POST-COVID CATCH UP: MUSIC FIRST - SHALLOW BROWN

Iain and I have been grounded recently having tested positive for Covid.  We are now recovering and getting back to normal. 

The necessity of self-isolating has meant more time listening to the radio.  I discovered this sea shanty today on BBC Radio 3: Shallow Brown.  It's a 'fare-thee-well' folk song maybe about slave departing? maybe it relates to the leaving of a West Indian port as ('Challo' is the Caribbean word for a mixed race person).

Petroc Trelawny's filled in the backstory to the following recording of this "evocative farewell from a beloved".

      "Recorded at Maltings in Snape in December 1968, Britten had struggled to get a copy of the score.  Eventually he heard from the Grainger Library in New York that a photostat was being made of the score [...] It eventually arrived but it wasn't a very good photocopy.  It was a copy of a partially de-faced miniature score.  Britten's assistant, Rosalind Strode [not sure of spelling] worked it up into a form that the conductor could actually use for the recording and then gave it to Britten as a birthday gift!"

It is sung by John Shirley-Quirk and choir is The Ambrosian Singers.  The orchestra is the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Britten. He produces a wonderful 'sound picture' in this video of the above recording:

Fare-thee-well, I’m bound to leave you
Shallow, shallow brown
Fare-thee-well, I’m bound to leave you
Shallow, shallow brown

For my master, he’s bound to sell me
Shallow, shallow brown
For my master, he wants to sell me
Shallow, shallow brown

and there are more verses ......

and in the meantime here is an old and favourite photo:

Peter and friend singing sea shanties at Crinan Basin in 2006

OUT AND ABOUT...SPREADING WINGS

A pleasant week, all in all. It is school holidays so the youngsters are away just now and also some local establishments are closed.

Was out litter picking in Dumbarton. Lovely day and we finished off with a swally and some pizza 'n stuff donated by M&S.  Very pleasant to be out meeting and greeting once again.

Standing on the shore of the Leven picking beer cans out of the mud I heard, before I saw, the take-off flap-flap-flap sound of A Big Bird(s).  I pulled my iPhone from my pocket and held it up in front of me watching and waiting for whatever was coming from my left... and these lovely birds flew into view: 2 swans (with a third coming along behind).

What is not seen in this shot is the products of a Scottish Water Board outfall pipe (that is the type that takes surplus water and dumps untreated contents into the river).

Dumbarton

Dumbarton

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More local photos of Milngavie (as I gather images for next year's brochure):

Monkey Puzzle tree outside Ashfield Surgery on Main Street

Gavin's Mill at 10 am.  The wooden decking is now ready for use.

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The garden this week.  A fox appeared but he was too quick for me to get a photo.

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'HIGH-LIGHT' OF THE WEEK

Last concert of the season.  Now it is onwards and upwards to prepare for next year (all fixtures are in place).

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'LOW-LIGHT' OF THE WEEK

This week I got this text. Apparently it is a scam. The idea is that you pay to purchase of test kit.

I am now turning into a social deviant; I intend to delete the NHS app.  So much for helping 'medicine' and 'statistics/science'.  

However.... we're all getting out more now. Things are moving forward. We are still wearing masks in shops and on transport and public concerts but that is due to end next week.  

And after just over 2 years of using Zoom, I am due to return to 'live' piano lessons every week.

SCENES OF MILNGAVIE AND LITTER PICKING ON THE CLYDE

It's been a lovely week with spring sunshine continuing on and off most days.  The pussy willows are out, some of the hedgerows are showing green shoots. 

I was able to take some more photos of the local area for use this year in the local brochure.  Here are some.

* * * * * * * * * LITTER PICKING ON THE CLYDE * * * * * * * 

On Sunday several litter picking groups merged to do a clean-up on the Clyde at Dumbarton Castle.  There is now a lot of new housing where it used to be factories and shipyards.

There is a big effort to clean up an area of the beach where some ship trials took place in wartime.  The bollards are still there but mostly, at the moment, it is used syringes, needles and Q tips.  It was low tide so lots of junk brought in recently which gets washed up in 'eddies'.

Home baking to raise money for The Red Cross in Ukraine.

* * * * * * * * * COVID VACCINATION UPDATE  * * * * * * * 

Iain and I got our 4th (booster) jag April 1st. 

WEEK 102 CORONAVIRUS THAW CONTINUES. * OUTBREAK OF WAR IN EUROPE

The Covid Thaw continues with schools no longer requiring students to wear masks anymore. We are able to hold a children's orchestra live rehearsal this week, the first in a bit over 2 years.

While we watch and wait to see what happens with the Ukrainian situation we have to carry on with life one day at a time.

Litter picking along the Leven near Dalreoch BR Station

Ellie, aged 7 years old, after school

Harriet, 8.75 years old, after school (experimenting with a hairdo)

Sign of Spring: Primulas in Milngavie Precinct

Sunflowers for Ukraine

WEEK 93: WE WELCOME THE YEAR 2022

And so we say goodbye to 2021.  Iain and I both continue to enjoy good health and for that we are grateful.  We have escaped Covid and will continue to lead our rather subdued life as we wait for this latest wave of the pandemic to pass.

For Hogmanay we toasted the New Year at midnight then spent the rest of the evening working on a jigsaw  'The Cullins of Skye' whilst keeping one eye on the Gaelic TV channel.  Gone are the days when we headed out to party for the whole night!  In these   semi-lockdown times the pubs, nightclubs and discos are to be closed from Boxing Day for 3 weeks in Scotland (also Wales and Northern Ireland).  Not so in England.

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January 1st turned out to be 12 degrees - warm and spring-like.

It was Ishbel's birthday December 31st. The two Munchkins and I blew up balloons (which gave them endless play while they were with me for the afternoon.)

I made her a Victoria sponge with 15 candles for Ishbel. It all turned out rather well if I do say so myself.  Always good therapy when the weather is dull outside. 

The sun shone today; it's been mostly grey skies the last couple of weeks... however it's not been freezing which means getting out to do things is not hazardous.... yet!

Sunshine brings shadows.I still have these flowers giving colour in the garden.  Dot gave me seeds years ago and they continue to reappear every year -  a joy!

Crocuses in a bowl in the porch.  Even thought the rays on sunshine are weak it's enough to give these bulbs a boost.

Winter Jasmine.  In Chinese it means "the flower that welcomes Spring"

WEEK 75 CORONAVIRUS: LIFE GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

Indy is now 10 years old.  This recent photo shows him on his first day of school. Luna is Melanie's dog who replaces Koda who died recently.

Our social life is starting to return to its former days of occasion dinner parties, coffee with friends and evening events.  To that end we have been out 5 days in a row: dinner with Maggie and Brian, and Kate and Peter who are all well; coffee with Ken, Ken and Nancy at the Sports Centre locally and coffee with John and Margaret in Drymen; a fiddle concert in the Milngavie St Andrews Church and dinner over at CVD with the gang on Sunday 5 day of 5 lovely occasions. (Yes, we still are encouraged to wear masks and tables inside and out are socially distanced. 

There areas 'hot-spots' in Scotland with high rates of infection.  One is Oban. A chap was telling me how he got 'pinged' to say he had been in contact with someone at an event where they were all watching a live screening of a rugby game in the lounge of rugby club.  Big  outbreak there; his friend contracted covid (he didn't, as it turned out) but the consequences are always tough e.g. the friend was quite ill and he himself had to have a planned get-together cancelled and rescheduled.  

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The children's orchestra is now starting up again. Another wonderful marker for life getting back to normal.