Today's picture - My kiddos

This was taken at our niece's wedding in April. When did my babies turn into thirty-somethings?!

Death of Gregg Allman

Like many others, I've spent a lot of today looking at youtube videos, and listening to my old Eat a Peach record. This is one of my very most favorite songs. Last year it was played at the memorial service of a man who died way too young, and I thought it was a nice way to pay tribute to Gregg Allman. "Soulshine, it's better than sunshine, it's better than moonshine, damn sure better than rain." 



And then this wonderful performance of Melissa. The person who put it up said, "Calm the sadness and play the tunes while Duane welcomes him with open arms."

An Afternoon with Hazel Nina - May 26, 2017

It has been over a year since I've posted about an afternoon with Hazel Nina. The months and years are flying by. I keep meaning to post, but just don't have the time or energy sometimes! None of these photos is particularly great, but I took them to show her mummy what she did during the day. Margaret called the texts a "picture book of the day."

Turkey watching

This is really blurry, but she was just so cute. She had to have "tea with Pop." They had Earl Grey, and then she and I had chamomile.

Making popcorn. I used Arrowhead Mills organic popcorn, and made it right on the stove in a big pot.

Hazel said it was "the best popcorn ever!"

Then we watched the most wonderful children's show I've ever seen. It is called Emma and Grandpa. It goes through an entire year, month by month as a little girl and her grandfather explore the beautiful English countryside. We had a video of it when the kids were little, and a few years ago I went looking around the internet, and found a place I could buy a DVD. The new one is so much better because it is narrated by someone with an English accent. My video was narrated by Shelley Winters. Why? I can't imagine who thought that was a good idea for a movie about a little English girl and her grandfather! There is an interview with the grown up little girl all these years later. You may read more here, if interested.

She got a little sleepy so we thought we'd take a ride, knowing she would fall asleep, and she did. We got back as Matthew was coming home from work, and he brought his sleeping girl inside. I'll really try and write more often about our afternoons with all the grandkids. They are growing and changing so fast.

Mrs Bale is shocked by the heat!

Mrs Bale says, "oh, no" when she sees the temperature! Addendum: We had a thunderstorm Thursday evening which brought the temp way down. At 9.30 Friday morning, it is almost 30 degrees cooler, and Mrs B shouts, "hooray!."

Today's picture/Words on a car

Margaret saw this on a car at work and sent it to me. I love it!

Kay and Hayden come for a visit!

On the first of May, Tom and I had very special visitors. Honestly, our excitement couldn't have been more if it had been Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip!

I met Kay, whose blog you may visit here, on the internet 20 years ago. In 1998 our family visited Texas and met Kay in person, at a bookstore of course.

This year she and her husband were coming east for a mystery conference for her, and a work conference for him. His was in Boston which is only three hours away. Tom and I were going to go down and see them but they decided to come to Windy Poplars Farm! They stayed in a local B&B. We went out to supper at the local diner, and then the next morning they came to the house and spent some time. Tuesdays we take care of Hazel Nina so they all got to meet. Sadly, sadly they could only spend the one night, but how wonderful our visit was. We are already talking about another trip to Texas. They are two of the.nicest.people.ever. We felt so comfortable with them, as if they were family or old friends as, indeed, Kay and I are. We've talked via yahoo groups and then email groups, and blogging, and now texting about most everything, and she probably knows my heart and soul better than many people I know.

Here are some pictures from our get-together.

Quote du Jour/Mrs Bale in As Time Goes By

I'm watching the whole series of As Time Goes By again, and this made me laugh.

Mrs Bale brings in tea to Lionel and Jean.
Lionel says, "On the dot, Mrs Bale." (she had said tea would be served in "exactly 17 and a half minutes.")
Mrs Bale responds: "I was born promptly and saw no reason to be anything else for the rest of my life."

Hooray! Problem Solved

Today Margaret was here and decided to pay a bill via her bank's site on our computer. She couldn't sign in using Chrome. There was a pop-up message that said the problem was with cookies. Tom went into Chrome preferences, and saw that the "block third party cookies and site data" was checked so he unchecked it, and voila, Margaret could get into her account, and I am now signed into my blog via Chrome.

So, here is what had happened. About a month ago, we started getting weird spam in our email inbox. Tom thought maybe it had to do with cookies so he went into Chrome and checked the box that said: "block third party cookies and site data." This is what made it impossible for me to post on my blog via Chrome. So now, I'm all set.

I posted to a Google forum the other day about the problem, and I got an email back that I hadn't had a chance to read yet. I just did so, and it said to try to "enable third party cookies."

I thank you all for your responses to my post about maybe switching to Wordpress. I still may do so, but for now will just stay here.

Got To Go Back sung by Van Morrison

I wanted to end my April poetry in songwriting with Van the Man. I think he should be taught in college poetry classes. I've spent a fair bit of time this afternoon at YouTube trying to decide which song to post here. There are some wonderful videos of him singing. I'm sorry this one isn't a live performance, but it is one of my very favorite songs by Van. "Keep me away from porter or whiskey. Don't sing anything sentimental, it'll make me cry." I just love these words.

When I was a young boy
Back in Orangefield
I used to look out
My classroom window and dream
And then go home and listen to Ray sing
"I believe to my soul" after school,
Ah that love that was within me
You know it carried me through
It lifted me up and it filled me
Meditation, contemplation, too

[Chorus]
Oh we've got to go back
Got to go back
Got to go back
Got to go back
For the healing, go on with the dreaming

Ah there's people in the street
And the summer's almost here
I’ve got to go outside in the fresh air
And walk while it's still clear
Breathe it in all the way down
To your stomach too
And breathe it out with a radiance
Into the night time air

[Chorus]

Got my ticket at the airport
Well I guess I've been marking time
I've been living in another country
That operates along entirely different lines
Keep me away from porter or whiskey
Don't play anything sentimental it'll make me cry
I've got to go back my friend
Is there really any need to ask why

[Chorus]
With the dreaming
With the dreaming
With the dreaming

Songwriters: V. MORRISON
Got To Go Back lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

I just found out that he was knighted last year. Here is a little clip. 

Van is featured in my letters quite a few times. If you are interested, just type his name into the search bar.

Quote du jour/Thomas Osbert Mordaunt

One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.
   Thomas Osbert Mordaunt (1730–1809)

The character Lionel Hardcastle used these words in As Time Goes By. He has been told by the doctor that his father (who has just married at the age of 85) has only a year to live. Jean asks if he will tell his father. Lionel says, no, and says these words. Then he says, "let them have their crowded hour. Every minute of it."

Moving??

I know that some of you have left Blogspot and moved to Wordpress.

I have so many concerns - the main one being will all my content come with me, including comments and photographs? This blog is a record of the past ten years of my life, and I would be so upset to lose it.

I know that some people leave the old blog up, and just start a new one, but I don't want to do that.

I haven't had any particular problems with blogspot over the years. But now, I can use only Safari to write posts and leave comments. Overnight I wasn't signed in on Chrome. I've never been able to sign in via Firefox.

I can't control my fonts now and it drives me crazy. The look, the presentation of my blog is very important to me.

I gather there are two Wordpresses - one is free, and one you pay for. As it is now, I pay Google $20 per year. Also, there is something to do with my own domain. I think that means that the content would be mine. With Blogspot, they have the power to delete my blog. I don't mind paying if it means it is mine.

I would so appreciate any help you can give me.

Quote du jour/Grandchildren and Grandparents - anonymous

Grandchildren are a grandparent's link to the future. Grandparents are the child's link to the past.

Pop with Campbell Walker and Hazel Nina

Nana with Indy Thomas

My Girl - The Temptations

This song was popular when I was still in high school, and I so loved it. Many years later, when our little Margaret arrived from South Korea, this is the song we sang to her:



I love the words, and think it is a wonderful poem. It was played this past weekend at our niece's wedding, and I was so happy to be with our grown-up little girl.


And here she is with her dear Matty, and their little "my girl."

True Love Ways - sung by Buddy Holly; and sung by Peter and Gordon

The plane crash in 1959 which killed the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Richie Valens was one of the early sadnesses of my life. I was a few weeks from being 11 and was truly upset by the loss of three singers I greatly enjoyed. 

I never heard Buddy Holly sing True Love Ways. It was recorded only four months before he died. The first time I heard it was when Peter and Gordon sang it in the mid-1960s. I loved the song, and thought it achingly beautiful. I still do. Many years later, I learned that Buddy Holly had written it.

I think it is wonderful, and I offer it as a songwriting as poetry posting.  First you may hear Buddy Holly singing it, and then Peter and Gordon.

Will You Go, Lassie, Go? - sung by The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem

Here is another song for poetry month. This is also known as Wild Mountain Thyme, and Purple Heather. You may read about its origins here, and see the long list of people who have recorded it. I first heard it in the 1970s sung by the wonderful Jean Redpath. I didn't even know what thyme was then! I can't find a video of her singing it live, but came upon this perfect, perfect version by The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem.  It brings tears to my eyes. There's just something in a song like this that goes right to my heart. Please do sing along.



Oh, the summer time is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will you go lassie, go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will you go lassie, go?

I will build my love a bower
Near yon pure crystal fountain
And on it I will pile
All the flowers of the mountain
Will you go lassie, go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will you go lassie, go?

If my true love she were gone
I would surely find another
Where wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will you go lassie, go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will you go lassie, go?

Oh, the summer time is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will you go lassie, go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will you go lassie, go?

One For My Baby - sung by Frank Sinatra

Here's another post offering poetry in songwriting. If pressed, I think I might say that One For My Baby, written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, is my favorite song. And Sinatra's vocalizing is sublime. The stage seems to disappear, and we 'see' that guy talking to the bartender. Do you suppose people still do this - talk over their troubles with bartenders?




Here are the words. You'll see Sinatra changed a couple in the live version.

It's quarter to three, there's no one in the place except you and me
So, set 'em up, Joe, I got a little story you oughta know
We're drinkin', my friend, to the end of a brief episode
Make it one for my baby and one more for the road

I got the routine, so drop another nickel in the machine
I'm feelin' so bad, wish you'd make the music easy and sad
I could tell you a lot, but you've got to be true to your code
Just make it one for my baby and one more for the road

You'd never know it but buddy, I'm a kind of poet
And I got a lot of things I'd like to say
And when I'm gloomy, you simply gotta listen to me
Till it's talked away

Well that's how it goes and Joe, I know your gettin' pretty anxious to close
And thanks for the cheer, I hope you didn't mind my bendin' your ear
But this torch that I found must be drowned or it soon might explode
So, make it one for my baby and one more for the road
The long, it's so long, the long, very long

Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Sandy Denny

April is poetry month and though I may not post every day, I will write as often as possible. I plan to share poetry in songwriting. The first is Sandy Denny's Who Knows Where the Time Goes.



Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving
But how can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time

For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?

Sad, deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving
Ah, but then you know it's time for them to go
But I will still be here, I have no thought of leaving
I do not count the time

For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?

And I am not alone while my love is near me
I know it will be so until it's time to go
So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again
I have no fear of time

For who knows how my love grows?
And who knows where the time goes?

Quote du jour/Samuel Taylor Coleridge

'Tis a month before the month of May, and the spring comes slowly up this way.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge




Coleridge's words are apt as I look out my front door this afternoon.

We've lost some snow since the last snowstorm, but it is coming down strong and steady today. Michael lives an hour south of us and they got 8 inches overnight. March has been consistently cold with intermittent snowfalls and a blizzard mid-month. Those red-winged blackbirds haven't come back. There is no sight or sound of robins or woodcocks. We've had some sunshine but the wind has been cold. Three deer come by each evening for their daily meal. The usual winter birds are still eating heartily at the feeders.

But this won't last. A few warm, sunny days and we will have forgotten all about snow!

An old, yellowed newspaper clipping

Many years ago I read something my mother had cut out of a newspaper. I've thought about it occasionally and wondered if I still had it. I've been going through a tub of photos and memorabilia lately, and was so pleased to come upon the clipping.

If you are not religious, please do not be put off with the fact it is a prayer. The words are most meaningful, and truly are a guide to living as we get older. There is great wisdom and humor.

I looked it up on the internet and found out that it is a seventeenth century anonymous nun's prayer.

Spring Reading

Spring begins tomorrow at 5.29 am my time, and this is the book I plan to begin reading.

I've read the first three and so loved them. Here are book reports for the others, if you want to know who The Penderwick family is.

1. The Penderwicks

2. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

3. The Penderwicks at Point Muette