was not so heavy then
As it was wont to be.

Less harassed than at other times
I saw the scene was fair,
And spoke and laughed to those around,
As if I knew no care.

But when I looked upon the bank
My wandering glances fell
Upon a little trembling flower,
A single sweet bluebell.

Whence came that rising in my throat,
That dimness in my eye?
Why did those burning drops distil —
Those bitter feelings rise?

O, that lone flower recalled to me
My happy childhood's hours
When bluebells seemed like fairy gifts
A prize among the flowers,

Those sunny days of merriment
When heart and soul were free,
And when I dwelt with kindred hearts
That loved and cared for me.

I had not then mid heartless crowds
To spend a thankless life
In seeking after others' weal
With anxious toil and strife.

'Sad wanderer, weep those blissful times
That never may return!'
The lovely floweret seemed to say,
And thus it made me mourn.

By Anne Bronte.


Oh Spring is glorious! I thank God for the beauty that comes anew and never grows stale!



Don't forget my giveaway- open for a week more!